Travel through Kenya and Uganda
In June 2014, Bev arrived in Nairobi for a month-long tour of Kenya and Uganda. One of the main reasons for her visit was to meet Jared, a university student from Uganda whom she had been sponsoring for the past 18 months.
Bev’s timing was perfect: the Lake Turkana Cultural Festival was taking place a couple of days after her arrival in Kenya, so that was the first destination. Moses and Laura, OTA friends and owners of the Mara Explorers camp in the Maasai Mara, were in Nairobi and were persuaded to join the journey north. They then invited Scott and Helene, a British couple driving their Land Rover across the continent as they figured out how to spend their retirement. And so our small group of intrepid travelers began the two-day journey to the far north-west of Kenya.
We met some skeptics who doubted the ability of the OTA van to reach Loiyangalani and cross the desert to Marsabit. But Francis drove that Toyota like a true pro through rain, mud, steep ascents and descents, loose rocks and every other obstacle imaginable. In Maralal we had to look for our police escorts to accompany us further north. There were only a couple of times when Bev felt the need to gently nudge the young soldier’s gun away from pointing it directly at her; he was very relaxed about carrying such a weapon, but maybe we would have felt more comfortable if he had been a little more vigilant.
The first morning of the Turkana Festival was fantastic. Fourteen ethnic groups from northern Kenya gathered at Loiyangalani, each setting up a traditional house, handing out traditional costumes, performing traditional dances and singing traditional songs. The atmosphere was fun as each tribe tried to out-sing and out-dance each other. Unfortunately this was the first year that the Marsabit County Council had organized the festival and it seems that they did not accept much advice or help from the organizations that had previously been involved. The schedule was ignored and we found ourselves doing the scheduled 8am hike up a mountain to see rock art in the heat of the midday sun.
The second day was even less organized as we all expected Vice President Ruto to arrive before activities could begin. His scheduled arrival at 11 am did not occur until 3 pm and the scheduled activities turned out to be a political rally. This was great for locals who don’t usually see their parliamentarians, but for foreign tourists it wasn’t the most exciting “cultural event”.
From Lake Turkana, we headed east to Marsabit, where we had a little lodging disaster, but a great food find. While Bev, Francis, and Tracey headed into town for dinner, Scott cooked at camp for the rest of the group, including our police escorts. Pasta with vegetables – not exactly what soldiers in northern Kenya are used to and they were a bit nervous about this mzungu food.
Continuing south, the next stop was Archers Post, where Bev spent time at the Umoja School. It’s a new school with only 14 students, so Bev spent the morning teaching science to the whole school. They made rockets and learned about air pressure. In the afternoon, Francis took Bev to the Samburu National Reserve, where a lion passed within five meters of the vehicle.
We say goodbye to Scott, Helene, Moses and Laura in Nairobi before traveling west to Busia. There we stayed with Chrisphine and spent half a day at Blue Bells School, again dragging all the students outside for a science lesson. Much of education in Africa is taught directly from the textbook, sitting in class and answering questions. So getting away from desks and trying things out for themselves was a novelty. Bev has plans to return to East Africa in the future and we hope that she can spend more time with the teachers to show them different teaching methods instead of just memorizing them.
Crossing into Uganda was something of an event where Tracey came close to being arrested thanks to the Kenyan insurance company failing to fill out Comesa’s insurance certificate correctly. We still have to express our gratitude to Amaco Insurance for putting us in that situation! However, after a few hours we were able to cross the border and reach Jinja. After the stress of the border crossing, it would have been wonderful to be able to sleep well, but it wasn’t. Normally, Tracey can sleep through anything, but a bagpiper wandering through the camp in the middle of the night managed to wake her up. Poking her head around the store, she asked, “Really?” and the piper apologized… only to start over! Need I say that we may have lost our temper a bit?
However, the next day was much better with a lunch cruise on the Nile. The birdlife was spectacular and the new camera has proven to be a great buy.
In Mbale, on the way to Sipi Falls, we finally met Jared. Bev and Jared had been communicating extensively via email for 18 months, but this was the first time they had met in person, so it was very exciting. We had lunch and continued the trip to Sipi while the two chatted in the back of the vehicle. Everything seemed fine, which was a relief!
In Sipi Falls we met Punky, the cheeky Turaco. At first we felt incredibly privileged to be so close to this beautiful bird. Then we realized that the only privilege granted to us was that we had been able to eat most of our breakfast before Punky came to greet us. After falling out of the nest as a chick, Punky was raised by Minette and Andy (managers of Sipi River Lodge), but he is free to fly away now that he is fully grown. But it seems that he has too much fun harassing the dogs and the cat, so he stays.
Jared, Francis, and Tracey hiked two of the three waterfalls that make up Sipi Falls. The third involved stairs and inclines that we decided weren’t necessary – we had a good view from where we were.
Through Uganda to Murchison Falls National Park, where we enjoy a cruise and game drive. The Nile rushes through a 7 meter gorge, creating the most powerful waterfall in the world. And we saw it!
In western Uganda we spent a few nights at Fort Portal, where we ate pizza and played cards. We also hiked in the Rwenzori mountains to a school. The guides looked at Bev and said the school was too far and we probably wouldn’t make it. But we did and kudos to Bev for pushing her comfort zone! We were trying to be quiet so as not to disturb the children in the classroom, but obviously their curiosity got the better of them and just before time was up, they all suddenly ran out to greet us. Bev was bombarded with kids who wanted to shake hands with her and generally be around her.
The next day we did a chimpanzee trek, but we didn’t have much luck. Our guide was a bit excited at first and the chimpanzees were on the move rather than sitting somewhere convenient for us to take pictures. We saw three black spots moving through the bushes during the hours we wandered through Kabale National Park. Once we told the guide that we were okay with not seeing any chimpanzees, he relaxed and even cracked a smile. He smiled more as we got closer to the end: we asked him how far we were from the road and he said “about 600 meters”. After about 2 km we asked again and he gave us the same answer. After a few repetitions of the pattern, we just had to laugh and ask “So just another 600 meters?”
Driving south we passed through Queen Elizabeth National Park and were quite surprised at the speed with which several police trucks swung around a cliff, especially when passing a school. We stopped at Uganda Lodge, a project started by a Ugandan man and a British woman where there is a school and a new clinic. Bev taught a few more science classes and we went with some volunteers to deliver bananas to the children’s ward at the nearby hospital. Jared is studying public health and was very interested in visiting the hospital and asking a lot of questions.
We finally made it to Kampala where Bev was going to spend her last week looking into Jared’s life. We dropped Jared off at his house where his aunt gave us two of the biggest avocados you’ve ever seen and a bunch of sweet bananas. Then it was back to fighting Kampala rush hour traffic to get to the hotel for a final dinner together. There we met Ishmael who would be taking over driving responsibilities for Bev’s week in Kampala as we hurried back to Kenya. By all accounts, Ishmael became a big part of Bev and Jared’s week and we had been a part of their vacation. Jared showed Bev many colleges and hospitals, invited her over to his house for lunch, his family came into town for another meal and went to a school sports day and cheered on the Parrots… Ishmael joined the Parrots too! cheers!
What trip! Bev and Tracey had traveled together for five weeks in 2009 from Beijing to Istanbul and here again was another month of new experiences, amazing memories and lots of laughs. Bev and Jared have cemented their mother-son relationship and Jared’s college education is assured (provided he gets good grades!). And we all look forward to Bev’s next visit… or will it be Jared, Francis and Tracey who come to Australia to visit Bev?