Kenya Day 4

Tuesday 13th Nov: Nyahururu to Lake Nakuru (58 kms)

We started the morning on foot, taking a short walk from the lodge to see the fabulous Thompsons Falls, the highest waterfall in Kenya. It was grey and very misty to start with, but the mist started to clear while we were at the viewpoint to give us some fabulous glimpses of the falls. After that we mounted up for our morning's ride, as this afternoon we were transfering by bus to our hotel, ready for our big (second)crossing of the Rift Valley on Wednesday. But today was to be our first encounter with the great rift that bisects most of the sub-continent. This morning's ride started on really good roads and everyone was just flying along. We had our first stop at the Subuku viewpoint, with breathtaking views across the Rift Valley. From there it was an easy, but fast descent to the valley floor, and across, before the pull up the other side, about a 3-4 km steady climb, followed by a bit of a breathing space before another short steep incline.

We took a second break by a tea plantation - a huge field of tea bushes across the top of the hill. At most of the breaks we had a small group of onlookers, but with the proximity of the plantation we soon acquired a larger group, including a gaggle of children who were fascinated by our digital cameras and loved having their photos taken.

At the break a few of the faster guys teamed up with Simon, and taking advantage of the Kenyan police motorcyclist we had with us, set off to complete the ride in a peleton. They went flying past Julian first, who was out on the road with Duncan at the time. He tried to follow, but just could not get on to their tail. I had been one of the first to set off after the break, but they passed me too just a couple of kilometres before our lunch stop. At some points they really were moving, apparently the policeman with them clocked their top speed at about 74 kph!

After lunch we boarded the bus to transfer about 100km north to our hotel on the shore of Lake Baringo, the most northerly of the Rift Valley lakes. It turned out to be a pretty eventful trip. The "main road" from the town of Nakuru to Baringo is pretty basic, and as it nears the lake it sits in the lea of a range of volcanic mountains. In the rainy season there must be a lot of water coming down off the hills, and at a couple of places flash flooding had obliterated the road. At one point, where a bridge had been washed out, Joseph our driver had to manouevre the bus, at times leaning at a rather alarming angle, down a bank on to the river bed (virtually dry - fortunately) and drive along the river until we could get up the other side and rejoin the road! It was well worth the ride though, as Lake Baringo itself was beautiful, and the hotal was probably the nicest we stayed in - it was pretty new, with a lovely foyer and bar area that was roofed over in dark wood but open at the front to give a view over the lake to Ol Kokwe Island. We even managed to get hot water out of our shower - a bit of a rarity - and were entertained by Masai dancers at dinner.

But the real highlight of the evening was a soccer match that the guys had managed to arrange with the village next to our hotel. The pitch was some way from the village, and as it had taken us longer to negotiate the roads than we'd anticipated, it was getting towards dusk when the game started. The 'pitch' was huge and mostly dirt, with the odd patch of grass. Its probably fair to say that what the game lacked in finesse it made up for in passion, and the local team came away worthy winners. It was really moving to see how much our participation meant to the village. As one of their players said "this is a story I will be able to tell my grandchildren". By the time the game ended it was already getting quite dark and everyone hurried to leave. This, we discovered, was because the pitch got taken over at night by a local hippo who wasn't too keen on sharing his space with people!

Talking to one of the local school teachers, we also got to see the other side of life by the lake, and how little benefit the local people got from the hotel and the developing tourism on their doorstep. Some local people had got work in the hotel, but many of the staff were outsiders. The villagers had little contact normally with the tourists who came to the area, and in fact had lost business because the hotel had its own boat to take people across to the island, and so the community boat was used less than before the hotel had been built. Walking back through the village with the local children holding our hands, I think we approached our hotel with rather more mixed feelings than when we had first arrived.