I write from the Masai Mara Conservancy. It is incredible here. It’s been a while since we’ve been in a park, and after quite a number of days seeing other sites in Africa, driving many kilometers and hanging out with people it’s now a real pleasure to be back in the wild.
Just this morning we saw the “big 5”, (black) rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant; not to mention giraffe, zebra, topi, Thompson’s gazelle, hippo, warthog, impala, waterbuck, giraffe, and no doubt some stuff I forgot on top of that. This combined with the truly stunning vistas of the Masai Mara and we are really almost speechless.
But before I get too far into the wild I’ll catch you up with getting here.
We left Kacheliba on Monday morning and headed back up to the highlands towards Eldoret. Our next big destination was the Masai Mara Conservancy, and now here we are. We considered taking the route Richard had recommended through the Cherengani Hills to Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria. Reportedly you can make it through to Baringo in a day, but we tend to travel slow, and as we needed to provision and fuel we came to our senses, for once, and decided not to bite off too much.
It is with regret that we didn’t have time for more of Kenya, it’s an embarrassment that we can’t spend more time here. Next time. For now we went up the escarpment and took a right on the A1, heading south to Kitale. Provisioning at Kitale was easy, there are two large supermarkets across from each other down town, Transmatt and Khetia’s, both well stocked, with the odd exception of eggs. Eggs are obtainable in flats of 36, too much for us, or in a paper sack of 5. I probably don’t have to tell you that a paper sack is not the ideal way to transport eggs, even if you aren’t off roading. We found this elsewhere too, sort of hilarious. We searched around and found a sort of plastic egg carton thing which hopefully will work.
Kitale had really grown up since I worked in the area in 2008. Then we used to run to Kitale to go to the bank and hardware store and so forth so I felt I sort of knew town a bit, but visiting now it’s clear that things, whether just in the region or maybe Kenya in general, are booming. Where there was before only two filling stations that would often run out of fuel, there are now what seems a dozen. Traffic is thick and before it was calm, the open market has expanded exponentially and hotels are restaurants are many instead of few. North of town on the A1 there was a garish brand new multi story hotel complete with bell hops, a pool and all kinds of bling, but strangely no sign. It seemed open and operational and I wonder who their market is?
After provisioning we turned onto the B2 and made our way towards Eldoret. Eldoret is larger than Kitale and also has been booming. It seems there is an oil pipeline distribution hub here, petroleum trucks line the road on the way into town for kilometers. After my second failed attempt at getting a sim card for my phone we headed about 20 kilometers out of town to Naiberi River Overland Camp.
Naiberi is geared towards the overland truck business, large trucks plying multi week trips throughout various regions of Africa, with low budget backpacker style travel. Overland trucks have a bad rap in the self drive overland world as they often crowd camps and can be a bit too loud partying. There was an overland truck with 12 passengers here today, but they were completely pleasant, no complaints.
The camp is on a hill, with four large covered open “kitchens” (a generous term) with a sink, power outlet, lighting and braii/fire area and an almost flat parking space. There is a lower campsite on a large lawn with no facilities that they said they don’t open up unless the upper sights are full. It looked nice down there, but with the recent heavy rain the ground was saturated, and they also said it’s quite cold down by the river. It was already pretty cold at our site, with the elevation being something like 2300 meters.
Ablutions are clean and pretty nice, with hot showers, flush toilets and decent lighting. Between the upper camp and the lower camp there is a huge restaurant/bar/hangout zone with great atmosphere, if anything maybe a bit overdone, but someone has clearly put a lot of thought and effort into it. Also in the bar area is a large fire pit and they stoked up a big fire in the evening, great for warming up. Outside they had a pool and deck along with small covered areas around for hanging out in the afternoon.
After a lot of days on the road we decided to stay a couple days and regroup a bit, get laundry done and relax. The first night we had dinner at the restaurant and I had a really great Indian dish, chicken meri-methti (spelling?) with chapati. Jenny had mutton nyama choma, a Kenyan national dish, and we were happy.
The staff here were really great, checking in with us often to see if we needed anything. Organizing firewood, dinner, where to go in town to pick up a few things, laundry and even my much sought after sim card were all sorted out in short order.
Like Barnley’s Guest House, they mentioned that business was really slow. I’d certainly recommend Naberi for a stop if you’re in the area. Hopefully things pick up for them, it’s good to see someone putting in such effort and building a nice facility.
A couple nights at Naberi was great, but it was cold at night and we felt the call of the bush, so we pressed on to the Masai Mara. Right out the door we took a wrong turn and went 20 kilometers or so the wrong direction. We had to double back, much to the amusement of the police that had stopped us at a checkpoint earlier. On our brief diversion we saw dozens and dozens of runners along the road.
Many residents of here do not have the time or need for such things as exercise, the daily lives of many rural Kenyans being very busy just getting by, and hauling all of your water or food or charcoal or whatever is plenty exercise enough. However Kenya and Eldoret in particular are unique in that this is the home of most of the elite Kenyan runners. Runners from Eldoret are famous the world over for long distance running, winning marathons and holding records in large numbers. It was nice seeing these runners training along the road to make a connection to what I had read about. I’d recommend the Radiolab podcast on Kenyan runners if you are interested.
Back on track we got onto the main highway towards Nairobi. At this point I must take back all that I said about the Kenyan roads being hectic and stressful. We found the A104 to be in perfect condition, with ample lanes, passing lanes on the climbs to get around slow trucks and also wide shoulders. Pedestrians, boda bodas and matatus thinned out and we raced along with ease.
We passed the equator at 9100’ of elevation. Kind of amazing to think how far we have driven. We have about 9000 kilometers on the clock for this trip. The equivalent from our home in California is a quick drive to Equador. And now we need to drive back! It doesn’t seem so far to us, each day has been an exploration, and when you’re not sure what each day will bring it’s easy to not consider, too much, how far you have to go.
A Logistical digression:
We turned off the A104 to the road marked B1 and C23 on T4A, not sure why the two names. To further muddy the waters the very new looking road sign says the turnoff is for the A1. I think this is because it eventually links up with the A1. The sign is marked for Kericho.
From the A104 turnoff to Kericho the road is beautiful and passes through many kilometers of fervent green tea plantations. After Kericho the road narrows but is in perfectly fine shape.
T4A would prefer we turned off onto the B23, just before Sotik. However we did not, we took Stan’s advice (of Slow Donkey fame, who’s meticulous blog has helped many an overland traveler to follow in his footsteps. We considered calling our vehicle “Slower Donkey” but decided against it) and pressed on the next logical turn toward Kilgoris. This turn is simply marked “road” on T4A, but links up with the C17.
After Kilgoris the road turns to gravel (is marram the correct term?), a little bumpy at first but improving quite a bit after about half way to the Oloololo gate.
Digression over.
Getting closer to the Masai Mara we were beginning to see more traditional dress, though mostly combined with western clothing. A baseball cap, jeans and a t-shirt, but a Masai blanket and hearding stick being the most common outfit.
Masai Mara
We arrived at the Oloololo gate around 3:30 pm, and logically we should have saved our money and camped outside the gate. But the call of the wild was too strong and we plunked down our credit card so we could camp inside the park that night. Park fees cover 24 hrs from the time of purchase, so it wasn’t totally ridiculous.
At the gate we bought firewood, at the exorbitant price of 1000 ksh a wheelbarrow full, and after a lot of waiting around they brought us what was almost a tree. With the help of the rangers we wrestled it onto the roof rack, fearing a bit too much weight up top we agreed to have a big fire that night.
Wanting to get in a bit of an evening drive before heading to Eulai camp we charged into the park, foolishly not asking about road conditions, or directions to our camp. In retrospect all of this would have been useful.
As is our usual tendency, we headed for the river road. Normally water draws the wildlife, but since it has been such a huge rainy season this is not the case right now. Fortunately the Mara Triangle is teeming with wildlife, so that part proved not to be a problem. As a side note, the western part of the Masai Mara is operated by the Masai Mara Conservancy and is all the territory West of the Mara River. This area is referred to “the conservancy” or “the triangle”. Universally everyone will tell you that the Conservancy is better run, but what exactly that meant we were not sure. We will find out.
Later we learned that this year the Mara has seen the most rain for 60 years. This meant that the roads are very wet and muddy in some places. Our river road turned into a two spoor track and from that it turned into the barest hint of a path, just two parallel lines of bent grass where vehicles had been before, but vague to say the least. Slowly we progressed, seeing elephants and topi and having a grand time, back in a park, alone on a wild track and just us and the animals.
As we went along we started watching the clock with concern. With the vague track and muddy conditions we were making slow progress, and it looked like we were going to be late to camp. Sunset is 6:30 pm, and you are supposed to be in camp no later than seven o’clock.
We were getting close to where the track connected to the main road and we would be free and clear, but we came to a muddy ravine across the road, clearly impassable. We had to turn back, and with that there went our hope of being in camp on time.
We made somewhat faster progress back tracking, but even then we were following the maze of tracks trying to find the shortest route to the main road without having to be turned back again. A couple times we rolled the dice when given the choice between right and left and luckily picked correctly. As we approached the main road we were treated to a pride of female lions with cubs, but we were so late and had so far to go we only stopped for a minute.
Back on the main road we made good time towards camp, and that is when we realized we hadn’t asked for any details about the camp site. When we had said we’d like to camp at Eluai public campsite they simply said “okay” and that was it.
So here we were, late and racing towards our camp while losing the meager light that was left, having no idea of really where we were going. The map that they gave us was very general, just a dot in between two roads. Tracks 4 Africa had it marked clearly, so we put our faith in the GPS, but when we made it to the supposed turn there was no road at all. Hmm.
It was dark by now, so we doubled back, the GPS showing an alternative approach. Sure enough there was a muddy small track off the main road with no sign. We took it, and crept into the tall grass. A Rutted muddy track, and more and more it seemed we might be in the wrong spot. No sign, a little used road. We figured regardless where we found ourselves we would just camp and sort it out in the morning, but with grass a meter high all around camping would not be that great without at least a small clearing.
I zoomed way in on the gps and we followed the merest suggestion of a track in the grass and watched the screen for guidance, creeping along. Finally we found a tiny clearing around an old termite mound and we called it good and made camp. This is fully wild, no other people, no lights, no fences, just us in the bush of the Mara. If it wasn’t for our late arrival we would have been thrilled. Even so, after we got a fire going and after a much needed beer settled down a bit it was really nice to be out there all alone under the stars. We couldn’t wait to wake up and see where we were in the morning.
