Africa Trip part 3

Tsavo National Park
8-10 November

T has brought his 4x4 to Malindi, along with a whole lot of camping equipment and is kindly going to take us on a safari through Tsavo National Park and the areas that surround it. There's not nearly enough room for us all to go, so the newcomers to Kenya, that's J, AW, E and I, are going to go with T and AL. Even with 6 of us space is a problem though and so T and I go off to a carpentry workshop on the morning we leave to organise a roof rack to mount on top of the land rover. I sit in the car as he chats away to the guys in Swahili. Ever since I arrived in Africa I have felt rather glum about not being able to show in any way that I am African. I don't speak an African language (although English is the national language of many African countries) and I am in no way that different to the English people that I am travelling with, apart from knowing the names of various trees and animals. Upon arrival in Zimbabwe I would feel positively guilty for not knowing any Shona or Ndebele.

By the time we reach Mombassa it was pissing with rain. When we reach the Nairobi road I wonder how on earth I slept all the way down to Mombassa on the bus because the road is abysmal. The worst main road I have ever witnessed, in fact. And the rain doesn't help it much. At one point we come to a standstill at the back of a long queue of vehicles waiting for something. The cause of this huge road block are two Caterpillars repairing the road a few hundred yards ahead. Detour not an option.

We have passed at least two signs with anti-corruption messages along the way. One simply says “Stop Corruption” in four foot letters and the other says something about the roads suffering from corruption. No shit. Anyway, there is a road being built alongside this appalling one, apparently by the Chinese. I wonder what the Chinese are getting. There is a big conference going on at the moment in China with a number of African leaders attending. The Kenyan papers were reporting with glee the “freebies” that their country was to receive from the Chinese. Later on, in South Africa, I would read a quote from Mbeki saying that African leaders should be wary of letting the Chinese become the new African colonisers. I think this may already be underway, going on developments in wider Africa.

The rain seems endless and our average speed settles at about 25km/h so today we don’t make much progress. We stop off at a lodge with an Oryx and Eland sanctuary where we are assured that there are hot showers - but aren't. The girls have a conversation about how irritating it is that Africans always say "yes" despite the reality. They have a point.

I don't particularly care about hot showers, or the lack of them. I might if I were in Ireland I suppose, but Kenya? Far more important things to consider; for instance meeting a Masai. In order to see the animals we went off with one of the staff who happened to be a Masai and was dressed in the much famed Masai garb, complete with a stick. We had about five minutes to see a few antelope before it got dark.

We had a great fish curry for dinner that our cook from Malindi had cooked for us. The kitchen made us some chapatis which we had with it. They love chapatis in East Africa, especially in Tanzania. I don't blame them.

In the morning we continue on rout to Tsavo. It's not long before we enter the park. Conversation in the truck is good. I like J and AW. Probably more than E, if I'm honest. Sitting here in February I am not displeased that we have broken up. I really must break up with my next girlfriend (!) sooner if it gets to the stage where I'm merely comfortable with the relationship; it's certainly better for both parties.

After what must be about an hour we come across a young bull elephant. T reckons it's about 16 to 18. T drives off the road to get a bit closer. He's obviously not too concerned about the state of his truck because he makes no effort to go around small trees and shrubs. When we get closer (probably too close because the elephant looks at us in a menacing way. T assures us that it's the females you've got to be careful of.) T starts making some elephant calls and almost straight away the animal's cock drops right down to about a foot from the ground. Not sure of the usefulness of this particular skill. Anyway, apart from becoming quite aroused, the elephant doesn't really seem very interested in us and wanders off into the bush, destroying small trees as it goes.

From here we head into the bush. This is not really permitted, but hey! this is Africa. We soon encounter a whole herd of mixed game. There are a couple of ostrich, loads of Thomson's gazelle, hartebeest, zebra and a Kori bustard. So in the same spot we spotted the world's largest bird and the world's heaviest flying bird. Having seen so many ostriches, I was far more impressed with the bustard. All too far away for my puny 3x zoom camera unfortunately. We drove on after admiring them for a while and soon ran into a large herd of elephants.

These guys are big enough to photograph, even with my cheap-ass Fuji-Film camera. The specimen centre left is the matriarch and as soon as we arrived on the scene she becomes suspicious of us. We are probably about 50m away when I took that picture. The matriarch takes charge of the security of the herd, that much is obvious when she mock charges us for the first time. T doesn't seem that concerned but having a creature that big suddenly turn and look directly at you, ears flapping and truck waving about, is pretty frightening. She does this several times and so we relax. We are obviously that much too far away from her that she won't follow her threat through. The herd carries on wandering in the same direction, the calves jogging along to keep up with their family and we move slowly along with them keeping roughly the same distance. T has to avoid a clump of trees in front so he swerves off around them and then brings the truck back towards the herd. At this moment the matriarch decides we have come too close. She begins to trumpet and, at the same time, starts hurtling towards us. Then two other smaller ones joined the stampede. E is in the boot and starts shrieking. AW and J join her. T takes his time but eventually drives off, leaving behind the angry elephants.

The rest of our game drive is not as eventful, but we do see some more elephants and lots of giraffe. We take turns to sit on the roof (although E doesn't of course), on top of the wonky roof rack that we've already had to repair.

We soon leave the park and begin driving around what T calls Masai land. The roads are maintained inconsistently; some are ok, some are non-existent. T says that it might be because opposition parties are deprived of funding from central government. Same thing happens in Harare to the MDC apparently.

It starts getting dark now and we have to put that camping gear of T's to good use.