Five in Ten

As we are on AST (African standard time), we again depart 15 minutes late we take a different route out, stopping before the park exit and Collette talks to the guards to convince them to let us take the road to Keekorok that will get us to the border post where we will cross into Tanzania.  This time no wallets have to be dropped on the ground for permission. 

Near Keekarok we see two new animals, giant storks and water backs which resemble our North American deer although with straight antlers.  This means there must be a lot of water in the area. After an hour on the usual bone rattling and shaking road (I have no idea how these vehicles last more than one season on these roads) we are all well massaged and the mountains are inching closer which means we must be getting closer to

Tanzania. 

We see 3 cars ahead stopped by the side of the road. There are 2 lions and a group of 7 hyenas fighting over a fresh kill.  The hyenas chatter as they tug of war over the fresh meat and the lions sit by and watch. The lions get the first feed and then the hyenas overpower by strength in numbers. This all unfolds literally 10 feet from the car, crazy. 

Paul then spots a river (the Mara river) and we make a detour.  We are given a quick tour down by the riverbank by an armed ranger who leads us down the riverbank to see the Hippos and Nile crocodile.  The Hippo family consists of 50 individuals and they are nocturnal so not very active when we see them at 9am.  The ranger tells us that the hippos fight the crocodiles who try to eat their young which must be a spectacular sight to see as the Hippos weigh up to 3 tons (6,000 lbs).  What an incredible place where the adventure never stops! 

We cross the Mara on a bridge and enter the part of the park that borders Tanzania known as the Mara Triangle.

The scenery is simply stunning with open savanna to our right and a line of low brown/blue mountains off in the distance to our left with acacia trees and herds of animals in the foreground.  It feels like what Canada’s open grasslands must have been like before the white settlers killed all the buffalo.  We drive along a low ridge on a much better dirt road that appears to have been graded recently, we are the only vehicle, not an another tourist to be found.  Wildebeest cross the road in front of us, the herds of what must be tens of thousands stretching into the distance over both of the horizons. 

Occasionally we have to come to a complete stop as the road is blocked by animals.  Elephants and zebra are interspersed with the herds of Wildebeest. 3 and a half hours into the drive, even with the windows closed, clouds of dust fill the car floating suspended in the sunlight. I try to keep the camera covered but I fear it’s a futile effort. So much for the laundry we did at the lodge.

Elephants are becoming the new zebras with herds of 20 or 30 standing in the distance. We pass through the Oloololo exit gate of the Masa Triangle at 10am and we are now on the “main” dirt road to the border town where we will cross into Tanzania.  Climbing out of the valley we are back on a bumpy rutted dirt path and I open google maps to find out that we are still 75km from our border crossing….we didn’t bring a lot of snacks as we don’t seem to have learned our lesson that a “3 hour” drive on the itinerary often becomes double that. At the pace we are moving this will be a very long 75km. 

Our sweeping vistas have been replaced by views of low brick and mud buildings, fences and herds of cows or sheep and their Maasai keepers trudging through the dusty barren landscape.  People gather under the trees seeking shelter from the late morning sun which is now starting to heat up the white Coconut as we affectingly call our trusty van. These are modern Maasai as the villages consist of timber or concrete block structures with metal roofs set amongst more traditional mud and wattle buildings. we spot tractors and other farm machinery and there are stores selling goods to passersby.  

We drive through lush green valleys, dotted with buildings clad in sheet metal, the harsh glare of the sun reflecting off the slopes roofs

Im beginning to formulate a plan to come back by motorcycle and travel these amazing back roads in retirement.

We arrive at Lolgorien and onto a paved road!  We were expecting another 60km of bone rattling and shaking.  It’s a thriving town with lots of kids in school uniforms and very little garbage that feels like the towns we passed through in Rwanda.  The kids waving at us from the roadside are also back in force.  As we leave the town we spot the pavement ending ahead and we are back to the dust and bumps, it was just a cruel tease.

Jayson puts his headphones on me and starts playing buffalo soldier.  It goes perfectly with the scenery we are driving through.  I can’t believe what this 14 year old kid has on his iphone, Leonard Skynnard, the clash, U2, hot chocolate, ub40, flo rida, salt and peppa, Neil diamond, Frank Sinatra,  Louis Armstrong, Englebert Humperdinck!!, Johnny cash, the Monkees, Chuck berry, Michael J, queen, abba, the Marley brothers, jazz, Gladys knight and the pips!  I’m shocked and rocked at the same time.  Just proves that there hasn’t been any decent music created in the last 20 years so kids seek out the great tunes from our generation. 

We pass a number of police checkpoints as we drive through Kehancha. I love that we are mostly driving and not flying on this trip as you get a real sense for the people and landscape you are traveling through instead of just being airlifted from your tourist hotel to your next hotel. The ingenuity of Africans never fails to amaze me as I see a guy powering what appears to be a generator for a welding machine by spinning a bicycle wheel on a sprocket, another person using a chainsaw as a crude Alaskan mill to cut dimensional lumber on the side of the road, another shop creating shovel and spades by hand cutting sheet metal with the handles stacked nearby.  Local manufacturing is alive and well here in Kehancha side by side with cheap imported Chinese goods. 

Much to everyone’s delight the road leaving Kehancha continues to be paved and by some miracle the pavement continues all the way to the border.  One of our worst bathroom stops happens on the outskirts of town where I think Terri was actually going to lose her breakfast as I saw her walking out. 

We arrive at the border where we have to exit Kenya and enter Tanzania.  The rear door of the White Coconut won’t open. There is no way to get the luggage out of the van as there is a metal cage of bars behind the lays seats. After about 10 minutes we manage to get it open. 

In order to enter Tanzania, you first have to leave Kenya and as we found out leaving Uganda, leaving a country in Africa is a lot harder than entering it.  Our customs officer is stalling on Nancy’s passport and he motions to me to come forward to the window.  He asks if I know the name of our driver and I say yes.  He says “take me to him”.  I walk out with the officer and call out to Cosmo.  He is nonplussed as he probably knows what’s up.  

Another guide with 20 people was clearly trying to cut in line before us and he wanted to know how much cosmo would pay to keep our place in line.  Cosmo sits with him in his office and there is a lot of reaching down.  After a few minutes the customs guy tells Nancy to put her hands on the fingerprint scanner and it appears the price was right. 

It’s 2pm when we finally clear customs and we have another 3 hours to reach our hotel.  Looks like no game drive today and we have missed our lunch due to Collettes very slow driving.  We will have to stop for some snacks and I spy a ramshackle shack on the roadside called Pork Belly, joking that if anyone wants to lose some weight on this trip that would be the spot! 

We leave the border in our new Land Cruiser which we have just named the yellow banana.  This is our 5th country in 10 days. Our new driver Cosmo warns us that we are going to get an African massage we respond no problem we just had 7 hours of massage so we are very familiar.  He pulls off onto the dirt road and the yellow submarine is so much better than the white coconut we remark no problem.  Cosmo responds wait until we reach the place where “you will dance without leaving your seats”.  We can hardly wait.

Turns out Cosmo moonlights as a race car driver.  He is expertly navigating the twisty dusty roads and narrowly avoiding the motorcycles, goats, people and other cars but being higher up in the Land Cruiser we see all of the war misses coming.  After a wild 3 hours of driving we are nearing our destination, a luxury tent camp in the middle of the savanna.  Just before we get there Cosmo stops the car and tells us to get the roof up.  There is a herd of about 7 elephants that are right beside the road.  As we get the roof up they come towards us and literally walk 2 feet from the car and behind us, we are in awe and don’t make a sound as they walk off into the trees.  

The place is quite special and we are situated right in the middle of the savanna with no fences.  We get an orientation which includes the rule that we need an escort at all times at night due to the presence of wild animals literally right outside our door and as if to make a point we see 3 water buffalo yards from our tent as we are escorted there by a guard with a spear in the last rays of the sun setting over the distant mountains.

I don’t normally post video due to bandwidth but I’ve posted a couple today to show you the hyenas with the fresh kill and some of Cosmo’s excellent driving.