After we once again had a simple border crossing from Uganda to Kenya near Busia and head for a campground in the first larger city of Kisumu, a jeep overtakes us and signals us to stop. A German guy living in Kenya offers us his private piece of land as a safe and beautiful overnight parking space right on Lake Victoria. After some negative experiences in the past with regard to the ability of others to assess Shujaa’s dimensions, we are initially a bit undecided – especially after we follow him a few kilometers along a not very nice oil loading station with hundreds of trucks. In the end, however, we can easily reach his refuge on the lake with its own small harbor and speedboat and can stand on a great piece of land. We even spend two nights in this unique location: Werner invites us on an interesting tour over Lake Victoria with his speedboat, we have a barbeque together and learn many interesting things about Kenya and the environmental problems of Lake Victoria.
Our next stop is the Maasai Mara, which we reach via the very lonely wester route from Lake Victoria. It borders directly on the Serengeti in Tanzania we visited about a month ago and the animals can roam freely. Although the incredibly large herds of wildebeest and zebra are currently in the south of the Serengeti, we still have great animal experiences and are once again fascinated by the open, wide and slightly hilly and grassy landscape. In the morning we do a guided game drive and, in the afternoon, we drive into the park with Shujaa ourselves and spend the night in a great, completely lonely campground right on the Mara River – with many loudly grunting hippos. In contrast to Tanzania, you can still afford to pay the entrance fees with a foreign vehicle of our size and despite all the advantages of a guided game drive, it always has a very special charm to drive your own vehicle, and to spend the night in a completely lonely location close to wild animals. Because the parking tickets are valid for 24 hours here and you can also get a free two-hour transit ticket to the next gate afterwards, we made good use of the time.
Karin always wanted to have authentic, untouristic Maasai encounters. You certainly have this when you drive through the lonely Rift Valley – as we will do later – but you don’t visit any huts and make more small talk than actually learn a lot about their way of life. Therefore we decided to visit the Maasai Cultural Camp at Maji Moto, where we not only visit an authentic kraal but also take a great, very mystical hike into the nearby mountains and do various other activities. The camp is run by an impressive Maasai – Salaton – who is married to a white American, Susan. After we have eaten very well and spend the night there, Karin doesn’t want to leave this place that has a very special aura the next morning….
In Nairobi we meet a couple of overlanders at the well-known “Jungle Junction” campground, fill up our supplies and do a short but rather unspectacular city tour before we continue to the Rift Valley to the lonely Lake Magadi. We had already liked the Rift Valley area on the Tanzanian side very much, so we are very curious about the Kenyan side. Within a short time, we lose almost 2,000 meters in altitude from the green highlands of Nairobi into the dry, desert-like scenerie around this salt lake. It is considered the hottest place in Kenya with average daily temperatures of 38 degrees and only flamingos live by the lake due to the high salt content. In addition, the world’s second largest soda factory is located here in this unique, inhospitable setting. After a great overnight stay a little above the lake, the next morning we hire an obligatory guide to go around the lake. The adventure begins: first we drive on a well-paved dam over the shallow lake, then the road becomes narrower and we have to start cutting away branches. Our Maasai guide, who accompanies us in the car, even cuts whole trees in a short time. After visiting the over 40 degrees hot springs at the southern end of the lake, things get really tricky. The paved dam over the lake has been washed away, so we have to drive directly over the lake which has dried out on the surface. Of course, memories of our experiences at the Llancanelo lagoon in northern Argentina, where we got stuck in a similar situation for three days come up. Based on this experience we are super careful. Although we have to drive three times over lake passages we get through well. Exciting!
After further great wild camps in the middle of the Maasai area of the Rift Valley and many very authentic encounters with local villagers, we set off towards Amboseli N.P. on the border with Tanzania. From there (and not from the Tanzanian side) one should have the best view of Kilimanjaro with the well-known animal-rich foreground motifs. We also have an appointment there with Margit and Theo with their Bliss-Steyr expedition truck from Germany and spend three beautiful and eventful days together. The Amboseli N.P. fascinates us completely and is certainly one of our absolute favorite parks. Not only the dreamy scenery under the Kili (we are even very lucky with the weather), but also the density of animals especially around the lakes is impressive. The hour-long nocturnal discussion with park rangers is less great: because we are supposed to spend the night within a so-called “Conservancy Area” we are expected to pay a fine. After we hardly sleep during the night, we grudgingly pay the fine of 50 USD per person the next morning – also because we definitely want to drive back into the park for the morning game drive and don’t want to have any further discussions at the ranger headquarters.
Pampered by the many wonderful animal experiences at Amboseli, Tsavo-West N.P. offers rather little in this regard. But it has a dreamlike landscape with large, solidified lava flows and beautiful valleys. Then we say goodbye to Margit and Theo and drive towards Mombasa on the coast. After the intense last few weeks, we need some rest from traveling and a decent internet connection – we were actually “off-the-grid” for the last five days almost without exception.
