Leaving Kembu Cottages on Tuesday 9th January we wanted to see Lake Elementatia, a soda lake between Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha. It has a spectacular setting being surrounded by ancient volcanic mountains and is a protected area being part of the Soysambu Conservancy. The lake is home to a number of upscale lodges and resorts all within the conservation zone so on our friend Sarah’s advice we booked lunch at Serena Camp right on the lakeside.
After negotiating some more very tricky roads for at least 20 minutes that had been badly affected by recent rains we arrived at Serena Camp and spent a happy few hours in the sunshine walking around the estate, enjoying the views, the visiting herd of Zebra, a flock of pelicans and a small group of flamingos in the water. We also indulged in a delicious lunch before setting off for Lake Naivasha where we had booked a room on a basic lakeside campsite.
Two hours later we arrived at Carnelley’s Campsite in pouring rain which carried on overnight and into the following morning. We eventually found our very basic room (4 walls and a bed, luckily with a sheet! No towels and a broken power point) in a block of 13 rooms who all shared an outside toilet and shower block that was situated on the other side of the field. It wasn’t much fun trotting across the wet field for a call of nature in the middle of the night! We actually had a very unsettled night as some of our neighbours returned back to their rooms in the early hours of the morning having clearly enjoyed some libations! The best thing about the campsite was the very lovely restaurant and bar area which was clearly a big hit for locals and travellers.
We had booked our room for 3 nights but decided to move on after this first night experience and so set off in search of more comfortable accommodation. We acknowledge that we must be getting soft in our old age as this wouldn’t have given us a problem a few years ago! Only a few kilometres down the lakeside road we decided to visit Elsamere, the former home of Joy and George Adamson, of Born Free fame and now a conservation trust. The visit included a 45 minute video on the life of Joy Adamson, a remarkable woman who was not only a conservationist but a talented artist and prolific writer. This was followed by a tour around the small museum and then tea and cakes on the lawn by the Lake where we were visited by colobus monkeys and a family of warthog.
The setting for Elsamere is very special and we were tempted to stay the night in one of the cottages in the gardens as the staff offered us a very good price but we decided to journey on and found ourselves a lovely room in a cottage at Kongoni Lodge set on a hill above the lake.
Our last 48 hours in the Rift Valley was dominated by yet more torrential rain which we are told is very unusual for this time of year in Kenya and had impacted many of the roads making driving in a town car rather tricky. Not wanting to sit out another wet day we decided to head back for a night in Karen on the outskirts of Nairobi and we booked into Acacia Tree Lodge, a small but very classy guesthouse. Along the way we had our first encounter with the Police, being called to stop by a roadside officer.
We have discovered it is common practice for everyone and anyone to get pulled in and then be expected to pay some money on any spurious grounds the police decide to dream up. We had been warned in advance of this practice and had been told not to argue but to say we have very little cash – and if concerned, start filming them on our phone. In the event we were set free with no penalty. The other odd thing we have noticed whilst driving is the extraordinary number of speed bumps (sleeping policemen), some very high indeed and they are everywhere. By this we mean on rutted roads where you can’t go more than a couple of mph to a three lane highway! Not only do they create traffic bottlenecks but they are incredibly frequent and not to be messed with at speed.
Acacia Tree is run as a social enterprise with 100% of the profits going to a foundation set up to help children in the nearby slums. Annie enjoyed some walks and runs around the Karen area and on Friday 12th January we were back in the mayhem of traffic that is Nairobi city centre to return our hire car and then grab an Uber back out of the city to the Nairobi Terminus for the Mandaraka ‘Express’ train to Mombasa. For the princely sum of £7.50 each (economy class) we and hundreds of other passengers were chugged the 483 kilometres through the changing landscape arriving 5 ½ hours later in Mombasa where we planned to spend 3 nights. The first thing that hit us as we stepped off the train was the stifling heat and humidity after being at altitude in Nairobi and The Great Rift Valley. Sadly the promised hotel transfer was nowhere to be seen so we had to negotiate a rate with a myriad of taxi drivers touting for our business.
Our first day on Mombasa Island was spent exploring on foot. It really is a fascinating city if somewhat gritty, it has a mix of Indian, Arabic and African cultures which seemingly exist in harmony with each other and we loved it! Everyone is extremely friendly and helpful and so we set off with google maps as a back-up and headed for the Old Town wandering the ancient narrow streets, dodging the Tuk Tuks and motorbikes and spending some time visiting the main tourist attraction, Fort Jesus, a 16th Century fort built by the Portuguese and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We noticed the Palestinian Flag painted on the walls of buildings all over The Old Town and calls for a free Palestine to be created. Our walking tour included seeing the south of the island where we headed for a lighthouse which we never found but it was good to see the ocean and local people enjoying their Saturday afternoon by the sea.
The following day we got a Tuk Tuk to take us off Mombasa Island to Nyali Beach, a long deserted stretch of brilliant white sand lined with apartments and hotels in differing states of completion or maybe dilapidation and quality. Surprisingly there were very few beachfront restaurants or bars for people to stop at over its approximate 3 mile length. We walked the length of the beach and then enjoyed a delicious lunch in an Italian restaurant nearby before catching a Matatu back to Mombasa.
For those of you not aware of Matatus, they are privately owned minibuses used as shared taxis and the main form of public transport for locals anywhere in Kenya. Thy are often highly decorated usually in a very rickety condition with slogans and sayings and sometimes bible verses and the routes are marked on the side of the van. Some have ‘conductors’ who take the fare and hang out the door trying to drum up customers and so they stop anywhere and everywhere along their set route for pick-ups and drop offs, when you want to get off you inform the driver by knocking on the roof of the van twice. The drivers have a reputation of being reckless especially on the long routes and we can certainly attest to that having seen them overtaking on blind bends on the Nairobi to Nakuru road. We noticed less reckless driving in the cities probably due to the heavy traffic and that they are stopping so often.
Our next destination is Lamu Island, more about that in the next blog.
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