After several more weeks with the kids doing much the same as previously, organising things for them, I decided I needed a bit of a break. Between Monday and Thursday this week I went on my first solo adventure when I travelled to Kisumu. I wanted to go here whilst I was still staying at the home, as it's in the opposite direction to where I intend to travel when I finally leave. So at about 9am I was sat on the shuttle and by 12.30 I had arrived. I got a taxi to my guesthouse as I was so disorientated on arrival but after that I had a whole afternoon the explore. There's not much of Lake Victoria to see from the centre of town, though I wandered down over the rusting railway tracks to have a little peek of the water. that evening I arranged for a boat trip out on to the lake. I spent the rest of the evening watching football with a character called Collins (as seems to be everyone, the local Tom or Jack-no abuse please toms or jacks...) He was telling me about names and tribes and the press, which was interesting.
By 6.30am the next morning I was leaving the hotel. I got my first ever motorbike taxi a mile or two up the road to where the boat was going from. I spent about an hour on the water, first looking at birds and seeing the sun come up, although it was a little cloudy, then we found a group of hippos grazing by the water's edge. There were about 4 females and 1 or 2 youngsters milling about peacefully. We kept a respectful distance but it was still a great thing to see and I got some nice pictures. This one was not the best one to pick but hey ho.
After this we pulled alongside a local fishing boat to see the catch and some of the indigenous fish. They had a quite a few including a HUGE lungfish still very much alive and breathing of course!
We headed back to the shore and I was back eating breakfast at 8.30. At 9.30 I had arrived at Kisumu museum. Not only did they have some interesting displays of tribal artifacts- fishing traps, headdresses and many more- they also had an example of a traditional Luo settlement (the local tribe) as well as poisonous snakes and two huge Nile Crocs in unfortunately small pools. It was on pretty, wooded grounds just out of town and a really lovely way to spend the morning.
As I wandered back towards town I came across a large market with locally produced souvenirs. Don't worry- I bought a few presents! Any demands for gifts to be directed to the facebook account:p! It was really nice to see but everyone wanted you to buy something from their stall and there were about 40 little wooden huts! I moved on again, this time to the rather upmarket Kiboko Bay Resort- It's an expensive hotel/camp type place right on the lake shore but nonresidents can use the pool and restaurant. After my meal the sun went in and with a view right out on to the open water just metres away there was a strong breeze coming off the water. I still went for a swim though. Not SO warm but quite funny to watch the Kenyan reaction to the crazy Mzungu girl swimming outdoors in the 'freezing' weather! After this i went back to the guesthouse and in the evening was taken to some local music. This was a scary outing and it poured but it was fun to see the boy racers in luridly painted matatus with neon lights to match the paintwork and loud music blasting down the streets.
The next morning I felt I had done all I needed to do and got a bike and a matatu to Kakamega town. The guidebook was pretty shady on how to access the forest and there was no map of Kakamega town which is really busy and untouristy like Eldoret. This was rather daunting and I almost came home, especially when I phoned up the lodge and the number was wrong, but eventually, after some food I pulled myself together and just took a chance on a particular place to go, getting a bike there, which took a long time, and my body ached trying to sit up over the bumps with my big backpack on. Luckily, it was the guy's local area and he took me right up to the door of the place I wanted to go, honked his horn, and one of the forest guides came ambling up the path to explain my options. I arrived at 2.30, by 3.30 I had set out on a short walk (2.5 hours) introducing the forest and some facts about it. It contains 400 species of butterfly and 7 monkeys, of which I was the 3 most common. The blue monkey, the black and white colobus and the aptly named red-tailed monkey which looks as though it might have been painted that way! It's also one of the only rain-forests at altitude. Where I stayed was 1400m above sea level, the top of the hill was 1770m.
My room was in a wooden hut on stilts looking right out at tree level. There was no electricity so I wrote my diary by the light of a kerosene lamp and got dressed the same way in the morning. By 7.30 I had set out on a 14km hill walk. After first winding through the forest trails in the dark and damp, the view from the grassy hill was incredible. The way was scattered with big black lumps of volcanic rock like giant milestones. Looking across the forest canopy, water vapour rose up through the trees betraying the winding path the river took through the trees. After a rest at the top of the hill we headed back by a different route. There is a small man made cave halfway down which was created by attempts at gold mining during the 1920s. Despite only being 70m long it was home to 2 species of bats, with a population of approximately 300. No matter how much i reminded myself how good their sonar is, it was hard not to duck as one went whistling past your ears, much as I like bats.
I arrived back about half 11 and my lift back into town arrived around 1,though requested at 12. Luckily though, I was sat outside waiting at 12 because all at once I heard a lot of rustling in the tree behind me. Right next to my room, a whole family of colobus monkeys poured out onto a bare-looking tree right in the open. I was able to watch them feeding and jumping for a long time. I'd seen a few in the forest but here were about 8 of them right under my nose. It was the perfect end to the trip.
I headed home via bike and then matatu. The matatu was a nightmare and stopped every few seconds to offload this or that and pick up people. I had a worrying moment halfway back, when what had been a packed bus was almost empty. We stopped by the roadside and the 'conductor' spoke to the guy from another bus. i heard the word 'mzungu.' The man leaned in laughing as said, 'you, we've done a trade, you're going with this guy!' Despite a few moments of worry, I arrived home very safely as we came into Eldoret right past the home, and I shouted 'stop, stop, hapa!' as we passed the bright blue and white dairy shutters. As I walked back up the drive, lots of the kids ran to meet me shouting 'Elena, elena!'(that's about how they pronounce it!) I'd really missed them all!
Next week I'm going to begin teaching at the school. It has a really good reputation nd the kids seem nice. Shall keep you posted on how that goes. 3 more weeks and then I'm off travelling. 6 weeks and I shall be home.
Love to all xxx
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