Apologies for the lack of posts
...I hope this one will make up for it. Maybe.Last Friday, I went on a small trip with Martha and Omollo, our friend from CUEA. The plan was to take public means to Naivasha to buy food for camping, make it to Hell's Gate National Park, bicycle in, and camp one night. Then, we would go to the gorge, take a tour there, and bicycle out. After that on Saturday, we planned to travel to Nakuru by matatu, find suitable accommodation, and rest up for a Sunday of the Menengai Crater and traveling all the way back home to Langata.
Well, Chris, did it happen like that?
WELL, everybody, technically, the answer is yes, but in reality,I've got some explainin' to do.
(oh p.s. Do things ever go according to the plan?)
We tried to start out early, but we got caught in the traffic for the graduation of CUEA (I've heard that some 11,000 people came... the school is on a dirt road. you put 2 and 2 together.). Anyway, we finally found our way out to Naivasha, which is just north of Nairobi, not far. The matatu (public transportation van) driver decided that it would be best to drop us on the side of the highway because there were a group of piki-piki(motorcycle) drivers conspiring there. OKay, well that would have been just fine if they didnt want 450 shillings(kshs) for a 25km ride. We learned later from Omollo that they tried to start a conspiracy with him from the moment he stepped out of the matatu. They told him, "Hey, you know these people have money. Just help us out a little bit, and tell them that it's a good price to pay." They appealed to him as a 'brother' Kenyan.
I'm pretty sure this begins his frustration with the position the locals always put him into throughout the trip as the person to try to make high prices sound better. This frustrated Martha and I, but we sure didn't want to get ripped off (although we still did).
So we continued after some strong negotiations (final price 250kshs). Now that I think about it, I think this is my first ride on a motorcycle (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). Cool, so it was a good time on the back there and we stopped at the supermarket. I really felt like a tourist there. Great. Got back on and took the long road out to Hell's Gate. On the way, I saw some of the biggest greenhouses I have ever seen. It made me wonder about all the things they grow in there. hmmm... So we arrived to the long driveway up to the gate and the piki-pikis said that that was all the further that they would go. There was a shop renting bikes for 500kshs per day. They were nice bikes, but I thought we could get them for cheaper. We decided to pay the piki-pikis an extra 50 bob (kshs) to take us to the actual gate.
Once we got there, we shelled out the large sums of shillings for entrance, camping, and hiring bikes. It was only then that we realized that they don't rent camping gear at the park. We had to call down to the guys where we stopped to bring a tent and two sleeping bags. They brought us firewood too. Tent (Coleman -Ooo...) and wood went on my back while the bags onto Omollo's. Martha had her own adventures with two jugs of water and bananas. We picked up the only 3 bikes that really worked (out of 20-some) and were on our way once lunch settled a bit (PB&J).
After about maybe 30 minutes of riding and passing Fischers Tower (some colonial guy who got masacred here by the locals defending their turf), we were stopped dead in our bike tread's tracks. A herd of water buffalo enjoyed both sides of the road, and we didn't feel safe passing through. Wild animals are wild. Respect that. Soon a tour van came by and offered a lift past the herd. We stuffed our bikes and packs into the van and went by them. We continued much further because there was a lone bull further up the road. In reality, the herd is safe in comparison to a lone bull. Those are always super aggressive. They don't have the herd to protect them. We rode up the hill with much effort to our campsite with a few mishaps in there too.
We relaxed at the camp site and decided on the location for the tent. The site boasted a perfect of the valley below and all the animals (buffalo, antelope, warthog, impala, eland, zebra, etc.). In no time, we had the tent up and some firewood gathered. We enjoyed the evening of PB&J and conversation by the fire. Oh yeah, and before the sun went down, we had to try to scare the lone buffalo off the cliff below our campsite by throwing rocks at it so that it wouldn't come around our camp that night. Little did we know...
In the first signs of morning, I wake up to news from Omollo that it's just in our campsite. Solution = start a fire. We found out that he has been sleeping just above the campsite to benefit from the protection of the next cliff. Great! I'm glad he left us alone. He was huge! He was just munchin on the grasses and moved along when he caught wind of the fire in the pit. We all got around and packed everything for our biking trek to Hell's Gate Gorge. It reminded me of certain special and inspirational friends who have ridden bicycles for ridiculously long distances for a better cause than tourism. (If you're reading this, I love you guys!)
So, a sweet 5K to the gorge and we set our things down to take the tour. We toured a skinny, but tall side canyon(i don't know which word to use...) first, and the main canyon second with all the hot springs and views . We saw some amazing formations including the Central Tower (a volcanic plug... look it up) and the young walls of the newest gorge (200 yrs old... See dad! You're not THAT old!). We finished with a hike to a lookout point where we could see almost the whole gorge and tower. It was a beautiful experience to absorb.
We made it back, ate our lunch in spite of the lurking baboon, and continued on our way back to the front gate and eventually Nakuru. Almost half-way back to the gate, the skies opened up and really took care of us with the massive amounts of rain.
This was the very moment I realized how happy I was to be there. It was a pleasure to ride through that storm with my companions. OKay, it was dangerous. Life is dangerous.
We got back, dried off, and took the piki-pikis once the rain stopped. Omollo's got a flat tire after about 10 minutes, so we waited for them to patch that. Tire refilled with a bike pump! Off we go, back to the matatu station in Naivasha. These are the worst places to be in any town for a white-skinned person. All these men screaming, grabbing at you and your bags, all just to get you into their matatu. Some people are only paid to convince people to enter a certain matatu. Sometimes it's a bit overwhelming, but other times, it's simply infuriating. I had to scold these guys when we were trying to decide as a group which one to go on. They didn't want us to talk about it. Anyway, we got on and were on our way to Nakuru. Oh by the way, by this time we had dried off because of the length of the ride on the piki-pikis.
We arrived in Nakuru and sat in the park to decide which hostel to pick. We found the ones that we wanted, but martha had to go to Tusky's (supermarket) to get some BBQ sauce for chips (french fries). We walked down some streets and didn't exactly find what the Lonely Planet guide book told us was there. (I found no true information in that book about Nakuru. Honestly). We gave up for a bit and stopped at a restaurant for some chips. Martha was tired and hungry.
Considering we failed to find like 5 other hostels in Nakuru, we decided there that we would go for one a bit more expensive (2500 kshs according to the book-- actually 6000 per night). We arrived and thought we had entered the hyatt or something. Good thing the room was a bit basic. That made us feel more comfortable. The place was huge. It's called the Waterbuck. As awkward as it was, we settled in and rested. Martha and I eventually took a late dinner. I enjoyed a great t-bone steak. Then we went to the bar lounge and I enjoyed my favorite malt beverage here. The wood under my mattress was broken in half, but I slept alright. I had breakfast in the morning with Omollo (Martha slept more). We packed and left quickly.
We thought we had left quickly enough, but we did not realize there would be such a comotion and argument about the piki-pikis that were to take us to the crater that Sunday. We must have waited for 30 or 45 minutes while almost every employee of the hotel argued with various drivers on the price for the trip. We finally just walked out to find our own somewhere away from the rich hotel.
We gathered some drivers and made our way up there after filling the water bottles. My driver took me on a short-cut, and the other two thought I had been taken off to be killed. A few minutes later, we crossed paths again, and all was well.
Next, we found one of our most-frustrating experiences of the trip. We were told initially that it costs nothing to access the crater. We arrived at a road block with an unarmed guy in military fatigues and a guy in an oxford shirt who demanded 300 kshs for each person visiting the crater (we weren't supposed to pay for the drivers). Conventional wisdom and gut feeling said these guys were scamming us, so we asked for an official recipt. This is the first deterrent for bribes. They produced one, but we weren't sure why they charged the Kenyan citizen too. He shouldn't have been charged. We paid before our drivers really expressed their true concern about it. There was a whole lot of conversation in Kiswahili or other languages, which sucked too. I decided we should get their names and ID numbers and the phone number for their commanding officer. They conveniently didn't have that phone number, but I got one name and his numbers. Though it scared him, he didn't fold. He already had the money.
With that sour taste in our mouth, we made our way up to the top of the lookout point on the crater. It measures 90 square kilometers. It's 480 m deep from the lookout to the bottom. The history is that it was a volcano before and one day, it simply fell into the earth and killed a bunch of Masai with it. It's a huge depression with a bunch of volcanic rock. We started walking around and trying not to let the drool drip down our chins. The view was just awesome! We stood there and took in the view only to be interrupted by a guy wanting to sell us a tour of the crater. This was way less official than the national park tour. We actually negotiated the price and were on our way.
We walked down around the crater a bit, and Martha rolled her ankle, in her Crocs. Oops! Me too later on in my boots, not too bad at all. We tried to take it all in, and I'm really proud of a few of the pictures that I took on the way down. I'm sure they'll come up on here someday soon. We spent only a few steps truly as low into the crater as possible and we imediately started on the ascent. The guide had the easiest time going through all the hills, sun and heat. We had to stop for breaks. About half way through, we enjoyed a break under the shade of some clouds. We didn't know that we wouldn't see sunlight for the rest of the day.
We arrived to the edge of the crater, and found our path to be a 'goat' path rather than the 'good' path I had heard about earlier in the trip. By this time in the day, we all had some fatigue. Martha went up on the trail first, and I took up the back. She slipped on the loose soil a few times, and broke her walking stick one of the times. This was when she injured her shoulder by landing on her elbow. The rest of the way up, we knew, was a race against the coming rains and to get martha some care for her shoulder. The guide was there to pull Martha up the mountain with her good arm. I made sure to keep up and be there if she were to fall again, which did happen. No rolling down the mtn though.
The rain really started as we reached the rocks at the top of the climb. I got my jacket out and helped Martha put hers on. We knew that the paths would only get worse with the rain, so we had to go on. Not only was it raining, hail began to beat down on us. we were rock-climbing and really scrambling up this last section of rock and mud as the rivers of rainwater came down the path. This was when Martha said, "It's like I'm Frodo on Mount Doom!" It was considerably intense with all the rain, mud, and injury. It took all my energy, power, and balance with the big pack on my back to make it up the side of that crater.
Once we made it, wet, muddy, hurting, and tired, I let out a yell and chucked my walking stick into the air. We had made it. The cliffside we never thought we'd scale was behind us. We had overcome injury, rain, and cold among other things to get up to safety, a dry place, a chance to warm-up. This climb is one of the most proud moments of my life. I have to say it was truly exhilarating and fulfilling to have conquered the side of that cliff in the pouring rain and hail. I can't speak for the other two, but the two experiences of being caught in the rain this past weekend have become two of the best experiences of my time here. They make me proud to be who I am where I am doing what I am. I thank God for those opportunities. They have been great tests for me.
Once we warmed up in one of the tents for the crafts, the adventure was not over. We still had to go back down the hill on the backs of the piki-pikis. The one with Omollo crashed and we had to take a break because the road was all mud. The rain slowed and we made it down to the matatu station. We got some comfortable seats and took our wet selves right in there will all the rest of these poor people who had to endure our smell. Lucky them.
We made it home intact and slept well that Sunday night. The next day was spent doing laundry and unpacking. What a crazy trip it was! I don't know what I would have done without it though. It truly brought Martha and I through a tough patch in our friendship (I almost refused to go on the trip). I know that I have so many good experiences from this trip that I can't imagine where I'd be if I hadn't gone. God has truly used the weekend away to draw me closer and to repair relationship, not because we wanted to, because we had to. There were situations where we just HAD to come through for the other. Past behind us, we were there for the other one. Thanks.
So I know this doesn't tell you anything about September. 'Yeah! Where did that go, Chris?' Well, we shall see what comes up in the coming days and weeks. I love blogging actually. I just wish I didn't have other obligations that I like less than blogging.
Classes are seriously going well. Field research has been eye-opening. I think students should do more of it on every level. I have a term paper due at the end of October and two at the end of November, and I have a newsletter to help complete by the end of November too. Being in Master's courses, I feel extra pressure to make sure my papers will live up to those kind of expectations. My internship is going well too. Working with the other intern, Debbie, is enjoyable, so that makes it easier.
Otherwise, I have been spending time with some friends here and trying not to spend all my money.
I'm desiring more of a relationship with God and to find ways to honor my other relationships. I'm constantly reflecting on where I should be.
I'm glad some of you have been getting my postcards. The box on this end is famished for letters to me. ;) I love you all! Take care and thanks for reading the blog!
