Here is the next installment on my latest epic journey....

16-February-2017

It is raining It is raining It is raining!!! Yeah!  I am in Ngurunit and it is such a lovely evening after showers and rain storms all day long.  It has been so so dry.  On the way to Maralal from Nairobi last week I came up through Nanyuki and on the bush road between Loisaba and Subuk ranches.  Everything was so barren, dry and trampled looking.  No pasture anywhere.  I saw a small herd of 4 elephants sheltering under a few tattered and broken trees.  They looked so thin and harassed.  I felt so bad for them.  It only got worse as I headed North.  Thin cows and desperate goats picking at twigs and branches.  To arrive in Ngurunit, at least there is sagaram ripening.  These are the pods of one kind of Acacia tree.  That meant the goats weren’t so bad off.  But no cows are around.  They are all up in grazing camps in the mountains looking for any pasture that might be found.  Mostly being fed leaves cut from trees or the root I have mentioned before in other entries.  I arrived from Baragoi with my friends Sue and Colin (still waiting for what went on in Baragoi??...patience…I will get to it) yesterday evening, Wednesday.  It was hot.  So hot.  This morning we woke to clouds and to our great surprise, it started to rain around 9:30 am.  February is not a normal time for rain.  On the usual schedule we wouldn’t expect it until mid-March at least.  Thus the surprise.  A wonderful surprise.  It was heavy enough to make the dry run-off river bed below my house start to flow.  We could see the water coming down so ran out to watch it come.  The dogs had so much fun jumping at the headwater and trying to stop it.  Of course, it flowed on relentlessly and Bruin resorted to running back and forth across it splashing and having a great time.  Mouse, who is a lot shorter, got stuck on the other side from me and after a bit of nervous thought, made some bounding jumps across and made it through with a wet belly.  Such a joyous rain.  It has continued raining on and off all day in fits and starts.  It will probably stop by tonight and is not anywhere near enough, but just a bit has made everything fresh and clean.  And oh the wonderful smells that come with it.  The smell of rain is the best fragrance I know. 

Back to fill in my travel gaps.  Between Nairobi and the elephants on the way to Maralal I spent several nights in Nanyuki with various friends.  The purpose was to put my car in for repair in Nanyuki.  The side result was some really good social time with so many good and interesting people.  Evenings with friends at their houses. Hanging out with Mouse at a coffee shop all day.  Meeting friends for milkshakes at Java House.  I had sundowners one night at a place called OneStop across form the Nanyuki airport.  I met some interesting American women who are running a rescue school for teen mothers.  The young mothers live at the school with their kids and commit to graduating and not getting pregnant again.  I’ll remember that for any future need from my community.  Mount Kenya was hanging on the horizon clear as a bell and so beautiful.  After climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in December 2015, I have said I have no desire to climb Mt Kenya.  Seeing it like that, I can easily change my mind.  It was drawing me in and calling to me.  I toasted it with my glass of wine and said “wait and see”.  Someday, I might just get a closer look.  Back in July 2016, I did get quite close with my son Loiweti as we took my brother Craig and nephew James up to the highest accommodation on the slopes of Mt Kenya, Rutundu.  That was at 10,000 feet and what an amazing sight the peak is from there.  We walked up to Lake Alice at a bit over 11,000 feet and then down again to the cabin.  So beautiful.  Seeing the mountain again last week so clear and inviting, I may go for the top one day.  Anyone who wants to is welcome to join me….

Finally back in Maralal on the 8^th Feb, I prepared for friends to come stay with me.  I had Sissa and her furry boys back again for the nights of 9^th and 10^th. The dogs had quite the party before Sissa headed up the hill to her farm.  Then Sue and Colin came in their Land Rover on Saturday the 11^th and my epic journey continued.  This almost brings me to Baragoi and why I was stuck there.  Mainly the story is all about cars and the trials and challenges that they bring when travelling on the bad roads of Northern Kenya.  It is an amazing and rather startling sight when one is driving along and sees one of your car wheels suddenly passing you by.  Then the bang as the car hits down hard and comes to a dead stop.  That has happened to both me and my husband in the past.  It happened to Sue and Colin as they traveled up to Maralal.  That malfunction led to other malfunctions.   While they did arrive at my house safely Saturday afternoon, a bit later than planned, Colin had to spend Sunday fixing a U-joint that had gotten messed up too.  Monday morning the 13^th Feb arrived and we took off for Baragoi on our way to Loiyangilani by Lake Turkana.  Planned to camp somewhere half way and arrive at the lake on Tuesday.  I have always said that the only firm plan that I make is that the plan will change.  And change it did.  We passed through Baragoi okay.  Stopped just outside for a nice picnic lunch under an Acacia tree then carried on North.  I was traveling in my car behind Sue and Colin’s Land Rover.  The road before and after Baragoi was horrible corrugation.  Like driving on a huge washboard.  Bumping like mad and shaking the car to bits.  I heard something bang on my car and suddenly it sounded like a tractor.  Oops, I thought.  A bit of exhaust has given way.  Oh well, carry on.  Car is still moving.  Then I noticed a trail of something wet on the road where the Land Rover had gone ahead.  Not a good sign.  So I gunned it and finally was able to catch up and get Colin to stop, hoping it just a water can fallen over in the back.  Nope.  The fuel tank was leaking like a sieve.  We were 15 km past Baragoi and still 35 km from the next town that had no reliable mechanic.  Return to Baragoi it was.  So that is why I was stuck in Baragoi on the 13^th Feb.  14^th Feb also.  It was a big job so we stayed two nights there camping in a family friend’s plot.  Letoli and family were so welcoming.   I knew the Baragoi mechanics from many a time being stranded there with various car issues.  They are brilliant bush mechanics able to do miracles with very little resources and few tools.  They also fixed my exhaust which had lost a couple of bolts on the silencer.  Wednesday morning, with both cars patched up and moving, we decided to bypass the corrugated road and skip Loiyangilani.  We took another road I know through Lesirikan and go via the Keleswa pass on the edge of the Ndotos.  It was an old forestry road that had been recently fixed and it was so beautiful.  With that road, it connected us to the main Ngurunit road after all the bad bits and we reached Ngurunit early afternoon yesterday.  It is so peaceful here.  The rain so refreshing.  I have another night to rest before another friend is flying into Korr tomorrow, Friday.  Then my epic journey will continue….until then.

I am just back to Maralal from two fabulous weeks in Samburu North.  It has been a long dusty drive back from Ngurunit today with two tire changes and lots of rolling in the dirt under the car.  Thus a bit exhausted to write anything really coherent or interesting now.  So instead, will start sharing a series of journal type writings I was doing while wandering around in the bush.  Will post them over the next few days one at a time so not too inundating or confusing.  Here is the first one - then I'm off for a good rest....

13 February 2017

Well, my intentions of writing regularly and recording actions, thoughts and insights even while not having access to the web haven’t really carried through.  Even when I do have access I seem not to get to it.  But from today, sitting in Baragoi waiting for car repairs to be done, I will start…but before the details of how I came to be in Baragoi with a broken car (not my car) I will digress to the crazy week of my Nairobi/Nanyuki trip and back to Maralal.  Lots of fun along the way and lots of visitors coming along. 

After getting back to Maralal from Ngurunit the last time, a few days later I had the plan to travel to Nairobi to see daughter Naiboku for parent’s day.  The simple plan of down and back again sort of turned into an epic journey, as many of my trips seem to do. In fact, I seem to still be on an extension of that epic journey sitting here in Baragoi thinking of its beginnings.  As I said before, more on that later.  Now I am thinking of  Friday morning the 3^rd February, 10 days ago….

Morning saw my friend Sissa fly into town and arrive for breakfast in my Maralal home with her two doggie buddies.  This was exciting for my pack as they are regular visitors and actual family members of my dog Mouse.  Mr Foo is her father and Minnow is her brother.  They certainly do have a great time when they have their little family meet ups.  I have been to many a Sissa family activity in the past and when people would ask how I am related, the answer would be “Laura is related to us through the dogs..”.  This was taken in with amusement and the question asker would move away thinking we are all a bit crazy from too much African sun.  But it is true I have found.  There is as much connection through the dogs in Kenya as there is relationships between the communities here.  When asked where I got my Rhodesian Ridgeback I answer not just with the names of the people I got him from, but also the fact that the woman is the sister of the wife of the son of the people from such and such ranch who is related to the owners of such and such dog who is also the uncle of my little dog whose mother was also owned by the same owners as the mother of Bruin and I found her because of a friend who is married to a cousin of the husband of the sister of the wife of the owners of both mothers of two of my dogs and so on and so forth.  But I always end it with pointing out that the father of Mouse is Mr Foo so that makes me practically related to Sissa and her whole family, so there. Anyway, after that digression, I had a wonderful breakfast with my ‘family’, dogs included, then we each took off to our separate destinations. Sissa up to her farm on the hill above Maralal and I heading South to Nairobi with Mouse to see Naiboku. 

On the way to Nairobi I had a lovely night stop with friend Anne and her son Stephen in Gilgil.  As well as a social stop, it also had a practical purpose.  Since January 1^st this year, I have engaged a new Manager for Salato Camp in Ngurunit and we are making a real effort to get the lodgings up and running again.  Stephen had taken a lot of videos while he and his mother were staying with us in Ngurunit over the New Year.  To promote my camp effort, I asked him to help me make a short promotional video.  Part of my stop over was to see how it was going.  Within a few days after that, he sent me the final version which is amazing.  I have given it to a tour company friend in Nairobi and hopefully will have some business from it in the course of this year.  It should be up on the web somewhere soon so will one day share the link for that here when I know it. 

Anyway, on to Nairobi and springing Naiboku from school at 7:45 am Saturday morning which meant I was up and driving by 5:30 am.  The one major issue I have with Kenyan boarding schools is the lack of openness and the recognition that parents should be a part of a student’s school life too whenever need be.  I’ve harped on that before so will not get into it again.  Despite the difficulty of getting her out of school, we had a great weekend and interesting times.  On Sunday while going to a holistic doctor appointment, we stumbled upon a very popular AA meeting.  As our car was blocked in by so many others in the parking lot, we decided to be patient and just wait for it to be over.  I met a very interesting gentleman coming out of the meeting.  A returned Peace Corps Volunteer who never returned, sort of like me.  He had been in Tanzania and eventually married a Kenyan and has been in Kenya 52 years.  It was wonderful chatting with him.  There are so many of us Americans who have gone out to explore the world in various ways and never really go back.  We make a home in a new place.  As a U2 song says “It’s not where you’re born but where you belong”.  But we still have a great concern for our ‘home’ country.  Looking ‘in’ from the ‘outside’, what has been happening the last few months seems so unbelievable.  As another U2 song says “Where is the Love? Where is the Peace”.  It was good to be able to discuss my concerns with another like-minded long ago American.  I simply pray that one day America will get back on track again and remember its true foundations. 

I keep digressing and now I need to go.  The story of why I am in Baragoi will have to wait.  I am in in-between land from Maralal to Ngurunit and I will leave the details hanging…as I am….till next time.