After a decidedly chilly night under canvas around Gof Sokorte Dika (Crater Lake) in Marsabit National Park, there is just enough time for a very brief safari before completing the long journey south back to Nairobi. And a remarkably successful safari it is too as we spot buffalo, a black colobus monkey and more elephants. Speaking of elephants, those found in Marsabit National Park are reputed to have some of the largest tusks in Kenya, if not all Africa. In fact one, who went by the name of Ahmed, had tusks weighing a combined 90 kg (200 lbs). Former president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, was so enamored of this elephant that he gave the beast a presidential guard to deter poachers. And it worked! Ahmed lived to the ripe old age of 65.
No one is really that keen to move on from Marsabit. We have complete some hard travel days across some unforgiving terrain recently and the prospect of hanging out by Crater Lake is appealing. However, the Dragoman trip ends tomorrow so the truck needs to be in Nairobi. Of course the passengers can hop off the truck any time they want (Christi and I did so in Mali to visit Timbuktu), but getting back to Nairobi via public transport would be an even worse nightmare than the Dragoman truck. Reluctantly therefore we all reclaim our hot and sticky seats on the truck and off we go.
The journey is long, tedious, and for Christi and I at least unremarkable. We are so tired after the hard traveling of late that we sleep most of the way back to the Kenyan capital. And that might be the most remarkable thing about the uncomfortable ride – that we could actually sleep!
The Dragoman team kindly drop Christi and I at the Embassy hotel in central Nairobi. Our return to Nairobi is brief. Tomorrow we start a private safari to the Masai Mara. Believe it or not, it wasn’t that much more expensive to hire a private vehicle and driver / guide than join an existing tour. And having slogged around Northern Kenya for the last week with a bunch of smelly backpackers under quite challenging conditions, it wasn’t a difficult decision to return to the world of private tours and comfortable accommodation. Of course that doesn’t mean the wildlife will cooperate – you can’t buy a wildlife encounter (although I think Christi wishes you could to ensure I don’t start pouting if I don’t capture the perfect wildlife images. As if I would! Christi rolls her eyes in experienced resignation. I put it down to her lack of sleep recently).
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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