Adventures in Africa

We arrive at Naivasha town in the afternoon and decide to pass the night there in a nice hotel. We would like to see today's football game (semi final in the Mondial (world-cup)) but we suspect that in the resort on the lake side (fisherman's camp) there is no TV. It's funny to watch TV with all the locals. We watch a South African sport channel in the cable TV. The match is between Germany and Croatia and it's somehow surprising to see that most of the audience is against Germany and hence in favor of Croatia. The publicity gives you a feeling of Africa: you hear the rather famous song "Get down on it" and see a tall giraffe in the African savanna trying to kneel in order to drink not water from the river, but Whisky from a bottle...

We understand from the locals that there is a TV set in Fisherman's camp, so in the morning we go there. We plan to stay for the next 5 days, till the final match. We pitch a tent 10 meters from the lake, and have a look at the bicycles they rent. Since the rent is expensive and we will need the bikes only tomorrow, we do not rent any now.

It takes maybe half an hour for the rumor to spread around, and we are offered by one of the employees a pair of good "brand new" bikes for a much cheaper price...

In the mornings we wake into a loud singing sound of birds and playing noises of black and white Colobus monkeys on the trees. In the evenings we see the hippos going out of the water to graze their dinner. Some reminders to our being to Africa...

In the following 2 days we visit (by bike) a Crater Lake and a giraffe sanctuary. Looking now backwards, our enthusiasm from seeing a single zebra walking 50 meters from us, or seeing 5 giraffes in "one stroke" cannot happen again in future visits. After seeing so many animals I must admit that we became a bit "spoiled". What can still make the adrenaline flow in our veins is a second visit in Hells Gate National Park, like what we did in our 3^rd day. Since there aren't any predators in this small reserve, one is aloud to visit it by foot or bicycle, and thus have a chance to have very short distance encounters with the animals.

An experience we did not have, and would like to have "next time", is to sleep inside this reserve. Sleeping is possible only in your own tent, but for the comfort you give up, you gain excellent views of the animals during the early and late hours of the day. At least that what we were told by people who have done it.

I'm sorry that I didn't ask him to check the other tire in the same bike, cause the next day, we had a flat tire in it. This time we had to change the entire tire, cause it was too bad to fix it. When we went back to the camp I asked the money I paid for the tire back (it was a bit less than a day's rent). The owner of the bikes said he doesn't have the money, and me, who didn't believe him, locked the bikes and told him that I will rent it myself in order to get this money. An hour later he "found" the money to give me back. More precisely, he found a tourist who was willing to pay more than the tire's value...

Last night in the resort is the final match. We sit in the bar rather early in order to have good sits. We drink a bit more than usual, partly because of our Australian friend Mark, who sleeps in neighboring tent. He is a true Australian and as such, drinks huge quantities of alcohol. The favorite of the audience, Brazil, looses to France. Mark, quite drunk, goes to bed and we stay a bit longer. In 5 minutes he's back all exited. Couldn't he find the way? Not at all. He claims that a huge hippopotamus blocked his way, and he is afraid to go all alone. We laugh at him, and although suspect the reliability of his story, agree to accompany him. Soon we discover that he was right: a big hippo is grazing the lovely loan! We're fascinated, and only because of a black guardian, stay back. The guard explains that the hippos are very dangerous, despite their funny appearance. There is a 1/2 meter high ramp separating between the lake and the loan which is supposed to prevent the hippos from reaching the loan. Unfortunately, because of the high level of the water in the lake, it is ineffective. By the way, 3 months later, an Israeli couple, who were celebrating their honeymoon in the same resort was attacked and wounded by that hippo...

Next day we start our way in the direction of Uganda. Before reaching the border we stop in Nakuru, the third largest town in Kenya (after Nairobi and Mombassa). Big means dangerous in Africa, and it's surely the case. Nakuru looks like a huge undeveloped town, and its central bus station looks even worse. It's full with crooks and we almost run away from them to a nearby hotel. Again, like in Naivasha, it takes several minutes till the first offer arrives: somebody named Gibson offers himself as a guide to the famous Lake Nakuru National Park: He will take us in a car (something like a 1970' Ford Cortina) for a full day in the park, for a very reasonable price. Still we have one problem to solve: Kenya is the only country in east Africa that gives student reductions in entrance fees, but unfortunately, only for students under 21 years old. This is really unfair to Israelis, since a normal Israeli boy gets out of the army when he is 21-22 years old, and only then he can go to university. What convinces us in the end is that Gibson is willing to show us how to change our birth-date in the student cards in order that we will be entitled to get the 66% student reduction... It's a well-known joke amongst the Kenyans that an Israeli is always a student, no matter how old he is...