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2 February 1999

The Kingsmill's Trans-Africa Overland Trip, Part 10: Kenya and Ethiopia

Geoff Kingsmill
2006-04-25 21:17:24

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G’day Folks,

Our last E-mail was from Nakuru just after visiting the Masai Mara NP and saying goodbye to Wendy and Mal. We stayed at Kembu campsite just out of Nakuru on a farm. The owners, Andrew and Zoe, took us on a tour of the dairy farm and horse stud. The 900-acre farm employs 130 people and they provide housing for over 1800 locals. We bought fresh milk, butter, cheese, eggs, vegetables and Eland game meat. The Eland was very nice and tender marinated in honey and garlic.

The next day we drove to Thompson Falls and Abedare NP. The weather was quite cold in the highlands despite being on the equator. We camped the night at Naro Moro Lodge which is at the foot of Mount Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa. Mist and cloud shrouded Mount Kenya however we were able to see the peak and its glaciers when the skies briefly cleared. From this lodge hikers organise the trek to the top of Mount Kenya. From here, we drove around Mount Kenya to Nairobi. The western side of Mount Kenya is broad acre farming and much drier than the densely forested and much wetter eastern side.

The first night in Nairobi we camped at the Nairobi Park Services campsite where most of the overland trucks hang out. We were able to talk to a number of overland truck drivers about Eastern Lake Turkana and the road north to Ethiopia. We visited Nairobi NP with great hopes of seeing the elusive Cheetah and Leopard but to no avail. The park was very quiet and dry and we saw the usual giraffe, zebra, gazelle and rhino. We had an early dinner at the well-known Carnivore Restaurant. We tasted different game meat including Ostrich, Zebra, Hartebeest as well as the usual chicken, beef, lamb and pork. We surrendered the white flag when we were unable to eat another mouthful. Of all the game meats we have tried we enjoyed Eland and Ostrich the most.

We camped the next night at the Upperhill Campsite near central Nairobi. This is the meeting place for independent ...

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