Kenya 

Dec 24, 1976.  Lake Nakuru

Birds:

Greater flamingo, blacksmith plover, white pelican, sacred ibis, pygmy kingfisher, yellow billed stork

fish eagle, purple heron, African spoonbill, long crested hawk eagle, European swallow

grey-headed kingfisher, lesser flamingo, little egret,, grey headed gull, Egyptian goose, knob billed goose, marabou stork, avocet, white-necked cormorant, great white heron, common sandpiper, harrier hawk, long-tailed fiscal, paradise flycatcher, Augur buzzard

Miscellaneous

Isak Dineson, Out of Africa

Elspeth Huxley, The Flame Trees of Thika

ne monsoon: Dec - Mar

se monsoon: May - Oct

Clinb Mt. Elcon from Kitale (4-5 hrs)

Bugoye (between Fort Portal and Kasese: base for Ruwenzori ascent.  Best months: Jan - Feb

Bundibugyo: pygmy village

Vitshumba (lake Idi Amin Dada): benign elephants

Bukakata: boats to Sese Islands (sitatungas)

Bell, Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter: Karamoja stories

Dec 30, 1976.  Nairobi.  Merry Christmas.   Ho-ho-ho.  The Wrights were in Malindi when we arrived in Nakuru, so we did the park instead, and rode back home. Incredible park - and particularly rich in lesser flamingos this year (over 2 million?) lots of white pelicans, cormorants, etc.; saw Defassa waterbuck for the first time, plus some great views of hippos.

The car ground to a halt, climbing back out of the rift valley on Christmas Day, and had to be towed back to town. We made it back to our buddies in Nairobi in time for turkey plus all the trimmings, so the day wasn’t a total loss. (However, just learned today that a con rod blew, a piston needs replacing, and, in short, about 2000 shillings is about to change hands.)

We’ve been sleeping late, reading, writing letters, cooking, singing, and in general, enjoying life in a real home for the last week, and I am in no hurry for it to end. Great people, too: Mary and Ann Pomeroy (who flew into cartoon this afternoon), Jeff and Chan Britton, Ed and Linda Smith, Sandra and Stewart, each with his or her amazing story to tell. Dinner 14 not unusual, although we are down to six right now.

Jan 23, 1977. Nairobi. Ah, the joys of owning a car in East Africa.  Kyethi Metos (who, as friends of Stuart and Sandra, agreed to put my engine back together for a good price) have laid me low. After the five days they worked on it, and the 1866 shillings I paid them, Jeff and Chan and we drove to Namanga, on the Tanzanian border, and then into Amboseli game reserve.  The car ground to a halt about 1 km into the gate, and we packed it back to Naminga, removed the engine from the bus, and brought it back to Nairobi, while Jeff and Chan guarded the combi.  Njathi’s mechanic John slapped it back together a second time, supposedly replacing a valve and re-drilling some studs. Back we go to Namanga, Myself with the mechanic and the engine, while Nicole and Linda take a cab. The mechanic put the engine back in the bus, but then discovers bad compression in one cylinder, out it comes again, and more glue is put in the cylinder head. Back once more, and we run it for two hours. Oil is ominously dripping out after this break in, But John says it is because they overfilled the oil. They drive back to Nairobi, and we had more to Amboseli.  After a day and a half of fine game watching (elephants eaten by a lion, 12 lion cubs), we reluctantly returned to Nairobi because of the oil: 11 cans for the return trip!  Njathi is in no mood to see me again, for a good reason: his mechanic's car broke down on its return to Nairobi, so Njathi sent another out to get him home. While both cars were headed home at night, one hit an animal (wildebeast? Zebra?), throwing John and Abdul, the driver, out of the car, and putting them into the hospital. Njathi, with all this on his mind, refused to deal with me any further, and so off I went to Cooper Motors, who removed and broke down the engine, discerning several interesting facts: most of the parts Njathi said he replaced, had not, in fact, been replaced; The block had not had oversized studs installed; and a critical pin of a piston had not been reinstalled, this coming, and Cooper estimation, over 12,000 shillings damage: i.e., a new engine is required. 

I took the trouble to visit the  AA’s lawyer for a free consultation, and he said I’ve got a good case, but it might take 2 to 3 years to be settled. Right now Jeff and I have decided to haul the car pieces to a garage in town, buy the replacement parts secondhand, and carefully supervise its reassembly. Tomorrow I’ll talk with a few more lawyers to see what they are like, and perhaps I’ll go for broke. Moral: you can’t trust anyone over here.

Meanwhile, we’ve been staying at the hills house near Dagneti corner, with Linda doing a phenomenal amount of good deeds for us, so all other aspects of life have been fine. Received news of a job opportunity in Malaysia, at the American Embassy, teaching English, and a neighbor of the Hill family may need my Systems Analysis skills here in Nairobi. Nicole has addresses for just about every country in East and South Africa, so if and when we get out of here, we will have plenty of people to visit. We still hope to do a long loop through Kenya’s north, followed by one through Uganda, , Rwanda, and Burundi.  Then we will sell the car and hitch south, hoping somehow to get to Madagascar. Right now visits are supposedly limited to one month: we hope that will change for the better. Ethiopia is  out of the question now: rebels are shooting at buses, now that they have guards, and everything north of Addis is off-limits. Even overland travel to Sudan via Juba is a question: The Sudan Embassy won’t issue visas unless you fly in. Hopefully, their embassy in Kampala is more flexible.  

Last Wednesday  (Jan 19) we had dinner with Mimi and John Summerskill, to our great pleasure and delight. It seems that Bill sent letters to us in Mombasa, so we never learned that the family spent two weeks at Shimba Hills, swimming at Diane Beach, quite close to where we were at Twiga!  Anyway, it was great to meet John, and catch up on all of the family news. They are now in their new home in Ios, not far from Thera; I think we should take them up on their hospitality and visit them!

We spent a delightful afternoon at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage yesterday with Jeff and Chan, Stuart and Sandra, and Connie  (Bruce'a companion).  Michael, the animals, keeper, let Jeff and me into the cheetah's cage and the lion's cage for some petting and picture taking, and promise to show us the park the next time we came by. He's from near Mt. Elgon, and a delightful person.

Feb 1, 1977. Nairobi. Hey, the car is up and running again! Took it out to Nairobi Park this morning for a checkout: runs great !  Four heavy duty shocks, two new retreads, and a 1973 engine. Catch me if you can. Park was green and lovely, but far fewer animals then before the rains in October, and practically no zebra, nor willdabeast! Still, some good action: lions (two young couples) mating, posing, and even pissing on each other; three black rhino in a group, one with enormous horns; lots of impala, Grants gazelles, Thompson’s gazelles; great giraffe shots (approached by foot from the hippo pool); a couple of elands; birds:

Waxbill, Egyptian vulture, Marabou stork, Ostrich  (group of around 25!), Yellow-neck spur, Variable sunbird, Crowned crane, White stork, Superb Starling, Helmeted guinea fowl 

A couple of hippos in the hippo pool; and maybe five other tourist cars. The big season is over. - Twiga must be bearable again.

The Saga of KMO22 

Pertinent sequence of events (dates approximate):

25 Dec 1976: bus loses oomph climbing Rift valley wall on abortive return from Nakuru.  Flag AA truck down and get towed to Nyoto motors ($).  Call Hill and discover some Christmas dinner is still left.

28 Dec. Nyoto Motors gives me 3000 shilling estimate on grinding crankshaft, replacing pistons and sleeves, replacing one connecting rod. Stuart tells me the people he’s staying with run a repair shop that can do the trick for less.

29 Dec.  Njathi agrees to take on work (his price estimates, especially on parts, are less).  Get the car towed to Njathi, with engine and pieces.

9 Jan 1977: Engine ready: 1860 shillings for reground crankshaft, new pistons rings, etc. Off to Amboseli with Jeff and Chan. Car blows valve 1 km inside park gate. Push it out to garage, the mechanic drops the engine for us while I phone Njathi.

10 Jan: Return with engine to Nairobi while Jeff and Chan guarding the kombi. And Njathi agrees to get it running again for free.

15 Jan: back to Njathi with engine, mechanic, driver in Njathi's mini; Nicole and Linda take a taxi.

16 Jan: Engine reinstalled and runs for two hours. Driver and mechanic return to Nairobi. We head off to Amboseli. Discover engine overheating a few kilometers into park. Later in the day we check the oil, and discover we are burning about every 30 km. We decide, after another day, to limp back to Nairobi.  right rear shock falls off, right rear tire blows a hole so large the tire is ruined.

19 Jan.  Njathi in bad mood. His driver and mechanic broke down on the return, so he sent another car to help them. As both cars returned, the mini ran into a wildebeest, sending mechanic and driver to the hospital, and both his cars totaled. Tells me to take my car and stuff it. I drive it to Cooper motors, to have the engine dismantled.

21 Jan: Cooper gives me 2000 Schilling estimate to fix engine – everything to be replaced except the block. Mike Thompson recommends Wakondi motors, and tows us over. Wakondi says it’s cheaper to buy a new engine.

22 Jan: Off to the junkyards, where an Indian agrees to sell us a 1973 engine for 7500 shillings. (talked down from 9500); he takes mine in trade. Our tow to his garage doesn’t show, but Jeff spots a friend from Twiga, who towed us for nothing (breaking our tow rope three times).

26 Jan: Engine (plus new shocks) are in, but Mike’s charger doesn’t come through, so we wait a bit.

31 Jan: Got our money, got the car, got two retreats and another rim, and we spend our last night with Roger and Ann Hill. The saga is over… For now.

3 Feb: card dripping oil: brought it to Pangani to tighten gaskets, and that seems to have done the trick.

1 Apr: Car still uses oil, and had to replace clutch cable and emergency brake cable, but not more than one hour ago I sold the bugger for 22,000 shillings to the editor of Safari magazine, and a former VW rep in Kenya! What a load off the old shoulders.

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3 Feb, 1977: Lake Magadi

Birds: Yellow flamingo, Lesser flamingo, Avocet ,Yellow billed stork, Marsh Sandpiper, Wood sandpiper, Ringed plover, Gray Heron, White pelican, Little egret, Marabu stork, Ring necked Dove, Blacksmith clover, Spur-winged goose, Yellow billed egret, White throated bee eater, African jacana, Crowned plover, Crowned crane, Fish eagle

Camped by lake, after swim in Magadi Soda Company pool.  Jeff and Chan complained of heated ground. Maasai old man squats in morning to watch packing up. Hope he wasn’t disappointed.

Great hootenanny at the Normandy Hotel: Ed, Linda, Stewart and Sandra sang some bluegrass quartet, while Ed whanged his banjo. Engine losing oil. - suspect needs tightening here and there.

4 Feb.  Hill's backyard for lunch.

• Reichenow's Weaver

• Superb Starling

Great slides of Ghorepani - Ghandrung by Keith and Celia Banks, followed by endless Cyprus slides by the Hills. Got ticket for not displaying my registration while returning to campsite.

5 Feb, 1977.  Lake Naivasha - fisherman’s camp

• Gray back fiscal

• Fish eagle

• Pied kingfisher

• Malachi kingfisher 

• African  poacher

• Ringneck Dove

• Red knobbed coot

• Yellow colored lovebird bird

• Speckled mouse bird

15 Feb 1977.  Saiwa Swamp National Park.  Evening time, and time to catch up on lots of amazing developments. We started our travels again, the car finally purring, by footing it to Lake Naivasha for two days and nights of relaxation and good birdwatching. Snapped a close-up of a goliath heron. Sunday was kind of crowded, but Monday the place was ours. Neat lake, beautiful campsite. Took a boat trip along the coast for a few hundred yards, nailing a cane rat in the papyrus – hope the picture comes out. Hell's Gate was a big zero.

Back to Nairobi to Karen campsite, where Steve, Sandra, Ed and Linda were also camping. Tacos for dinner! Into town the next day to load up on shillings c/o Abdul. Saw Carter’s inauguration and such at USIS, then crashed at Keith and Celia‘s because Karen's guard tried to charge us 20 sh camping fee per person. KC fed us with good dope, while Ed, Linda, and Stewart hit it with bluegrass – a fine evening. 

Next day, after a very leisurely start, we four roared on to the Maasai Ranch on the east side of the Rift Valley: great pictures of folks dancing, and otherwise. Fiona Fitzgerald wasn’t there – off to Uganda on safari. Scored off Spike (about two lids for 10 shillings) before I left. Other things now come to mine: 1. My vet told me not to worry about the hyrax bite I got in Nairobi Park – no rabies in the area.  2. Extended Kenya visa for two more months, thanks to the tough bastard having a meeting, and his second having lived in Chicago for four years.  Still, I had to show my vehicle ownership and bullshit a story of driving back to Europe. 3. Gave ownership book to Pangani to have motor change registered. 4. Changed another $500 with Abdul ($100 for Ed and $100 for Jeff) : Bought about $120 worth of stones from Ed, including Tanzanite, rhodolite, and one tsavorite.

Now, back to Wednesday, February 9.  We camped in Naivasha, joined late in the evening by Stu, Sandra, Ed and Linda. The next morning we split up, with Jeff, Stuart, Sandra and myself off to Crescent Island. We arrived at the gate, with a giant lion in a cage beside the road, andt two Californians, Monte Cox and Susan Cox, filming “Mzee Simba“, with its star, the largest lion in captivity. We agreed to meet for beer that evening, and continued to Crescent Island, where we walked all over for several hours. Saw lots of great shorebirds, as well as plenty of waterbuck (Crescent Island is supposed to have the greatest concentration of waterbuck anywhere), Grant's gazelle, dik-dik, a few reedbuck. Stu and Jeff met a herd of hippo at the end of the island.

That evening, Monty and Sue weren’t back in time, so we left a note for them and hurried back to Fisherman's Camp, where Kathy and Dave filled us with good beer, wine, and brandy; stories of Joy Adamson, Leni Riefenstahl (Last of the Nubians, The people of Kau.  Dave’s brother took her on safari to Sudan), and the folks of Oria Douglas-Hamilton, who lives around the lake. Good times; even had some bluegrass from the musicians. Then, around 11 PM, bacon, sausage, their own from eggs and milk and butter, toast, jam, you get the picture. Oh, yes: walked to their neighbors around 7 PM to see a Verreaux Eagle Owl eat from a birdfeeder.  Must nail him with a photo next time.

The next morning, we four drove back to Monty and Sue’s tent, where we learned that they had tried unsuccessfully to find us the previous evening. He had a case of beer for us, and forced us to keep it for free. We reluctantly accepted. Then he got Giant the lion out of his cage, and Sue took a role of Kodacolor on her new Nikon F2 Motor drive, with the four of us jogging with Giant. They gave us the role of film. We accepted under duress. Then they forced us to have lunch with them at the lodge, joined by the script girl.  We were a very noisy seven, the other hotel guests mildly upset by our high spirits. Monty turns out to be an amazing fellow: owns several tigers; lives on a boat in Southern California; does animal films and stunts; is as crazy and natural as a good California freak should be. Sue is a knockout, with the enormous breasts we all agreed must’ve been somehow artificially inflated and stabilized. She’s also a movie star: she’s the woman who gets munched first in Jaws. don’t know if Monty and Sue are married. Would love to meet them in California someday.  (Note: Some years later, while living in Carmel, I was jogging along the trail above the beach from our home in Carmel Meadows when I spotted a tiger running along the beach.  It's trainer turned out to be Monty.  He was filming for a series of ads by Esso on the theme "Put a Tiger in your Tank").

Behind us, we drove to Nakuru for the night. A practically tame young buffalo spent most of the night bugging us and the other campers, but TIA (This Is Africa).  Flamingos, pelicans, Cormorants, etc. though the birds were not as close to the spring as when Nicole and I were previously at the blind. Must return for a few days of serious birdwatching, especially on the side we haven’t yet visited. We invited Francis Hassan, a friend of an Israeli friend living in Nakuru. He had previously spent two years at Lake Rudolph working for the department of fisheries. He is a quiet, intelligent young man who gave us good tips on our route to Lake Rudolph.

Next day we drove to Lake Hannington, with amazing hot springs and geysers, then to Lake Baringo for the night. Leaky's farm was deserted and destroyed, and the lake a pea soup green, most unappetizing. The drive from Lake Baringo to Eldoret was over two tough mountain passes, and taxed the kombi to the limit. It didn’t help to learn we needed new parts, too. Lunch at Kabarnet with Sue MacMillan, an Ohio girl working in Kenya as a teacher for the last several years. Kabarnet is about 7000 feet high in the Elgeyo-Marakwet mountains, and a delightfully, cool and prosperous looking place. Spent the night, at Eldoret at the home of a German couple we met on the road, looking at giraffes: Gunther and Elke, from Hamburg. Beer, wine, cognac, and great pork and steaks. Stuffed ourselves to the gills while listening to their tails of woe with the houseboy, William, who was quite tight the entire evening. They served us an even more incredible meal the next morning, and even gave us some purified water for our trip north. 

From their house, we drove onto Mount Elgon National Park, right on the Uganda border. Drove way up the mountain to camp around 10,000 feet. A ton of reedbuck, Bushbuck, colobus monkeys, and a blue monkey. Game warden went racing by all night long with loaded guns: Ugandan poachers, it seems, were on the mountain, looking for elephants.

On to Saiwa Swamp National Park the next day, where sitatunga graze on shoots, crowned cranes swoop from trees to swamp to tree, and supposedly, aardvarks root for ants during the night. Saiwa Swamp is the smallest park in Kenya, but it is a delightful place to walk, with a trail along the west side of the lake, and beautiful wooden blinds, in which to sit and look. Saw Ross's Turaco for the first time, dazzling red bands on its wings.

After Seiwa Swamp, the road climbs over a pass and north across dry, dry desert with 10,000 foot mountains to the west, all the way to Lodwar, town of the Turkana. Wonderfully decorated people with mudpie hairdos, elonggated earlobes, incredible amounts of neck, jewelry, and not too much clothing at all. The look from their eyes is impossible to interpret, and I always felt strange when near these people.