Kenya and Tanzania

25 Mar 1977. Safariland Hotel, Lake Naivasha.  Relaxing in the campsite lawn overlooking Naivasha - clean, well fed, comfortable. We had a fabulous 2 1/2 days in Maasai Mara, driving first around the Aberdares to Lake Nakuru, for a great steak dinner, and then into the park to camp illegally between the entrance and Keekorok. Lake Nakuru was practically bereft of flamingos, an amazing change from our first visit with Jeff and Chan. The drive to Maasai Mara was along the Mari escarpment, beautiful, wooded, and cultivated fields high in the sky; this is supposedly the area settled by Lord Delamere when the white settlers first arrived.

We saw lots of game approaching Maasai Mara: giraffe, gazelle, Impala; but much less than within the park, which was green, open, and spacious, a beautiful site. Nailed about 10 new birds while there, mostly while driving across the planes. We spent most of our time in the north and west, where we would drive for miles with nothing in sight, and then suddenly we’d be amongst all kinds of animals: lots of topi and kongoni, two elephant herds, ostrich, Black rhino on two occasions, warthogs, and four prides of lions, including one female with a freshly killed warthog in her mouth who walked right up in front of the car. We spent one last night in the Seria Escarpment and drove back by another route, and then onto Rawanda.'

The wind is blowing like mad now, and has been blowing like that for two days, with big clouds scouting across, and a warm heaviness in the air. The short rains are obviously going to tumble down any day now. We hope to spend another day here before returning to Nairobi and selling the car.

Apr 1, 1997. Nairobi, The Hills.   Back finally from this last safari - it lasted about a month, and was enjoyable in all aspects. But now we are really ready for a change of scenery – so the car is being advertised for sale, the few possessions we have are being sold and given away, and are eyes are turning towards… Rwanda

First, a list of the birds we nailed during 24 hour period at lake Naivasha: a total of 86 (a star means a new bird):

Super Starling , Black-lored babbler, White eyed slaty flycatcher , Sacred ibis , Waxbill , Yellow vented bulbul , Stonechat , Yellow-throated longclaw, Gray-backed fiscal, Brimstone canary  (*)' Little stint, Common greenshank , Common sandpiper, Gray headed gull, Hotentot teal , Black-winged  stilt, Moorhen , Purple gallinule , Fish eagle , Red-knobbed coot , Pied kingfisher , White pelican , Blue-headed wagtail , Blacksmith plover , European white wagtail , African sand martin , Dark headed wagtail , Greater flamingo , Richard's pippit , Red-billed duck, Little egret, Goliath Heron, Ruff (*), Ring-necked dove, Scuacco Heron, Drango, African Hoopoe,, Yellow-colored Lovebird, Gray woodpecker (*), Glossy starling, Black-headed weaver, Three banded plover, Jacana, Pied Wagtail, Ringed plover, Hadaba ibis, White-necked cormorant, Long-tailed cormorant, Crowned crane, African spoonbill, Lesser flamingo, Gray heron, Avocet, Marsh sandpiper, Yellow-billed duck, Yellow-necked spurfowl, Anteater chat, Crowned plover, Lilac breasted roller, Osprey (*), Long tailed fiscal, Fiscal shrike, Yellow-billed egret, African black kite, European shoveler, Arrow-marked babbler, Reichenow's Weaver, Yellow Bishop, Augur buzzard, Streaky seedeater, Variable sunbird, White-bellied tit, Bearded woodpecker, Robin chat, Cattle egret, Yellow-billed stork, Verreaux's eagle-owl, Speckled marsh bird, White browed conebill, Bronzy Sunbird, White-crowned robin-chat, Marabou stork, Speckled pigeon, Black headed oriole, Rattling cisticola, Green wood hoopoe.

Saturday night at the Ariel hotel I saw one more Dave and Kathy, he has relaxed and she has gorgeous as ever. I decided she looks exactly like a film actress whose name escapes me. I leave a space to fill out later: 

We drove back to Nairobi Sunday evening, after a most relaxing day at the hotel pool, eating fried chicken and drinking beer and marveling at the animation of a group of Italian tourists.

We’ve been in Nairobi a week now, and everything has gone extremely well. We saw John and Sheila (Sandra Jeanne's brother and sister) by good fortune for they were only in town for a day before flying to Paris. We looked them up with addresses, and they told us of the marvels of Rwanda, and how to locate Stu and Sandra Jeanne, who have become captivated with the place, and plan to stay at least another month on Lake Kivu. Saw Brenda and Curt on the street. - they love working at the Maasai Village, but will probably head for Madagascar after another week or two. Spike got a job in town, and is most cheered, although he profess to hate business. And Scott landed his most sought after job with the University of Nairobi!  He will be using the computer for the benefit of the social scientists, and in time will receive University housing (at 300 shillings a month!), a Peugeot 504, and $15,000 in bucks. Good old Rockefeller.!  They are ecstatic, and happy to be on solid (economic)  ground again.  And my, are they getting into bird watching!  They are up to about 220 species, and, with typical Wallace thoroughness, covering their new hobby in full detail. Mainly they like the hobby because they can do it together. The family that plays together…

Scott passed on the news to me that Ken is back working for Jim Candlin at HP, and now he and Vickie are looking to build their dream home - most probably in Boise. Their Los Trancos house is up for sale at about $80,000. 

Not one hour ago I sold the Combi for 22,000 shillings. What a relief. The buyer can give me half dollars and half in shillings, and that’s fine with me. Saw Le Chartreuse de Parme by Christian Jacques: with Gerard Philippe, one gorgeous hunk of man; with Ann and Roger at the French Cultural Center last night. Three hours long, and a great story by Stendahl. Must read someday.

If all works according to our dream, we will leave for Kisumu by train in a week, and then take the boat around Lake Victoria to its western shore; from there by bus and thumb to Bukavu, where Stu and Sandra Jeanne will hopefully be ready to accept us with open arms. Catch you later!

27 Apr, 1977. Guy's Fish and Chips, Lamu Island.   It will not perhaps come as a shock to learn that once again, our plans have changed radically at the nth hour. Discouraged by the onset of the long rains, which presumably are reducing Rwanda to a muddy morass, and unable to determine if the Lake Victoria boats are really going, And unwilling to chance dash across Uganda, we have decided to head for: Madagascar! So here we are in Lamu, waiting out the arrival of our boat in Mombasa, still unsure of getting to our new destination, but feeling about 95% confident that we made the right decision.

Our last week in Nairobi was notable for its incredible dinners. With no more kombi and only a few errands to perform in town, Nicole spent a lot of time with Ann, cooking, eating, and discussing food. We enjoyed that week such delicacies as fish with tomato sauce, steaks with gratin de champignon, gratin dauphinois, crepes stuffed with mushrooms and shrimp, and of course wine with every meal. Burp. Everyone got kind of grossed out towards the end, and Ann in particular gained several pounds.

Gambling at the casino, made 60 shillings, and quit. They have generous rates: double down on anything, split any pair, a 20 shillings minimum, and all cards but the dealers are exposed. But: about four decks in the shoe'

Scott finally nailed his job, and should be hard at work right now. He’ll be helping the sociology department with their computer needs. And relieved to be at it again. I read Ken‘s letter to Scott on the latest HP news, and marveled how much has happened there, and how it all sounds the same. 

Shaba province is in the news again. The old Katangan rebels are back from Angola, undoubtedly with Soviet and Cuban aid, to try and grab Shaba again. I hope the situation does not become serious enough to endanger Parker - he is the American Consul in Lubumbashi. Anyway, that’s just one more reason to not head for Rwanda now.

We left Nairobi by second-class sleeper to Mombasa, and had a three person cabin to ourselves. Lovely old, wooden brass fittings, uniformed help, dinner chimes, soap, in the wash basin. Trains are really the only way to move around. We narrowed our boat down in Mombasa, and spent the night at the Hydra Hotel, just beside the main market: the Iqbal of Mombasa. Had the best curry and samosas ever at the Central tea room.  Then on to Twiga for a day and a night, before moving in with Ann and Roger in their beach house a few hundred yards to the south. We had rain every day, sometimes quite violent, and the cottage was a clear preference for that. Also, Twiga was loaded with Kenyons for budget Easter vacations, prices are were and spirits were down. The bug situation at the cottage was incredible; we found monsters every day, including a tarantula in one bed. 

From Twiga, we took the bus to Mali, staying two days at the campsite on Ed and Linda’s map. The place was deserted, and the beach, a lonely sand oval with green perimeter and big rocks on the lagoon before the reef. We tried to look up Lisa at the Driftwood Hotel, but the managers who know her and her family hadn’t seen her for over a year. Instead, we met Terry and Jim Blackwell, two doctors on holiday who had the wrong news on the Driftwood. We agreed to meet up in Lamu. 

Our bus trip to the island was a bit of an adventure. The Tana River was flooding, so we had to cross it in dugouts, Nicole being forced to carry her backpack in waist deep water at one point. Later the bus stopped to drop a recalcitrant passenger at a police station, and the evening was topped off just a few miles before the Lamu ferry when we just missed an elephant in the road.  But Teri, Jim, and the third American, who were on the same bus the next morning, had a far more eventful trip. They saw two abandoned buses on their trip, one sinking rapidly as they watched it, and finally, their bus took a dive when the road collapsed under the bus'es front tires. They climbed out a window and walked over the roof, pausing only briefly to hurl some stones at a cobra swimming by, and then walked on for five more hours before bedding down on the road with sleeping bags, some good weed, a bottle of J&B, and guitars. They finally made it to Lamu the next morning at 7 AM - a 28 hour trip, which took us six hours. We’ve gotten close to these guys these past few idyllic days, and find that we are as relaxed as we could possibly be, cut off from the rest of the world with good friends, good food, good weather, and at least a week to go before our boat returns from Zanzibar.

Lamu Town is quite unique in our experience. It’s boardwalk can be walked leisurely in 10 minutes, as well as its narrow main street, with just one row of homes back. But we’ve wandered around the hinter parts of town enough to know that quite a population is supported. The port is very active, with at least a half dozen large dhows across the channel, as well as several metal freighters. Lamu exports a lot of mangrove poles, and it is a familiar site to see men waist deep in the harbor waters, handing the poles on to be loaded into small fellucas, and then onto the larger dhows, to be eventually sold in Dubai or other Persian Gulf ports. We rented a small felluca yesterday to take Jim to his plane, and then sailed on a hotel south of Lamu Town, for a fine afternoon of jogging, swimming, frisbee throwing, and beer drinking. The beach is in incredible there, at least 100 yards wide, and endless, backed by enormous shining white dunes. Its beauty is deceptive - this is the same beach where Martine got raped a few months ago, at five in the afternoon.

So the days pass - we usually get up around 9 AM, and have a long breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee at Guy's. Then a walk around town before perhaps taking a fellucas to Peponi's for an afternoon on the beach. Dinner is always at Guy's, the crab salad, at 15 shillings, offering one the prospect of at least one solid hour of picking fresh crab meat from the shell. Then we repair ourselves to one of our hotel roofs to smoke, talk, play the guitar, and watch the stars we buy.  Lamu is a real find.

10 May, 1977. Coraline Beach, Kenya

We are sitting in our bathing suits on the veranda, about 50 m from the sea. Lovely light green and deep purple, the reef, a thin, uneven white line near the horizon. Earlier, we watched a dhow-like fishing boat pass by, heading south just outside the reef. From Lamu perhaps? It is low tide, and folks are walking in the ankle deep water, trolling for fish with nets held between them. On the beach (the nicest we’ve seen in Kenya) some boats are being heated with coconut fibers to kill the worms. They must have to do this fairly often - we’ve seen the operation many times already. Aside from a brief shower this morning, the weather remains cloudy and warm, a bit too humid to be perfect, with the steady, southern monsoon, wind cooling things off on the beach, and making frisbee playing a true challenge.

We are here through an amazing sequence ff developments, each 180° from the next, culminating in our decision to fly to Dar tomorrow morning. We came to Mombasa about a month ago for the express purpose of finding a boat to Madagascar. We stayed at Twiga with the Hills for a while, then learned of a boat in another week. Anxious to see Lamu, we hurried up, meeting Jim and Teri and Melinda on the way. We said goodbye to them, meeting them in Lamu the next day after their terrible trip up described earlier. When they flew out of Lamu to Melindi a week later, we said goodbye, and after deciding the boat trip back look too horrible for words, we flew down the following day. News of our boat arriving in 2 to 3 more days, we decided to head on down to Twiga for a final reunion with Terry and Erik. (Jim had since flown onto Paris), staying in a bonda with Rick, I former chef of a Parisian hotel and an amazing person in all ways. Rick personally organized the purchase, slaughter, cleaning, and cooking of a 35 kg goat, enjoyed by all the last evening we were at Twiga. We had 30 people around the campfire, all ripped and belching, singing folk songs until 2 AM. After fond farewells the next morning, we hustled into town to discover that the captain of our boat would not take any passengers for fear the Malagasy authorities wouldn’t allow them off the boat. That evening we went to the train station to say au revoir to Teri and Erik, on their way back to Nairobi. Erik will try to find work in Nairobi, while Teri will go first to Israel, then back to the states.  Vaguely hopes to be on the trail again in December, maybe to be with us in India; we sure would like that. Such a sweet person, full of affection for everyone, living for the moment, always happy, absolutely unimpressed with his doctor label.  One nice aspect of traveling is the number of good people you meet on the road, and will have a chance to visit when you return. 

So, anyway, we bought tickets to fly from Mombasa to Dar (about $30 each- the only alternatives being a land crossing at Arusha, and a boat from Mombasa), we hope to book air passage for a month excursion to Malagasy and the Comoros; with funny money, that should cost us only $80 each.  

We’ve received no mail for a month now, and this will delay mail for at least another month. Lusaka will probably be our next base, but that is far, far off.

14 May 1977.  Dar Es Salaam. Sitting in the patio of the New Africa Hotel, waiting a while before catching the bus for the airport, round-trip 21 day excursion tickets in hand. Cross your fingers that it all works out!  Theoretically, we return on a Friday afternoon, perhaps in time to take the Friday train to Lusaka  - but that’s probably dreaming too much.

Dar seems not much different - still very hot (but no rain so far), with perhaps fewer tourists.  The port is jammed with boats of Russia, Yugoslavia, Liberia, Japan, etc..  Headlines say imports are down, exports up. I wish the country (economic.) health.