Heading north with guide
Justus. Passed Mount KiliM’bongo. Kili means mountain in Swahili and the other
word is buffalo.
There was a young boy on the side of the road holding a dead
chicken over his head, obviously for sale, but one has to wonder – did it get
hit by a car, or what? Who’s going to buy a dead chicken?
Right now I am sitting outside our bungalow at Sandai Homestay in
Laikipia. This place is owned by a sweet German lady named Petra who lives in
the main house. There are several bungalows along the property for guests. We
had a nice lunch of spaghetti with a Tusker Malt (better than the regular beer)
at a communal table with the other guests, followed by coffee out on the
veranda. We’re going to do a nature walk in about an hour.
There’s a real turn of the century feel about the whole experience,
perhaps because of the solar power, generator, rough road in, who knows.
Our room is huge with two large, mosquito netted beds, though
Petra says they don’t have much problem with mosquitoes and there’s no malaria
up here.
Mt. Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest in
Africa, would be visible from where I sit except for the gathered rain clouds.
I can make out the slope of one side but the clouds obscure the rest. The book
I am currently reading (In Africa: Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country)
by a gentleman on a hunting safari in 1910 (John T. McCutcheon) has a lot of
references to Mt. Kenya.
Our host tells us there are leopards about, and even elephants.
Hoping to see some fun stuff tomorrow.
Since everything is unknown to us, it’s hard to write about what
we’re seeing. There’s this big tree that has cactus stalks instead of branches.
It looks like a candelabrum. There are trees bearing some of the brightest
purple flowers I’ve ever seen. There are trees with 3 inch thorns growing along
the roads. The Acacia tree is particularly appealing to me in the way it
spreads out in spurts like various umbrellas. There’s a crazy medley of birds
chirping right now and a 3 inch caterpillar climbs up the wall.
We stopped for a bathroom break at some curio shop crammed with
wooden carvings in redwood, ebony, and birch. From tiny to monstrous six foot
statues. All very lovely. Course the prices were jacked up and I was in no mood
to haggle since I didn’t want anything anyway. Some of the hideous figures
reminded us of that African doll horror story (“Amelia” in “Trilogy of Terror”)
where the necklace comes off and the doll comes to life and chases people
around with a knife – some of these things are even wearing necklaces!
Anyway, this guy, when he saw we weren’t going to buy anything
says, “I want one of your pens. I see you have two.” Now, he had one on his
shirt and I wish I had said, “If I give you one, then you will have two and I
only one.” But I just thought of that now. Anyway, I told him no, these were
gifts. The one I’m writing with now was given to me by Marc Morgott, made from
the redwood trees in California.
We passed lots of ramshackle road shops with people selling fruits
they grew on their own land. We stopped at one place and purchased a bunch of
bananas for 50 cents. The car was swarmed with people offering their various
fruits. Justus had warned us to roll up our windows. We got sweet bananas which
are quite tiny. I didn’t notice much difference between the regular bananas but
Kathryn said they were sweeter. Justus told us there’s a banana that is so big
you can eat one and you need no lunch or dinner.
We saw many people walking and carrying heavy loads, many on their
heads, people driving donkey carts and tending the fields. The little children
would wave as you drove by and an expression of utter joy lit their faces when
you waved back.
Anyplace that people congregated was inevitably filthy and squalid
looking. It’s clearly a poor country, but I don’t know why that makes it more
desirable to cast your garbage on the ground.
Tending livestock seems to be the most common trade, which
consists of sitting in the sun and watching your animals masticate. There
seemed to be a lot of people training for this important career as we saw many
sitting about who clearly had no livestock.
There seem to be two types of structures – crumbling shanties with
tin roofs, or large grandiose dwellings ensconced behind high stone walls
topped with electric wire. There’s apparently a bit of a security issue here.
That reminds me of our hotel back in Nairobi. Like everything else
not a hovel, it had a massive gate with security guards and we had to access 2
other key controlled gates to get to our room.
Now, I’m sitting at an antique writing desk in my bungalow,
scribbling away by candle light. The generators provide electric lights only
between 7:30 and 10:30pm.
We just had gin and tonics with the trade commissioner of Belgium,
Ivan, and he told us the fascinating aspects of the diamond trade. Apparently
more than 60% of the world’s diamonds are certified in Belgium. Certification
is extremely important part of the diamond industry as this decides the value
of each particular diamond.
He shared a story of a diamond trade he witnesses with Russians
that had all the aspects of a James Bond movie.
On one side, a small jet zooming onto an airfield, on the other,
long black limousines racing up. Two buyers, backs to one another, sort and
catalogue the diamonds, then exchange them over their shoulders without looking
at each other, and examine the packets the other person just examined. Machine
gun wielding guards patrol the area. The plane sits on the tarmac, engines
running. Suitcases of cash, millions of dollars, exchange hands and the buyers depart
immediately, and the waiting planes zoom into the sky.
On our walk, we spotted a heard of impala’s and a trio of the
largest antelope in Kenya, the eland, which are about the size of cows.
Also, we were shown the poison arrow tree, the roots of which are
used by the natives to make a poison for their arrows which would kill a man in
3 paces. Another plant has leaves that ooze a juice that produces blindness. It
is planted around tribal cemeteries to discourage the disturbing of graves.
We saw wild henna, the leaves of which are crushed up to produce
the red dye used by Arabs to paint the hands and feet of their women, and to
dye the men’s beards. Another plants’ leaves produce menthol like scent when
crushed that clears the sinuses. Having a touch of a cold, I tried it, and it
worked! Isaiah, our guide on the walk, said when the natives have a cold, they
boil the leaves, drape a blanket over their heads and inhale the fumes. Didn’t
I see that on Crocodile Dundee?
We enjoyed tea and cake on the front porch after our hike where
Kathryn and I both pulled a number of large ticks off our clothes. Petra said
not to worry; the ticks don’t carry diseases like they do in Germany and USA,
plus they rarely even bite people. The three I took off of me were merely on my
clothes, although we did go back to the room and did a thorough tick search
afterwards.
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