THE STORIES
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An Upcountry Adventure
Some years ago a friend of mine and me decided not only to do a trip to
Kenya, but also to include a tour through some parts of the upcountry to
Lake Victoria. Planned and ready to drive on the left side of this world's
roads we took an Air France Flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport
in Paris to Nairobi.
Maybe the flight already should habve warned us about the adventures we were
about to see. Entering the plane we were amazed, the dinner was
already served, cold food in plastic packages ready on each one's seat to be
eaten. The whole flight nobody showed up to remove the remainigs so the
passengers did the job themselves, putting the rubbish down the floors. It
was really nice to find the way to the toilets climbing above the hills of
used dishes. I think that was the time Air France was thinking about a new
cooperate identity and a renaming to something like 'Flying Garbage Air' or 'Dust
Alliance' maybe the air attendants just were on strike. On our return
flight later they on the other hand offered the best service and the
delicioust meal I have ever tasted in economy class...
Anyway, we arrived safely in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. After comparing the
conditions of some tour operators and car rentals we finally decided to for
the smallest model of 'Crossways - Car Hire and Travel', should that name already warn us?. Good luck we had our
international driving licences and were ready to drive on our own. The
office agent offered to have a test ride with our new Daihatsu Charade
around the block to see how right hand sided cars might go. My German friend
started with a driver of the office while I was waiting with my Kenyan friends
negotiating the conditions for the hire. I am not sure
what the driver told his boss but the office agent strongly recommended to
take a driver after my test-driving friend returned...
Finally we started our trip, five people - a driver included - in a really
small car. The tour should go from Nairobi to Nanyuki, Nyahururu around
Mount Kenya down the beautiful Rift Valley and further to Kericho and
Kisumu near Lake Victoria and from there just back to the capital. We planned
about one week for the whole tour.
Despite we had a driver my friend and I were ready to drive somewhere outside
Nairobi, what else for did we have our international driving licences? My
friend was the captain for a small distance. Driving with a speed of 80
kph - which on a potholled lane really is a high speed - was heading to a
small village around the road. Not slowing down we jumped about a road bumper but my
friend, not irritated by this little mistake, just went on with high speed
overflying another two of this in Germany unknown bumper things - poor car. After some
risky overtaking manoeuvres my friend prooved the Kenyan driver who really
is the racing champion. The Kenyan co-driver gave up and fasten his seat belt, what he never in his life has done I think.
Always pretendening to be so tough not in need of safty my friend finally
let him know what the meaning of driving was!
On my behalf, I finally decided not to drive the car as the absorbers might have been broken.
The office's driver safely brought us the remaining kilometers to the equator.
Nanyuki is a small town, if we could not see the many tourist shops accepting credit cards in small, old huts we could miss the equator-signboard and the official water experiment officers. They were able to identify themselves as 'official-equator-experiment-officers-of-the-government' and presented their ID-cards to make sure we would not be betrayed by con-men who might have shown us a wrong equator or could outtrick us with the experiment. But as we found the right people at the right please we participated in this great
attraction. For a small amount we became witnesses of the most exciting
experiment on the equator: A small match wood on the northern part of this
earth in water was turning a special direction when the water was poured down and suddenly on the other
side of our world using the other direction to turn around. Yes, physics
brought this spectaculous attraction as water on the two sides of the world
turns in different directions when poured down. After a rest and lunch in Nanyuki we
decided to take the straight road from Nanyuki to Nyahururu to safe some time, I mean we bought
a map in Europe so we had to use it smartly. The different color of the road
in the map did not impress us or the driver. The decision was to take that
road and we did.
A road can be so many things we learned. From the tarted type ours changed to the
stony type - but no problem we had a good car and a better driver. Some
minutes later we found our selves on a road completely made of dust, open windows letting us feel the road even in our noses, eyes and mouth. We didn't care the way was offering such an unforgettable view to Mount Kenya not far from the just left Nyanyuki town. After two hours the road even
changed to something like a dried out riverbed. Three hours later Mount
Kenya still seemed to be as far from us as the time we started from Nyanyuki,
did we not move away from it? The sand of the road made the way slippery as
ice, we even saw some animals like in the National Parks and thought we
never would reach our destination any more. But the driver still assured that he
knows exactly were to drive, but finally even we started doubting, especially when he was stopping every
now and then to talk to some lost pedestrians in the middle of nowhere. Completely
dusty and with gray hairs after four hours we arriveed in Nyahururu, dirty
and tired and only about 80 kilometers from our luch place. In the Nyaki
Hotel we found some beds and agreed with the driver to meet his family and stay there the
night to see us again the next moring 10 a.m.
Second day
Clean and ready to do more sightseeings we were waiting for our
driver at 10.am. One hour later we still were waiting. So we decided to call
the office in Nairobi. After another hour looking for a telephone box we finally could persuade the staff at a filling station to let us
make a call. My Kenyan friend warned me:
"Don't tell this people at the
filling station that we are only waiting for two hours now, they won't let call
us."
I didn't belive but talking to the filling staff I explained that we already waited
for three hours now.
"Three hours, you know my friend, three hours in Africa
are nothing. Why don't you wait another hour and then come back? The manager
who has the key for the telephone anyway is not yet in."
We had to leave again,
an police officer on our back to the hotel after getting some money to make him able to talk (bless the Lord for this wonder he did) recommended to got to the police station later, after a
reasonable African waiting time.
Finally calling the office in Nairobi the people there just let us know
that the driver was so reliable and four hours are nothing, "African time my
friend".
They told us to call in an hour or so. Waiting and despairing the
second call was about to come. We reached the filling station when my Kenyan
friend shouted out:
"There is the driver coming!"
A man walking with a pair of
tyres in his hands was directing to the filling station.
"What is the matter
we were waiting for you for so long now?" "Ahhh mzee, when I woke up in the
morning the car was stolen, I went to the police and they took me in their
car to drive around searching it. We finally found the car about 50
kilometeres away, tyres flat, so I have to buy new tyres now, do you have
some money?"
We gave him the money for the tyres and he promised to take us
in the evening. As nobody showed up that day we enjoyed another
day in Nyaki Hotel.
Day three
The driver came this time. Tyres repaired, our hairs in their natural
colors again we went on to new adventures. Through the beautiful Great Rift
Valley with it's impressing landscape and varieties of vegetation we
drove on a road in a good condition directing down the hills. As we soon realized, the shock
absorbers of the car completely were broken, we even could feel the smallest stone laying on the roads in
our backsides. Therefor we decided not to go on with the trip to
Kisumu as we were afraid the car might get spoiled completely. We took the
highway back to Nairobi, stopping at Nakuru, but not able to pay the park's
entrance fee, we went on. Enjoying the beauty of the land we finally arrived
back at the car hire office. Because we decided to drive with a driver we had not to pay for
the damages but even got some money back for the tyres we bought. Despite
we did not see Lake Victoria nor Kericho our driver got his tip. He
presented us a great adventure. Thank you Joseph. We never will forget.
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