Awesome Uganda

• Saturday, 9^th of August, Kisumu in Kenya to Jinja in Uganda

Pretty much a driving day with a lengthy Ugandan border crossing in Busia. We have lunch at Ozzie’s in Jinja, stop at an internet café and then head 15 km northwest to so far one of the most (from overlanders) recommended spot: The Haven. It truly is an amazing spot, chalets or camping on manicured lawns overlooking rapids of the Nile River, sparkling clean facilities with flush toilets and hot showers, amazing food and all that run eco friendly by using solar energy and water captured on two of the buildings’ roofs, designed by the (German) owner Rainer himself. Since it is through overlanding Rainer found this place, he is even offering a great overlander special: $25 per person per day, camping, full board (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)!

• Sunday, 10^th until 12^th of August, Jinja

The next few days we spend writing diary, relaxing and enjoying the Haven! On Tuesday, Kirsty goes horse riding and I take on the great rapids rafting the Nile River! An amazing and at times scary experience!

• Wednesday, 13^th of August, Jinja to Entebbe

We have breakfast at a coffee shop in Jinja and hop onto the internet for a while before heading to Kampala and further on to Entebbe. Kirsty had read in one of the overlanding couple’s blogs that they had a great time at an animal orphanage there with a real enthusiastic keeper called Jimmy showing them around, so we are keen to go check it out! As it turns out the orphanage is actually a zoo, Jimmy is not around today and instead there are crowds and crowds of school kids around because of school holidays! So we walk around in the zoo watching animals behind bars some of which we have seen a lot closer in the wild a few days ago– a real weird and a bit comical experience….!...which got even more comical when we drove right through the zoo in our Landy to camp next to their bandas on the other side of the park! Kirsty’s tonsils are giving her grief, so we heat up some soup and have an early night.

• Thursday, 14^th of August Entebbe to Queen Elizabeth NP

Somehow we can’t find the turn off to Mpigi so we almost head all the way back to Kampala to then head southwest again. We cross the Equator (second time)! The roads are tiring, strewn with potholes and crazy truck drivers, torrential rain showers. Not sure how the German cyclist we just met survives! It’s a long haul to the Queen Elizabeth NP and Kirsty’s tonsillitis has gotten worse. We finally get there around 17:30 and after paying for our campsite at the visitor’s center close to Mweya Lodge, we pitch our tent at the beautiful ‘Camp Site No. 2’ overlooking the channel between Lake George and Lake Edward.

• Friday, 15^th of August, Queen Elizabeth NP

Apart from some intruding game drive vehicles looking for leopard (our campsite is right on the leopard loop) we have a chilled day which gives me time to catch up with my diary while Kirsty tries to sleep off her tonsillitis.

• Saturday, 16^th of August, Queen Elizabeth NP

Kirsty’s tonsillitis is still giving her a lot of pain, so we stay put at the campsite in the morning which gives me a chance to some car stuff and grease the universal joints. In the afternoon we go for a game drive in the northern section of the park, but aren’t very lucky with sightings there, apart from some kob, warthogs and waterbuck. Going back towards the campsite, we get onto the ‘crater drive’ which turns out to be a real spectacular drive. One huge forested crater follows another, some of them with crater lakes at the bottom some hundred meters below. The rocky track follows the rims of the craters and offers dramatic, forever changing views.

Back at the campsite we meet Karen and Karl, a South African couple who traveled with their two sons from Cape Town to Ethiopia and are now on their way back home.

• Sunday, 17^th of August, Ishasha, Queen Elizabeth NP

After a not so rewarding game drive and a quick internet session at the Equator gate we head down the tar road with the intention of exploring the Kyambura Gorge in the eastern section of the NP, but we get hindered by a bushfire that spread along the road. Kirsty, coming from a bushfire-troubled country has rightfully huge respect of fires and we drive up the escarpment to figure out what to do. We hang around for a while and when we eventually see a couple of cars coming through and even some dudes on a motorbike, we head down the escarpment again, leave the Kyambura Gorge behind and rather turn off to Ishasha, the southwestern part of Queen Elizabeth NP known for its tree climbing lions. We stay next to Karen, Karl and their kids, whose brother’s family joins them later in the evening, on the pretty crowded campsite next to the bandas.

• Monday, 18^th of August, Ishasha, Queen Elizabeth NP

We leave for a game drive in the morning and are lucky to spot three male lions next to the road (though sitting in the grass) just a few kilometers outside the camp on the northern circuit. There are big herds of buffalo in the park and heaps of kob, a very common antelope species here. We do both, northern and southern circuit twice, unfortunately without sighting any lions up on trees.

We ask the park warden if we can’t camp on the beautiful sites next to the Ishasha River, but they won’t allow us because of recent rebel incidents from the DRC just on the opposite river bank. As an alternative we get offered to camp about two kilometers away from the park offices at a picnic site, which has just been cleared for us by a tractor with a big lawn mower. Luckily there is a thatched roof boma, because it starts pouring just after we start preparing our dinner. We meet three young Germans who also seek shelter there and join them at the campfire. They give us some helpful advice about the routes down south and about gorilla tracking. At night we hear noises of an animal in distress but are not sure if it was a hippo or maybe a buffalo.

• Tuesday, 19^th of August, Ishasha to Kabale, Lake Bunyonyi Overland Campsite

As we are about to leave camp, Karen, Karl and their sons drive past to say hello, all keen and ready for the final attempt in finding the tree climbing lions! We head off soon after, driving through the southern circuit for a last time unfortunately without spotting a single lion – not even on the ground! A bit disheartened we head south to fill up diesel in Kihihi where we have planned to meet up with Karen and Karl.

Then we get a phone call from Karen – they have spotted a lion in a tree not far from where the dirt road forks off to Kihihi! Being only 9 km away, Kirsty and I decide to grab the opportunity, turn around and drive back to have a look! Even though we get more detailed ‘spotting instructions’ by Karen and Karl who are on their way to Kihihi, it takes us a while to notice that buggar snoozing up in a fig tree about 100 meters from the road! Well spotted Karl! Tick!

We make our way to Kabale via Rukungiri and Ntungamo, hoping to hit the tar road soon and thereby avoiding a broken bridge detour on the route due south, but we end up driving more than 2 hours until reaching the relieving tarmac. In Kabale we enquire about gorilla tracking at the National Parks Information Office and the pretty efficient clerk sorts us out in no time. As permits seem to be unavailable in the common tracking areas of Bwindi NP Nkuringo and Mgahinga, we make a booking to track the newly habituated Nshongi group on Thursday starting from Rushaga Tracking Camp at the southernmost tip of Bwindi NP, close to Rubuguri. This group has been habituated for one year and has unofficially been accessible to the public for one month now. The group will only be marketed and officially opened to the public in the near future.

We drive up past some quarries where locals chip rocks by hand (!) to make gravel and then down the other side to the shores of Lake Bunyonyi which lies beautifully tucked away between surrounding hills. We check in at the Overland Campsite but first have yummy pizzas right on the lake at the rustic Calabash Campsite next door before we pitch our tent again next to Karen, Karl and Karl’s brother Philip and his wife Judy who are also traveling with their two kids.

• Wednesday, 20^th of August, Lake Bunyonyi to Rubuguri Cultural Center

After receiving very useful waypoints from Karl for my route north into Ethiopia we bid Karl, Karen, Philip, Judy and their kids farewell and stop at the internet café in Kabale before heading to Rubuguri. The rocky road which snakes around endless bends to the north of the lake is breathtaking and pretty epic to drive!

The locals are very friendly here but far too often their waving turns into a begging hand greeting us with ‘Give me money!’ or just ‘Money!’. In contrast to that it’s always refreshing to see some kids jumping, screaming and dancing wildly at the sight of us ‘mzungus’! Some smaller kids are more fearful though, waving from far and then as we approach they get scared running away to hide, two of them disappeared altogether in a concrete drainpipe next to the road!

It takes us about 2 ½ hours from Kabale to Kisoro where we pay for our gorilla tracking receive the permits. From there we drive another 70 km to the small village Rubuguri where one can camp at the ‘Rubuguri Cultural Center’. On our arrival, there are crowds of people gathered everywhere, who had met to vote for a new head of the community as we find out later. We park Anse on a spot just outside the center, a wooden structure on stilts with a porch at treetop height and a makeshift wooden gate gets put up quickly to give us a bit more privacy from the village. We park off at the porch for drinks and wait for the food we ordered while being interrogated by some local teacher. We ordered a whole roasted chicken and chips, but when Kirsty went to the lady’s (a long drop), she still saw the chicken next to the kitchen alive with its feet tied together! So it took maybe 3 hours …but when we finally get the roasted chicken around 9 pm we for sure know - at least it has been freshly prepared!!! By that time and along with still having the picture of the life chicken in her mind, Kirsty doesn’t feel like eating it anymore, so I am left with chomping away the whole chicken all by myself!

• Thursday, 21^st of August, Rubuguri to Muko Campsite on Lake Bunyoni

We leave early to be on time at 8 am at the gorilla tracking site at Rushaga, only to be left waiting another 1 ½ hours for another two visitors who never arrive because they eventually cancel! Anyway, despite the delay we are happy to have the gorillas just for ourselves! By our guide we get kitted with gum boots and walking sticks (both definitely the most useful gear for the terrain as we experienced later!) and get told about the do’s and don’ts when being with the gorillas. One group of trackers has already left before us and until we hear the first sounds of the gorillas it takes us roughly 2 ½ hours walk through the most amazing and impenetrable jungle I have so far experienced, through streams, undergrowth, mud and deep water filled elephant footprints with tadpoles swimming in them! We get rewarded with sighting about 10 gorillas, two of which are impressive and rather intimidating silverbacks. After a few mock attacks the group feels more relaxed, even though the silverbacks make themselves pretty scarce. Instead we get to see a whole acrobatics performance by a cute little baby gorilla, performing for us on a single branch a few meters away and later on two young brothers put up a show in another bush right in front of us. What an awesome experience to see these amazing creatures! After spending the maximum time of an hour with them, it’s unfortunately time again to head back, this time at a faster pace as the heavens open their gates!

We change into dry clothes and head off quickly to get to Lake Bunyonyi before dark. In the first village we pass after the tracking camp, we get waved down by a bunch of local guys selling wooden gorilla statues and since they are really well made we buy a whole lot of them. As we pay the local boy, he says that his community would like to dance for us. We react a bit reluctantly, as we still have to tackle the drive to the lake in this rainy weather and it’s already late. Before we know it, all the kids of the village are on their feet, clapping, stomping in the beat of the drum and making the wet ground tremble, singing welcoming songs and dancing in well rehearsed formations. Kirsty and I get out of the car and just stand there in awe, overwhelmed by the dancers’ compassion, rhythm and joy.

Invigorated by this truly moving experience, we drive on to the northern part of Lake Bunyonyi where we pitch tent and have dinner at Muko Camp.

• Friday, 22^nd of August, Muko Campsite to Lake Bunyonyi Overland Campsite

After some chapattis and a Spanish omelet for breakfast we head back to the Lake Bunyonyi Overland Campsite and spend the rest of the day at the camp with errands and chilling. Strangely enough, being parked at an elephant statue right at the tip of the shoreline, we find our ‘privacy’ constantly invaded by visitors admiring the statue right in front of our car (the elephant’s butt facing us!) and taking photos of it. We figure, the management must insist on people checking out the elephant attraction as part of their marketing!

We finally manage to feed Priscilla (our GPS) with updated software that should stop her from freezing and upload the latest version of t4a maps.

• Saturday, 23^rd of August, Lake Bunyonyi

We hire a local mukoro (dugout canoe) and enjoy the tranquility of Lake Bunyonyi paddling to a nearby island. We got our hands full steering it especially in the oncoming wind, but luckily we get spared from too many so called ‘mzungu corkscrews’ and manage to get there without etching too many loops into the lake. That paddling definitely helped to work up and appetite and we walk to the friendly (definitely friendlier staff than at our camp, but the camp unfortunately doesn’t have car access to the lake shore to pitch our tent) Calabash Camp where we once again have two of their yummy pizzas, though not before enjoying a swim in the lake to pass the long wait.

Heading north from Tanzania to Kenya

• Saturday, 26^th of July, Sunrise Beach

I drive to the airport, because today is not only Kirsty’s arrival but also my relative Annegret who will spend a couple of weeks in Tanzania with her church choir from Göttingen. It is great to see her, although her group leaves straight away for Bagamoyo and we unfortunately only get to spend half an hour at the arrivals hall.

After being stuck in Dar traffic jam for a while and doing a major grocery shopping as preparation for our onward travels, I make my way back to the airport to pick up Kirsty. We spend the next 4 nights at my favorite campsite at Sunrise Beach. The first day doesn’t turn out so favorite though with a pretty noisy party being held there for 400 staff of the Aga Khan hospital! We meet a Swiss couple with their neatly kitted out Toyota Land Cruiser and an interesting rooftop tent fitted by www.off-road-boehlen.ch My cell phone disappears somehow L

• Wednesday, 30^th of July, Sunrise Beach to Snake Park past Arusha

We head into Dar, change money and to fill up ever thirsty Anse. The rest of the day we spent driving to the run down Snake Park Camp past Arusha.

• Thursday, 31^st of July, Arusha to Lake Natron

Kirsty and I decide to skip the crazy expensive Ngorongoro/Serengeti Parks and rather do our own ‘Northern Circuit’! From MtoWaMbu we take the gravel road which winds its way north around the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the Engaruka where we go on a very informative walk around the Engaruka Ruins with a knowledgeable local guide pointing out house foundations, irrigation canals and graves made of piles of rock to us.

Engaruka not only strikes us for the dustiest place we have so far experienced, but also for being as genuinely Masai as it can get! Everybody is dressed in their traditional red, purple or blue drapes, ornately decorated with beaded bracelets, necklaces and earrings and all men carrying the iconic stick and wearing a sheaved machete on their belt.

In the shadow of the impressive (only a few months ago) active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai we carry on over rocky old lava streams to Lake Natron Camp which is run by Jens and Sandra, a German couple from Bielefeld (30 km from my hometown!)

• Friday, 1^st of August, Lake Natron

We wake up with an annoying surprise – a flat tire! A sharp rock went right through the metal mesh! After changing it, a friendly safari vehicle driver and I manage to mend it with a plug.

Exploring Lake Natron is a fun and pretty surreal experience! Barefoot we walk on the salty crust, often breaking through it and ending up in the blackest, stickiest (and smelly) mud one can imagine! It’s amazing watching the huge flocks of flamingos so closely, sifting the water for algae with their bent beaks.

After hearing that the active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai is climbable, I am really keen to do it and organize a local guide in the evening. The climb starts at midnight and after collecting our local guide from the village, Jens gives us a lift on the hectic road to as close as one can drive towards the base of the mountain (which is still almost an hours walk away).

• Saturday, 2^nd of August, volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai, Lake Natron

It is pitch dark and in the distance we can see the dim beams of torches from another group. My guide Lemolo initially leads the way with a pleasantly slow pace, resting every half hour or so. With vision only limited to our torch lights, I can hardly grasp what awaits me! Only at times during a rest when we switch both our torches off and as my eyes gradually adapt to the darkness, this black monstrous cone slowly appears, towering right in front of me - rather intimidating! Slowly we climb up a ridge and every now and then when Lemolo’s beam moves around to look for landmarks, shadows of deep crevasses gape to the left and right of us. As we progress, the loose ashes, which feel like coarse grey sand form a rough crust (compacted over time by nature’s elements) which in places is strong enough to carry our body weight, but often enough it crumples underneath our steps exposing the loose ash which makes for strenuous walking.

Further into the walk I get more and more frustrated with my guide as he stops almost every 5 minutes, grasping for air and continuously interrupting my steady pace. He also slips often due to his bad shoes which to my surprise are not even hiking boots! My thoughts about what would happen if he was loosing grip and sliding downhill into me made me decide to overtake him and keep up a constant pace, following the clearly visible footsteps of the group ahead of us. In my mind I hope that we can catch up to them, but at the same time I don’t want to distance myself to far from my guide and stop every half an hour or so to let him catch up to me.

When I was resting at one of those stops, wedging myself into the path not to slide downwards, I could see Lemolo’s beam way below me, sometimes resting, sometimes moving around. I take a few sips to drink and get out some energy bars out of my backpack (thereby opening the waist strap on which my digital camera pouch is attached), and - next minute I don’t see Lemolo’s beam anymore, just darkness below me! ‘He must be resting with his light off’ I am thinking and wait a while. A few minutes pass, I whistle. Darkness. I whistle again. No response. I get worried! I shout his name about five times. Again no response, only the darkness swallowing my sound. I am really worried now and fearing something could have happened! Without being able to move much around in my wedged in position, I quickly shove all my goodies back into my backpack with one hand and quickly close my waist strap agai – FUUUUUCK!!! There goes my camera, slipped off the strap and rolling down the mountain at great speed, disappearing into the darkness out of reach of my headlamp’s beam. Damn it stupid me!!! How could I be that foolish??? Whatever! I can’t care less about the camera right now. I worry a lot more about my guide! What happened to him???

I descend about 100 meters and see Lemolo just sitting there with the back towards me, sleeping! After I call him three times he suddenly wakes up out of his snooze. I ask him if he’s ok, if he needs anything but he says he’s fine and it’s just his shoes that are keeping him back. I think it’s probably the couple of beers he had last night… I offer him my spare head lamp so that he doesn’t need to keep his torch in his hand and can rather use it for getting a better grip, but he doesn’t want it. We rest for a while and then head up again. Lemolo again falls behind and I get really annoyed. I got up at a crazy hour to be on the top of the mountain by sunrise and here I am, having to watch out for my ill-equipped, hung over guide who supposed to lead my way!

I carry on ascending slowly at my own pace, sometimes walking on all fours because of the slope getting gradually steeper, I am guessing about 45 degrees. Thank god this compacted ash is as rough as grid 0 sandpaper. At least it gives good traction! I can feel the altitude and thinner air creeping in, even though the volcano is just less than 3000 m. Every step is an effort and I rest often. Through the gap between two huge rocks which looks like the top…but it’s not! The scariest part is still to come: The last 300 meters up to the crater rim from here, across a steep slope on a hard crystallized white crust and nothing else to grip or hold onto. Weird sulphurous smell, patches of hot air, every now and then rumbling deep down, I am shitting myself!

As I come around the bend, now again on safer ground, I see the other hikers and finally join them on top of the rim after a 6 hour ascent! From the rim one can look into the huge crater which is so deep that one cannot see the bottom of it. The most unreal thing is experiencing the noises that are coming deep down there out of that hole! Rumbling, trembling, exploding, bursting, gases streaming out and this indescribably weird smell! We walk around the rim a bit to get a different perspective and take in the incredible view. It’s cold up there and after I let one of the French hikers take a photo of me, we slowly make our way down again. At the two big rocks we pick up Lemolo who was fine and had just parked off there without joining us at the top. On the 4 ½ hour descent all of us look everywhere for my camera, without avail!

I get a lift back to the campsite with the French group and after negotiating a discount with the villagers for the poor service (turns out that Lemolo wasn’t even an official guide!) Kirsty and I go for a fantastic walk to a waterfall (this time with an awesome official guide!).

• Sunday, 3^rd of August, Lake Natron in Tanzania to Nairobi in Kenya

We leave Lake Natron and drive 124 km eastwards on a track that traverses some of the dustiest terrain I’ve ever experienced (we had been warned!) hitting the tar road just north of Longido, 25 km short of the Kenyan border. The border crossing is fairly straight forward (apart from the customs officer commenting on my dusty shirt and asking me if at least my underwear was clean!) and we push on to the Jungle Junction in Nairobi. A hot shower and a pleasant meal at a good Thai restaurant in the neighborhood compensates for a long day’s drive.

• Monday, 4^th of August, Nairobi to Hells Gate NP

After washing, dusting and cleaning Anse from the powdery dust, we head off, hit a local internet café and then go shopping at Nakumat shopping center which truly amazes us by the huge choice it offers! Get a new camera, a new cell phone (sigh!), do some grocery shopping, and then head to a place Chris from the Jungle Junction was recommending where we can find another gas cooker top. The third one and it will hopefully last!

After our shopping spree we finally make tracks and reach Hells Gate NP situated south of Lake Naivasha just after 6 pm (luckily gates are open until 7 pm). We spend the night at the beautiful Endachata campsite on top of a rocky ridge overlooking the valley.

• Tuesday, 5^th of August, Hells Gate NP to Lake Naivasha

We game drive around the east side of the park which boasts a lot of antelope, gazelle, warthog and Burchell’s zebra and then explore the Lower Gorge with the help of a local guide who leads us over several rocky obstacles through the narrow chasm past some incredibly hot springs (one of them so hot that we saw somebody had boiled an egg in it!)

Apart from the viewpoint overlooking Lake Naivasha, the west side of the park was a bit disappointing for us, mainly because of the presence of two geothermal power stations which were built to exploit the hot steam (304 degrees Cesius) occurring in this area 3km under the surface. As impressive and forward thinking the utilization of alternative energy might be, we just think that these industrial plants and hundreds of kilometers of gas pipelines enmeshing the natural environment and suffocating its simple beauty should not be part of a National Park! After also not spotting any buffalos on the so called buffalo loop, we are good to leave the park and spend the night at the nearby Carnelly camp on the shores of Lake Naivasha after a wholesome meal at the camp’s recommendable restaurant.

• Wednesday, 6^th of August, Lake Naivasha to Masai Mara

We leave early and drive to the Masai Mara NP, entering through the Sekenani Gate via the bad roads of Narok. After getting a map at Keekorok Lodge we head west to the South Bridge of the Mara River. The migration of wildebeest is still happening and there are still big herds of them around but the biggest river crossings are mostly over, as we can see by heaps of dead wildebeest bodies which have been washed down the Mara River and piled up on rocks or floating in eddies where vultures and marabou storks are already waiting for their annual feast. After passing the Mara Bridge we are lucky enough to observe a pride of lion for a long time. We watch how they get up from their resting spot, drink at a stream crossing and can even see through our binoculars how they try to (unfortunately unsuccessfully) plan an ambush at one of the wildebeests standing unwary grazing away from its herd for a while.

We overnight in the bushy public campsite of Serena Lodge, where we meet an overlander couple from South Africa.

• Thursday, 7^th of August, South Bridge Camp Site, Masai Mara

This morning we are fortunate enough to be only a few meters away from 12 hyenas devouring a wildebeest which must have been killed only moments before we got there. It’s an at the same time primal, astounding and disgusting sight with the hyenas ripping out bloody flesh out of an opening in the skin, nibbling on the eyes and gnawing on the wildebeest’s bones while fiercely competing for the best position amongst each other. Later on we go past the carcass again, now it’s a different picture: Only one of the hyenas is still occasionally chewing on it, but gets distracted and annoyed with more and more vultures flying in to pick their share. Initially the hyena tries to chase after some of the unwanted intruders but being outnumbered it eventually looses the battle and another rivalry between the vultures begins. The funniest character of the scene is a marabou stork that just stands there amongst the vultures observing. Every now and then he sees an opportunity and with a smart, swift strike with his enormous beak he snatches a piece of meat from a vulture and strides away quickly to save it from the pursuing crowd.

Later on during the morning we see a male lion laze in the sun and further on we drive again through herds and herds of wildebeest. We heard that for watching the river crossings one supposed to have a better view from the eastern banks of the Mara River, so we exit the park at the Oloololo Gate, cross the north bridge of the Mara River and head south east on a stretch of real bad dirt road through some villages and then south towards the Musiara Gate. Thank god for Priscilla (our GPS)! Because finding our own way in the maze of tracks without her would have been quite a time nerve wrecking task! Then the Musiara Gate: Not sure if we missed it or if it doesn’t exist… for us it will always remain a mysterious spot on the map!

Not much luck with river crossings though. We speak to another couple at a potential crossing spot: They’ve waited there for two hours and seen wildebeest approaching the river, but when the leading animals got aware of crocodiles (and there were some incredibly huge exemplars waiting on the riverbanks there, some at the width of a hippo!) they withdrew again…

We have more luck with other creatures though… giraffe, waterbuck, zebra, elephant, a wandering hippo and very close a cheetah! Finding the crossing of the Talek River to go back south proves to be a bit of a challenge, but eventually with directions from one of the lodge’s staff we make it back to the south bridge of the Mara River and stay there for the night at their public campsite.

• Friday, 8^th of August, Masai Mara to Kisumu

This is our last morning at the Masai Mara and we head north again. Being initially appalled by the off-road driving habits of every tour operator’s game drive vehicles, we feel like fools staying on the designated roads and now sadly also join the crowds parked around any attraction way off the road…bad but rewarding! This way we get to see the same pride of lion at a different spot and find a hyena’s den with two fluffy hyena cups peeping out! We also get to check on ‘our’ wildebeest carcass again, which is now completely dissected and hollowed out, with vultures still picking on it.

Driving along the Mara River again, we hope to witness a wildebeest crossing, but unfortunately no luck!

We leave the park through the Oloololo Gate, head west to Lolgorien and then north via Kilgoris and Kisii to Kisumu on surprisingly good roads. Kisumu’s run down beach resort on Lake Victoria in an industrial area right next to the local pipeline oil depot is the only camping option and we head straight for the bar to numb our nature-spoiled senses! After a few beers the surroundings don’t seem so bad anymore and now it’s even sinking in that all that marching that’s happening on the tiny blurred TV screen is part of the Olympic Games opening ceremony!