Day 2 - Mount Kenya

On our way to the first campsite on the foot of Mount Kenya (the second largest mountain in Africa), we could all of a sudden feel and hear a large piece of metal hit our truck from below, after which it seemed to roll down the hill under us. Turned out that one of the leaf springs was broken, but nothing serious. We could continue our journey pole pole (slowly slowly) and after arrival at the campsite the truck driver would fix the problem. Twenty-two white people in a big truck do attract quite some attention, especially in the less urban parts of Africa, so another Swahili word that we quickly learned was jambo, which was used by many waiving kids that greeted us.

At the campsite we had to put up our tents for the first time. Before leaving, Willem and I figured it was a good thing that he did not join me on this trip, because we have a history of doing many things well together, but working together is not one of them. It turned out however that the task of putting up these tents would have been easy enough for the two of us to complete. And as it was a bit strenuous it would even have been easier together, but luckily there were more ‘singles’ in the group, so we would help each other out.

After our tents were taken care of, we took a walk on the grounds surrounding the campsite. “Is that cool?” I hear you think. Well, yes it is! In the truck I already noticed that this area was much greener than I had expected in Kenya, which made this a nice place for a walk. And although elephants were not around this time of year, we did see many monkeys, including baboons and colobus monkeys. We also ran into a boy herding cows and goats in the area.

Diner was prepared by our cook. To prevent intestinal problems we were initiated in the no-water-wasting-hand-washing-ritual, a routine involving soap and Dettol that we would follow for every meal. A similar routine was also followed for the dishes afterwards. As towels are breeding grounds for germs we would not use them, instead wapper (flutter) routines would be followed.

During the diner around the camp fire, I talked to our truck driver and asked him whether he was married or had children. He said he did not, mostly because it was difficult to find someone since he is on the road most of the year. I was wondering whether he intended to do this work for a while to earn some money and then settle down, but when I asked him about his plans for the future, I got a blank stare, which made me realize that in the land of hakuna matata plans for the future are generally not made that far ahead. When I later told him that at the age of 32 I am already saving money for retirement, I got laughed at in the face (and who can blame him?!).

After all this, our first night in the tents began and I can’t say that it was a big success. Either my feet were hitting the side of the tent or my head was. This I solved in subsequent nights by sleeping in my tent diagonally, which was again possible since it was just me in that tent. Given the size, I really wonder how couples managed to fit in a single tent with two people and two people’s luggage. I mean, this year I was (again) one of the people with the least amount of luggage, but after having to take out even one item from my back pack (which would inevitably always be at the bottom), it would not have been possible to fit another camping mat in the tent, let alone another person to go on the mat and his luggage.

As it was relatively cold that night, laying under my sleeping bag was not warm enough, so I had to crawl in the thing and that’s when I remembered why I already hated sleeping bags when I was a kid. Modern sleeping bags are even narrower than the old ones that I remembered, essentially prohibiting all movement. Some people say “you can sleep when you’re dead”, and I disagree. I’d like to do my fair share of sleeping before dying, but when it comes to laying completely still, I’d probably have to wait till I’m dead, because I just can’t do it. So after the first night in my brand new sleeping bag, I had already torn parts of the inner lining. Luckily, however, I did not feel alone through all of this as the proximity of some of my fellow travel companions because loudly clear through the unbelievable volume of their snoring. Initially I thought these people were making a joke, as such volume seemed to be quite incredible to me, but if it was a joke, they kept it up for way too long.