Day 3 - Samburu NP
Door: Elke
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Elke
14 Oktober 2013 | Kenia, Samburu
After getting up, first thing we had to do was break down and neatly pack our tents. This was again not difficult, but it was strenuous, which is something I’m not a big fan of at 6 in the morning. It was nice to see however that the top of mount Kenya was out of the clouds and clearly visible this morning.
Our first stop of the day was at the equator. For a small fee, a guy showed how water in a funnel swirls clockwise or counter clockwise when you move 20 meters or further away from the equator, while it does not swirl at all on the equator. I was wondering what would happen to the water in the funnel if you walked from one side to the other, but we did not get to see that and later on in the bus some people seemed to think it’s all hokum anyway and that the guy made the water seem to swirl differently by putting his finger in the water or something like that. Of course I googled this phenomenon after returning home and some websites do indeed seem to suggest that the Coriolis effect is too small to affect flushing toilets, so I assume funnels are likely unaffected as well.
Like many touristic places, there were plenty of shops with souvenirs and shop keepers to make you aware of this. Also, like many places, these shops were arranged in cooperations or they at least had mutual agreements that each bus with tourists will be invited to a different store, to avoid harassment of tourists. I do have to say that I felt some pressure to look and buy, but it was indeed by far not as bad as it could have been with 30 different shopkeepers requesting your attention. Of course bargaining is also part of the game in these stores, which is not one of the things that I like, or that I’m good at. Due to the aforementioned pressure I did however buy something and when my first counter-offer for the price was accepted immediately and I even got an additional ‘present’ it became clear that I failed miserably. I thought that negotiating 10% to 20% off the prices would be reasonable, but I found out towards the end of the trip, that paying 10% to 20% of the initial price would in many cases still be quite enough.
During our time at the equator the cook had taken a boda boda to the supermarket. We followed him there in the truck. Some fellow group members initiated me in the secrets of personal hygiene while camping in the jungle, informing me that baby wipes come in quite handy when showers are lacking. So I was roaming the supermarket for baby wipes earlier in my life than I expected.
Next we visited a Samburu village. Our tour guide knew this village of out-casted women, who were for instance abused by their husband and not willing to accept that any longer or had gotten pregnant before marriage by a man that was not willing to take responsibility for it. Neither of this is acceptable in Samburu culture and therefore these women were seeking refuge with each other. We were welcomed by these women in traditional dress with traditional songs and given a tour in their village, the school, their houses and of course the souvenir shops (and yes I got a ‘present’ again). When I saw a mother carrying her baby on her back I went to talk to her and asked her if I could take a picture, because I have a friend that it also carrying her baby like that. I guess she did not speak English very well, because before I knew it, she handed me her baby.
There was also a small bar in this village overlooking a river. It was quite hot there, but also extremely beautiful. You could see small tornados of sand form over the plains and despite the wildlife in the river, kids were bathing or letting their cattle drink there. This is where we enjoyed a nice lunch that our cook had prepared.
We continued with a game drive in the Samburu NP. We started off with a few more common animals, but we also saw the endangered Grévy’s zebra, which has very narrow stripes and the reticulated giraffe which is unique to this area. Moreover we saw (and smelled) a giraffe carcass that was being devoured by three different types of vultures and marabu’s. A very interesting spectacle of incoming and fighting birds that we watched for several minutes.
We made camp on a sandy river bank in the Samburu park. “Is that cool?” Honestly… I don’t know. We had to hire two full-time ‘monkey chasers’, because without them our cook would not be able to prepare meals and we would probably not be able to enjoy them. I was however more worried about the crocodiles and hippo’s in the river, and lions and other predators on land. What worried me most was not understanding. I cannot understand how tourists are told to absolutely never leave their vehicles in these parks, yet when the truck turns onto a river bank it’s okay to get out and make camp. Moreover, the ‘toilets’ (I use this term loosely here) were located right next to some bushes that seemed absolutely perfect for ambushing any kind of prey.
To make things more confusing for me, it seemed to be okay to sit around the campfire and eat there during the evening, however we were told that it is absolutely irresponsible to have any food in your tent or to get out of our tents during the night. As this would of course be a problem in case nature was calling during the nightly hours, our guide quite graphically demonstrated how to cut off the top of a plastic water bottle and how to use this for natures call (and how to use two bottles in case the washing-your-hands-routine and the one-coke-a-day had turned out to be insufficient to protect our sensitive bowels). All I can say is I’m incredibly thankful for not having to have used this technique personally, although after visiting the ‘toilet’, ‘the bottle’ did seem a very attractive alternative.
That night I was thinking about short newspaper articles about tourists getting killed by hungry crocodiles / territorial hippo’s / stampeding elephants / depressed lions while camping on a river bank in a wild-life reserve in Africa. And about how if I would read this, I would think that these people would have gotten it coming, for being stupid enough to go camping in such places. Luckily, that night we were not visited by any animals during the night, although the combination of pitch darkness, strong nightly winds and malerone, yielded some interesting hallucinations that suggested otherwise.
Our first stop of the day was at the equator. For a small fee, a guy showed how water in a funnel swirls clockwise or counter clockwise when you move 20 meters or further away from the equator, while it does not swirl at all on the equator. I was wondering what would happen to the water in the funnel if you walked from one side to the other, but we did not get to see that and later on in the bus some people seemed to think it’s all hokum anyway and that the guy made the water seem to swirl differently by putting his finger in the water or something like that. Of course I googled this phenomenon after returning home and some websites do indeed seem to suggest that the Coriolis effect is too small to affect flushing toilets, so I assume funnels are likely unaffected as well.
Like many touristic places, there were plenty of shops with souvenirs and shop keepers to make you aware of this. Also, like many places, these shops were arranged in cooperations or they at least had mutual agreements that each bus with tourists will be invited to a different store, to avoid harassment of tourists. I do have to say that I felt some pressure to look and buy, but it was indeed by far not as bad as it could have been with 30 different shopkeepers requesting your attention. Of course bargaining is also part of the game in these stores, which is not one of the things that I like, or that I’m good at. Due to the aforementioned pressure I did however buy something and when my first counter-offer for the price was accepted immediately and I even got an additional ‘present’ it became clear that I failed miserably. I thought that negotiating 10% to 20% off the prices would be reasonable, but I found out towards the end of the trip, that paying 10% to 20% of the initial price would in many cases still be quite enough.
During our time at the equator the cook had taken a boda boda to the supermarket. We followed him there in the truck. Some fellow group members initiated me in the secrets of personal hygiene while camping in the jungle, informing me that baby wipes come in quite handy when showers are lacking. So I was roaming the supermarket for baby wipes earlier in my life than I expected.
Next we visited a Samburu village. Our tour guide knew this village of out-casted women, who were for instance abused by their husband and not willing to accept that any longer or had gotten pregnant before marriage by a man that was not willing to take responsibility for it. Neither of this is acceptable in Samburu culture and therefore these women were seeking refuge with each other. We were welcomed by these women in traditional dress with traditional songs and given a tour in their village, the school, their houses and of course the souvenir shops (and yes I got a ‘present’ again). When I saw a mother carrying her baby on her back I went to talk to her and asked her if I could take a picture, because I have a friend that it also carrying her baby like that. I guess she did not speak English very well, because before I knew it, she handed me her baby.
There was also a small bar in this village overlooking a river. It was quite hot there, but also extremely beautiful. You could see small tornados of sand form over the plains and despite the wildlife in the river, kids were bathing or letting their cattle drink there. This is where we enjoyed a nice lunch that our cook had prepared.
We continued with a game drive in the Samburu NP. We started off with a few more common animals, but we also saw the endangered Grévy’s zebra, which has very narrow stripes and the reticulated giraffe which is unique to this area. Moreover we saw (and smelled) a giraffe carcass that was being devoured by three different types of vultures and marabu’s. A very interesting spectacle of incoming and fighting birds that we watched for several minutes.
We made camp on a sandy river bank in the Samburu park. “Is that cool?” Honestly… I don’t know. We had to hire two full-time ‘monkey chasers’, because without them our cook would not be able to prepare meals and we would probably not be able to enjoy them. I was however more worried about the crocodiles and hippo’s in the river, and lions and other predators on land. What worried me most was not understanding. I cannot understand how tourists are told to absolutely never leave their vehicles in these parks, yet when the truck turns onto a river bank it’s okay to get out and make camp. Moreover, the ‘toilets’ (I use this term loosely here) were located right next to some bushes that seemed absolutely perfect for ambushing any kind of prey.
To make things more confusing for me, it seemed to be okay to sit around the campfire and eat there during the evening, however we were told that it is absolutely irresponsible to have any food in your tent or to get out of our tents during the night. As this would of course be a problem in case nature was calling during the nightly hours, our guide quite graphically demonstrated how to cut off the top of a plastic water bottle and how to use this for natures call (and how to use two bottles in case the washing-your-hands-routine and the one-coke-a-day had turned out to be insufficient to protect our sensitive bowels). All I can say is I’m incredibly thankful for not having to have used this technique personally, although after visiting the ‘toilet’, ‘the bottle’ did seem a very attractive alternative.
That night I was thinking about short newspaper articles about tourists getting killed by hungry crocodiles / territorial hippo’s / stampeding elephants / depressed lions while camping on a river bank in a wild-life reserve in Africa. And about how if I would read this, I would think that these people would have gotten it coming, for being stupid enough to go camping in such places. Luckily, that night we were not visited by any animals during the night, although the combination of pitch darkness, strong nightly winds and malerone, yielded some interesting hallucinations that suggested otherwise.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
