SAFY Groundbreaking Event

A great day for SAFY.

Very very busy time

Since arriving in Kampala I have been kept VERY busy by a bunch of incredible young people at SAFY. Blogging will be delayed for a while, I guess, but will be back again in the new year for sure. In the meantime, I wish every one a happy festive season and a great party for New Year. Take care and be nice. Don't drink and drive! :-)

This is what has been happening… Plus an apology

Quite a few things have happened since the last blog where I was stuck at Kembu Campsite waiting for new shocks for the Landrover and had no access to the internet. I’ve finally read emails and one of the things I realised was that while I don’t hear from a soul while I travel, it doesn’t mean that things aren’t going on all the across the oceans in various directions. In the USA my friend from high school has given birth to a baby boy. My Mexican friend in Oz is pregnant with her second baby. My brother took his wife on holiday to Zanzibar and my cousin Jono got engaged to a pretty blonde girl which has delighted my Aunt in Tasmania. And my parents, in my home town, have proven to be the most reliable support team you could imagine.

Back at my old company in London some of the people there were going to have a fund raising day for Stand Up For Africa (SUFA) but it all went pear-shaped when someone or people read my blog and found a comment posted when I resigned along the lines of: I was pleased to have the left the wierdos. This caused great offence and the worst bit was that they complained to the charity.

It’s important that I clarify a few points: Firstly, these are my comments and have no reflection on the charity at all. The nature of blogs is that they are personal diaries for individuals, available to any and everybody to use and express themselves freely through them. Secondly, there were only a little handful of people that I was pleased to see the back of. Most of my ex-colleagues are okay people and I apologise if any of them mistakenly thought I was referring to them. As for the handful, I don’t think that weirdo adequately describes these people. A simple demonstration would be that these people would rather spend their working day reading a personal blogsite and then creating as much trouble as possible… all during work hours using company resources. The point is I’m a grown woman and can take quite a lot of shit so this really is of no consequence to me. By cancelling the charity day, the people they are picking on are vulnerable kids between the age of 2 and 24, some who live on the streets or find themselves in desperate situations, and any little bit of funding will go a long way to improve their lives and give them the opportunity to get access to help and education. I won’t use any words to describe them but I leave my readers to make their own minds up.

In the meantime, the small scale charity, Stand Up For Africa was still able to raise the money to send to Safe Alternative for Youth (SAFY) here in Kampala and on Saturday 11th December 2006 the founders of the NGO proudly held a ground breaking celebration. A little tree was planted and I’m sure in years to come I’ll come back to see a busy centre and kids enjoying the shade of this tree. I was delighted to hear that off the back of the fund raising that enabled the building of the centre, SAFY has received more sponsorship that will help them over the next two years to run HIV education programmes and offer training. Within the next few weeks the first grading will take place and foundations will be laid – and I can’t help feeling overwhelmed that my little effort, with SUFA’s help, has made an impact on so many young people’s lives.

Raining cats, dogs and whole elephants

We have this joke between us now where we point outside and say in an animated way, “Look, it’s Kenya.” But who would have thought that we would be freezing our butts off, sitting huddled around a fire drinking Tusker beer and playing cards while we listen to rain bucket down and eighties music.
Some times Martin will say with wide excited eyes, “Hey, it’s raining out there.”
“Yes, my gosh it is. And also here.” I reply as I point to another puddle forming on the floor from a dripping hole in the bar’s roof.
If there was a good place to be stuck for a few days in the rain, Kembu Camp really is a great spot.

Very little seems to have happened since we left Nairobi and the days are all merging and blurring together. Things have got so slow that I allocate one little task to each day. Most of the time this menial task can take up the bulk of the day and we can still find ourselves annoyed that we spent those few dry hours in the bank and not lazing in the sun. I don’t think I have ever in my life taken it so easy. We have gone from waking at dawn and travelling so hard till sunset that we collapse utterly exhausted by eight in the evening – to waking anytime the rain stops and going back to snooze while it rains a bit more. The boys play ping-pong while I read Out of Africa by Karen Blixen. I never imagined I could be SO lazy and laid back.

This time of relaxation has allowed me to reflect on this trip and, I must admit, it is one heck of a trip. I have time to think of all the places we have seen and all the people we have met… it’s an extraordinary trip and, with a smile, this is my life.

19 November: Kenya – Nairobi and Nakuru

Jungle Junction: in Livingston suburb of Nairobi near the Junction Shopping Centre on Ngong road. This little urban haven includes a workshop for motorbikes and at very reasonable rates. Contact: Chris or Diana.

We finally left Jungle Junction one and a half days later than we intended. Fortunately when we reached Nakuru National Park we had a small break in the rain so we were actually able to drive around in the Landrover and see some animals. The most spectacular sight for me was the massive flock of flamingos that turned the surface of the lake pink to match the pink sunset clouds. These birds are so pretty and yet appear so precarious on their long, skinny legs. There are many decomposing bodies of birds at the shore of the lake that lead me to believe their lives are as delicate and uncertain as those stick legs.

We also saw white and black rhino, water buffalo, giraffe, waterbuck, impala, zebra… and the list goes on. (See the photo galleries.)

There are monkeys that hang about the campsite. They are as naughty as heck and a real nuisance – but I found them extremely funny. We were camping at the campsite nearest to the main gate as motorbikes are not allowed to ride through the park (for many good reasons – a pride of tree-climbing lions being one reason good enough for me). In any case, I guess the bikes were something unusual and the monkeys took a special interest in them. We had secured our belongings in roll-bags and under our packsafes to keep little monkey fingers from getting hold of things. A trio of daring juvenile monkeys came over to the bike to watch me pack things. I still have a very bedraggled Bird of Paradise on my instrument panel and recently added a brightly coloured plastic rose. One cheeky monkey jumped onto my wing mirror and then watched me carefully to see when my eyes were not on him at which point his little black hand ventured down to try to pluck the rose. I’d say in my best adult voice, “Nooo!” and the little hand would dart back. His little eyebrows went up and down as he watched me and then again the little hand would venture down. Eventually I shooed him off and put the rose safely away. In the meantime two his friends clambered onto Paul’s boots which were hanging off the back of the bike and were swinging about and putting their velvety black faces inside the boots. That must have been a shock even for a monkey! When we got back from our safari trip I found my belongings had been played on and were all a bit out of place. I don’t know if it was because my tank bag fell off and frightened the buggers but I found a single poo left on it for me and the poor Bird of Paradise looked pathetic from having been yanked in an attempt to pull it off.

Kembu Camp: about 20 km from Nakuru off the A104. Look for the chameleon shaped sign. Contact: Andrew.

We arrived at Kembu Camp almost a week ago and intended to stay for one night. One night turned into two because it was sunny and we could enjoy a small break from the rain. Two became three because there seemed to be no rush and Paul and I fitted new B-L-I-N-G lights to our bikes. The spots we’d fitted in Egypt had been smashed off on the tough roads in Ethiopia. By the fourth day we packed up and were ready to leave by mid morning. But it was not to be! Both our bike batteries were flat. Mine charged but Paul’s was dead as dead can be. This might have something to do with the big spotlights but I haven’t tried using them again to find out. We made it onto the tarmac when I called Rickard to tell him Paul’s bike was utterly dead and we were going no where. We arranged to ride back to Kembu where I took my battery out to put into Paul’s bike and the guys realised that their Landrover’s brand new shock had completely broken. By noon we had Paul’s bike back at Kembu and all four of us sat about wondering how it happened that we managed to cross the worst roads in Africa but 400 km after having serviced all our vehicles, we had all pretty much broken down all at once.

One good thing came out of the Landrover finally having a mechanical problem. Martin and Rickard, the laid-back Swedish bachelors, finally took the plastic wrapping off their tool kit. And AND (yes AND) Martin took the broken shock off, took a lift on the back of my bike (another first) to a mechanic shop and then put the shock back on! This was his first, very first, dabbling with mechanics. I could see he was very proud of himself. It made me smile how these two sweet truck drivers decided to “see if they could drive across Africa” and three months later, never having seen a dirt road before or changed a tyre before, drove across some of Africa’s toughest terrain. I can’t tell you how often they take things out of the car still in the wrapping and say, “Let’s see how this works.”

It’s a good place to have broken down. We were able to replace our bike batteries with ones that are almost right but at least working. The next few days we just waited for the replacement shocks to reach Nakuru. God willing, today might be the day. I mean, the sun is shining… so anything could happen, or not as the case may be.

It has rained every day for the past two weeks. Occasionally the sun comes out and things dry fairly quickly only to be wet again a few hours later. Kembu Camp has had the most rain in 40 years. Up in northern Kenya that dreaded Moyale to Marsabit road is completely impassable for any sort of vehicle. The day before we took the horror truck ride two bikes had turned around unable to pass. We snuck through the following day and since then the road has been rained out completely. It’s just luck for sure as the rainy season should have been over by November and we know of people who have been stuck either side or taken alternative routes by now.

With all the waiting I’ve taken an interest in bird watching. For me, this is a peculiar pass-time as I don’t have the patience to sit still for five minutes and spending hours watching little birds flutter about and then flip through my mini guide book of Birds of East Africa is not normal. I don’t know if this interest will last when I’m back on the road but for now, it really kills time in a very pleasurable way.

There is also an almost tame-ish black and white “monkey” here. Only she is not a monkey because her stomach is like a goat’s. I completely didn’t take in any of the other details about Josephine as I was fixated on the goat stomach idea. This area would have been rain forest but farming has destroyed the natural habitat and as a result Josephine was cut off from the rest of her troop and has adopted the family here. From time to time she comes down to the bar and runs up and down the roof, jumping and throwing twigs in the air. This drives the dogs to distraction and has them on the brink of apoplectic fits. She peeks her little black face between gaps in the roof to the amusement of guests and complete distress of the dogs. Andrew says that sometimes she goes to the house and peers through the window to see where the kids are playing and then just hangs about outside keeping them company.

There are also two little cervil kittens here that Andrew is hand rearing as the mother cat was probably shot for stealing chickens. We have been able to see the kittens that are cute as can be and full of claws. It’s going to take Andrew the best part of nine months to bring these kittens up, keep them wild and train them to hunt for themselves before he lets them go wild again. I hope they make it. Right now they look feisty and well.

I also hope that tomorrow we get back on the road. It’s been great relaxing but I think I speak for all of us: we are ready for the road, new places, meeting more people and animals and finally reaching Uganda! It would also be fantastic if it stopped raining.