Day 280 – To Amboseli National Park, Kenya – 13th May, 2005 

 It was up early today to get to the Kodak warehouse to join the dealers weekend conference/trip to the game park. Eunice our host runs a business as a dealer of Kodak Imaging Systems (Document Managements Systems) and they were having their annual conference at the National Park. She had managed to secure us some rooms at the Serena Hotel on the back of the booking for 80 Kodak dealers. So we got two adjoining rooms in a 5 star hotel with all meals included for $180 per day. Basically half price. 

 The conference delegates and ourselves set off in 10 Toyota Hiace mini bus vans substantially modified for the arduous off road journey that lay ahead. All the vans had uprated suspension systems, strengthened body shells, opening top safari viewing roof and HF radios to keep in touch with each other (to share the news about the location of the lions) and as a safety measure should we get into trouble, which we did but more of that later. 

 We had a driver called Fred who looked nothing like a Fred. He had been doing safari tours for 10 years and knew tons about the animals and about the terrain we were travelling over. From the beginning we knew he was the best driver of the 10 vans and we were not wrong. He was just great with the boys, playing with them and joking with them whenever he had a chance. They loved him. 

 We set off from the industrial area of Nairobi at 10:00am full of expectations and the excitement that comes at the outset of a new adventure. We were accompanied by Eunice and her friend Stella. Within half an hour we were out of the pollution of the city. Nairobi has the worst pollution that we have met in a city so far. All the diesel powered vehicles throw out tons of black smoke. You can hardly breath in the downtown area it is so bad. Since it comes out of all the vehicles, old and new, I can only assume it is the quality of the fuel rather than badly tuned engines. 

 Once you are out of the city you start to see countryside that is green and lush in the main. We are in the rainy season at the moment and apart from the greenery, the landscape is covered in a blanket of white flowers that looks rather like overgrown bind weed. We pass loads of termite hills which can be over 3 metres in height and see many many weaver birds nests attached in groups to the trees. The trees are mainly acacia but they come in several varieties including the distinctive umbrella acacia which often grow on their own in the middle of nowhere giving that classic Serengeti look. We also see sisal trees and baobab. 

 We are heading towards the border with Tanzania which is directly south west of Nairobi. Two hours later we hit a small border town, we turn left and we leave the tarmac behind. From now on we are travelling on dirt. I personally would have expected our speed to drop drastically at this point but it was not to be. We have been travelling at a constant 80kph so far as the van had an electronic speed governor fitted. Our speed now dropped to the 65 to 70kph level which I thought was about 50 kph too fast. The road was extremely bumpy and littered with rocks of up to football size. There were also pot holes caused by the rain that could have been up to 18 inches deep. But these were not what caused me the greatest concern. 

In the middle and sides of the road, which was capable of taking two cars simultaneously but usually had only the one car driving down the middle of it, were small 6 inch banks of very sandy material. Whenever we have to traverse these banks the van would start drifting. Not a problem in itself but when you are going at 70 kph and the van is rattling like mad, it is most disconcerting. There was no opportunity to enjoy the scenery, it was just a matter of hanging on for dear life and praying. 

We were in Masai (the warrior tribe) territory and from about an hour out of Nairobi we started to see the distinctive red and blue woven wraps and sarongs and the trademark beaded neck, ear and wrist adornments. The men all carried sticks and were often to be seen standing on one leg with the other leg resting on top of the knee cap. The stick was used for balance and they could maintain this stance for long periods of time. Some of the men and women had the holed earlobes that had been stretched to a circle of about 8 inches. We saw one man who had hooked his circular lobe back up over the top of his ear. We arrived in time for lunch and enjoyed the most amazing spread of their buffet. Seemed really strange to be in 5 star luxury when just outside the Masai were living in their mud huts.