Breakfast this morning in the Safari hotel in Nairobi was freshly prepared omelette with peppers, onions and chillies, followed by fruit platter. After our vehicles arrived we loaded and finally made our torturous exit from the smog of the city and the journey to the border passed without incident until...my water bottle. Belting down the highway we hit a bump, the door swinging open sending the poor aluminium Sigg bottle out and onto the ground, it was retrieved, some serious injuries had been sustained but integrity remained intact and the bottle lives on.
We reached the border at Nwange after a short pit stop and proceeded through border controls with little fuss. After reaching Longido Township we received news that our transport was unable to make the final 4.5km and we would proceed on foot. This caused some concern to our tour leader but everyone was happy to be out of the busses and took to the path without complaint. In fact the 4.5km turned into less than 2km and we were greeted by a cool flannel, glass of mango juice and a fully struck camp.
Lunch of breaded fish with potato and vegetables was served and gratefully consumed after which we received our camp talk and met our staff for the next 5 days.
We then finally set off on our first trekking of the trip – to a Maasai ‘boma’, where we were welcomed by the residents and spent some time inside the ‘manyattas’ and chatting with the children who were all very friendly if a little pushy when it came to photographs.
We finally wrenched ourselves away, stopping at the improvised market place to make several purchases of jewellery and goods – all beautifully made.
We returned to camp learning about the local area on the way from our guide Samuel – a very well educated Maasai elder.
After washing and pre-dinner drinks we sat down to a meal of mushroom soup followed by beef stew with rice. This was capped off by drinks around the fire with Rogarty on the guitar giving us a rendition of local Swahili songs and Bob Marley classics...only in Africa.
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