Nakuru

I recently decided to make a trip that I might have considered very routine….I did a Safari in my home town game park called Lake Nakuru National Park…you must understand that having been born and brought up in the small town…I know this park nooks and crannies like the back of my hand but never tire of it….my every childhood holiday was spent with a climax (or otherwise) visit to the park and picnic at the baboon cliff. A good friend of mine started this amazing concept of a personalized package tour safari and I decided to indulge myself in a treat for my trip to the park www.storrysafaris.org it was awesome to say the least…… Let's set the scene now…. I am a small town country girl…Born and brought up in Nakuru…..My bedroom as a child, overlooked the view of the lake and the lolling hills of Maasai land where my dad for a while attempted to grow wheat….During school holidays sometimes I would be dragged along to Ole Nguruone with my dad and stay in Mzee Tumanga's land a tall Maasai man (with his three or so wives) who hosted our workers camp. We would set up tents for the weeklong harvesting period. It wasn't half bad…once we ran out of tissue we had to use these soft leaves ( one day I mixed the leaves up and used a nettle instead…I was sore for days)..and play all day with the local kids while they went out to graze the cows….sometimes I followed my dad with the tractor to watch the combine harvester snap up the wheat with awe….other times I just sat in his car sulked and missed my mother, my room and TV….At night the all the workers set up a great big fire and cooked huge mounds of Ugali and sukumawiki... when we were lucky we would have meat…an errant Dik Dik hunted…I was usually too hungry to care and just ate without asking too many questions….they sang sometimes and chatted about the days events as I fell asleep in my dads arms before whisking me off to the tent…Many times I would wake up at night and hear all kinds of animals and insects making noises….terrified till the first break of dawn……. Anyyyyywayyyyy, basically I could identify buffaloes, zebras, white and black rhino's, flamingoes, impalas way before I could spell out my name….I grew up waking up to the sounds of the woodpecker pecking away my dads blue gum trees….or to the unhappy voices of the neighbors complaining that a leopard broke free from the park and was harassing their dogs…. Anyway I pretty much took for granted the beauty around me that people spend thousands of shillings each year to come and be a part of….. Unlike earlier in the year when I was last there…the lake was full of flamingoes perhaps attributed to the bumper rain we have had…the park was bustling with animal activity…which coincided with the cycle race to raise money to conserve the rhino population. It was amazing to see brave cyclists against the scene of the lake www.kws.org/nakuru I mean every corner of the park had lovely animals packed to the brim and the roads being muddy caused many of us to need rescuing…and thank God I decided to use the Storry Safari van rather than a small car because many needed rescuing from huuuuuuge muddy pot holes…I was so impressed to see that the rangers were readily available to help the people in distress. In fact at some point and tractor was strategically parked next to a series of muddy deep pot holes on the road heading toward the popular Baboon cliff….where people love to soak up the sight of Nakuru town the Menengai Crater the lakes and the hills on the horizon…it is very beautiful…. The Baboon cliff now has a protective barrier perhaps after a school kid tipped and lost balance peering down at the cliff during some school trip earlier this year…. While at the cliff I almost teared up with joy at the beauty surrounding me…and I so so proud of being part of the heritage of this small industrious town… Nakuru as small as it is was once famed for being the cleanest town (not too sure about this anymore)…it was also the gateway to the countryside of Kenya….its the kind of place people stop and enjoy its quaintness and take a break from a long trip or run away from the mad city life…. I am going to dwell on my home town in the next few rants….. Enjoy with me…Nakuru… ~Siki~