Our flight back to Amboseli wasn't until 0830 and with a journey time of about 40 mins we could actually enjoy a bit of a lie in before breakfast at 0700. I'm glad we were able to see Mt Kili on a few occasions, as she was staying resolutely behind the clouds this morning and there was also low cloud hanging in the valley in front (or snow, as I heard one American confidently declare).
We said our goodbyes to the various staff members lined up outside, always embarrassing, and of course Graeme and Candy were there to wave us off - I felt quite emotional going and really hope it's not another 4 years before we return.
We didn't really have time to stop en route, but I managed to get a couple of snaps including this Squacco Heron which we'd not seen yet on this trip.
We did see a couple of Wildebeest having a bit of a scrap, with one rubbing his eye on the ground as scent marking, but they stopped as soon as we drew up and Dickson said they probably wouldn't start again until we left them to it and as we could see the plane was already waiting we hurried off.
As Dickson thought, our Safarilink plane was there waiting for us, but I dashed over to say goodbye to the Swiss German ladies we'd chatted to at Tortilis as they'd driven off whilst we were still doing our long goodbyes to the staff. They were also going back via Wilson and thought we'd see each other again but as they are flying Kenya Airways I doubted it.
We then climbed aboard but had ages to wait for the other, quite elderly, passengers to arrive and get on. We sat up front behind the pilots who were also flying us on to Laikipia after our hour's break at Wilson.
As before we were greeted by name at Wilson and “to save us the inconvenience of checking in again” we simply had to hand over our passports and the helpful assistant would do the rest. I'd emailed ahead to ask if I could leave the cushion covers with them in secure storage as we didn't need to carry them around with us and this was easily dealt with.
The hour between flights passed very quickly and before long we were back out on the tarmac identifying our bags before boarding.
The guy leading us out to the plane thought it most amusing that I was photographing a tractor but I explained Grandson Edmund in Australia loves heavy machinery.
Soon back on board and sitting behind the pilots once again, we told them we'd been watching them carefully on the first flight and felt confident we could do the job quite easily as they'd spent most of their time with their arms folded and just pressed the occasional button and twiddled the odd knob every so often. They laughed and asked about take off and landing which Ian suggested we may leave to them but, as for the rest - no problem.
I did actually film takeoff. Towards the end of the video the green expanse after crossing the dual carriageway is Nairobi National Park which is home to most wildlife except Rhino. Jackson told us that a couple of years ago a man was seriously mauled by a lion which got through the fence.
A few snaps from the air. Firstly the cemetery, handily placed at the end of the runway.
Kibera Slums - home to about 250,000 people and whilst conditions have improved somewhat in the last few years with access to clean drinking water (not free) there is no sewage system and often one hole in the ground latrine is shared by 50 shacks. Each shack is only approx 12'x12' and often houses 8 people so that's one hell of a lot of sh*t. We learned last time that new, high rise accommodation had been built but that the slum dwellers were reluctant to move and naively assumed this was because people were just stuck in their old ways. The true reason is the new dwellings are just too expensive for many people.
Massive greenhouses not far from Nairobi - far bigger than Thanet Earth
Soon the rolling hills took over and we saw some lovely dwellings from the air.
Landing at Nanyuki was a bit of a surprise as it was a "proper" airport with actual buildings, rather than just a strip of closely mown grass.
We were met by Peter from Kicheche Laikipia (one of the four camps owned by Kicheche) and after a comfort stop at the airport restaurant, we set off for the hour or so trip to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Even though we were in an open sided/open topped vehicle Peter said we still needed to wear masks as there were police checkpoints en route and he'd let us known when we could all take them off. We were a bit nonplussed to arrive in such a built up area and to be honest a little worried - we'd picked Laikipia as a different area and also because of the Rhino population, but that certainly didn't mean we wanted to be in a semi urban environment. In fact Nanyuki is something of a boom town and one of the most desirable places to live in Kenya currently. Driving through it certainly looked very vibrant and what delighted me was that children and adults alike were smiling and waving to us which was a refreshing change as we've not seen that anywhere for a few years now. A couple of wobbly shots from the fast moving vehicle.
When it comes to carrying huge loads on small vehicles, either motorbikes or tuktuks, the Vietnamese are past masters, but this vehicle looks pretty well loaded (as does the motorbike coming towards us).
After 20 mins or so we turned off the main road and it was safe to remove our masks. The Nairobi- Nanyuki train runs once a week, leaving at 0900 on a Friday/Sunday. It takes 7 hours, makes 15 stops and costs approx. £6.50 first class or £1.30 economy class.
There seem to be a lot of plant nurseries along the road. There was one particularly fabulous one we passed which was bursting with colour but I didn't get a picture - maybe on the return journey.
There is a Tiger motorcycles parts factory in Nanyuki and as a result most of the young lads seem able to buy parts and then attempt assembly of motorbikes themselves. Whilst the law requires a crash helmet, it seems this life saving piece of equipment is not considered necessary by many (seeing young boys riding without adequate protection always reminds me of the dreadful death of a young motorcyclist we witnessed in Burma - had he been wearing a helmet maybe he wouldn't have died with his brains spilled all over the road).
