Let’s Go Kenya… We arrived in Nairobi around 10 p.m. after a relatively quick flight from Amsterdam through London. We arrived at our hotel and unfortunately it was dark already so we weren’t able to see much or get a real impression of Nairobi but we enjoyed a much needed good sleep. The next day we spent getting over the lack of sleep from the flight over and in the evening we had our pre-tour meeting where we met our tour guide and the other people on the tour. Everyone on our trip are doing different parts of the tour and so over the next two months people will come and go as most people are only doing two or three weeks. We are lucky that we only have to change trucks and crew once for the last two weeks of our trip.
We left bright and early the next morning and drove through Kenya to Lake Nukuru National Park which is in located in the rift valley. The park is famous for the large number of flamingo’s but it is also home to four of the ‘Big 5’ (lions, rhinos, buffalo, leopards and elephants). When we arrived we were treated to our first meal aboard our truck Matilda who is fitted with just about everything you can imagine. We enjoyed our lunch just outside the park with hoards of baboons just waiting to get their hands on anything and everything and despite our best efforts, one did make off with one of the girls sandwiches!
Once inside the park we were amazed by the stunning beauty. Lake Nukuru is a soda lake originating from the volcanos in the area and is home to an amazing array of birds- most impressive of course being the Flamingo. It so amazing to see them in person and I couldn’t get over just how pink they are- just like the plastic ones you see in gardens- and a seemingly absurd color for nature but incredibly beautiful. 
Our game drive lasted 6 hours and every second was amazing. We saw zebras, giraffes, rhinos, buffalos, baboons, and of course a vast array of birds. We were wildly entertained not just by the animals but by the road conditions as well- we were in series of vans and because of the amount of rain that there had been recently we were a series of vehicles stuck in the mud. One after another, each vehicle being pulled out by the one in front of it and then pulling out the one behind it. We had a great time but we were a little late getting to the campground which meant setting up our tents in the dark- or so we thought! Luckily for us we were able to out all the tents into the covered eating area which also helped keep us all dry.
The next morning was another early one as we headed to an amazing campsite on our way through to Uganda. The campsites here are nothing like I was expected- we are not roughing it by any means. Every campsite has bars and all kinds of facilities along with upgrade options. This particular campsite was over the top and was where Bill Gates stayed in 2009 on his visit to Kenya. Apparently he had all of his bedroom furniture flown over for his stay and left it in his suite. It is now the Bill Gates suite and for $65 you can sleep in his bed! After looking at all of the options Stijn and I decided to forgo the options for the comfort of our tent- after all it was only day 2 of 58! Apparently everyone else thought differently as we were the lone tenters!
Let’s Go Uganda… En route to Uganda, the scenery was shocking. It is so much more lush and green than any of us expected and really stunning. As we waited for our visas to cross over the border we struck up a game of volleyball with the local boys and reluctantly bought bananas and other wares only because it was too hard to say no! By the time we got back on the truck we had bunches and bunches of bananas and no one was hungry!
When we arrived we had about an hour before we headed off to a sunset cruise on the Nile River. It was absolutely stunning but we spent most of our time chatting with the other tour members and having many drinks! Luckily for us we have a few other river activities planned, not to mention the amazing view we have from the campsite itself! Needless to say the party carried on when we got back to the campground bar. We had a great time getting to know everyone on the tour and for the most part no one got too carried away- apart from one self-inflicted black eye and a few great photo ops! 
This morning we all stumbled out of our tents at various hours and rather than sitting around feeling terrible, Stijn and I opted to go quading with a couple other people on the tour for a few hours. We had the most amazing time and were completely orange with mud by the time we got back! The best part, aside from the mud, was the amazing villages that we went through. All the kids ran out of their houses when they heard us coming and stood on the side of the road and waved with such enthusiasm! A couple of the local boys came by when we were stopped to climb on the quads for a few pictures as well! Unfortunately a desperate chicken who was attempting to flee flew right into the wheel well of my quad and met his untimely death when the quads behind me finished him off. While the chicken was clearly suicidal (and therefore not my fault) we were saddened to have killed a food source for the village but with any luck they were at least able to eat it. I can’t believe I’ve killed a chicken and I’ve only been here for three days! After we got back from quading and in much need of a shower we decided to test out what’s called the ‘shower with a view’… and what a view! The shower has been built on the side of the hill overlooking the Nile River and the front wall is cut out. While the water wasn’t warm we still lingered a little while just to take it all in.
This evening we were treated to a proper Ugandan meal by one of the ladies who lives in the village of Jinja. It was an amazing array of local food consisting of sweet potato, plantain, rice, peanut sauce and spinach. It was quite delicious and it was amazing to see how she wrapped it all in banana leaves and layered each item. It was certainly a treat!
It is only day three and already we are on cloud nine and having the most amazing time. It is nothing like we expected and so much better than we could have hoped. We have so many amazing things to look forward to it’s impossible to pick just one! We hoping to cram in as many activities as we possibly can and really enjoy every second of this amazing place.
After having successfully navigated the first two rapids at class 4 and having quite large stretches of flat in between, we opted for a more difficult line down the following class 5… what a mistake. We barely hit the first wave before flipping and being a class 5 meant that the rapids were fast, furious and many. We were all thrown from the raft immediately and I ended up being dragged under by the extremely strong undercurrent and tumbled around as if I were in a washing machine for far long that I would have liked. Once I finally managed to pop up I was then hit repeatedly with rapids making any breath next to impossible and eventually came up about 100 meters downstream from everyone else. Luckily a rescue kayaker came and picked me up but let me go a little prematurely as I was soon after sucked back out by the current and he had to come back for me. Once I had myself sorted, the first thing I did was look for Stijn and he was of course the only person from our boat that I couldn’t see and just then his paddle floated by me. Fearing the worse, I quickly made my way back to the other boats and was relieved to find that he had been picked up by the rescue boat and was just fine. Though he had endured his own dramatic experience as well having also been dragged under by the undercurrent and sent through a very long cycle in the washing machine before finally being able to come up for air and being rescued- what an ordeal!
The next rapid we opted for a less difficult line but for whatever reason we still flipped however this time it was far less dramatic but none the less rendered us exhausted. The rest of the day we managed to stay in the boat and made our way to the end and were served an amazing barbeque dinner before making our way back to our campground to heal our wounds!
Despite the somewhat dramatic experiences we still had an absolute blast. We’re quite certain we’d never be able to raft the majority of those rapids in North America so it was an interesting experience. The rafting company played a DVD of our day in the bar later that evening and the second it was over we both headed off to bed completely exhausted.
Tomorrow we will make our way to Kampala where we will stop for a day before heading to Lake Bunyonyin where we will trek to see the Silverback Gorillas. The entire group is trekking so we have been broken up into several groups as only eight people are allowed up for one hour per day and there are a number of overlanding groups to fit in. Stijn and I will trek on August 23rd so we will have a few free days before we head up the mountain.
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