Saturday meant that it was time travel back to Nairobi, which would prove to take even longer than the standard eight hours because the route was all uphill. Two matatu rides brought us back to downtown Mombasa and the bus station. A word of advice when riding in matatus – beware the front seat. The engine heats up the metal in front of your shins and if you unknowingly touch it, you’ll get burned! There were two highlights to the trip, the bus itself and elephants.
If you happen to travel around Kenya or Uganda, then do yourself a favor and book an Oxygen bus. It’s almost like being in a private plane. Each bus comes with a stewardess who hands out snacks, juice and peanuts. Plus the seats are leather and very roomy. Better yet the buses are air-conditioned! After sweating through all of your clothes for a week, you tend to appreciate those little pieces of technology all the more.
Tsavo through a dirty windshield - do not get lost in this place.
Tsavo was just as forbidding in the light of day, and looked particularly dry and thorny. I had paid just a little bit more for a first class seat (about $20 total) and was sitting in the first position above the driver, meaning that I could look right out the massive windshield. Prime tourist position, and this time I was prepared with camera, binoculars and bird-book in hand – the stewardess and driver laughed at me the whole time as I craned my neck to see the sights they are forced to drive past 4 times a week.
Upon entering the park, I almost immediately started spotting elephants. Generally, herds would be hundreds of yards from the road, standing like red islands in the patches of tan grass and scrub. I counted at least ten. The last group I saw was a complete accident – after focusing on a very distant animal (at least a mile), I put the binoculars down and glanced out the window, only to be staring at two cows fifty yards from the highway! I also saw a troop of baboons, some dusty zebras and bunches of Thompsons gazelle. Every animal in Tsavo is covered in red dust.
Oh yeah, there was another highlight! On the way out of Mombasa, we were hung up in a traffic jam, which meant that people started pulling out of traffic and driving along the shoulders of the road. There was very little room. An oncoming eighteen-wheeler misjudged ever so slightly, and bashed in the side mirror of the bus!
Random rocky outcrop - one of the few pictures I took on the drive.
After the nine-hour trip, we finally got back to Nairobi, which meant another two hours minimum would be required to get back to KEFRI in Nderi. I stopped at a supermarket to pick up some fruit and crackers for Leah, who along with Pat rode back to Nairobi separately. Having eaten copious amounts of vegetables in Mombasa, she was the unfortunate member of our party to pick up an amoeba. Watch out for eating fruit and vegetables with the skin on. We later learned that in Mombasa, vegetables are often cultivated on sewer lines.
The trek out of city center indeed took two hours, so when all of us interns finally reunited at ‘home’ it was quite late. Everyone slept late on Sunday, and then Pat and I went into town with our packs to buy groceries. Though limited by our cooking equipment, we returned home with a respectable pile of food. Sunday night I dined on corn flakes, with pieces of banana and COLD milk! Success!
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