So, how it went was, after a night in Nairobi the tour group was divided into sixes and piled into the Safari bus which would be ours for the duration (there we all are) and introduced to our driver...also for the duration...and there he is, David KamwetiThen we set off at 6.00 for the very long drive to Samburu Lodge, set in the middle of the Samburu Game Reserve. The tribespepople aren't allowed in the Game park, to discourage poaching and to minimise disturbance to the game. Sometimes the game comes to them though and they're supposed to report such visits and attendant losses of goats and cattle to the rangers. But usually they just kill the marauders and hope no one will notice there's a lion missing!

We stopped once or twice for tea, wee and shopping opportunities. The Curio shops as they were all called were in fact a cross between transport caff and tourist trap...a loo, a small seatingh area and coffee bar and a HUGE, cavernous shop full of wood and soapstone carvings. we had lunch at the wonderful Kentrout restaurant and lodge. Where after dinner we saw the pond where our dinners had been swimming till we ordered them! And the Billy goat posed nicely for us. (No goat curry on the menu thank heavens)

And colobus monkeys.The colobus are lovely with all that flowing white tail but on the ground they looked remarkably like a collection of little black and white Dougals. (from the Magic Roundabout if anyone remembers that :)


Kenyan roads are quite special. There are long stretches which are quite recognisably fairly main roads. there are long stretches which may once have been roads but appear to be unadopted. Overtaking or undertaking may involve leaving the road altogether (on either side) for quite long distances until there's a good slope for bounding and bouncing back onto the remnants of the tarmac. The tarmac is sometimes unbroken for 100 yards at a stretch....not often though.

There is a certain amount of dust causing the people at the front to yell "Dust" while swiftly shutting windows whenever there is over or undertaking or off-road adventuring and when other vehicle pass by. At this section, there were road signs warning drivers to use headlights in the dust...you can just see, if you look very hard, that there is an almost invisible lorry overtaking the totally invisible one behind the one in front. If you can't see it I promise you it's there! Coming straight at us out of the cloud of dust. I believe this was one point where we left the road for the ditch.

And there are roadworks occasionally...I liked the Kenyan version of cones. We also saw tree branches laid out as warning signs and occasionally a rock with a plastic bag over it to warn of a breakdown in the road.All the towns have very bumpy sleeping policemen...after a while I found that the point where David slowed down before bumping was the optimum moment for taking pictures through the window! Lots of misjudgement though..I have deleted a hundred or so pictures of various parts of the inside of the safari van and bits of blank sky and whirling undergrowth.
And tomorrow we arrive in the game park but tonight I have to clear up dinner :)