Nakuru and Naivasha:

            Nakuru and Naivasha are small sister towns within the unbelievably scenic rift valley, just two hours outside of Nairobi. My pictures do not even touch on the wondrous beauty of the rolling hills, mountains and lakes that house African wildlife and modern towns. Both Nakuru and Naivasha are built around beautiful lakes that bring life and tranquility to their horizons and act as a canvas to tropically colored sunsets. The oranges, yellows, pinks and purples that reflect from the water and surround the mountainous backdrop made me giggle uncontrollably as my eyes were stunned by the beauty.

 

The images of this sunset may have been enhanced in my head, though because unfortunately, in Nairobi, it is hard to see sunsets due to the tall buildings and fenced in estates. Also, the Africa I know is not nearly as aesthetically pleasing. Nairobi is a trash infested concrete jungle with millions of people in foot and vehicle traffic constantly. Not a day goes by that my boogers are not black from all of the exhaust, dust and other pollutants in the air. You can imagine the thrill of the county side after a month’s time in this city. (Oddly enough, it felt great to return back “home,” sleep in “my own” bed and eat “home cooked” meals)

Nakuru is my dream home in Kenya. People ride on the back of bicycles instead of matatus, relax in the grass fields to take a break from their less than hectic days, have houses on small farm plots instead of small flats in large apartment complexes, greet people in the street because they know them, have a dazzling nightlife that lets you escape the small-town feeling yet maintain the small-town safety and most things are cheaper. I really felt at home.

Stella is from Nakuru so I was given the best tour of the town and shown a really great time. I was able to visit her family farm (I took a picture with one of their goats and was then told he is Christmas dinner-sad), enjoy the perks of their private sports club (I even got to attend their annual member’s night in which free food and drinks are provided the entire night – how lucky we were to be in town that weekend), eat at the best places in town that a traveler would never find (grilled goat meat by the side of the road is a must!!), dance the night away with some of Stella’s closest friends (some people think I was born in Kenya because I have such great moves-seriously!!!), and got a local tour of one of Nakuru’s main tourist attractions; a huge crater called Menengai.

After Nakuru, we traveled 30 minutes to Naivasha which is an extremely smaller town with tons of money filtering in from the large hotel resorts, flower farms and animal reserves. Unfortunately, there is a very large gap between the wealthy European (mostly) business owners and the poor locals. Most of the money that goes into the town’s businesses directly funnels into someone’s wallet. The infrastructure of the town is falling apart while the tourism spots are beautiful beyond imagination-it’s really quite a sad disparity.

Just as Stella was my personal tour guide of Nakuru, one of her best friends, Shelia, lives in Naivasha and filled an extremely similar role. She lives on the top of a high hill looking over the rows upon rows of greenhouses that cover the land surrounding Lake Naivasha. There is a huge industry of exporting flowers and Sheila is married to an owner of one of the more prominent farms. They mainly export their roses to Holland but also do their own grafting to sell their special breeds. We were given a tour of some of the greenhouses that house more rows of plants than your eyes can process. Cutting is done three times a day, every day and then put into a huge cooler to let them settle. Next, they are cut to length, packaged into boxes, loaded onto cooled trailers and flown off to wherever the order came from.

Lake Naivasha is extremely polluted and has been the main concern for environmentalists as the large flamingo and fish population that normally thrive have become ill which lead to their death. Most of the pollution is speculated to come from the large amounts of chemical drainage from the numerous flower farms. Is there ever a happy medium between human industry and environmental security?

Half of the land surrounding the lake is owned by big hotels the other half is owned by an elite few European business men; some flower farmers and others reservists. Sheila took us for a drive and after we traveled past the stretch of resorts, we began to pass animal reserves and uninterrupted plots of land. I was handed a pair of binoculars and laid my eyes on one of the ugliest animals I have ever seen: the warthog aka Pumba. Then I saw antelopes, zebras and something else that slightly resembles a cow with a huge hump on its throat. I was thrilled to see all of the wildlife right next to the road and especially without having to pay money to enter an animal reserve. This is the Africa we see on the National Geographic Channel; the Africa I had been longing to see.

I was told look into the trees for the giraffes but they are so well camouflaged so it was quite impossible to catch a glimpse of their beauty as we traversed the pothole path referred to in Africa as a road. Every journey requires swerving back and forth in order to keep your car from bottoming out or popping tires meanwhile you must avoid the other cars attempting the same challenge. Yielding for others seems to be an unknown concept here. We headed back toward the hotel side of the lake, disappointed from our unsuccessful giraffe sighting. Then, Stella thought she had spotted one of the mysterious creatures on top of the hill. I guess the search really had me on edge because I have never been so excited! I was freaking out and the three Kenyan women I was with giggled at my (over)reaction.

Stella’s eyes had not deceived her and my anticipation was not in vain. When we came to the top of the hill, there stood three tall, gorgeous giraffes. One was ahead of the other two moving parallel to the fence that separated them from the heavily trafficked road. Sheila pulled over and let the tourist (me) have her fun. I jumped out of the tall Land Rover as quickly as I could and rushed to the fence in order to capture pictures of my first giraffe sighting in Kenya. I concentrated on the two that were stationary as the third moved further away from me, right next to the fence. I began to run in hopes of getting a close-up shot of the wondering giraffe when all of a sudden, he found an open gate and began to cross the road. At that point I lost it with excitement and shouted back towards my friends to confirm their attention. They seemed to be unmoved but I know my presence reminded them of the phenomenal spectacles of nature that frequently occur in their country and that are often taken for granted.

As I looked back to my safari mates, a matatu drove up the hill behind them and sped forward without caution. I waved my hands to warn the driver but he continued to charge towards the giraffe crossing the road as if he was trying to hit it. The giraffe is so large and mighty that I am sure the matatu would have been sent flying backwards at the same speed (or a little less-I haven’t taken physics in a while…). Fortunately, for the giraffe, this did not happen. The matatu’s horn hooting scared the animal and I swear in an instant it looked at the oncoming vehicle and in the voice of Scooby-Doo said “ruh-roh” then sprinted across the road and up the hill on the other side. It was quite the experience of which I could not stop talking about the rest of the night. I called my sister right away to let her know I saw some of her people (Charlene has the longest neck I have ever seen and I often refer to her as a giraffe!!!)

Stella eventually admitted that she enjoyed the sight as much as I did but had to contain herself in order to not look like a silly tourist. I captured unique pictures of the event which really help to tell the story and promise to get them up soon.