Butterflies and 'that bucket'

  Kakamega, Kenya
Friday, July 1, 2005

Day the Twenty-fourth - in which we hit the jungle and fling peas at one another.

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Bit of a lie-in until 7, then up to do some much needed laundry. We generally do our own, but since there is a laundrette thing down the road... Besides, we need to do quite a bit and there just isn't anywhere to dry it in the room. I'm wary of hanging it outside due to Tumbu Fly eggs. Ick.

Had cold fries for breakfast. Again with the yum. Damn these British colonies and their crappy food. At least Rwanda ought to be better. They did have Milo though - a hot chocolate type drink of South African origin. Tastes better with real milk.

Then onto the pharmacy for cough medicine for the Stefan. And tissues. Hope I don't get it. Maybe it's Kenya flu - a reaction to Kenya...
Also bought what supplies we could find to replenish his stolen med-kit. Oddly they took some of the contents and left the good-quality med-kit bag itself. They took the hypodermic needles but not the plunger device that goes with them. Anyway, obviously we aren't going to be able to find all of the stuff that was in the kit, but it'll do. When it comes to Stef going on alone into Moz I'll leave my med-kit with him.

The bank didn't open until 9 so we went back to the hostel to filter some more water for the walk in Kakamega. On the way down the external stairs I caught a glimpse of one of our room-mates running up the piping into the roof space. The same guy was working 'reception', so when I asked for a bucket he was all, "Bucket? Oh, *that* bucket..." Well, his body language said that, along with, "Crazy muzungu..." He and whoever he spoke to about it [you just know he went through and told all his workmates] must be wondering what the hell we want with a bucket, not just once but twice.

Got a Kitale-bound matutu and got off at the junction for the park entrance. The park is actually in two parts - the Kakamega Forest Reserve, and the Kakamega Forest National Reserve. We went to the latter, run by the Kenya Wildlife Service [KWS] in the north as it is easier to get to without your own transport.
It was only a 2km walk into the park, and $5 each for the entrance fee. We took the walk at a leisurely pace, stopping to look at butterflies and, on occasion, black-and-white colobus monkeys.



I took the bag of peas with us, and we amused ourselves by pinging them at each other. If you squeeze them just right, the two halves come shooting out of the shell at high speed. My accuracy left a little to be desired. When we bored of that game we scattered them into the jungle to the sides of the path, imagining some little fuzzy mammal happening across them and taking them home for its family.

At the centre, a guide was arranged, a man called Soloman. He took us on a 5 hour walk through the forest, taking in a waterfall and hill lookout [Buyangu Hill?]. The rainforest is primary, a relic of the swathe that used to cover this latitude from DRC, through Uganda to Kenya. It is beautiful - full of forest sounds and flowers.










The tracks were narrow, wending between giant hardwoods, but due to the canopy the ground is fairly clear of vegetation.  The buttress roots on the big trees are awesome.




Some of the trees had been attacked by strangler figs.




During the walk we saw more b/w colobus, as well as red-tailed and samango monkeys, and red duiker.




The best bit was the butterflies.










Soloman was a very good naturalist, and his English was excellent. He told us how the KWS are teaching the local people the importance of maintaining the forest, training them as guides like him. It's good, because just erecting a fence is not going to stop people entering to get firewood and even chop down hardwoods to sell. One nice moment was when some large black and white butterflies landed on us, presumably liking the salt of our sweat.




At the lookout we stopped and watched the rain sweep in from the shelter.






After the rain lessened we headed back, stopping so that Stef and Soloman could climb a Liana. Bless.




After giving Soloman a tip and saying goodbye, we walked back to the road.
A thoroughly enjoyable day, only dampened slightly by the matutu ride home. Due to the park road being part the way along the Kitale-Kakamega road, flagging down a matutu with space for 2 was difficult. Matutus only leave when full. We managed it, Stef on the back seat and me crammed in the row in front, on the fold-down aisle seat. As I've mentioned, these seats are rarely the best since they don't really have proper legs or high enough back-rests. This particular one was especially lumpy and held together by sharp pokey things. I had an old mzee kipara [old bald man - literally 'mosquito airport' haha] to my right, and a very large African mama to my left. I figured if we crashed I'd have a chance since I'd be wedged in the flesh of her elbow crease. We stopped to let some people off, and when they reached back inside for their belongings, it became apparent why my seat was so lumpy. After much tugging a massive sack of maize meal popped out. The rest of the journey was spent slumped. Gotta love it!

We wandered back through the outdoor market [jua kali - literally 'fierce sun'] and bought a really tasty pineapple, and a bag of kombe kombe [roasted? termites] which weren't that bad really.
We passed another laundry, not the one where we've left our clothes this morning. Probably just as well since I don't think we fit the profile for the type of customers they are aiming at - it was called 'Lady-boy Laundry'. Interesting.

Back at the hostel the shower wouldn't produce water, and after a bit of back-and-forthing with the hostel guy and the external tap thing on the outside staircase, it was determined that there was no water. Bring out The Bucket!
Washing from a bucket is not that hard, especially if they provide a small scoop thing too. It's much more efficient in terms of water-conservation. Rub down with soap, then a few scoops to wash it off. Job done.

Half-way through ablutions the power went off. Fortunately we have a torch which we suspended from some string, and a headtorch for negotiating things like bag-packing. Packing done, we headed off to find food. The powercut wasn't limited to the hostel, so when we found a little eatery we sat in the candlelight for a while nursing beers until the light came back. The return of power meant they were able to completely nuke the chicken we ordered in the microwave. Tough and chewy. Yum.