Chyulu Hills: Days 18-19 of our Kenya Overland Trip

We left Watamu, turned back west, and started the journey home with another week a a half of stops in front of us. We were headed to Amboseli, one of Kenya’s most well-known game parks, but couldn’t make it there in a day, so stopped to camp at Chyulu Hills for a night. The public campsite was well-kept and we were greeted with a flurry of butterflies. Knowing our next day’s drive would be a short one, we felt more relaxed upon arrival while we made dinner and even the next day as we packed up.

Although Chyulu Hills does not offer much in game viewing, its landscapes are a worthy site, complimented by the flitting colors of hundreds of butterflies. Upon departure, we made our way through the park and through the Shetani lava flow. The name shetani refers to spirits, which some say can still be heard screaming from the lava, which flowed from a volcanic eruption nearly 200 years ago. We didn’t stick around long enough to listen. We set our sights to Amboseli, passing several herds of goats, shepherded by young Maasai boys.

Watamu: Days 13-18 of our Kenya Overland Trip

We arrived in Watamu after a long drive through Tsavo East, ready to enter into relaxation mode. We were happy to put away the camping gear for a time, sleep in a real bed, and enjoy seafood. We were ready for a bit of pampering. Unfortunately, I had made the poor decision to save money by booking an AirBnB with no previous ratings. I’ll spare you the details, but although we did have an air conditioner, a bed, and a warm shower, we were not made to feel welcome and it was not a safe place for the kids, resulting in 6 days of tension and disagreements with the owner. Because we didn’t feel comfortable in our room and the boys were easily bored there, we spent most of our days out and about. This meant we had to carry two children and a large basket of our belongings around in the hot sun, making Eric and I so very tired. I also didn’t realize the beach closest to our room had more of a Rasta vibe than a child-friendly vibe. It wasn’t what we had in mind.

Although our time in Watamu wasn’t as relaxing as we had planned, there were still many highlights, although I didn’t pick my camera up very often to capture them. On Christmas Eve, I went around town in a tuk tuk, looking for small gifts to put into the boys’ stockings and that night we gathered with just about every other mzungu in town for Christmas caroling. We spent a good portion of Christmas Day being convinced to go on a boat ride (with a glass-bottom boat and where we would surely see dolphins!), waiting hours for that boat to materialize while we tracked down snacks for our hungry children, and riding on that boat (with cracked glass and algae so thick you couldn’t see through it. No dolphins.) Thankfully, Pax fell asleep on the boat and although we saw no marine life, Leo enjoyed the ride nonetheless. The best part of Christmas Day was when we insisted on getting off the boat and found a lovely beach with few people. There was nothing spectacular in those hours that followed - just our family splashing in the waves and digging in the sand, but it was my favorite part of our time in Watamu.

We were also lucky to find friends from Kampala, also with young boys, who took us out on their boat on the creek. They failed to catch any fish, so we stopped at a beach among mangrove swamps and the boys caught crabs instead - another highlight.

Watamu afforded us plenty of Italian food, ice cream, seafood, and a chance to restock our food for camping, but it did not afford us time to relax, which is what we wanted and needed the most. We were so very tired. We tried not to complain, but the truth was we were having a hard time. I had set my expectations high for this time on the beach, since going to the Kenyan coast for Christmas was a tradition for our family, as it had been for Eric’s family and even his father’s family, who would drive to the coast from eastern Congo every year. The pure exhaustive effort of traveling and camping with two children was wearing on us and we were getting short with each other. On top of it all, I was having strange abdominal pains and my eyes had been dry and itchy for at least a week, so I couldn’t comfortably wear my contacts.

We set off from Watamu, knowing the only way to get home to Kampala was to drive there. We turned back around and headed West, steeling ourselves for more driving, more exhaustion, and more camping as we set our sights to Chyulu Hills.

Tsavo East: Days 11 - 13 of our Kenya Overland Trip

We left the truck stop campsite after breakfast and headed to Ndololo campsite in Tsavo East. The park was a muddy mess and we slopped through the mud, spotting some animals, mostly elephants, here and there on the way to the campsite. The campsite was a mud pit as well. We found a dry spot and set up camp while the boys promptly took to the mud.

Ndololo is a public campsite attended by a couple of helpful Maasai men who helped us identify the strange sounds we heard at night (hyenas vs elephants) and ward off the vervet monkeys. There was a screened-in kitchen available to keep our food, should we need a safe place away from the monkeys and baboons. We were relaxed about the primate competition at first, until the monkeys surrounded us from the ground and above in the trees, jumping onto our table as soon as I turned my back while cooking. One took a precious squash and ran up the tree with it while I threw a fit down below. We dug out Leo’s slingshot and found some pebbles, shooting them at any of the pests who dared get close. From above, two monkeys fought over the squash and they dropped it, which I proudly retrieved. Half of it was still good. Leo worked on making a monkey trap out of rope.

Primates were not the only wildlife around the campsite. A herd of antelope came through in the middle of the day and on our second night, I heard several snorts and sighs outside our tent. I shone my flashlight out the window to see 6 elephants not 20 feet from us. Those were the times I was grateful our tent was high on top of our car.

On the second day in Tsavo, we toured the park. Tsavo is a huge park, known for its elephant population, still recovering from poaching wars, and for its stunning landscapes. We drove from one landscape to the next, enjoying the opportunities to get out of the car with the kids and walk near the Luggard Falls on the Galana River and on top of the huge Mudanda Rock. The scenery was truly incredible and it made for a fun day exploring with the boys.

Despite all the beauty and exploration, Eric and I were becoming more exhausted every day. I wasn’t getting much sleep at night, thanks to the strange sounds, (several which seemed concerning), and mosquitoes who mysteriously kept finding a way into our tent, yet seemed to only target me. My eyes were also causing me problems and they hurt like hell every time I put in my contacts. I cleaned my lenses several times and changed them, but nothing seemed to help except wearing my dreaded glasses for a while. By the time we left Tsavo, we were tired of the mud, tired of packing and unpacking, and just plain tired. We were ready for the beach.

Hitting Refresh: Days 9 - 11 of our Kenya Overland Trip

The drive from Ol Pejeta to Nairobi was a hot, miserable one without a working air conditioner. Eric had made an appointment at Nairobi’s Toyota dealership to get it fixed early the next morning, with the hope that we could be back on the road by early afternoon. We knew we would need our air conditioner in good condition going into Tsavo and on toward the Kenyan coast.

We didn’t know where we would stay until we got to Nairobi. All along the way, we looked at hotels online, shooting for a decent and cheap one near the Toyota dealership, but as we drove, our standards kept changing and we gave in a little more and a little more until we admitted just how tired we were and just how much we wanted a no-hassle place. We were only a quarter of the way into our month-long trip, but we splurged and decided to pamper ourselves for a night. We found a deal online for Ole Sereni, a luxurious hotel overlooking Nairobi National Park, meant to cater to safari-goers staying in Nairobi between Kenya’s other national parks. We were also on safari, although hardly not the clientele this place had in mind. They were looking for the kind of people who fly to their 5-star lodges in national parks, have drivers and rented Land Cruisers; the type of people who bought safari clothes for their adventure in exotic Africa and who would be served 5-course meals during their adventure. Needless to say, on this trip, we were not that type.

We pulled up to the hotel with our Land Cruiser covered in mud and packed to the brim. We were haggard, climbing out of the car with our sunburns, filthy bodies, and (surely) body odor. Nevertheless, the concierge met us with a smile and showed us to our room. The boys could hardly contain their energy in such a small room and immediately fell to wrestling on the bed. Pax picked up his bucket and shovels, but there was no dirt around to play in.

We took full pleasure in our stay. Although what Eric and I really wanted was to collapse on the beautifully soft bed and sleep, the boys (as always) had other things in mind. So we made use of the pool, had a nice dinner, and took long, hot showers. Before dawn the next morning, Eric took the car in to the garage to get her fixed up while I stayed at the hotel until the last possible minute with the boys, eating all we possibly could from the breakfast, and then some, stuffing our pockets with apples and croissants. The rest of the morning, we were split up, with Eric at the garage with Pax and me doing shopping and errands with Leo. Upon investigation under the hood, the A/C compressor on our Land Cruiser was kaput, and the A/C gas leak was traced to a worn out evaporator behind the glove-box, so spare parts for both were promptly sourced and replaced. Thankfully, the work was done around 3pm. We settled the bill and hit the road, aiming to make it to a roadside restaurant on the Mombasa highway, where we would camp for the night.

We arrived to Jet Inn Gardens just before nightfall. It was certainly not a destination - it was practically a truck stop with a lawn, but it was a decent stop on our way to Tsavo. We were shown a nice grassy area to set up the tent. We did a quick set-up while enjoying some sundowners and while the boys played on the playground with a large sand pile. Leo declared it his favorite place yet. We had dinner and breakfast at the restaurant and slept between the highway and the railroad tracks, hearing trucks and trains pass all through the night.