Naivasha

Downtime.  Naivasha is the home of our guide Nella Nencini and after 3 fairly intensive weeks we have enjoyed some fabulous normalcy.  Naivasha is about 100 miles NW of Nairobi in the heart of the Great Rift Valley.  Lake Naivasha is roughly the size of Lake Washington but round.  It’s not great for swimming or boating given strong winds, hippos, invasive weeds, and sewage from numerous animals.  It is beautiful, however, from the hillside where we are staying.  We’re staying in the lovely home of the Ritchie family.  They live next to Nella on a 25 acre property with a pool and tennis court and just a really cool house.  He is a retired British Naval Captain, she a retired nurse and they have 6 grown kids.  They are away at their home on the Indian Ocean and have kindly rented their place to us.

After a few days of studying and swimming, we drove a couple of hours to Lake Nakuru National Park which is about 30 miles north of Naivasha.  In Seattle this would be like driving to Everett.  We decided to take the back roads and about two and a half hours later reached our destination.  Have I mentioned the roads in Africa?  The best roads are our equivalent of freeways except they have twice as much traffic, are one narrow lane each way, are filled with overloaded trucks (lorries) spewing diesel fumes driving at speeds varying by 30-40 mph, and are also shared by the occasional cattle herd, meandering goat, bicycles with wide loads of firewood sticks, and pedestrians.  The worst part is passing.  We were stuck behind a diesel spewing truck going about 30 in a 60.  Oncoming traffic was packed, and the next thing I know we’re being passed by a gas truck (big one for refilling gas stations) whose aggression forced oncoming traffic to stop and swerve off the road.  No room for meekness.  Evolution at work before our very eyes.  How I wanted to be safe in my airplane!  So those are the good roads.  Back roads consist mostly of jagged rocks, washouts, much larger herds of goats and cattle, more bikes and pedestrians, and the dust, oh the dust.  Any logging road in the US would be far superior.  So we made it to the park.  Despite feeling like we’d spent 2 ½ hours in a dusty clothes dryer, the park was amazing.  We were treated to lions, giraffe, white rhinos (about 20), thousands of monkeys, baboons, zebra, buffalo, antelope and hundreds of thousands of flamingos and pelicans.  I couldn’t believe how many birds we saw and apparently the flock grows into the tens of millions at different times of the year when the food supply increases.  Poa sana (Very cool).

A few days later we visited Naivasha town and walked through the local market.  Rather like Pike Place Market but dirt, 3’ wide passage lanes (fire lanes smire lanes) and shared by goats, dogs and chickens (for sale and running around).  If you want clothes then Kenya is the place for you.  They buy or receive containers full of lightly used clothing from good Samaritans in western countries then they sell these in packed stalls at extremely low prices.   We each have a 5 year supply of clothing packed for our journey so we refrained from purchasing but will likely add to our load when we visit the markets of Nairobi in a few weeks.  We then went to the sidewalk where copies of pirated dvds are sold.  Just slightly over $2 for a copy of all the latest releases.   The kids were really excited to buy some but I said no.  Despite spending thousands of dollars over the past 11 years on legitimate purchases at Costco and Itunes we must respect the laws of the United States and those poor Hollywood actors and directors and studios who are donating most of their proceeds to Nancy Pelosi.  I’d never incriminate myself, especially writing about it online.  Have you seen Kung Fu Panda 2?  Awesome!

We next visited the propagation farm of James Hutchings, Nella’s significant other (or half-husband as Halle wrote about in her journal).  Propagation sounds rather kinky but this is the breeding of plants, namely roses.  Kenya is the second largest rose exporter in the world (after Columbia) and Naivasha is rose central in Kenya.   James’ company is the largest supplier of rose “seedlings” in Kenya.  They take really healthy, sturdy rose stock and cut these into small 2” sections that contain at least one stem with at least 5 leaves.  These are then cut at a 45 degree angle and a new variety of rose is grafted to this stock.  After about 5 weeks of fertilizer, water and heat in a greenhouse, these are then fully healthy rose plants of the new species that was grafted to the root stock. 
 
The last few days have been dedicated to enjoying the wonderful home and grounds.  We’ve enjoyed a bit of tennis and the kids have spent about 10 hours in the pool.  Have I mentioned that kids enjoy swimming pools?  The owners of the house have about 6 dogs, a couple of cats, several tortoises and a parrot.  There is one little yippie/purse dog.  You can probably guess that I’m a fan of larger dogs.  Their one little dog loves to bark, and their parrot is constantly yacking.  I can now attest that the only thing worse than a constantly yipping dog is a constantly squawking parrot doing his yippie dog impersonation.  Damn parrot barks most of the day.  Hayden and Halle were calling for Sydney, then the parrot said “Hi Sydney!”  Then the kids asked "what did the parrot say?" and the parrot said “Not telling!”  Hilarious.

Yesterday we walked down to the airstrip to run and convinced the kids to join us.  This is fenced and thus safe from the few wild animals (mainly buffalo) that live around here.  The altitude is over 7,000 feet and I was proud of the kids for joining us.  Hayden jogged about 100 yards before being distracted by the rocks (lots of obsidian which has been used from the beginning of humankind for arrow and spear heads) and a herd of Impala.  Halle and Sydney jogged about 2.5 miles and were troopers.  Midlife crisis Bob Parr made it about 4.5 miles while marathon Traci ran 8.5.  Progress.

We’ve also managed to play a couple of 9 hole rounds of golf at the local course.  Unfortunately the benefits of the thin air at 7,000’ are outweighed by the lack of a golf glove, the use of 1970’s era rental clubs that are about 2” too short, and a single beat up golf ball that I’ve somehow managed to keep using.  Hayden played 9 with Traci, me and James and he was just beaming with his big old smile the whole time.  He is getting very good and can easily keep pace which is a very cool milestone for his father.

The kids are doing great and have adjusted really well.  We were told that they would massively learn new things via direct absorption and that certainly is happening.  They have seen and remembered hundreds of new animals and birds, have had their eyes filled with completely foreign sites and scenes, and have picked up and used a few tidbits of Swahili.  They are constantly meeting new people and we’re super proud to see them looking each person in the eye, shaking their hands, and using great manners.  They are also for the most part being kind to each other.  Sydney has really taken Halle under her wing and their friendship continues to blossom.  The African men love Hayden, calling him warrior and enjoying his love of spears, arrows and all things boy.  Each of our kids seems more mature and capable by the day.  Hard to say if they are enjoying this trip more than if they were at home, at the lake, with friends, etc.  I think it is safe that they are equally happy, laughing as much, and learning more.  We’ve tried to have them spend an hour or two studying each day, with the understanding that the amount of formal studying will increase significantly after Africa.

Tomorrow we depart for the Chyulu Hills national reserve (about 100 miles SE of Nairobi) for our long anticipated 4 day horseback safari.  We’ve all practiced quite a bit over the last few weeks, especially Sydney and she has completely regained her confidence since taking a few spills during her last training session in Seattle.  She has been super courageous and has spent more time riding here than any other.  The riding here is all done on English saddles which are different than those used in North America.  These saddles are slimmer, and most prominently they don’t have a saddle horn (aka anti-falling, life-saving, hand-hold). This area is supposed to be beautiful with lots of giraffe and zebra and other plains game which are very approachable by horse, along with the occasional elephant which should be avoided.  We’ll be really close to Mt. Kilimanjaro which should be interesting.  Giddy up!