Camel racing

The long awaited camel derby......

On Friday morning we set off, all rather excited and very unsure as to what we'd signed up for and why! I heard about the camel derby a year ago, when my friend Zoe took part, and I was desperate to go, so we organised a "coach" and about 25 of us, ranging in age up to 65! It took us nearly ten hours....the roads were incredible, the worst I've ever seen. Some had huge holes in the middle, you really have to see it to believe it!

I miss tarmac

 We only got stuck once, and so the journey was pretty good! A truck passed by soon after and kindly pulled us out.

Our "luxury" coach stuck in the mud!

On Saturday morning we all registered, I was thrilled to be 01!! Felt it would be the nearest to first I'd ever get!

Meredith and I sporting out gorgeous camel derby racing shirts and our "positions"

We then had the interesting task of choosing camels. Hmmm.... where to start? It was difficult to know whether to go for a feisty, spitting and growling camel, or a more placid one, and then is it best to go for a huge one or a smaller one?!

Cute camels....when they're not spitting!

 My friend decided to go for one with a good saddle, she is a genius!! I went for a camel with a wooden saddle with strong stirrups and fortunately have no cuts or scratches on my legs (the same cannot be said for most of the group!). We had to practice getting on and off and standing up whilst the camel was also standing. It was lovely to have camera crews filing during this! I got interviewed by two different TV channels, and was on TV on Sunday night!

The race began with a countdown and camels wandering round and bumping into each other.

I was shocked at how fast the camels set off. I had a camel leader and then 4 children with sticks willing the camel to go faster. I cannot describe the pain! My tail bone is so bruised! 11km of sitting/standing (it was a weigh up between aching legs in an uncomfortable position or bouncing hard on the camel) whilst gripping on, my hands soon blistered! I wanted to give up pretty much the whole time! We raced through small villages and across the area. There were lots of onlookers and crowds cheering us on.

Cute kids excitedly cheering us on

When the finish line came into view I thought it was a mirage, I cannot describe the happiness and relief.

Woohoo!!

 I came third out of the women and 7th out of 35 overall-completely shocking! I got a lovely medal, with a classic misspelling of derby as deby! I now have aching shoulders, sore legs, a very painful bottom and cut, blistered hands. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? No!

Meredith and I showing off our medals. Beer has never tasted so good!

We were on TV! Click to see!

In the evening there was an awards ceremony and a lot of speeches.....favourite quote: "Samburu (the county where the camel derby is held) is one of the most beautiful places on earth, but it does have its criminals." Ummmm.....ok.

One year post veggie

I ate eland yesterday and it was delicious!!!!!

YUMMY!!

Lake Baringo

My friend Sue and I went to Lake Baringo on the weekend, a few hours north of Nairobi. It was my first tented camp experience, and was wonderful! Waking up as the sun rose and seeing the view from your bed without having to go outside was amazing, especially as it was a proper bed and not a mat!

View from our tent

The lodge was lovely, and was on an island on the lake, so there was really nothing to do! It was amazing!! There were some lovely families there who had brought an array of fun inflatables so I enjoyed befriending the kids and playing with their toys in the pool whilst sipping on a chilled glass of wine! I couldn't believe how hot it was, absolutely scorching, a welcome change from cool Nairobi.

The lake has crocodiles and hippos so I was regularly checking and looking out, but sadly I never got a glimpse...everyone else did though. I did have crocodile dreams every night though so do feel I got my fair share of sightings! Poor Sue had to put up with my sleep talking....

There was limited power and no television on the island so I did disappointingly miss out on watching the Wales game (as SJ wasn't playing I was slightly less gutted), though I met another rugby fan and so we made the best of our resources and used his internet dongle to check the 2 minute updates on the BBC websites to see the scores.....not the same exciting adrenaline pumping experience but was definitely novel and fun!

Village trip

This weekend I went to visit a friend from the UK who is volunteering in Kisii, Western Kenya for the summer. My Swahili teacher, Jonah is from Kisii, so we decided to travel together for the weekend. We boarded a matatu from outside our house then got a coach for the 5 hour journey. I was pretty impressed with the comfort of the coach and the safe driving, until we decided to go off road, down a rather steep bank to avoid a hold up in the road......

Kisii is beautiful. It is so green and lush, especially as it generally receives daily rainfall. It is such a contrast to many parts of the country which are suffering terribly with drought and failed rains. We saw some amazing storms, with near constant lightning at times. It was actually really helpful as the town had a power cut, and the lightning really illuminated the place, though momentarily, which helped with finding the path when trying to get back to the hotel!

Jonah's family were so kind and welcoming. We prayed together a lot which was so nice. They all live in a village outside the town, and it was lovely how the extended family all live nearby. We met cousins and great uncles....the whole lot! They own quite a lot of land which they farm so we ate lots of lovely fresh produce and left with a rather heavy pumpkin which we had eaten the leaves from. They don't have electricity or running water yet, though there is hope that this will be set up soon. There were constant sounds of ring tones though (not mine!!!) They charge their phones at little dukas in the town, and just sit and wait until they're done. Jonah's dad asked me if there were any parts of the UK without electricity. Our worlds are so different.

One thing that is amazing about Kenyans is how friendly they are, and how much they smile...that is unless they are being photographed.

Jonah with some of his family members in their garden

We were served a huge amount of food. Tactical plate swapping had to occur at times! It was great to try some new traditional Kenyan dishes, though it made me realise just how different the British palate is. My favourite novelty drink was definitely the sour milk. I asked how it was prepared. The response was quite simply  pour milk into a bucket, cover it, leave it for a few days, then serve! Ooh lumpy! It really highlighted a big culture difference for me, in that if guests popped round to my house they would be lucky to get a cup of tea and possibly a biscuit, but here we were given hot meals irrelevant of the time of day. Some communication would have been appreciated as we would leave one house and promptly pop next door ready for round two!

Enjoying some delicious pumpkin in Jonah's house

On Saturday we went on a little trip to Tabaka, which is famous for soapstone carvings. We took a shared public car, there were 11 of us inside. 4 in the front (don't know how the driver managed to drive, as he was so pressed up to the window!), 4 in the back and 3 in the boot. Wow. Cosy! My shuttle bus home was the best though. It was quite smart, and we all had a seat each, well apart from the chicken that rather quietly sat underneath a seat.