Oh yes, I should backtrack. Milanne's parents, Doug and Michele, arrived Thursday night. They came bearing 3 suitcases full of gifts. It was like Christmas: Round 2. Two suitcases were full of toys and clothes for kids from the orphanage and in town. The last suitcase had gifts for Beautiful, Benson, and Salima. Some home baked goods and candies and other snacks from home that have been almost demolished by now.
So back to Kakamega. After our short nap, we laced up and headed on a river walk with our guide Nancy. It was a great walk through the forest with a lot of up and down. I started to get tired out after an hour and a half and my steps got sloppy. I had to force myself to pick up my feet to avoid slipping and rolling down a cliff into the depths of the forest. After a couple hours of hiking, we reached the river. There was a small stretch of rapids that we relaxed by. Katie and I climbed onto some rocks in the midst of the rapids and washed our feet in the water. It was fun until we couldn't figure out a way back to the shore. I had to take off my shoes and trudge through the water, but I managed to step on a thorny twig the second I slipped off my shoes.
We pre-ordered dinner at the reserve's canteen - a small wood hut with 2 picnic tables inside and a notebook to write down orders. We each ordered chicken, rice, and vegetables. The vegetables were a plate of potatoes, kale, and tomatoes. It was delicious. The rice was a massive bowl that would have fed about 3... we ordered 6 of these. The chicken was a gamble. Some of us got hearty pieces, while others got small drumsticks. Either way, it took all of us about 30 minutes to chew one bite... Michele couldn't eat hers with the roosters running around her feet. The chickens even got into a fight and provided us with some after-dinner entertainment.
After dinner, we looked at the menu to order breakfast for the next day. Having learned our lesson with the rice at dinner, we asked about portion sizes for breakfast. Turns out this was a very smart move as one order of toast turned out to be an entire loaf of bread. We paid about 3 dollars for 3 eggs, the loaf, and some butter to feed 6 people.
That night, we were in bed by 6:30pm. We even beat the sun to bed. It was much needed as I slept solid until our 4:30am wake-up call. We were on route by 5am. We rounded up 13 British teachers who arrived too late the night before and had to place to sleep so they slept on the concrete floor of the rangers' office. So the 20 of us headed out in the darkness with our flashlights for an hour and a half walk. The last 20 minutes was a steady uphill, and the last stretch was pretty much a climb. The sky was bright by then and the air was thin so we were all huffing and puffing and scraping our way up to the top of the hill. I was the first one up to the top because Katie diverted onto the wrong path and disappeared for a bit while accidentally taking a much more challenging route.
Once we recovered at the top, we sat there for a good 45 minutes enjoying the sunrise and taking in the view of all of Kakamega's 240 square kilometres. There was steam and fog coming from the rivers and lakes within the forest. We were at the highest point in the forest and it looked endless.
After a much easier trek down the hill (except for the first steep bit down that made a few of us slip), we headed back to the canteen for breakfast for our loaf of bread and eggs. We were joined again by our feathery friends... you can probably guess that Michele didn't have eggs either. Then we relaxed (...napped) for about 90 minutes in our rooms before heading off on the "intro hike"... which we did last... ? But it turned out to be a great idea because it was mostly flat and Nancy showed us a lot of plants and monkeys in the forest. So there wasn't much effort involved, which was nice since we were all beat at this point.
We only last about an hour and a half on the last walk. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the deck of our guesthouse facing the forest. A huge thunderstorm came through and I was in all my glory. After it cleared up, we headed to a nearby retreat resort for dinner. It was a much fancier place than where we were staying and they're geared towards religious retreats. We had 2 hours to kill before we were able to eat so we sat in their garden drinking tea and listening to Doug complain about them not serving beer at this place. At 6, we went to the dining room for the set menu dinner. Leek soup, then roast with potatoes, snap peas, and carrots. And gravy! We were very happy... especially when they came around asking us if we wanted seconds. I made sure I got my 1,200 shillings worth (~$15 CDN). They even had bread at the table... something I haven't seen since leaving Canada.
The next morning, Katie and I got up early again and headed out as the sun was getting up to catch our bus. We opted for a more.... hmmm... let's say, local bus. It was a massive and very worn bus with 5 seats in a row. It made frequent stops during the first 2 hours. Kids going to school got on and off, as well as many others. One very smelly man sat next to Katie and we had to open the window and almost stick our heads out to avoid smelling him. Luckily, he got off at the next stop and we could go back to breathing easy. That's when the lady with the chicken in her arms got on and sat there with it on her lap. I think there might have been another chicken in a box under the seat a couple rows ahead of us. It was another 6 hours from there, with one pit stop on the side of the road. I decided I could wait until Nairobi instead of using nature's washroom.
At 2pm, we finally got dropped off in Nairobi, except not in the spot we thought we would. We were tired and in completely unfamiliar territory, so we found a cab and made our way to the house. Finally.
No countdown? Did you at least figure out what you're going to wear?
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