While I was sitting in a car park on the main campus, a couple of students came to the tree next to my car, and one climbed it to get the guavas, which are very ripe and sweet-smelling at present. The other made a receptacle out of his sweatshirt, quite ingenious, but still missed a few when they were thrown down. They offered me some of the loot and then wandered off with laptop and scrumped guavas over their shoulders. <<...>> <<...>>
I had intended to go down this side-road. There are some very long lorries here but fortunately there were lots of people ready to give advice and directions. If only they’d all given the same advice and direction. <<...>>
Breakdowns are not at all uncommon. One wonders about the effect of overloading. There are no MOT tests; if there were, I wonder how much public transport would remain. <<...>>
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I am fortunate that my compound has many visiting birds, often in the small corner near the swimming pool (the one almost no-one uses). Even this week I found a new (to me) species. These Speckled Mousebirds are not so new, but they are good fun to see.
They are generally in groups and walk through bushes, dragging their long tails behind them.
Here are two being friendly on the electric fence. <<...>>
I was surprised to see this slogan in lights over a Government ministry door; it was the Treasury.
Actually, it refers to the national anthem (see a few entries further down) and was one of a series of slogans and cheery greetings that flashed up in turn.
We were meant to fly to Lamu from Malindi but when the 32 seat Saab turboprop came in from Nairobi the captain came in (it's a tiny lounge at Malindi airport) and said he didn't like a tear in one of the tyres and so he wouldn't fly to Lamu. "It might last one more take-off and landing". We were therefore shunted to a hotel for the night to wait for the next day’s flight. (“Scorpio Villas” was fine, but initial impressions were not favourable; there had been a fire in December and the first buildings we saw were burned and crumbling.) When we returned next day, the plane had disappeared, and lo-and-behold it arrived with passengers from Nairobi. I asked what had happened; had a tyre been brought up before the plane went to Nairobi? Apparently not, the plane had simply gone to Nairobi after we had left. As we were about to board the plane to Lamu, please note, the girl told us the pilot thought he could land the plane at Nairobi but Lamu was "a bit rough"!
On landing at Lamu the fire tender was on hand, but parked under a tree with its cab up for servicing the engine, rather than prepared for action. The ground staff just changed their fluorescent jackets to suit the incoming flight and picked a handcart with the label of the relevant hotels to carry passengers’ luggage. There was a mechanical weighing machine and even an X-ray machine with a generator to power it, all under a thatched roof with no walls.
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Quite long but easy to read in chunks. Shows trends in behaviour across the continent and fits all too well with what has happened in Kenya and is happening elsewhere now.
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In no special order:
A stuck lorry near Masai Mara. Irony: the lorry was carrying rocks to improve the road!
Our land cruiser broke a bracket supporting the rear fuel tank; passers-by gather to assist and it is sorted out with a piece of rope.
A road is under re-construction, a lorry jams in the muddy by-pass and the villagers erect a thorny pole to block the better route until they get money.
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The rains have started with a couple of torrential downpours, one on the day we got back from safari.
Outside the flat there were swarms of insects in the dusk, something I’d not seen before, but then a few dozen of them came in.
They shed their wings, or in some cases only one wing, and revealed themselves to be termites looking for a new nest.
There were more piles of wings on the communal stairs and pretty much everywhere we went in the next couple of days, though never in vast numbers.
Those who came into my flat were met with what I sometimes say is my second favourite smell: Doom. (“Stops all Dudus dead”). Just for the record, my favourite smell would be DEET, the only insect repellent that works.
(They must work, I’m glad to say I’ve had very few bites while in Kenya.)
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I’ve looked for leopards on three safaris over 20 years, but at last we found them!
A mother and cub was known to be in a small copse, but had proven hard to find. (They hunt at night and lie-up during the day).
These pictures show all contain a leopard cub (honest). The mother had taken a Grant’s Gazelle up the tree and we saw the cub feeding, and later saw it resting on the ground. The mother hid better but was seen, in part, eventually. <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>>
