Road Trip!

Road Trip!!!! Taking Mbuzi out for his first camping trip – let’s see how he handles it!

Of course first we’ve gotta prep. Planning and packing food and water, picking up a charcoal stove and a couple bags of charcoal, throwing a couple tents and blankets in the trunk, grabbing a machete and a shovel (for bushwacking and digging the car out of the mud, not for any more sinister activities!). Running around Mbita Town, grabbing all our supplies, I’m totally in the zone. I may look like a frantic flurry of activity to outsiders but I’m calm, focused, and absolutely loving life when planning a trip. Perhaps I should have been a safari guide, not a doctor. It’s not too late…

With the car stuffed to the brim with supplies and passengers, we head out. One hour ferry ride, 90 minute drive, and then navigating the insane traffic in Kisumu. Somehow we made it to the Nakumatt (giant shopping center) where we attempt to buy a more detailed road map. No such luck. But we were able to pick up a few ‘drinks’. So off we head, with a rough Lonely Planet map to guide us and a prayer.

The next few hours are tense. I’m not accustomed to the highway driving in Africa – the one lane that is supposed to accommodate two lanes of traffic, the insane passing on these narrow winding mountain roads…. I find myself in perpetual conflict: am I brave enough to try to overtake this slow moving lorry or do I sit behind it, breathing in it’s horrible exhaust and run the risk of not making it to camp before dark? Oh, and the speed bumps! Seriously, they come out of nowhere and are in the most inopportune places – oftentimes at the bottom of a steep hill – and they are rarely painted so you don’t see them until you are just about to bounce over them. I may have bruised the tops of my passengers heads a few times on unexpected speed bumps. Pole sana (So sorry)!

After a harrowing ride, we finally make it to Kakamega Forest and try to find our hostel. It’s just grown dark as well pull into the forest. We see a man on the side of the road. Probably just an ordinary farmer, but we’re utterly convinced that he’s sketchy and refuse to stop and ask him for directions. Which means we proceed on to what appears to be a ghost town. Dozens of seemingly abandoned houses scattered through the forest. No lights. No sounds. No welcoming committee to the hostel. Sketch! We’re sure this place in haunted now. We retrace our path and try another road. This time we find a hoard of children and a father who seems less sketchy, so we have him squish into the car and he escorts us back through the haunted village, through the sketchy gate that we avoided last time, and finally to the hostel – with people!! Phew. Made it.