Scorpions, Snakes and Termites - Welcome to the Great Rift Valley

Day 6
7:00 Tent Breakdown
7:30 Breakfast
9:45 Leave for Eremit
1:15 Arrive at Eremit (eat lunch)
4:15 Nature Walk
6:30 Dinner



Driving to Eremit

   If you click on the location link at the bottom of this post "Eremit, Kenya" it will take you to Google Maps. Click "Satellite View" and you can actually see the Masai Village!! To be honest, I don't know if that's the exact one that we visited, but I spent quite some time on Google Maps looking for this place and think it's really cool!



The Great Rift Valley

   I wrote this about driving through a small area on our way out of Nairobi, "It looked like a village but very poor. They have a pharmacy and grocery store, but it didn't look well kept. It was also packed with people everywhere! They were selling lots of fruit in the streets. Everyone was friendly and waved to us - we must have been quite the sight, a caravan of army green trucks! There were "street goats" that don't belong to anyone and just wander around, there were also lots of donkeys around. I noticed a lot of Coke products too." And while on the truck, "It was a great view all the way down into the Rift Valley. It was bumpy and there were thorny trees that were banging the side of the truck - we had to lean forward every time one whipped by. The sound of the branches on the roof was like fingernails on a chalkboard." 


Ngong Hills. In Swahili, ngong means knuckle

Eremit

   Richard is a Masai Senior Elder. He met us at our camp site and took us on a nature walk. I wrote "We started out walking across the plains, dry and dusty - it was so hot and dry that as soon as you sweat, it evaporates! My teeth felt grimy. We walked a long way following a rugged path. Richard told many stories. We saw a lot of donkey poop (like ice cream cone swirls) and goat poop (little round pellets). It started raining on our way back. We were all brown from the dry dust kicked up. Even my arms and hands were dusty. We were grateful for the rain." As I read back at what I did 10 yeas ago today, I am so thankful for this experience of the arid heat and the relief of a welcome rain.



Nature Walk









Richard