STRABANE GRAMMAR WORLD CHALLENGE KENYA EXPEDITION FIRST WEEK By Stephen Birkett Wednesday 25th July 2007 I teach at Strabane Grammar School and I am on a four-week expedition to Kenya with eleven of my pupils and past-pupils. The Expedition is organized by a company called ‘World Challenge’. Most of the challengers will use this as their Duke of Edinburgh's Award Expedition. They are: Michael Caldwell of Hollyhill; Paul Gray of Ballymagorry; Anna Jones of Donemanagh; Andrew Kennedy of Magheramason; Philip Lee of Ballymagorry; Trevor McGerrigle of Barrontop Farm; Alison O'Connell of Beldoo; Gareth Ostojic of Peacock Road; Victoria Sayers of Ballyheather Road; Andrew Smith of Derry Road and David Smyth of Liscloon. World Challenge has provided two English leaders; Charlie and Fay.   We are at the end of our first week in Kenya. The expedition started badly as Victoria was unwell and was not allowed to travel with us. This week was the acclimatization week. You might think we had to get used to the climate but it was actually colder in Nairobi than Strabane! We camped one night in a leafy suburb of the city, changed money, bought food and left by the bus hired for us for the week for the Rift Valley. First we crossed the Kikuyu highlands with its sprawling suburbs and pocket handkerchief sized farms. As these Petered out they were replaced by forests. We left the main road to Nakuru and dropped down into the Rift Valley down the steep Kikuyu Escarpment. We stopped at a view-point to look down into the valley and were immediately surrounded by souvenir sellers. The youngsters were drawn into a shop where some of them bought trinkets. Then we headed into the town of Naivasha where the youngsters had their first experience of a real African town. They were amazed by the sounds, sights and smells. The main street is tarred and the footpath is a raised concrete construction under an awning; practically a veranda on each shop. Between the path and the road there is a stinking drain. Litter is everywhere and everything looks half built. All the shops are adorned with brightly coloured, hand painted signs. The street is full of people. The men are mostly dressed in loose-fitting shirts and pants with dusty shoes or sandals. Some men are in neat business suits with clean, pressed shirts and smart ties. The women are all in skirts or kangas, the Kenyan equivalent to a sarong. Some wear blouses, some tee-shirts and some in bright, traditional costume. Occasionally you see a woman with a sling on her back and you might be lucky enough to see a little sleepy head peering out at the world. The general atmosphere of relaxed fun is reinforced by jangling African music blaring out of bars and shops. The bus had a puncture so we had to wait over an hour for it to be fixed. A bus full of Muzungus (whites) attracted the attention of every tout and beggar in the town and soon the bus was besieged by people hawking everything from lollipops to tribal masks and little boys asking for 10 shillings. Finally we reached 'Fish Eagle Camp', a gorgeous campsite on the shore of Lake Naivasha. A short, green lawn dotted with Acacia trees separates the lake from a nice hotel. This is where we were to camp. This spot is famous for its birds. In a short time I saw pelicans, kingfishers, ibis, storks, lovebirds, cormorants, weaver birds, shrikes, hoopoes, brilliantly coloured starlings, woodpeckers and many other interesting birds. Our first expedition was up Longonot, a dormant volcano that looms over the lake. We left camp at about 6-30 to drive to the Park Gate. The walk to the summit was only 6km but it was steep and very dusty. After about an hour and three-quarters we reached the rim of the crater and looked down through swirling mist to the mysterious wooded floor a couple of hundred feet below. The whole trek took six hours and afterwards we went to a nature reserve on the shores of Lake Naivasha where we walked through herds of giraffe, zebra, impala, water buck and buffalo. The latter are very aggressive so the armed park ranger kept a wary eye on them. The highlight was when two impala stags locked antlers right in front of us. The last part of the day was a boat trip on the lake to see the birds and the hippos. Again we were treated to male aggression when two hippos erupted out of the water, jaws agape. When we got back to the campsite we discovered that monkeys had got into the tent shared by David and the two Andrews; the cooks for the day. They had stolen much of the food we'd bought the day before; not a normal problem on Duke of Edinburgh's Award hikes! The next morning the cooks and I went into town to replace the monkey thefts and the rest had a welcome lie in. In the afternoon we visited a snake park and some Paul, Trevor and Philip got holding a huge python. What was more interesting than the snakes was the reactions of a class of primary school children who were at the same time fascinated and horrified by the huge reptile. On Saturday the weather was better and we went into Hell's Gate National Park . Hell's Gate is a wide gorge with savannah grassland on its floor. Driving through we saw more of the animals we had seen before plus warthogs and the incredibly cute rock hyraxes; rabbit-sized animals which would take food from your hand. At the ranger post the guide walked us down into a narrow gorge within the main gorge. This spectacular walk took us through narrow canyons with sculpted walls. At intervals along the way hot springs streamed down the walls. This geothermal phenomenon is what gives the gorge its name. At one  point we had to get down a steep water shoot with hot water cascading down on us. The furthest point we reached was what the guide called the geysirs but which were, in fact, springs where scalding hot water bubbled and hissed from the ground. The locals boil eggs in these hot springs . On Sunday we left Naivasha for the eight-hour drive to Kilgoris. We arrived at this small town in the Kenyan Highlands surrounded by lush, green farms on rich, red soil. The team showed how well they have adapted because the hotel wanted 800 shillings a head, that's about £6 but Michael and Paul  bargained them down to 400 shillings. During this transaction Trevor wandered out of the gate and soon attracted a huge crowd of excited children as he handed out pencils and notepads he had brought as gifts. On Monday they actually were ready to leave at 6-30 as planned but the bus had a flat so we didn't get away until 7-30. It was only about 50 miles to the Masai Mara but the road was awful. It was a standard Kenyan road simply cut out of the hard-packed earth. For some of the way it was smooth enough but in parts it was rocky or rutted. It was after ten before we started our game drive; much too late to see any action. We saw plenty of elephants and giraffes as well as the usual zebra and gazelles. We did see lions and cheetahs but they were hiding up for the day. Even so, the team was impressed by the sheer abundance of big game on the plains. We camped near the entrance gate with nothing between us and the wildlife. How many Duke of Edinburgh's Award camps have elephants wandering blithely past them as ours was? We were all (but one) ready to go at six on Tuesday morning. After a few harsh words the last body was on the bus and we were off on our second game drive. At that time of the morning the animals are much more active and we saw hyenas and jackals. The highlight of the morning was seeing a big male lion crunching up a baby zebra he had killed. At least that was the highlight until I got a text message from Victoria saying that World Challenge had passed her as fit to travel and that she would be arriving in Nairobi at 7-20 the next morning.   On the way back we stopped a Masai village where the team again had to bargain to get a decent entry fee. They wanted £10 a head to get in. They ended up paying £6 for the whole group to go in but they did buy some souvenirs when they were there.   Now I am sitting with Victoria in Nakuru after meeting her in Nairobi this morning. I had to get a bus at 5 last night to a town called Kisii then get a bus at 7 for Nairobi. The first bus was a matatu, a minibus that is supposed to seat 15 but which had 23 passengers at one point. Then I got the night bus to Nairobi. The seat was small and hard and the lights were off all the way so I couldn't read. I can't believe you were supposed to sleep either as really loud African music was blaring out of the speaker above me. The road was awful, for most of the way it seemed like we were driving across the rubble of a demolition site and the bus filled which a choking dust that made me sneeze and left me with streaks where my nose had run. The bus arrived in Nairobi at 2am but no one got off; everyone slept in the bus until the matatus started at 5am! A driver was supposed to meet me at 5 but he had been held up so I had tea and mandazi (sort of bread cooked by deep frying) until he arrived at 7am. Then the dash to the airport and the drive to here.   The team has gelled well and they are getting better at getting packed and ready to go. They are also getting good at shopping and making a meal for thirteen on four camping stoves which is no mean feat. More importantly they are getting used to African ways and this is going to be very important for next week when they will be helping to build a school.