We were due at Aberdare Country Club for lunch, so when Peter suggested a visit to a coffee plantation the coffee drinkers of the party were instantly happy (or it could have been the caffeine buzz).
What we actually went to see was the local University of Technology which also includes courses on tourism as well as it’s own coffee plantation, that’s one up on Stockport College I think.
Despite the initial reluctance of some of the party the 2 mile hike across the campus to the coffee plants started. On route Peter informed us that on the particular ground we were trekking across was the site of this year’s founder’s day rally, with 7000 camping and 40,000 visiting. I bet your now thinking that there was green grass as far as the eye could see with copious toilets and water points, okay maybe you weren’t thinking that, it was as best as I can describe scrubland, this was Greenfield camping at its ultimate.
The tour around the plants and drying frames was quite interesting until the phrase we need to go back up to the main buildings floated across the drying coffee beans. For those of us who are less fit, a sense of panic started to fill us followed by Ann saying, “I don’t do hills!” but panic not Gabrielle to the rescue, at the request of Peter, he had driven down the dirt track to provide us with a lift back.
Now a quick description of the coach is required. It has 20 normal seats, and then 7 fold away seats; these foldaway seats are less than comfy, not only do they lean back further than they should, they also slope backwards at about a 45 degree angle.
The quick description will now become obvious; we are 22 in number so we normally fill all of the good seats plus 2 of the foldaway seats. We had picked up Ruth and Peter from the BP centre making the group 24, no problems so far. When we arrived and walked down to the coffee plantation we collected a further 5 people and at the coffee drying frames we picked up a further security guard.
So with a party size of 30 and only enough seats for 27 (not forgetting all of the bags on the roof and the day bags in the bus) this was going to be tight. It was at this point we decided to go native, so up onto the roof went several people including Chubbs, Paul and Carl, not forgetting one of the University team in full business suit.
I am told it was a great view from the top of the bus and everything went well, albeit a bit bouncy. However, when the track run out and we turned onto the main road things got more interesting, those on top were wondering how fast was this bus going to go whilst those inside were trying to work out what activity this could go under on the insurance claim!!
You will all be pleased to know there were no problems as we were only on the main road for a couple of hundred yards before we stopped at the other campus and the coffee testing lab. I won’t bore you with the details of what we learnt there but Roy is offering a lecture tour for any groups or individuals that are interested.
So now fully educated in the art of coffee growing, roasting and tasting we set off for Aberdare Country Club and lunch.
The country club is located, as many things seem to be in Kenya, at the end of a bumpy dirt track. However, when we got there it was stunning with immaculate gardens and various wild animals roaming the grounds.
We had yet another 3 course lunch which was possibly the best yet, any weight we may have lost at Harambee has since been put back on. Lunch over we were loaded onto a bus for the 45 minute drive to the Ark.
Fifteen minutes of the drive was taken getting to the park gates, and you guessed it most of it was on a bumpy dirt track but this time we were told it was a Kenyan massage and it was free of charge. Continuing into the park, our free massage continuing, we were introduced to a tree which within local folklore has magical properties, apparently if you walk around it 7 times you change sex and under certain circumstances if you pointed at the tree you finger would fall off, strangely no of the blokes decided to have a quick comfort break at this tree!
We saw our first view of our accommodation through the trees; guess what it looks like an Ark!!
On arrival we were given a quick briefing on the evening activities which included the phrase we lock the doors at 6.30, very reassuring!
The accommodation was very good but could not surpass the feeling that went through you when as you sat looking out over the water hole a group of three elephants came wandering towards the water. There is a chance that more photos got took of those three elephants than what was taken in all of the previous 2 days.
There was during the evening a steady procession of various animals including wort hogs, water hogs, antelope, water buffalo, hyenas and water bucks. It was not until 2.00am that the highlight occurred for those of us that didn't sleep through the buzzer to warn us there were one of the “Big Five” at the watering hole.
Breakfast at the Ark was an early affair with a member of the hotel staff walking around with a small xylophone to wake us up, Martins first question on hearing it was “does this come with a snooze button?” followed by suggestions by Tom and Chubbs on how that would happen.
Breakfast consumed we were all piled back into a bus and driven back to Aberdare Country Club to meet up with our bus and our onward trip to Nairobi via the BP Centre to pick up some items some of the group had ordered from the Scout Shop.
On arrival we found out that we were famous again, this time not only getting a write up in one of the national papers but also a picture in another, Linnet Clough is an International press phenomenon.
The journey to Nairobi was fairly uneventful, however, on arrival in Nairobi it was something else. The traffic was unbelievable, at one round about designed for 3 lanes there were 5 lanes of traffic including lorries, motorbikes and a couple of blokes with a cart that appeared to be the remnants of an old car.
There is at some street corners modern street art that look remarkably like traffic lights, they change colour the same as ours and even stop on a red light but the people in cars etc seem to have little time to appreciate their beauty in an urban environment.
Wildebeest, once again down a dirt track, is how camping should be. The tents are really good with virtually everything you could wish for comfy beds off the floor en-suite, and to make us feel at home complete with rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment