After 4 days in the park we decided that we probably needed a rest before heading off to Tsavo as the only accomodation there is "in the park" and we would want to make the most of our time there. As there are no accomodation options between Amboseli and Tsavo we decided to stay at Kimana for a day.
While on the campsite a "delegation" from the nearby Masaai village came round to see us, includng the "Chief", it all started off low-key, Sue chatting with them about life in general, then came the sell - "Do you want to come to see our village - its's a Masaai Experience?" - it's not expensive - only 3000 shillings (that's £20). Sue was interested, and for her sake I went too..... As we got to the entrance to the village a small group of both men and women came out to give a welcome consisting of a dance plus singing - actually itwas quite good - Masaai dancing involves what could once have been called pogo-dancing and the singing is quite reminiscent of acapella. Once over we were taken into the village itself, inside a thorn fence was a circle of huts made from cow dung and sticks with thatch over plastic sheeting surrounding the central area where they keep their animals overnight. Even though the animals weren't there at the time, large quantities of flies still were. These were quite annoying, but it was interesting to see how the children seem to be able to totally ignore them even when they are practically in their eyes and mouths. We were shown inside a hut - these people really don't seem to have possesions - apart from beds made of branches and leather there was almost nothing else inside at all. After this the Medicine Man's son explained how they use varios woods to cure ailments and then came the .....Masaai Market. Oh yippee! We were sheperded around a selection of people all selling very similar items with our "guides" trying to persuade us to buy items, the sellers all trying to place items in our hands all the while with flies in abundance. Sue suddenly declared that she wasn't enjoying this and wanted to leave - so we did and that was the end of the Masaai Experience. Phew.
After this, I decided to have a look at the fridge - in the heat it had started to run almost continuously, except maybe from 2am onwards. This was draining the domestic batteries overnight to the point that by morning we were almost out of power. Pulling the fridge out I noticed that ice was building up on the pipe returning coolant to the compressor - this was a clue as to what needed doing. Over a couple of hours I adjusted the coolant slightly and the fridge started to run better - much better. More details are on the page http://turnleftatcairo.weebly.com/fridge-automatic-extractor-fan.html. As it turned out this was lucky - read on!!!!!
As we intended to head off into Tsavo next I decided to top up the water, but again there was no easy source nearby although the water at Kimana seemed quite good. As a result it was back to the bucket/pump method - I managed to get about 50 litres in before the pump stopped pumping altogether. A quick strip of the pump revealed that half of the impeller blades were damaged - and I hadn't included a spare impeller in our stores - lesson learnt. With the water that we now had we should be able to get through Tsavo and probably all the way to Arusha if we are careful.
While on the campsite a "delegation" from the nearby Masaai village came round to see us, includng the "Chief", it all started off low-key, Sue chatting with them about life in general, then came the sell - "Do you want to come to see our village - its's a Masaai Experience?" - it's not expensive - only 3000 shillings (that's £20). Sue was interested, and for her sake I went too..... As we got to the entrance to the village a small group of both men and women came out to give a welcome consisting of a dance plus singing - actually itwas quite good - Masaai dancing involves what could once have been called pogo-dancing and the singing is quite reminiscent of acapella. Once over we were taken into the village itself, inside a thorn fence was a circle of huts made from cow dung and sticks with thatch over plastic sheeting surrounding the central area where they keep their animals overnight. Even though the animals weren't there at the time, large quantities of flies still were. These were quite annoying, but it was interesting to see how the children seem to be able to totally ignore them even when they are practically in their eyes and mouths. We were shown inside a hut - these people really don't seem to have possesions - apart from beds made of branches and leather there was almost nothing else inside at all. After this the Medicine Man's son explained how they use varios woods to cure ailments and then came the .....Masaai Market. Oh yippee! We were sheperded around a selection of people all selling very similar items with our "guides" trying to persuade us to buy items, the sellers all trying to place items in our hands all the while with flies in abundance. Sue suddenly declared that she wasn't enjoying this and wanted to leave - so we did and that was the end of the Masaai Experience. Phew.
After this, I decided to have a look at the fridge - in the heat it had started to run almost continuously, except maybe from 2am onwards. This was draining the domestic batteries overnight to the point that by morning we were almost out of power. Pulling the fridge out I noticed that ice was building up on the pipe returning coolant to the compressor - this was a clue as to what needed doing. Over a couple of hours I adjusted the coolant slightly and the fridge started to run better - much better. More details are on the page http://turnleftatcairo.weebly.com/fridge-automatic-extractor-fan.html. As it turned out this was lucky - read on!!!!!
As we intended to head off into Tsavo next I decided to top up the water, but again there was no easy source nearby although the water at Kimana seemed quite good. As a result it was back to the bucket/pump method - I managed to get about 50 litres in before the pump stopped pumping altogether. A quick strip of the pump revealed that half of the impeller blades were damaged - and I hadn't included a spare impeller in our stores - lesson learnt. With the water that we now had we should be able to get through Tsavo and probably all the way to Arusha if we are careful.