We gave Kennedy our smaller wind-up torch - he lives without light in his hut and clearly likes to read, we gave Sebastian who must be about 8 and who guided us into the campsite yesteday a school notebook - but as soon as we started the engine another guy who had appeared yesterday and we didn't like the look of appeared and took it from him! Sebastian ran round to follow us out, so we gave hm a pen, a pencila nd some more sweets which hopefully he will have been able to keep for himself.
Back through those lovely roadworks, down the hill into Kisumu, find our way round town and onto the nice road out towards Kericho.
Near Mbale we spotted what at first appeared to be crows circling, suddenly Su declared them to be very large bats - over 100 of them! All the way to Kericho the land is cultivated - the town itself was very busy nd crowded, ot the tranquikl ex-colonial town we had been led to believe, but so much better than Kisii. We looked for Tuskers supermarket, but the entrance seemed to be via the main market area - extraordinarily crowded, so we went to Pak Mart on the main road instead - very good selection and very fresh food.
When we got to the Tea Hotel - originally built by Brooke Bonds - we were initially impressed by the exterior - a very impressive building. We had heard so much about the ex-colonial charm of this place, and particularly the interior, so we were a bit shocked to see the state of it - it no longer holds much charm at all, all of the stuffed animal heads seem to have been replaced with cheap looking plaster castings, there really doesnt seem to be much left of the interior fittings and a closer look at the building showed that the roof is beginning to collapse. Made us think of the "M-word" again, so missing in much of Africa (that's M for Maintenance in case you've not read the entire blog!).
We were shown to the campsite - a nice green area - but as we entered the staff were hurredly trying to pick up cow pats from the area (it was clear that no-one had camped here for some time), there was a pile of dirty nappies thrown on the ground and a quick look showed that the toilets/showers seemed to have been left to cave in. Whenwe asked what facilities we could use there was some confusion, initially they showed us to the staff facilities before coming back half an hour later with a key to one of the rooms. Whenwe went to it we were agian taken aback by the state of the place - it was obviously once a very upmarket hotel, but now it really ahs fallen to rack and ruin. The upside of this place has to be the gardens - huge and well maintained(!) - we walked throught hem to a small stile into the tea fields at the back and walked down to the river at the bottom - it was nice to be able to just wander around the tea plantation at will.
It rained this evening just before dusk, not just rain, but a proper downpour of about 20 minutes. This is possibly the heaviest rain we've seen yet.
Back through those lovely roadworks, down the hill into Kisumu, find our way round town and onto the nice road out towards Kericho.
Near Mbale we spotted what at first appeared to be crows circling, suddenly Su declared them to be very large bats - over 100 of them! All the way to Kericho the land is cultivated - the town itself was very busy nd crowded, ot the tranquikl ex-colonial town we had been led to believe, but so much better than Kisii. We looked for Tuskers supermarket, but the entrance seemed to be via the main market area - extraordinarily crowded, so we went to Pak Mart on the main road instead - very good selection and very fresh food.
When we got to the Tea Hotel - originally built by Brooke Bonds - we were initially impressed by the exterior - a very impressive building. We had heard so much about the ex-colonial charm of this place, and particularly the interior, so we were a bit shocked to see the state of it - it no longer holds much charm at all, all of the stuffed animal heads seem to have been replaced with cheap looking plaster castings, there really doesnt seem to be much left of the interior fittings and a closer look at the building showed that the roof is beginning to collapse. Made us think of the "M-word" again, so missing in much of Africa (that's M for Maintenance in case you've not read the entire blog!).
We were shown to the campsite - a nice green area - but as we entered the staff were hurredly trying to pick up cow pats from the area (it was clear that no-one had camped here for some time), there was a pile of dirty nappies thrown on the ground and a quick look showed that the toilets/showers seemed to have been left to cave in. Whenwe asked what facilities we could use there was some confusion, initially they showed us to the staff facilities before coming back half an hour later with a key to one of the rooms. Whenwe went to it we were agian taken aback by the state of the place - it was obviously once a very upmarket hotel, but now it really ahs fallen to rack and ruin. The upside of this place has to be the gardens - huge and well maintained(!) - we walked throught hem to a small stile into the tea fields at the back and walked down to the river at the bottom - it was nice to be able to just wander around the tea plantation at will.
It rained this evening just before dusk, not just rain, but a proper downpour of about 20 minutes. This is possibly the heaviest rain we've seen yet.