Our flight landed in Nairobi on Saturday morning, following an overnight flight. Despite the tiredness, the sense of excitement and thrill was palpable – along with an overpowering dry heat. As you would expect for a country on the equator, Kenya is hot. After 3 months of the English Winter it was more than welcome, but after two days of accumulating sunburn the novelty may soon wear off.
During our trip around Kenya we are going to be accompanied by two helpers. The Cricket Kenya representative, David, and our driver, Ibrahim. It is great to have David, a man who works every day with the Schools and the children here to guide us. Our first challenge was to try and fit our 4 large bags of cricket gear, a large cricket net, many suitcases and 7 weary travellers into our minibus. It was quite a squeeze – we can’t wait to meet the children and pass on the clothing and equipment we have brought on to the schools.
Driving through Nairobi was my first taste of an African city, and immediately I was struck by the vivid colours, of the plants, flowers, and painted on the buildings, colour bursting forth from every corner. Our route took us through the gridlock of Nairobi, where every third vehicle appears to be a minibus packed to the rafters, spewing out black exhaust fumes. After a few miles we climbed into the Central area, a plain at altitude which is rich for farming. The route out of Nairobi is lined with street vendors selling all kinds of exotic fruit and vegetables. The view was spectacular as we crossed over the highlands looking down to the Great Rift Valley, towards Nakuru, our destination.
Speaking to Ibrahim, it was clear that we have quite a task to sell cricket to the locals. He, like many others in Kenya are football mad, and on the streets you see Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United shirts in abundance. When we arrived at Rift Valley Sports Club in Nakuru the cricket club bar was packed with people watching the Premier League football. So, stage one of our initiative starts here, we unloaded our cricket net and began testing it out. Within a few minutes, these strange Englishmen playing their new game had attracted some curious glances, within half an hour around a dozen local kids were running round – learning how to bowl, bat and soon we had organised a group game of Kwik Cricket. The enthusiasm of the young children was infectious, and also it was striking how athletic many of the kids were.
Finally we returned back to our accommodation that night – and the hotel had laid on quite a reception. The balcony was filled with rose petals and the whole area transformed with red and white balloons, there were even heart shaped tablecloths. It was quite a disappointment to find this was in honour of the local cricket club and their valentine’s day party – so nothing to do with us! The loud music carried on into the night, but I was so tired I fell asleep almost instantly.
Sunday arrived, and with our cricket coaching starting Monday this was our first (and possibly only) day off and chance to explore the local environment. Nakuru is located right next to the massive Lake Nakuru National Park, and the opportunity to explore the wildlife was too great to pass up.
So, with our minivan roof propped up we went wandering along the national park routes, a series of tracks surrounding the large lake near Nakuru. I’m not a great wildlife expert, but, based on my knowledge and comments from others, the animals we saw included Rhinos, Giraffes, Lions (a rare sight on any Game Reserve), Flamingos, Gecos, Waterbucks, Babboons, Zebras, Monkeys, Pelicans, Ostriches, Malibus, Rock Cyrixes, Antelopes, Ibexes, Ibises, Buffalos and Impalas. It was quite breathtaking to be surrounded by such a mix of creatures, living wild in their natural environment. And I haven’t even mentioned, because I have no idea what they were, the multicoloured sparrows and the blue lizard with an orange head that somewhat resembled Spiderman.
My favourite animals out of these were the Buffalos, with their fantastically grumpy facial expressions, and the Rhinos, which are just immense creatures, so huge and impassive.
After this we retreated back to Nakuru town centre, for a few bottles of Tusker, the local beer which is available at 130 shillings (£1) a bottle. After a hard day in the sun, this is a godsend. The range of food on offer is fantastic, on Sunday night, hidden towards the back of a supermarket in what first appeared to be a storeroom we discovered an amazing Indian restaurant. After this it was an early night, we are coaching at a teachers college in the countryside tomorrow, I can’t wait to get started.