The adventure begins in proper adventure style. One of the camel men, Tingean, got "lost" in Nyahururu on the way down, while buying himself a phone for the trip. After much searching, waiting and going back to look for him he was eventually abandoned, but managed to find his own way down to Soysambu well after dark, to everyone's relief. Luckily he had done the route before so knew how to get here. Karasha, our Loita Maasai guide, was also "lost" trying to find his way here. Barabara had been detailed to meet up with him and bring him in, but Karasha had ended up somewhere near Nakuru, instead of at Pipeline, where the Nyahururu matatus come in to. So there was a lot of toing and froing between them trying to find where each other was, until they finally connected up.
And Chris Swift's bags also got lost somewhere between Inverness and Nairobi. A lot of merriment over the remainder of his luggage - two bottles of whisky and some oats. That's all a Scotsman needs! Luckily Rory was well organized, packed all neat and tidy, and ready to be picked up in the morning by Chris.
There was no way all our luggage for this safari and a coming school trip was going to fit into one pickup, along with the three other camel men traveling with us, Hassan, Simon and Tingean, so we loaded up into our two stalwart vehicles. And all that has to be carried on our sixteen camels for the next three months!
We spent some time in Nyahururu on the way down, apart from waiting for lost persons, gathering last minute supplies, like water cans. It's been hard to find what we need, but John managed to get enough of the square ones today for 3 camels; enough to see everyone on this section across to Bisil, but we still need to find another twelve 20 lt cans to see everyone across Tsavo.
And tomorrow the walking begins, with a sense of excitement at the coming adventure. Even Mutura and Tatty are excited, chasing each other around, and in and out of the tent. Tatty let out a miaow of excitement as he saw the tent on arrival at our camel boma on Soysambu. Put your walking boots on, and let's go.
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