Day 142: Nakuru to Naiberi River Campsite & Retreat

The Monkeys watched Netflix until after 01:00 in the morning, so Hugo stayed in bed until just before breakfast at 09:20. The Aucamps made a delicious quiche-like spinach and bacon scrambled egg bake.

Sekar got a dentist appointment for 10:30 and went with Johan and Daniel in a matatu to the Westside Mall. She got medicine as there wasn’t much the dentist could do without repeat visits, x-rays and potential operations.

We said goodbye to the Aucamps at 13:00 and went into Nakuru to buy cheese at the Cheese Palace. We also got samoosas and yoghurt for lunch. We wanted to get to Kitale as we want to cross the Suam border tomorrow, but after three hours of driving half of it in the rain, we decided to look for something around Eldoret. We got to Eldoret at 16:21 and Caro found a nice looking hotel. We followed Google Maps on some gravel roads through the city just to get to the main road tar which we could have followed. We then continued to a very rural looking part of town, but everyone just kept quiet as tension were building up. There was clearly no hotel at the pin indicated by Google Maps so we turned around and started heading to the Naiberi River Campsite 27km away. We drove on the main C39 road and then Hugo spotted the Maya hotel which we were looking for. They however didn’t want to give a discount and S&D said they’re fine with sleeping in the rain in a tent, so we decided to still go for camping.

We continued on the main road and then realised why google took us on back roads before. There was complete gridlock from the five o’clock traffic and it took 20 minutes to cover 2kms. We finally reached the campsite at 18:20. We received a warm welcome and was told we could camp next to lapa number two.

There are about four lapas between the entrance gate and the reception each with a braai place, water tap, washing lines and level parking space. S&D set up their tent under the roof so the whole hotel detour because of potential rain wasn’t even necessary at all. Camping cost only 700 KES and there are proper hot showers and all the amenities one would need. It’s one of the best campsites we’ve been at in terms of facilities, but perhaps just suitable for a quick stopover.

We made mash and mince for dinner. The Monkeys then went to bed early, while D&S went to the very interesting restaurant and bar (architecturally speaking).