Day 144: Kakamega Forest to Lake Victoria

We got up lazily as we didn’t plan on driving far today. Caro was the first one up and found what she dreaded the night before: A monkey tore the trash bag, there were bits and pieces everywhere. Daniel also got up and helped Caro to pick up everything. The campsite does not have any bins. We drank coffee and ate avocado sandwiches for breakfast. Kakamega offers different forest hikes that are all quite expensive so Caro and D&S decided to explore a pathway starting at the campsite. It felt like a maze and after 6 different turns they decided its best to trace their steps back in fear of getting lost. It is a beautiful rainforest with plenty of birds, primates and plants species. Caro felt it was more beautiful than the paid walk at Castle Forest Lodge.

Hugo stayed at the camp site to start packing up and to keep the monkeys away, but failed with both. Just as he turned his back a monkey grabbed our new loaf of bread. Hugo chased after the monkey, but it didn’t let go of the bag until high up in a tree, where it tore the bag open and put slice after slice in its mouth.

We finally left at 11:30 and followed the D298 through the forest to the C39A (Eldoret-Kapsabet Road) which is a tarmac. A police office gave a halfharted stop/wave hand gesture so Hugo just waved and drove past, but from his reaction he clearly meant stop. We worried that he might phone ahead so we took some back roads again, most of which was also tarmac to our surprise.

We got to Kisumu, a massive unexpected city, by 13:30. There was big construction projects going on, so it took 40 minutes to reach Dunga Hill Campsite on the other side of the city, next to the Lake Victoria.

Camping is only 500 KES and the campsite is on a lawn with an electricity point, but no shade. The bar and restaurant is quite popular with locals so it’s always lively.

Daniel wanted to fish in the lake so he took their suitcase from the roof and then the strangest thing happened: Daniel’s ear was bleeding badly. To Hugo it just looked liked he took the suitcase off and put in on the ground and then he touched his ear and it was full of blood. What actually happened in a split second was that the suitcase hit him against his head which in turned he bumped against the sharp edge of the car door.

With all the blood it looked like his earlobe was completely split in half. He turned completely white in the face and even Sekar started feeling queasy. Caro gave Daniel some Savlon on cotton pads and the bleeding stopped fairly quickly.

Hugo then drove Daniel to a hospital, but only the third one could help as the others was on strike. While waiting in the waiting room Hugo and Daniel inspected his wound again and realised it is in fact only a small section on the front of the earlobe that burst open, but otherwise it is still completely intact. When the doctor finally saw him he however still suggested putting in stitches, which he then did.

The complete bill was less than 4000 KES (much less than the ripp-off we had in Zambia for Hugo’s stitches), but still more than we had in cash. Daniel left his ID with them so that we could go to an ATM and come back later. Hugo also received confirmation that their e-visas had been approved so after Daniel got the money we printed out the approval letters before going back to the hospital.

We only got back to Dunga Hill after 17:00, 2 hours later. Caro and Sekar had fish and chips while we were away, so Daniel ordered a pizza which he and Hugo shared. We had some beers before making egg fried noodles at the car. Afterwards we sat at the bar again to use the WiFi until late at night. Some time after 21:00 they closed everything and turned off the lights, so we sat in the dark a while longer, but the mosquitoes got too aggressive.

Since we got our e-visas and there is no indication of an entry date or location we decided to try the Busia border tomorrow, thus a day earlier than indicated on the application and not at Malaba.