Tuesday, Feb 20 Driving; Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort

Tuesday, Feb 20  Lake Naivasha

Beautiful sunrise as we breakfast at The Ark.  

Then we're off for many hours of driving through countryside and smaller towns.  Some of the smaller towns have market day 2 or 3 times a week.  Adam calls them trading stations because people often trade for what they need, since they have no money. 

There is a mix of western and traditional clothing with many colorful blankets.  Shoes vary from none, to woven sandals, some plastic flip flops and clogs, leather shoes and nice tennis shoes. Occasionally there are people in muslim garb.

We stop at the equator for a potty break.   Using water, a funnel and a matchstick, John shows us how north of the equator water from the funnel will rotate in one direction.  A few steps south of the equator it will rotate in the opposite direction.   He points out that people's hair also grows differently depending on which hemisphere you are born in based on the whirl at the crown.

They try to sell us certificates that say we've been to the equator.  They are also very pushy in selling their goods.  We end up buying a Kenya soccer jersey for Matt that went from $60 down to $20!  Crazy - prices are what the market will bear....

Road construction looks like lots of manual labor.  

 

Scattered rocks on an area means that they are working on it and it isn't ready to drive on yet. The town below actually had an intersecting street - there aren't many!

These taxi motorbikes are waiting for customers.

More forests and farm.

 

At one point we get on the Nairobi National Highway and traffic is terrible.  Lots of trucks, no passing lanes.  This road goes from Nairobi to the coast at Mombasa and luckily we are only on it for a short time. Public vehicles, like ours, have a 80km limiter so they can't speed.

A brief rain shower?  No problem.

 We arrive at Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort about 1:15.  Beautiful facility spread over several acres.  Our building houses four units and we are in #29.    Nice, old style furniture, modern bath and a small patio.  Mosquito netting around the beds, which housekeeping will arrange while we're at dinner tonight.  

  Another buffet for lunch, of course, with the first fish we've seen offered.  There seems always to be some sort of Indian dish,  also a stir fry, potatoes or rice and mixed vegetables.  Always some sort of soup as well, with squash or pumpkin being popular.

Huge cactus "trees" and nicely landscaped grounds.  There are occasional giraffes and zebras wondering about!

These leopard tortoises were in an atrium area in the main building.

Acacia trees everywhere on this trip.  From small bushes to these huge trees, there are several varieties - whistling, umbrella, golden, etc. but all are thorny. 

A couple of colobus monkeys with huge bushy white tails scampered around the roof.

Our nature walk at 4:00 is cut short when a thunderstorm blows through - rescheduled for tomorrow.  Dinner 7:30 and we are in bed around 9:00!