Not giving up ! !

Uli did spend two and a half days of intense work at Bhogals/Toyota workshops. The new radiator was fitted. Claude and his team did some welding and stabilizing on Konstantin’s accident impact site which had been ignored by the previous mechanics and had caused new damages.

After the test drive we had some champagne, confident that we do not have to limp home anymore or have to throw in the towel! R we mad?

We decided to take up our intended route through the west of Kenya and then on to Uganda.

At Sirikwa Safari farmhouse we had a wonderful reception, opted for their guest room as rain was imminent and booked their birding guide for the Saiwa Swamps for the next morning. This is Kenya’s smallest National Park, 40 sq km in extent. It is seldom visited but exceptional beautiful. Early at seven on a misty morning we meet Maurice at the entrance gate.

The first hour explodes in ticking off lifers from above the numerous bird hides and walkways. As the day progresses the birds started to disappear in the dense forest foliage and we opted to go to different hides to search for the sitatunga. We had two sightings.

The primate variety is narrowed to black and white Colobus, the blue monkeys and the De Brazza. With the intense agricultural activity at close range the white bearded De Brazza monkey is threatened with extinction. We were privileged to see a small group.

In the afternoon we drove to Mt Elgon National Park, bordering onto Uganda. Mt Elgon is an extinct volcano, which exploded once upon a time reducing the overall height to 4321m (Uli climbed every meter, 13 years ago) and he has a mountain base which is one and half times more than that of Kilimanjaro; this could kick off speculation of its former height.

Rarely visited, assuring you will have the park to yourself. The beautifully wooded slopes of the mountain is teeming with bushbuck, Defassa waterbuck, buffalo and black and white Colobus monkeys.

We found a campsite clearing in the forest with a mountain stream running through it.

The next day we visit the Kitum Caves, which are or rather, were famous for elephants digging for mineral salts. Unfortunately the last elephant was last seen here several years ago.