Oh I wish it could be Christmas...

We're dreaming of a white Christmas, one like we've never seen before.  The reason being that this is the least Christmassy we have ever, ever felt. The why and wherefores of this are many and varied.  But let me start local. Just around the corner from us, attached to Joanna's ballet school is the 'Choices' supermarket (a misnomer). Today, the 20th December, they decided it was time to put up Christmas decorations. These consisted solely of one of those 'Happy Christmas' banners over the door, and a Christmas tree (tiny, it took some finding), with the most cacophonously discordant singing Christmas lights I have ever come across. The amazing thing is that they were still playing 10 hours later.  Think of this as Christmas turn off number one. The second turn off being that for the till girl to put up with that music for so may hours shows a complete lack of Christmas rage that one associates with English shops (ie, 'why does everyone bloody shop on Christmas eve, this queue is ridiculous').

Obviously, there are less obvious reasons for not feeling Christmassy. One is that the days have stayed a uniform 12 hours. We are missing the joy of not having to think about what to do during the day, on account of night time not coming just after dawn, like in England. It is also hot and sunny here, not cold and dank...

Reason number five, we are missing that pre-Christmas vehicle log jam that develops as panick shoppers (and parents wanting only the best for their little Johnny) converge on the last Wii (or must have equivelent) in the country. One might have thought that Kenyan roads might be so bad that they are impassable anyway, but this is not the case (and I can assure you Colin that driving over the bumps at 60 mph doesn't smooth them out, it just makes it more bumpy).  The vehicle situation is actually easing in Nairobi, as everyone disappears home ('up country'). I understand that you suckers at home are struggling with the snow as well. Ha ha ha ha ha. Bizarrely, there is no snow here. Perhaps the sunshine has something to do with it...

I guess that reason number six might have something to do with our recent trip to the Baringo Island camp.  For those of you who do not know (these are facts that we have been told by many Kenyans), the Great Rift Valley runs from the Holy land through to Malawi (a bit bigger than Chedder Gorge for those Bristolians out there), and has 7 lakes all of which are in Kenya. These are:

• Nakuru, a famous breeding ground of flamingos and a national park costing $60 a day to enter! 
• Magedi, a soda lake and described as hell on earth for those that work there. 
• Bogoria, where the flamingos build practice nests. 
• Elmenteita, no idea, probably more beautiful birds with long legs (no dad - flamingos).
• Turkana, the northernmost lake, not the most visitable by tourists at the moment due to general nastiness between tribes.
• Naivasha and Baringo, both fresh water, so crocs and hippos.

Those of you who know any geography may be wondering about the Red sea, Dead Sea, Lake Natron, Lake Malawi et al. This is Africa, and I beg you not to worry about it.

Well, on Wednesday Margarita Passmore arrived here in Nairobi (guest blog to come), and so we found that we had to come up with something to do, at short notice, and preferably without too much effort (we are disorganised and lazy, a bad combination).  Fortunately, Jo bumped into a ballet friend who put us in contact with Netta who operates a tour company, and she suggested the Baringo Island Camp, at residents rates (boy are the tourists ripped off). Two days later, our driver Napthali turned up, and whisked us North to Baringo, via Crescent Island on Naivasha for an all inclusive luxury weekend.

I must admit that there was a brief panic when we turned up at Naivasha, and they suggested that we get a boat to the island for $100. Anyway, a misunderstanding, this is for the tourists. Crescent Island has not been an island for quite a long time, so after a brief phone call back to base, we drove across. On the 'island' we went for a walk with a guide who showed us a python, which had just snacked on a Dik Dik and so couldn't really move. There were also the usual characters one learns to expect from Africa, giraffes, antelope, gazelle, zebra etc, with the addition of pelicans and flamingos. It was a lot of fun, and we would strongly recommend it to anyone with a few hours to spare...

Then it was time to move onto Baringo. This is the stomping ground of the second smallest tribe in Kenya, the Njemps, who are related to the Masaii, but who have lost the taboo against eating fish.  Our lodging for the next few days was a 'luxury campsite' on an island in the middle of the lake.  Now this may suprise you for an island just north of the equator, but it was seriously hot (although it did mean that both sunsets and sunrises were beautiful). This meant that day time activities centered around the swimming pool (and gradually worsening sun burn), and anything that required serious exersise, or indeed just movement, started very early in the morning (6 am, and yes Jo did manage to get out of bed). We were also woken before dawn with a cup of tea to the tent, which we had to grab before the birds arrived. The activities were as follows:

On day one, we went for a bird walk. There are over 400 different species at Lake Baringo, it was quite staggering. 4 Different species of kingfisher seen in under 48 hours, owls sitting around in the trees, herons, waders and darters standing motionless in the water, probably hoping that the crocs will not see them. Then we played a game of scrabble, which I lost again.

The next day, we walked to the other side of the island to see some hot springs (you could here the steam roaring just under the feet!) To get there we had to pass through some Njemps villages. A local tribe, the Polkot, have stolen their land and their cattle, and so around 100 are living as refugees on the island. They are extremely poor, and survive by fishing and handouts. They have still found the time however to decorate their houses for Christmas with the mineral rich mud from the springs.  As a charitable action we purchased some guords which we did not want, and which have not yet grown on us. Happy Christmas Tom. Well, would you look at that, seems we are starting to get Christmassy after all.

We left the village feeling slightly uneasy, maybe it was the contrast in wealth between where we were living on the island and what they had, or maybe it was just that they had asked us for lots of money, even though we had purchased their arts and crafts and tipped the unoffical guide and the children of the village. But we had a great boat trip back to the island where we eat yet another fantastic meal.

The drive home was also interesting, as Jo turned out not to be too well, which meant making several emergency stops. But we got to see some random university, it provided a chance for Margo to do some more shopping in Nakuru, and we saw the sunset over the great rift valley.