Madam China goes to Kenya
By Maria Carmel P. Geverola
Photos by Olaf Goerke
“Boda-boda, Madam China,” a driver of a bicycle-for-hire calls out. Kenyans have difficulty determining my nationality. They say I’m Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Filipinos are not on their top list when it comes to guessing Asian races.
I met the boda-boda driver in Kakamega in western Kenya, about a six- to nine-hour drive from the capital Nairobi.
The chosen route and road condition (number and size of potholes as well as bumps) determine how long the trip takes.
Boda-boda, whether a bicycle or motorbike, is a cheap way of going around town. The term is slang for “border to border” which started when bicycles transported passengers into no man’s land in Kenya and Uganda.
Kenya shares boundaries with Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.
The main attraction in Kakamega is its forest national reserve. It is the only tropical rainforest in Kenya that survived human encroachment and is worth exploring.
Birdcalls fill the air while walking under the canopy of giant trees. About 350 species of birds have been spotted in the forest.
With my not-so perfect vision, I opted to look out for primates.
A piercing shriek or sudden rustling of leaves are signs for Olive Baboons. They call out to each other, as a warning, when they see their human cousins in the forest.
In our three-hour walk, my companions and I saw left-over guavas, the baboons’ favorite fruit next to bananas.
Other rare species of primates such as the Black and White Colobus, Blue Monkey and the Red-Tailed Monkey also make the Kakamega rainforest their home. We saw all three primate species and the baboons swinging from tree to tree as we cut across the forest following the river.
One of the longer routes to Kakamega can be broken by taking a detour to Baringo, a freshwater lake in the northern part of the Great Rift Valley. One can pitch a tent at Roberts Camp, which is along the shores of Lake Baringo.
Crocodiles will keep you company but they are not dangerous. They quickly go back to the water if you go too near. With a flashlight, these reptiles are easier seen at night as their eyes are like beacons. During the day, they easily blend in with the surroundings in the lakeshore.
Roberts Camp failed to mention the crocs when we asked about what we should watch out for. They did warn us about the hippos that like to come out of the lake at night to graze. These huge herbivores can become aggressive and attack humans. We were content to watch a family of about seven from the safety of a boat during a late-afternoon tour of the lake.
Load to drop
The most amazing part of the lake is the large number of bird species. At first, they just stayed up on the trees or in their nest. When we started feeding them peanuts, they came flocking around us and were not shy about fighting over morsels. There was a pecking order: first came the blue birds, then the grey and black ones, then the yellow birds. But the Hemprich’s hornbill (the only one I could identify) showed all the other birds who is boss.
The birds up on the trees lost their attractiveness when some of them took turns dropping their load on us, after partaking of the peanuts and bread we fed them.
With more than 400 recorded species, Lake Baringo is an ornithologist’s paradise. But you do not have to be a bird expert to enjoy the sights and sounds of our feathered friends. Still, the world record set for the highest number of species sighted in Baringo is 342 species in 24 hours.
Flamingo heaven
About an hour from Baringo is another lake. But this time, Bogoria is a soda lake. Its high alkalinity and high temperatures means no fish can survive there. But hundreds of thousands of flamingos congregate in Bogoria because, like other soda lakes, it is where their food is.
They feed on blue-green algae and shrimp which contain cartenoids, like those found in carrots and tomatoes, and give them their pink plumage. Flamingos can also stand the heat of the lake, which is fed by boiling hot springs and geysers. That is how flamingos got their name—their love for volcanic lakes and it is also Latin for flame.
A strong smell coming from the caustic soda mixed with bird dung and heat pervades the air near the lake.
But busloads of tourists come to Bogoria to watch the flamingos, marvel at spouting geysers and cautiously tramp on marshland to go near hot springs.
Although the lake is inside a national park, there is not much wildlife and those you see compete for grassland with cows and goats.
For wild animals that Africa is known for, such as lions, rhinoceros and giraffes, Lake Nakuru is the place, and that is Madam China’s next destination.