© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

I guess I must have been getting used to all the bugs, after our many travels to this continent. Our food arrived, and it was even tastier than the food we had eaten at the old town Recoda. This time we had ordered some diced meat on skewers similar to kebabs, some fried creamy potatoes, rice, salad, and lovely hot bread. We smothered the meat with seriously hot pepper sauce and dug in. We seemed to be of interest to the young boys who worked there, they stood watching us the whole time we were eating. In all the time we stayed in Mombasa we never once saw any other white people eating there so I guess we were an odd sight. After polishing off a whole table full of food and about five bottles of coke we asked for the bill. It was so cheap, you would not have been able to buy a couple of soft drinks in London for that price. We ate there at least three times a week after that first time, but we always sat outside, where there were hardly any bugs! It was a very popular restaurant and when we ate there very late at night, there would be lots of cars coming and going picking up bags full of delicious takeaway food. It didn’t feel like we were away, we felt like we were at home in Mombasa. All of the people we spoke to were so warm and friendly. We never saw any white people in any of the cafes, bars or restaurants we frequented, except our miller friend, but we did get the odd glimpse of pale skin. Often whilst sitting in the window seats at Le Bistro we would look out across Moi Avenue and see groups of tourist getting out of mini vans or taxis. They would walk all along looking at the craft stalls, sometimes buying things, and then as quickly as they had arrived they would jump back in their transport and be whisked back to the ‘safety’ of the large resort hotels. It seemed such a shame as I think they would have been surprised by how calm and friendly the area around Moi Avenue was. I guess that a lot of the hotels let them believe that it is dangerous, they don’t want them to spend their money outside the hotel. We walked round our little area of Mombasa daily, there were so many interesting people and places to see.

MACKINNON MARKET

One morning we decided to walk to Mackinnon Market, it was a good walk from our hotel, and nice to stretch our legs. As we expected the market was very busy and noisy, and full of bright colours and strong aromas. It was quite a large market selling everything from tropical fruit, various spices, and tea and coffee. Richard almost had his pocket picked whilst we were walking round, but I guess the little lad must have been new to his craft as he came away empty handed! We had seen the beautiful material that a lot of African women wear as skirts or wraps on all of our African travels. We wanted to buy some, and there was a good choice on sale at this market. The trouble is being a westerner, as soon as you seem slightly interested in buying anything you are usually swamped with people trying to sell you something. Here in Mombasa it wasn’t that bad, well not as chaotic as some other countries we had visited. We began looking at some fabrics, which are called Kangas. I couldn’t decide on which ones I wanted, not surprising as I am very indecisive, there were just so many different designs and colours to choose from. Richard saw one he really liked and picked it up to feel the quality of the fabric. The pattern was very nice and the cotton was surprisingly thick. Traditionally most Kangas have some writing on them, usually one sentence of a local saying. The material Richard chose had some writing on, and as our Swahili was limited we tried to find out what it said. Usually the saying is related to the picture on the Kanga, as this one was. They are often funny too, this one was funny and not inappropriate so the bartering began. A deal was done, we left with big smiles. Richard has a collection of loud Mambo (Australian brand) shirts he likes to wear and he wanted to get this Kanga made into a shirt. We walked out of the busy market and back toward our hotel looking for a tailor. There were lots of tailors in all of the places we visited in Africa, and it wasn’t long before we found one in Mombasa. We went in and Richard explained to the tailor what he wanted, we left the tailor Richard's Mambo shirt as a rough guide. The tailor said it would be ready tomorrow, wow, that seemed quick. We weren't expecting the shirt to be top quality. We just had to buy some buttons and drop them in to the tailors before it closed that day. We found an excellent shop that sold ribbons, lace, everything to do with sewing, and also buttons. Buttons bought, we took them back to the tailor, who had already started on the shirt. When we collected the shirt the next day we were very impressed, it was really well made. The tailor had even cut the kanga up to make the best of the pattern and the Swahili saying. Most Kangas are two pieces of the same pattern as this one was, so there are two of everything. As there were two Swahili sayings the tailor had cut the material so that Richard's shirt had the saying on the back across the top of the shoulders, and then again around the bottom edge. It looked fantastic, and it was so well made, Richard still wears it today after all these years. Although we spent a lot of time doing nothing, we always seemed to be doing something in Mombasa! It just felt like the days were twice as long as normal, we were having a great time. We had enjoyed our first safari so much that we were like excited children waiting for the second one. This safari was going to be an overnight one, so we temporarily waved good-bye to the Manson Hotel.

TSAVO NATIONAL PARK

We were picked up at our hotel very early in the morning. The vehicle was a mini van, and there were already four people on board. There was a married couple from Germany, and two sisters from Pakistan. This was all of us, so it wasn’t too bad, and there was lots of room inside the van to spread out. The journey to Tsavo passed quickly, we spent most of it chatting to the sisters, and marvelling at the fact that we were still alive considering the amount of near misses our driver seemed to have with other vehicles! Still in one piece we arrived at the park, we were all excited with cameras ready. Needless to say the German couple were at the front of the van, and were already standing up with the top halves of their bodies looking out over the land through the sun roof! Tsavo National Park is large, it covers over 53,870 square miles about 20,800 square kms, so a bit bigger than London Zoo, in fact bigger than London! It is said to be Kenya’s largest national park, and it is divided by the Mombasa/Nairobi Road and the railroad into Tsavo East and Tsavo West. There are 1,250 miles of rough dirt tracks in Tsavo East and Tsavo West. Obviously with such a large expanse of land and high grass, and with large distances between the dirt tracks we were told that spotting the animals would not be that easy. The area south of the river, a triangle of flat open wilderness with Aruba Dam in the middle, is one of the best places to spot animals, and is very popular with lots of safari operators. It wasn’t long before we saw our first animals of the day, giraffes. As we drove round scanning the scenery for more animals we were not disappointed. We saw so many wonderful animals, most of which we were very happy to have been able to see fairly close. I guess they must be quite accustomed to the vans full of tourists clicking away with their cameras, they mostly ignored us. In the first hour or so I think we saw every animal that roamed the land, giraffe, baboon, zebra, antelope, elephant, and many more. The one animal we had really wanted to see was the lion, as we had not seen any anywhere yet. The other four people on the van said they too would like to see some lions, so our driver said he would try and make it happen. He contacted some of the other tourist vans in the park to ask where they were and ask if they had spotted any lions. After about half an hour we were contacted by another driver who said he had seen some lions. Our driver wasted no time in getting us to the location. The roads were not made for speed, and although he was by no means speeding our driver did make haste. It was not that comfortable driving that fast over the rough ground, but we hoped that it would be worth it. We approached the area where the lions had been spotted, and by now there were three vans there in total, all carrying expectant tourists hoping for a sighting of a lion or two. It was completely silent as everyone scanned the surrounding area hoping to spot a lion. Eventually a lone lion was spotted, she was coming towards the vans. She came so close, we could have reached out and touched her. A few minutes passed and she was joined by some more curious lions. We were all so pleased that the lions seemed interested in us, maybe they thought we were their lunch ... tinned!

Oceania