This trip attracted me for its wistful nostalgia and eager anticipation. The former because of my childhood spent in Kenya in the 40/50's and the latter because of my interest in wild life. Our first sighting of the great Rift was one I will never forget. My father used to murmur MMBA ('miles and miles of bloody Africa') whenever we stopped to look towards Mts Suswa and Longonot with the silvery Lake Naivasha on the horizon. Passing Longonot which I climbed with three companions as a young teenager on a days release from school. Driving on via Lake Naivasha, where the flying-boats of Imperial Airways used to land. On to Gilgil where there is evidence of ancient human activity a million years ago, near Lake Elementaita. By-passing the notorious Happy Valley area and north towards Thomson's Falls. It was here in 1885 Joseph Thompson asked his Masai guide what the snow-covered mountain in the far distance was called. The guide replied 'Ndadagenya' meaning 'dawn'. Thomson thought he said 'Tadwa Kenia' meaning 'Look at Kenia'. Now this beautiful exciting country is known as Kenya but the original name was Kenia. No such views on our journey of Mt Kenya because of cloud cover. Soon on to Isiolo, gateway to the romantic exciting NFD (Northern Frontier District), where many a young British officer and his askaris kept the peace in vast remote areas stretching up to Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. There was another bird-watcher on our trip and our bird sighting list increased dramatically by the time we reached Samburu. Here, in the 50's you couldn't fail to see cantankerous, snorting rhinos charging towards your vehicles. Sadly no more, but Samburu is still a lovely park for seeing such gems as gerenuks, Grevy's zebra, oryx, kudus and many other animals. We had amazing views of a young female leopard. Soon on the Great North Highway past Marsabit and the barren, stoney Dida Galu Desert towards Moyale. Now no longer known as 'wazungu' , swahili for European but 'farangi', Arabic for Frank possibly a term which goes back to the Crusaders! Moyale is just what you would expect of a frontier town. After the usual lengthy formalities of a border crossing, we entered Ethiopia and travelled towards the marvelously-named sunken volcano of El Sod. Young men, earning a pittance, still dive into the deep, murky waters of this crater to extract salt. We bird-watchers had our eyes glued on every fluttering bird north of El Sod. This was the area for that golden fleece for bird-watchers, the Prince Ruspoli's Turaco. Ruspoli was an Italian prince who was killed by an elephant in Somalia in the 1890's. However, his legacy lives on with this elusive bird. Alas, no turaco but we did see Stresemann's Bush-Crow and the beautiful Golden-breasted Starling. Still following the Great Rift, we eventually entered Addis. I was in Addis in 1996 on the centenary of the Abyssinian victory over the Italians at Adwa. What an experience! One of Mussolini's reasons for attacking Ethiopia in the 30's was to avenge this ignominious defeat. It was the same young British officers who policed the NFD, and who helped chase the Italians out of Ethiopia and Somaliland. We still had Lake Tana, Gondar and Lalibela to go. We clocked over 250 species of bird. All 11 of us agreed that we had had a super safari.
