Machakos

Night falls in and I have to find a campsite. There is no touristic infrastructure around and on the top of the Yatta Plateau every bush is either surrounded by mais fields or cattle and totally stuffed with people. "Spring' über deinen Schatten" tactics have to be activated and instead of searching for a hidden spot I search on the map for at least an environmentally appealing spot, the river side. By incidence I get the look on some wide waterfalls of Athi River while searching for a nice sunset picture. That must be my destination for today! One hour left until it's dark. I drive down into a village, ask for the way. OpenStreetMap contains all bloody paths here but you never know if you can actually drive there. The people around the market are so very friendly and welcoming and recommend a nice place to park the car on an elevated river terrace with great view and incredible night sky. I hear hippo grunts close by at dinner preparation time. Hell yeah!

The next morning I am invited for a cup of tea at the neighbouring farmer's home. Moses is a lovely person, with 8 kids, all at shool. Together with his wife and two other youngsters - Silver and Eric - we study my big paper map. Afterwards the three guys show me around at the river and waterfalls, explain their irrigation and pipeline constructions and tell me a lot of what is going on here in the villages. Silver has some good knowledge of geography and also studies photography. He is fond of my camera and so I make him responsible for the pictures. At night they have to guard their fields against the scavenging hippos, but the crocs are on the other side of the river. Yes, I also hoped so while I was taking a bath this morning ...Read more