Before things get too far behind, here some commented pictures from my first „back to Kenya“ trip — most of these have also been on facebook, but of course without the little stories in between…

The first pictures are from a visit to Impala Park in Kisumu, the only touristy aspect of the „in 80 hours around the lake“ adventure I went on with Justus. That’s also him in the first picture, admiring the big birds and thinking about how juicy a meat their legs would make.

As much as I dislike zoos, and this park definitely had a zoolike feel to it, I have to admit it was exciting to see the animals from up close. I even allowed myself a handshake with one of the more distant relatives of the human species, and looked the cheetah deep into the eyes, my childhood animal idol.

Also the lioness was more impressive than I had expected, starting with being bigger than I would have thought. Also interesting to talk about the animals‘ diet with the ranger and have my friend throw in „my children don’t eat chicken every day“. Seems to be a lot of money that goes into buying food for the carnivores, and back in the days of political struggles after the election the ranger told us they had to feed some of the impalas to the wild cats. They are the only free animals in the park, too (apart from hippos coming in from the lake at night when the park is closed), and seem to be plentiful. By the way, it took only very gentle irriation of the lioness on the part of my friend to get to see the teeth, and to be grateful for the fence again.

This is another trip to Kisumu a short time later (the other one was before my stay on Bumbire), and this nightly shot of bananas being loaded on the ferry makes me miss my camera a lot, which was stolen in a Nairobi Matatu a few days ago. Well, the first item that goes missing in 8 months, I probably should be grateful. Anyway, the picture illustrates what people told me: the Bukoba region is one of the most fertile for farming, and provides food for a lot of Tanzania and even Kenya.

The next picture is an attempt to capture the stuffed Matatu I had to take on the Kenya side of this travel, and on many other occasions, but the feeling doesn’t quite come out. Barely space to breathe, and I think the only thing I do fear about Africa by now. Coincidence that the theft also happened in one? But I did reach safely one more time, and visited a museum in Kisumu with my „guest sister“ Rose. This scenery impressed me for the balancing act of the whole statue on two feet of the poor wildebeast.

This is a part of the traditional one-family-villages, where the women and unmarried sons of the patriarch build their houses in a strictly defined order around his house. And us sitting on the likewise strictly defined chairs in the main house, with storage baskets in the back.

The friendly guide showing us around for a small tip in front of a graffiti-mural depicting how the family sets out to get a bride, carefully attending to different omens, and of course with spirits of the elders going ahead to assure safe traveling.

Now these are some more animal-closeups which I did enjoy with only a little bit of guilt, from the horned snake to a procession of turtles and a dentist’s view of the croc.

Another excursion, this one to Kakamega forest (these were my tourist days!), with a nice little waterfall, sometimes well-marked paths, and — well — forest.

Looking up …

… and then climbing up to a viewpoint …

… which gave us a nice overview of the forest.

A little sad is that the „primary forest“ that remains is actually a pretty small patch, and most of the reserve is made up of „secondary forest“ which is barely 50 years old and noticeably lower when viewed from above.

So most exciting was a short walk through the actual old forest, with lianas and huge roots.

And some lianas holding on to their host even after its death, maybe even due to the lianas embrace.

A look up, and a look back at the price board. Notice the institutionalized „mzungu price“ of about 10 times what locals pay, always posted in US Dollars, and always with an official exchange rate that works against you if you want to pay in the local Shillings.

Finally, almost back home, at Lake Victoria, two shots of the sunset and one of our small group, guest sister and brother with girlfriend (that’s an indication of open-minded life in town and would never happen in the village), and me.