Hyrax Hill

Monday 7^th June 2010

Well hello,

I am currently sat in the room of a guest house in Malindi, looking out over the sea from my bed, and waiting for Philip to finish in the shower. It is most lovely here. We were staying at Kipepeo in Lamu for the last couple of nights but it was a bit small and I’m sure we could have found better elsewhere, if only I’d had the updated copy of the guide book! J

So, I thought that while I wait I would try and catch up on my blogging. But I might not get very far. I believe I had got as far as telling you about Kariandusi, so I have Hyrax Hill and Naivasha/ Hells Gate National Park to talk about.

So after visiting Kariandusi I took the matatu up the rest of the way to Nakuru and after grabbing a few essentials for breakfasts I called the place I was staying as they had said they would come and pick me up for free. I had thought that was awfully nice of them, but it turns out they were just going to send someone to get in a tuk-tuk with me. Hmph. Which I had to pay for. Still, my first tuk-tuk ride. Wooo! It wasn’t that great really, it was just rather slow, the one I took today was far nicer. Anyway, once there he had me choose a room, which I did, and kind of settled my stuff in. Then I wandered down the road to the Tuskys to buy some things for dinner, but i ended up just getting an instant noodle thing instead of the big plans I’d had. Probably better as there was only one gas cyclinder thing, and the bloke made dinner for him and the other Kenyan guy who was staying there so it wasn’t for a while until I could use the stove. But I’m jumping ahead of myself. On my way to Tuskys I had a moment of ‘shiiiit, what kind of place am I staying in!’ and rang Kerry whose aunt lives in Nakuru and who had offered to find out if I could stay there while in the area. In the end I didn’t go there, her aunt was away and instead of staying three nights like I had planned I instead decided to go straight to Nakuru after visiting Hyrax Hill the next day. I guess the place I was staying wasn’t so bad really, it was just very quiet and I was expecting to see a few more people there. But never mind, I had a bed, and I only got bitten a couple of times while I was downstairs. Then the next morning I got up not particularly bright and early and rang Yego, the curator of the site, who had said he would pick me up from town. Turned out I was staying directly opposite the road leading to the site so I just walked it instead.

I arrived at Hyrax Hill and Yego had already called ahead and arranged for a guide to meet me and show me around until he arrived himself. I think his name was Jackson. Anyway, he was very very good, and showed me around the museum giving me the complete history of the site, what was found there, etc etc. For the uninitiated, Hyrax Hill is an archaeological site consisting of an iron age fort and a more recent settlement site, but I can’t remember the details at the moment. :P He took me up to look at the hollows that were used at a base for a corral type thing, with little huts next to the entrance way to guard against intruders and look after their cattle. Then a bit further up was a green grassy patch, which had been the site of a hill fort, apparently. How I love hill forts. Anyway, we went further up and up, and reached the very top of the hill where I had a good view of Lake Nakuru and took some nice photos. I could even see the pink of the flamingos.