Reality TV Stars?!...

One thing I didn't think would happen during my time in Kenya was to become a reality TV star, but through a strange serious of events it just so happens I have!! I finished my last long run in Kenya this morning just about in one piece and after a massage from Majani I made my way out of Iten to Willy Korirs house where I had been invited for lunch. During lunch I got a phone call from my good friend Gavin who was with a Spanish TV crew and had a couple who needed a place to stay with some dinner but had no money, I managed to arrange a room in the camp and some dinner for them. After my first motorbike ride in Kenya to visit Gav and Lauren's house and another walk back to Iten we met the Spanish couple and brought them to camp, it all snowballed from here and they were filming us for the rest of the night! The show is called “Pekin Express”, supposedly it is huge in Spain and basically there are a number of couples that have to travel through Africa finishing in South Africa with the winning couple receiving 1 million dollars!! The couple staying with us are called David and Carmen, hopefully if they win they will remember the people that helped them along the way! I think most of the guys on camp didn't really know what was going on but they all seemed to enjoy it, even more so when they found out one of the production crew was an actor from one of their favourite TV shows called “Tahidi High”. It was a bit like an actor from Hollyoaks showing up, I think it was their highlight of the year so far!

David and Carmen - Picture courtesy of Edwin Kipyego

The next morning we gave David and Carmen a lift to Eldoret, which was the destination of their next check point, as they were the first to reach the checkpoint they won a prize and it set them up well for the rest of the journey. After a lot of high fives, hugs and kisses we came back to Iten and started our own journey to visit Lake Baringo and lake Bogoria. It was about a two hour drive to Bogoria and once we arrived we were treated to some good wildlife viewing and a visit to the natural hot springs that we used to cook some boiled eggs for our lunch! Next we went to Baringo about 40km away from Bogoria, here we went for a boat ride getting a close up look of some crocodiles and hippos. None of the Kenyans I was with knew how to swim so they were all a bit nervous on the boat which was rather amusing!

Enjoying the boat ride

On the way back we stopped at a “hotel” for lunch. In Kenya traditionally the hotels are not somewhere you sleep but are restaurants. We had to go down a Little lane up some stairs and into a sort of butchers with tables and chairs, complete with some dead animal hanging in the window. They brought out a big dish full of meat (what sort of meat I don't know) in a light stock/sauce. With this we had a few plates of ugali and had to tuck in. They all say I'm a proper Kenyan now as I don't need knives and forks to eat, hands all the way!

After a good day on safari it was back to camp and straight to bed as I was very tired and wanted to be fresh for my last weeks training in Kenya.