Our safari vehicle is half bus, half truck. The upper half of the windows slide down for sight seeing. It is built for rough African roads.
The landscape is hilly with rich, fertile soil. The local people smile at us and wave as we pass. Outside the city, Only the tourists have white faces. The children are especially animated and are easily excited. The run after our bus shouting, "Hello. Hello hello." craving attention.
As we approach Samburu National Park the children add other hand signals to their waves. One child makes a writing motion in the air. Another raises his fingertips twice to his mouth.
The land is dry and dusty. Acacia trees grow wide with flat tops. They draw the eyes to the horizontal and encourage a panoramic view.
Dozens of weaver birds nests hang in each tree. Balls of straw - Michael calls them "tea-bag trees". Newer nests are a light colour. Others, abandoned from seasons past, are various shades of grey.
By the park gates the people build dome shaped huts from dry wood branches. The gaps are filled with leaves, old cloth and plastic bags. They look like weaver birds nests. I think of Jo saying, "We can learn a lot from nature."
We stop at the gate and children run up to the vehicle waving. "Hello, Hello" they say.
"Hello. Jambo," we reply.
"Take my photo for twenty shillings" a young girl says.
"Do you have coins? Do you have chocolate?" a young boy asks.
"No. Only smiles and waves."
"Do you have banana?" he asks.
Well it just so happens that I do have a banana left over from lunch. I saved it in case I got peckish but I am rather indifferent towards eating it. And it's healthy fruit - not diabetes inducing chocolate.
So I give it to the boy and he runs off with a big smile on his face. In the next minute there are a dozen more children asking for bananas, chocolate and money.
We drive on and stop at another point.
A young boy runs up to the truck. "Hello. Hello. Hello" he says.
"Hello. Jambo." we reply.
"Hello. Hello." he repeats.
"Jambo. Hello" we repeat.
He pauses, struggling with his limited vocabulary. "Give me money?" he says.
Most of us burst out laughing at his boldness.
"No." I say. "No money. Only smiles and waves."
He doesn't like this answer and his smile is replaced by a scowl. As we drive away he makes new hand signals. Although I don't know what they mean his attitude suggests they are offensive.
For a while I am uncomfortable with his reaction. It undoes all the good will of the Kenyan people. Is this what the people think? Do they smile and wave to get a reward but curse us when we are not looking?
No, I decide. This boy is just displaying the petulance of youth. I can imagine my own nephews behaving the same way at the same age.
My personal theory is the waving started because the Kenyans are culturally inclined to stare at a passer by. The westerners are inclined to meet this gaze and make eye contact. The westerner then waves to break the discomfort of staring.
The Kenyans pick up the habit. The children especially enjoy the interaction and hold on to this friendliness as they grow up.
But I think the reasons why they wave goes beyond this.
They wave because they recognise the importance of tourism to their country. They are proud that we have journeyed so far to visit them. We remind them that they are part of a larger world. And they wave out of hospitality, because in Swahili the word for 'stranger' is the same word used for 'guest'.
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I think I should also make a few remarks on begging. There was an attitude among travellers decades ago that instead of giving coins to begging children it was better to give them sweets. This gave way to a tradition of giving pens for school. Now children the world over ask for money, sweets and pens.
Countries like Vietnam and Thailand discourage tourists from giving things to beggars. They don't want their children to grow up as beggers. (Although I'm not entirely sure if this is about the welfare of the individuals or because of the impact on the tourism industry.)
In Vietnam, children sell "friendship" bracelets which are little more than strips of cloth with a tie string. These are sold for a pittance. This makes the difference between a beggar and a salesperson.
There is the additional problem that the successful beggar exploits the emotions by appearing as needful and pathetic as possible. This makes it difficult to tell the truly needy people from the con artists.
Therefore it can be more effective to give money to charities that will distribute it where it is needed.
All the same, it is important to respond to the situations you find yourself in. So I am glad I gave that boy a banana and I regret that I didn't give that girl twenty shillings to take her photograph.
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We camp by a dry river bed. Baboons circle the fringes of the camp and clamber in the tree branches overhead, watching and waiting for a moment when they can raid unattended food supplies.
We chase away the occasional attacker with yells and waving sticks but one of them manages to escape with a small packet of biscuits.
Over the next few days we travel through the park and marvel at the herds of elephants, zebras, giraffe, antelope.
In Africa they speak of the "big five: - elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard. This list was compiled as the five animals that are the hardest to hunt and kill, back in the days when this was important.
I compile my own list - the underrated five. Why aren't these on a list? I choose giraffe, zebra, hippopotamus, antelope and for fifth place I settle on the warthog, but in the following week I will replace it with the wildebeest.
Antelope is a large category with many varieties: springbok, kudus, Grant's gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, dik dik, impala, topi, waterbuck, etc.
When fully grown, dik diks are about twice the size of a house cat. They always travel in mating pairs, occasionally accompanied by a youngster.
Topi look like they are carved out of redwood with hindquarters of polished blue-black ebony. They stand guard on small mounds always on the look out for predators.
Samburu has a few animals specific to the region. Grevey's zebra have thinner stripes that taper to a point and don't extent under their white bellies. Reticulated giraffes have fine lines separating their spots.
We come across a cheetah which is attracting the attention of a lot of safari vehicles. We follow it by dirt road as it walks through the grass with a slight limp. It is injured. One of its hind legs is red raw. Our tour guide doesn't think it will live much longer. It will soon fall prey to other animals.
Giraffe, elephants and antelope wander across the dry river bed, Scattered groups of animals here and there and off into the distance.
The rangers have dug a watering hole for the animals. The giraffe and antelope approach cautiously to drink. They don't see the lioness crouched in the shade of a fallen tree trunk on the far side of the river.
The lioness waits patiently but the gap is too great. If she attacks they will outrun her. She can wait for evening or night when she has more of an advantage. She can certainly out-wait us as we look at her through binoculars on the off-chance that she decides to move.
Eventually we give up.
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