Exhausted today. I’m not sure why. At just five hours it wasn’t even a very long day of walking. My stomach was bubbling a bit today and I was simply tired after too little sleep recently. But I think the real reason I found today hard was because we were told it was only a very short walk but it turned out that when we had asked how far to Maji Moto the replier had meant that the Maji Moto region was close. We had meant how far to the village of Maji Moto. There’s a difference between the two. A long, tiring difference.
It occurred to me though that I haven’t posted any pictures of us doing the thing we’re doing the most. Just simply walking. And the more I am walking the more I’m enjoying myself. It’s a perfect way to travel here. The scenery changes dramatically from day to day. Sometimes from moment to moment. The slow pace allows conversations with the people we pass and invitations for cups of tea can be accepted.
I entertain myself when we walk by watching the ground. I have noticed that ant nests are everywhere. To me they look like volcanoes. Each one is a perfect cone of soil with miniature crater spewing ants from a hole at its centre. Some of these ant volcanoes are mere pimples, others are collapsed, long since erupted ant volcanoes and others, the most impressive, are veritable Krakatau’s of the ant volcano world.
Sometimes though my gaze is diverted from the ants by a fleeing giraffe, zebra or a curious impala. Other times I watch how the sky is constantly changing, hot milky white one moment and thunderous jet black the next.
All of these are things I could have so easily have missed if I travelled by car. I’m learning much more about the people and environment than I ever would if I raced past in a vehicle and this is what is making this walk such fun
