I'm usually not into safari because I don't like the idea of sitting in a car all day and because I am overly afraid of being a tourist and lastly because I think a lot of tourists come to Kenya and don't see anything except the parks and attractions built for Europeans (I try to correct the balance personally..). That said, I also felt bad depriving my friends of a unique experience, and they did come all the way to Kenya to visit me. So Lake Nakuru it was.
We arrived around 11am and it was a beautiful day. On the ride into the park towards our lodge we saw gorgeous views of the lake, and groves of yellow acacia trees.
We stopped at our hotel for lunch and a relaxing afternoon before the 4pm game drive. Mary went to get a massage, and Dina and I decided to check out the pool. As we walked over, Dina pointed out smoke on the hill- and I decided to go back to the room and get my camera. Turns out there was a fire on the hill.We filmed a short video of the fire as it crept over the ridge. I wasn't scared, but I was increasingly wary about the fire. I asked the guard who told me not to worry because there was a team fighting it. "How many people are out there?" I asked. His answer, "wachache," means just a few but he assured me that they were fine because they had equipment. Meanwhile Dina and I were thinking about California wildfires and how hard they are to control even with helicopters. We also saw a meat truck barreling down the road towards the fire (I think it was back-up for the wachache fire crew).
As the smoke blew towards us and the hotel was cast in a haze and subsumed in a charcoal smell, I decided it was time to pack our bags, and Dina agreed. No one else seemed to be at all worried- either they weren't paying attention or they were completely enthralled watching the fire. As we got to our room to pack, and Dina jumped in the shower, I heard the fire coming closer. Dina's shower seemed to be far too leisurely in this kind of situation, and as I threw things in a bag and pulled all of Mary's clothes out of the closet, I could feel the air getting hotter and hear the fire getting closer. Hearing it was a scary crackling noise.
I ran down to the massage tent with a change of clothes for Mary and yelled to her that we needed to get out of here (sorry, Mary, for interrupting the massage). She jumped into action, threw on clothes and we met at the car. Meanwhile, you could see flames ripping down the hill. Yet strangely no one else seemed at all panicked or like they were considering leaving. Our driver George thought we were crazy, and we thought we were in that weird surreal calm before the storm where no one realizes it is an emergency. Unable to leave without trying to convince others to go (and also very concerned for the staff who might not have vehicles), we decided to go talk to the hotel management.
The staff at the front desk looked afraid, but then the manager came over and told us to calm down and that everything would be fine (meanwhile, I think he was ordering the hotel staff to tell people everything was ok). Dina went into the bar and convinced everyone to go, I went to the restaurant. As I was running into the restaurant (and yes, the fire has been getting stronger and closer) I was cornered by hotel staff who asked me to kindly not give any guests a scare. I was momentarily deterred, and then decided that I'd rather give them a scare then let them die in a forest fire. There were families sitting down to lunch who hadn't even seen the fire. I quickly told people what was going on, and suggested they consider leaving the hotel till the fire was under control. Then I ran back to our car, offering a ride to any hotel staff I passed (though they all declined).Some people seemed to think we were crazy, others thanked us. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I wasn't about to mess with a spreading fire where the "fire truck" also read "meat truck." It seemed like the hotel wasn't going to evacuate until it was too late, or never, so we needed to take responsibility for our safety. I was worried about staff who seemed more committed to their jobs and obeying their boss than saving their own lives.
Driving away, I captured some photos of the flames and smoke:
When we got to the other side of the lake we stopped and looked back. The hotel was just to the left of where the fire was, and it appeared that the wind had shifted and was blowing the fire to the right.
Weirdly enough, we were surrounded by zebra. It felt wrong to take animal pictures, and we worried that the hotel was already burnt to a crisp. I was convinced that the real tragedy would be when all the guests hopped in their safari cars to escape, and the staff was left behind. We had tried, but had we tried enough?
As we drove on we documented the smoke and flames from around the lake. Eventually we ran into some rhinos and lions (oh yeah, we did start the day on safari) and captured some cool stuff on camera (symbiosis?) but I kept thinking we were being both insensitive and perhaps idiotic as well.
When it was almost 5pm we returned to the main gate and asked about the fire. The woman at the gate told me it had been raging since the night before but that it would be safe to sleep at our hotel. No way I was going to do that, but I was interested in seeing what had happened and felt safe doing so since it appeared the wind had pushed the fire in the other direction.
We went back to the hotel, still standing , yet still surrounded by smoke and flames. I decided to stay in the car because I was quite sure the hotel manager would try to kill me for getting his guests to leave. There were still people lounging around sipping cocktails, and the guards and staff repeatedly told us that it would be safe to stay over night. Were they crazy?? Did they want us to spend money at the hotel that night so badly?? Knowing nothing about fires, how they move with wind, jump around, etc, there was no chance I was going to risk that when we could leave and stay in town (though I met some opposition from my companions about staying in Nakuru town). Eventually Dina and Mary agreed to leave and so we went to Nakuru.
I checked the newspapers online and saw nothing of the fire. By Friday afternoon, the Daily Nation covered the fire, with some bs reporting (as if no animals were killed by the fire): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Park+fire+under+control/-/1056/1114722/-/13sbm6o/-/index.html
Sounds to me like the fire is still burning in Lake Nakuru National Park, and if Kenya Wildlife Services, and the hotels in the park, don't take fire and safety seriously, they are going to have some major and avoidable human catastrophes at the same time as they are losing one of Kenya's most precious, national resources. It was quite a day, and though I was never scared for my life in an immediate sense, there seemed to have been huge risks to many peoples' lives and some very irresponsible behavior on the part of the hotel management. Questions remain: what happened after we left? Was the fire contained? Do national parks have evacuation plans??
The fact is, even if the guests and staff of our hotel are all safe, a fact I don't know, the fire itself is an incredible tragedy.
Over and out.
M
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