Yesterday, after a long weekend of sitting behind my computer, I got bored and decided to go for a drive with my cameras. I started randonly driving along the main road out of town, and then kept going. Since my digital camera is so small I could just hold it on top of the steering wheel and snap away.
Eventually, after passing the escarpment and driving about eighty kilometres, I got bored and turned round and went home. And I could see the clouds were getting a bit dark and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get very good pictures once it started raining.
It did start raining eventually though, and I had to slow down to about 40km/h because I could hardly see the road in front of me. Fortunately I’d already passed the escarpment by that point, as I wouldn’t have enjoyed driving up there while not being able to see the side of the road.
It carried on raining through the night and this morning the whole of Upper Hill is without power. At least when it started raining last night I made sure I got my lantern fully charged so I’ll have light this evening if they don’t get it fixed before then.
It’s ironic that in a country where nearly all the electricity is produced at hydroelectric power plants, when it rains the power goes out.
By the way, the top photo shows a donkey cart on the left, a couple of matatus in the middle, and an Eldoret Express bus on the right. You don’t want to get in the way of the Eldoret Express – because of their big wheels they can just fly right over most potholes and they don’t slow down for anything.
The second picture shows a lookout point by the rift valley. The hill slopes away steeply from the road, so the dukas are on a platform supported by wooden poles.