Kenya notebook: A little moment of calm

This morning, the huge service park located within the grounds of the Kenya Wildlife Service training institute (the training center for forest rangers) at the entrance to Naivasha was particularly deserted.

All the competitors were in fact in Nairobi to participate in the starting ceremony in the presence of Jean Todt, President Uhuru Kenyatta and several other political representatives. At the end of this formality, they competed in the first special of this 6th round of the season in the suburbs of the capital.

The final preparations having been completed, the site where the teams were concentrated was much quieter than in previous days. This prompted a few unusual spectators to take a little impromptu tour of these strange installations which have literally grown up in the middle of nowhere.

The troop of warthogs seen in the space which will be used for the closed park will undoubtedly have to answer to the race management for having soiled the premises and having escaped by passing under the fence...

While waiting for the return of the cars which will take place in convoy at the end of the day, the personnel remaining in the structures continued to prepare again and again for the big battle which is announced tomorrow. Others, luckier, were able to get a taste of what the competitors will encounter in the special stages. Very close to Naivasha, it is in fact possible to observe zebras, giraffes, very ugly wildebeests, several species of monkeys and birds, but also hippos.

Accessible by boat, Crescent Island is the refuge of many animals and legend has it that it is even possible to come across the ghosts of Meryl Streep and Robert Redford who came there to film some shots of Out of Africa...(It's which is what the guide assures in any case…) When leaving the place, Lake Naivasha, whose name in the Maasai language means “rough waters” because of the storms that can occur, was superbly calm. Will it be the same from Friday morning?