Lake Eyasi Camping Trip-Day 1 & 2

We headed out from Mwanza on Monday after lunch and drove several hours to a village called Ndoleleji. There are several MK priests out there and we were to meet up with them, spend the night and then head into the bush on Tuesday. Unfortunately, we experienced several car problems along the way.


I didn't get a shot of our first issue, an empty radiator! But just after getting that problem fixed and setting off again we were flagged down by a nice man who told us our headlight was hanging off!

Because of the car trouble, we were a little late getting to Ndoleleji. But in true MK fashion, the fathers had a great spread ready for us so we could have a "sun downer" and enjoy tasty libations while watching the sunset in their back yard. What a great way to recover from the stressful journey.



The next morning after Mass in the yard, we took a brief tour of one of Fr. Dan's projects-BEEKEEPING!


Fr. Dan prior to Mass.


"Killer Bee" Honey. They're NOT killer bees. Don't get me started on that rant. It's just a name.

After packing up the trucks with necessities like M&M/granola snack mix, beer, and water, we set out.


Portable fridge for drinks...we know how to "rough it."




Fr. Mike warming up for the campfire songs.

We spent most of Tuesday driving. It was a dusty, long journey and I drove one of the trucks the whole way. I was proud of my navigating through dry river beds and getting the truck in and out of 4-wheel drive.


This is lush compared to where we ended up going.


We made a few stops along the way. Here we had lunch under a tree. It was great to get a little break from the dusty roads. I made hummus and we brought it out. Happy to say that it's now an international favorite. Thanks, Bo.


Fr. Dan's truck stops to make sure the other trucks get through the dry riverbed without sticking. I'm driving the middle truck. You can see we've picked up a traveler along the way. Can't imagine riding in the back of the truck, it was so dusty!


We made another stop at a village to visit another MK priest who is building a huge church.

After a day of driving we arrived at our destination. We did some searching and found a nice place to camp right along a dry riverbed. It's the rainy season, so there was little to worry about in the way of being carried away by flood.


You can see, we're along the rift escarpment, so there are mountains/hills in the background. We were close to Lake Eyasi at this point but couldn't see if from where we were camping.

By the time we found a campsite the sun was settling pretty quickly. So we hastily set up camp and went about the business of making dinner. We were with such a great group of people. Everyone pitched in to help with whatever tasks needed to be done. I never felt like anyone was slacking on helping out. There were 9 of us altogether, 5 lay missioners and 4 MK priests (1 priest from Musoma, 2 from Ndoleleji, and 1 from Nairobi).


Some of the guys setting up Chris's and my home-away-from-home.


The people who live in this area have some crazy telepathic social networking ability or something because word of our arrival spread like wildfire and people were stopping by before we even made camp. They just came to say hello and welcome. They were curious about who we were and what we were doing there. Oh, and they wanted to share in our food and whatever else we had to offer.


Fathers Dan and Hong setting up camp.


We were all pretty tuckered out that night from the long drive. But we enjoyed a great meal, some tasty drinks, good music, fun stories and lots of laughs before heading off to bed.