Thursday, September 1, 2016

Out of the City Part IV: Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria is the 2nd largest fresh water lake in the world (Lake Superior is 1st).  It's the largest lake in Africa and lies in three countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  Who would have thought we'd ever see it?  Not me, that's for sure.  But first . . . we have to finish up the pictures from our lo-o-ong drive on Friday, August 26.


A field of sugar cane.  When I was young, I lived on a sugar beet farm north of Taber, Alberta, Canada.  My siblings and I hoed sugar beets in the summer to earn a little cash.  That was in the days when sugar beets were hoed by hand (well, not by hand, but by hand with a hoe!  Here in Kenya, when you say by hand, you mean by actual hand).  The sugar beets were turned into sugar at the local Taber Sugar Factory.  Here in Kenya, sugar is produced from sugar cane which is actually planted by hand.  Each little sugar cane plug is plugged into the ground by hand.

Another view of the gorgeous countryside.

We saw a few thatched roof huts.  Back home, people teased me that I would have to live in a hut in Africa.  I think I prefer the flat in Nairobi that I live in to a hut out here even though there are no walls or gates or barbed wire here.

We saw many loads of dried sugar cane being transported to a local weigh-station.

Some loads of sugar cane were pulled by trucks and some by tractors.

This is a peek into the weigh-station where the sugar cane is weighed and then transferred to wherever they make sugar.

It's about 6:45 p.m. here at Lake Victoria.  Seems to be lighter than it is at that time in Nairobi.  Exciting to be on the shore of Lake Victoria.  We learned a little bit (but not much) about Africa in our elementary school days.  I remember learning about Tanganyika which later became Tanzania.  Lake Victoria was named after Britain's Queen Victoria (who was also Canada's queen).  Kenya was once a British colony so there are many things British here.
We're here with our traveling companions, Peter and Pauline and their one-year old.  She was a really good little thing considering the fairly long drive we just took.  She basically sat on her mother's lap the whole time.  There's not a car seat law here in Kenya.  

2 comments:

  1. lighter because you were that much further west, yet in the same time zone

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  2. Interesting comparison between Lake Victoria and Lake Superior - I do know it is a looonnnggg way around Lake Superior when driving across Canada. Really nice to 'see' the countryside there, and YOU TWO with your great traveling companions!

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