“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta

My trips to Kenya have always turned me into a story teller, because everywhere you turn there is moment waiting to be told to someone. My early travels to the country often left me speechless, because I was never prepared for the unusual, at least to this American city girl, events or sightings.

Some of the most unusual things one can see here are the things that you witness as you travel along the roads, be they the rocky dirt paths, paved streets, or highways. It seems I had forgotten about the unusual travelers along the the road. Being that I haven’t been in Kenya since 2012, there were a few things I forgot, though I don’t know how. Maybe I didn’t forget, I just put them in the back of my mind until I witnessed them the other day.

For instance, as we traveled up a dirt path (and it is really consider a road to somewhere) to the Bishop’s wife’s restaurant we had to pause and give the right away to the herd of goats that were coming from market. The last thing you want to do is hit someones’ heard. It could spell death, or at the least a major fine or fight. So the driver yielded to the goats until the road was clear again. .

This is always funner when traveling down the highway and you have to slam on breaks for a cow or a herd crossing. Yes, a herdsman will cross his cattle across a busy intercity highway. And yes, you will yield all right to the herd and the herdsman.

And even stranger event happened once as I was taking a taxi from a city to the village. Seldom is a taxi used by one passenger here, but rather a group of people. The group can be in size of 4 to 10 or 12 people. Don’t ask how a car can hold 12 people. Just now it can in this part of the world. So once while traveling, the driver stopped to pick up passengers. As I looked in the mirror I noticed  a rather odd looking passenger looking at me from the boot of the car. I turned around to see if I was really seeing what I thought I had seen…yes, a goat was looking at me and talking! I quickly pulled out my video camera and started videoing I knew no one would believe me otherwise.

During my nearly week of stay here in Kenya I have encountered many herd crossings and yielding the right away to the goats and cows. No matter how in a hurry we were, we gave way to the other travelers along the way. I’m curious to know how much road have some of those herds traveled in a weeks timing. Travel to market, travel to varies grazing land, or  just traveling…those are some serious travelers.

Goats leaving market in Kiserian

A narrow road shared with the herd and oncoming driver.

Goats crossing the highway