Blogs from Central Province , Kenya, Africa - page 2

As we felt ok with the altitude (with the help of Diamox!) we skipped the acclimatisation day and instead used this day to hike the 5km up to the next hut which would significantly cut down the night hike tomorrow morning. Whilst holding the dodgy toilet door shut for Chavaunne I got a lovely view of a mountain eagle! There were also several rock hyrax handing around the camp. The hike started with a nice gentle incline up the valley then went steeply up the scree slope, which we needed to take very “pole pole”! The only vegetation up here was some moss, lichen and a scattering of pretty yellow flowers. After what felt like ages but was only a few hours we made it over the ridge down to the Austrian Hut at 4790m by ... read more

We had an early breakfast at 6am before setting off for a morning game drive whilst the sun was still below the horizon. It was rather chilly standing in the minivan with the roof up but watching the sunrise over My Kenya was spectacular. As was coming across a family of lions with cubs playing on the road! Lions – a pride of 9 (incl. 4 adorable cubs) plus a group of 3 (2 males & a female post coitus!) Reticulated giraffe Silver-backed jackal Impala Grant’s gazelles Thompson’s gazelles Warthogs Superb starlings Buffalo Eland Burchell’s zebra Brown Snake Eagle (I think) Hawk sp. We left Ol Pejeta & headed to a nearby town to meet Cyrus, our guide for Mt Kenya at 10am. He joined us in the van for the drive to the Naro Moru ... read more

Durch die offene Bauweise des Hotels (alle Zimmer haben nur zu Innenhof Türen und Fenster) hat man fast rund um die Uhr Unterhaltung.  Die Küche hört man genauestens, ebenso wie alle Leute, die ins Bett gehen und wenn sie dann noch an Flur telefonieren, dann stören sie auf einen Schlag alle Anwesenden  nicht nur den Partner im Bett. In der Früh wird zeitig geputzt, aus dem unfertigen 2. Stock kommen die Angestellten herunter und die Küche wacht auch auf. Nach einem ausgiebigen, gemütlichen Frühstück fuhr ich in einem langen Umweg nach Meru, Touristenattraktion am Fuß des unsichtbren Mt Kenia. Dieser ist sehr zurückhaltend, er ist immer verschleiert, wie eine moslemische Frau. Aber außen herum gibt es eine Straße und man kann die Wolken anstarren, hinter denen er grollt. Und natürlich ist dieser Berg der Wohnsitz der ... read more

Alarms rung at 7 am, it was time to get ready. At 8 Speck was by the car and by 8:10 Caroline was onboard and the first cow was being shooed from the Way. The drive to Nanyuki was so swift they Daniel stopped at the corporation shops that Mr. Kimathi had invested in, and the three of them had a wonderful breakfast of tea (Kenyan style with milk and sugar), doughnut, mandazi, and a plate of chips and sausage. This really hit the spot and it was with eagerness on their faces and food in their bellies that Daniel drove Speck and Caroline into Nanyuki. At the main turn off to Muthoni's, Karuoya and Muthoi were picked up. Back up the road the turn was made to the safari camp. Since there was time to ... read more

This day was spent still at the Kimathi homestead. It is T M Kimathi's 83rd birthday. During the morning Speck played with his small friends, Lincoln, Gloria, David, and Rose. They dragged him from chickens, to quail, to rabbits, to cows to tomato trees (not a typo, the tree grows a fruit that tastes like tomatoes), and all over the place. Around 1 pm is the cake cutting which is preceded by speeches. First T. M. spoke, then his wife spoke. Then a man who was in his 70's spoke of how he had known T.M. for a very long time and come to all of his birthday parties for a very long time, and then told a fairy tale, and then kept talking and it looked like he was describing bowling because of the arm ... read more