Soon after I returned from my trip to the US, I went to Kenya for 10 days to visit my daughter who was on contract there in Nairobi. It was lovely to see her and I had a great time. It was early June, the end of the rainy season and a relatively cool time there.
Diani beach
The first weekend we flew to Mombasa and caught a taxi down to Diani beach. Although the distance is not far, one has to cross the river at the port of Mombasa by ferry and this does slow one down, especially on the return trip on Sunday night. The bits of Mombasa I saw looked a bit scruffy and as we ventured into the countryside there were shops and houses and mosques on every corner ; along with cattle and goats in the road almost as far as Diani. It was a bit different to the USA!
The beach and resort were fabulous. We stayed at Water Lovers. The water is so warm and there is a sandbar a few hundred meters out which is exposed at low tide and one is able to snorkel there. We swam, went for long walks and enjoyed lovely food, including local seafood and a meter long pizza.
I ventured by tuktuk taxi to the Kongo river close by to see the old mosque and mangrove swamps and was poled upstream in one of the traditional boats made from mango trees I was told. There are enormous baobabs around as well as coconut palms. I bought a green coconut to drink the milk and quick as a flash the guy knotted some fronds together around his ankles and then climbed the tree to get the coconut. The milk did not taste of coconut as I know it, but was thirst quenching.
There are several monkey species in the vicinity including the rare Colobus monkey which I saw in the distance at the Kongo river. A vervet monkey jumped off the roof and snatched my croissant at breakfast one morning and another species with a long tail came by and took the banana peel off the veranda of my chalet while I sat there reading, then settled down on the railing to delicately eat out all the inner bits before discarding the rest.
When we returned to Nairobi which has many high rise buildings and many which seem to have been abandoned while half completed, I went to arboretum which was near where my daughter was staying and took a trip to the Karen Blixen museum. It is based in the home she lived in while in Kenya which is now in the suburb called Karen after her. I had a fascinating trainee guide to show me around.
One thing that took some getting used to in Kenya is that as a non resident one has to pay a lot to get into parks and museums and then often one is expected to take a guide. This person also needs to be paid.
I was hoping to visit some other spots in Karen which is regarded as a most prestigious suburb in Nairobi, but was warned that it would not be advisable to walk in the streets there. Crime seems to be quite a problem. There are nice forested areas though in Nairobi where it seems safe to walk. I also visited a delightful small Art Museum in central downtown, near the National museum which I did not get to.
Midweek I went down to Lake Naivasha for 2 days. It took about 2 hours to get there and unfortunately it was misty when we came down off the escarpment and so the view was obscured. It was interesting to see all the shambas full of maize and people carefully herding the sheep and cattle so that they didn’t get in to eat them. The Masai who are great stock farmers live in this part of Kenya.
I liked the energy and optimism of the people who go in for advertising on the store fronts along the roads in a big way. Also along the roads are many nurseries of flowering plants in pots, stalls selling wooden beds and other furniture, children’s jungle gyms, plant pots, all sorts of things.
Lake Naivasha
At Lake Naivasha I stayed at Camp Carnelley. It was a lovely tranquil spot and from there I caught a local matatu ( taxi) up the road to Sanctuary farm where I had a long walk amidst the animals and got up close to giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and buck as well as lots of birds. I was warned to keep well clear of the buffalo. I even, after standing very still next to the lake for sometime listening to the hippos, got a shot of one with its mouth open.
The next day I ventured to Hell’s Gate National Park which is close by and managed to walk all 8 kms to the gorge and then back, but did not have the energy to venture down the gorge. This park has impressive cliffs and rock formations and lots of animals roaming about. I took a photo of cliffs marked with what looked like bird droppings and wondered what was nesting there. There are very dark onyx stones in the road I walked along .
Going down the gorge is on my to do list for next time as is the plan to climb Mt Longonot the nearby extinct volcano which has a forest in its crater and still puffs steam in places.
Later that afternoon I took a chilly hour long boat trip on the lake from the camp and saw an amazing number of birds. I heard from people camping on the lawns that the hippos had come ashore in the night.
The surrounds of Lake Naivasha are spoilt by masses of tunnels used to grow flowers for export, but many of them now stand empty. I was also amazed to see so many handsome euphorbia trees there and on the pass returning to Nairobi – I am not sure if it is E. ingens. Also big fever trees or some acacia/senegalia/vachellia? that looks very similar.
Back in Nairobi we went out to eat at some lovely restaurants including one specializing in Ethiopian food. It was the first time I had tasted injeera and I really enjoyed the subtle spicing of the dishes that went with it. There was also a very good Indian restaurant. I also got hooked on watching The Crown on netflix- not sure how I am going to see the last 3 episodes of series 2!
On my last Sunday in Nairobi we visited the David Sheldrick sanctuary for orphaned elephants. It was heart warming to see them guzzling their milk and horrible to see the injuries such as holes in their trunks that some of them had. We then went to Nairobi national park, which is on the outskirts of the city, but sadly did not see much and the roads were appalling.
On the way up from JHB I had seen Lake Malawi from the air. It is huge . On the way back I asked for a seat on the other side of the plane and soon after leaving Nairobi, Mt Kilimanjaro reared up. It is also pretty impressive.
I would love to spend more time in Kenya. I found the people friendly, especially when they found I came from SA and I feel in 10 days I only got an inkling of all the nice places there may be to visit.
Kenya Gallery
