Coincidences and Souvenirs

I had delayed buying any kind of souvenirs throughout the trip because I didnt want to carry them. So after finishing Mt Kenya trek, I had just one aim for the remainding 36 hours of the trip- to find a suitable memory of Africa to take to my house in Newcastle.

In "hassle-free gift shop" in Nanyuki a couple of old statues caught my eye. Althougth I desperatly tried to ignore the urge to buy these 1m high interesting wooden structures as I thought it would be impossible to transport them home- they really were 'something else'. They were hidden away in a corner of the shop- covered in cobwebs, but unsual compared to the other mass-produced masks etc.

As you've probably guessed they now sitting comfortably on our freezer at home, having just about made it home in one piece. Although I know very little of their history they are definitely old and I'm going to discover all I can find out about their significance from professionals if possible.

Just after I bought them, fretting whether I would ever be able to get them home, a whole truck load of people were shouting "Claire! Claire!" from across the other side of the road. Matty (newcastle medic friend) and his traveller friends had spotted me- so I spent a wonderfully unexpected evening with them, dancing in the local club.

This random meeting was the last of many other coincidences of this trip. I have bumped into other Newcastle friends on about 8 other individual occasions, mostly completely unorganinsed and surprising. The world is such a small place!

My stroll up Mt Kenya...

Surprisingly- it didn't feel like much more than a stroll! I was really surprised by my ability to climb the nearly 5000m peak on Mt Kenya, especially considering the previous two unenergetic months.

DAY 1; on meeting Simon in the morning of the first day- he informs me that he has, last minute, had to take on guiding an English school group of 25 children- and would I like to join them. Well, I didn't seem to have much choice in the matter, and anyway I thought it would be nice to have some company up the mountain. Within the first 1/2 hour, I realised there was no way I was walking to the top with these kids! All 25 had to walk in a group and everytime one wanted a drink, to put on extra clothing, have a moan, a cry or seek attention- everyone had to stop! Can you sense my frustration?

DAY 2; I managed to persuade Simon to let me walk with my porter, James from day 2 on. James was 22 and carried my backpack full of stuff- mine and his clothes, stoves, food, and much more. The landscape on the second day could have been in the Scottish Highlands- heathers and rivers crossing undulating hills. But that evening we reached Shipton's Camp (4200m) which is located at a truely impressive spot under the rock peaks of Batian and Nelion (see photo, Point Lenana is the most very right peak). The camps were far nicer than I expected. I had accommodation in the dormitories, which I was glad of as it snowed that evening, and would have been freezing in the tents. The porters/cooks continually supplied me with hot tea and biscuits and huge mounds of food for dinner.

DAY 3; was just an acclimatisation day around Shipton's Camp, and a leisurely afternoon admiring the scenery.

DAY 4; "The bigg'n!" We set off at 3am in the dark with only the light of the thousand stars (and our headtorches!). It was really surreal to plod "pole pole" (slowly slowly) up the mountain. In fact, I swear that I wasn't really awake, but half dreaming in an oddly transitional walking motion. We made it to Point Lenana (4995m) in time to see the sunrise, which had been brewing for the last 1/2 hour or so as a sharp scarlet band above the cloud line. Unfortunately, and much to Dad's annoyance- I was far too cold to take much care about my photographs because there was no way I was taking my hands out of their gloves to fiddle with the settings. The cold was the only thing that made me realise the severity of the trek, because other than that I had absolutely no symptoms of altitude sickness, not even breathlessness at the top, although many others did. It was a long 9 hour walk down from the top to Met Station, through dramatically changing landscape and vegetation, ending up in true misty humid rainforest.

DAY 5; the final 2 hours to the gate was an easy walk along a mud track. I had been briefed to drop my pack and be ready to sprint in the opposite direction if we were to come across a dangerous animal (including cheetah, leopard and elephants). At one point we saw two buffalo 50m away from us. James took a yellow plastic container and sprinted towards them banging it and screaming trying to scare them. For a moment they simply looked a little bewildered and then moped off into the forest.

It was a really enjoyable few days and a fantastic highlight to finish the trip.

The Ruins of Gede and my journey to Mt Kenya

I made an early start to reach the ruins by 8am, and was rewarded by having the place to myself completely. The ruins of the ancient swahili town of Gede are set away in the forest near the coast. "Ancient" in these terms means 14th century, but they were left derelict in 15th century and were left untouched until 1940's.

The ruins are not that impressive in themselves but the atomsphere of the thick forest around them makes them eery and mysterious in the semi dark and humidity.

In the afternoon I managed to find my way to visit the Consulate Sisters in Likoni, near Mombassa and had a really lovely afternoon seeing their dispensary and nursery school. Thank you, Sister Lawrence, for your invitation to visit them- it was a wonderful rest bite in the middle of an epic journey from Lamu to Nanyuki.

After 4 bus journeys in the last 2 days- including overnight to Nairobi, and many more matatu and ferry rides, I finally arrived in Nanyuki in the Central Highlands at lunchtime today. I had already arranged a guide, called Simon (by recommendation from other travelers) to meet me at the bus stop- and thankfully his friendly face greeted me.

I set off tomorrow on a 5 day trip up Simorion Route and down Chorgoria Route. These two routes notoriously pass through the most beautiful scenery Mt Kenya has to offer. I’m really excited about doing the trek especially since I think the rest of the Ferraro’s will be bursting with jealously!! Am I right? anyway... wish me luck as this time of the year has the most unstable conditions so i hope i make it to the top.

sorry- no photos

On a more practical note, I'm simply not going to be able to put up any photos until I get home. The internet cafes are far to slow and it will just be so much easier and less frustrating to upload from home. So that's only a week and half away- but for the meantime, your just going to have to take my word for it, that there are some beautiful places!!

Lamu- the most perfect place in Kenya!

Wow! I absolutely loved Lamu. I've just spent 5 special days in my favourite place in Kenya. It is a million miles away from the hassle of the tourist areas in other parts of the country. In many ways Lamu Town is similar to Stone Town, even smaller winding alleyways, this time filled with donkeys and children playing. The people are absolutely wonderful, everywhere you go you are greeted by "jambo" and "karibu" ("welcome") and unlike the rest of Kenya it was not (always) followed by "would you like a boat ride?" or, "come to my shop…"

The journey to Lamu by bus from Mombassa took 7 hours on some of the worst roads ever. It seemed to pass quickly though because I was talking to some really interesting characters sitting near me. There was also numerous birds and even baboons along the way so it was almost like a free safari.

As we reached the ferry to take us to the town (Lamu is an island). The heavens opened and my bags (and me) got absolutely drenched. Everything was soaked- including my passport! My electronic airoplane ticket is unreadable (whoops) and my rucksack has never looked so "well traveled" in its life before!

For about the sixth time this trip I randomally bumped into friend from Newcastle in a restaurant. So I joined Bex and her boyfriend Andy for some sunning on the expansive beach.

But the best bit about the last few days were the 2 (!) overnight dhow trips I took to a small island called Manda Toto. The traditional dhow was beautiful to sail, with its billowing sails we made our way through narrow channels lined by mangrove swamps. We caught fish from the boat, (the professionals caught many- stingray, angel fish, red and black snapper, and crocodile fish) but I also caught one small one! We grilled them and sat round a camp fire drinking and enjoying each others company, sleeping out under the amazingly bright stars. I enjoyed the first trip so much that I decided to repeat the whole thing again instead of visiting the rest of the coast. In fact if I hadn’t already booked a trek on Mt Kenya starting on Friday- I would be in Lamu for the rest of my trip.

So today i tore myself away from the relaxed friendly culture, said goodbye to the good friends I had made, and am now in Malindi. In a decidely dodgey guest house, but considering my lack of sleep in the last few days- I think I will sleep through anything.

Dar es Salaam

I have discovered the worst thing about travelling alone is not feeling lonely sometimes (actually i've rarely been on my own since Mum left), it's not taking slightly more expensive single rooms... it's having to make my own decisions!! There is nobody to tell me I have to go here or there, which invariably leeds to much dillydallying on the way. When I arrived in Dar at 6 in the morning, I had a number of options...

1. get 24 hr bus that morning to Lusaka, Zambia.
2. get bus to Mombassa to try and volunteer with a man who i had not been able to contact.
3. go to Arusha and climb Mt Meru
4. work my way slowly up the coast stopping in small towns along the way or...
5. stay in Dar

In the end it was the lack of clean clothes in my bag and the increasing pile of smelly ones that made me stay in Dar for at least one night!

Dar, like any other big African city, has a bustling, dirty, negative reputation. But actually to the contary I found walking around the city really quite enjoyable. There is a lovely large busy port area where I sat and watched the goings on. I had the most delicious Salad Nicoise in a tiny western-style cafe (not kidding- this was a highlight!) and i visited the national museum in the afternoon. It had an interesting collection of Swahili relics and historical artefacts from 3million years ago, when ape ancestors first walked bipedal leaving footprints in western Tanzania, to German then British ruling and independance. I was obviously in the mood for a museum because I had to be asked to leave as it was past their closing time!

The following day I still had not made my mind up where to go, so instead I went in search of the Drago truck. I had had an email from Mamba (our cook) who told me of the beach where they were staying south of Dar. After quite a epic adventure on 4 different daladala (local minibuses) and 2 ferries I got to the beach. It was great to see Mamba and Rich again, their new group was just about to fly in the next day. Acutally, they told me that the day after Mum and I left the truck the whole thing completely broke down. They barely got to Nairobi and then spent 10 days trying to fix, in the end they had to make it a new engine!! Poor Josh (that was it's name).

As i got back to the YWCA that evening, i met two friends that i had met in Zanzibar. The two people who had put me in touch with the volunteer position in Mombassa. So I've been travelling with them the last couple of days up to Mtongwe, and small village outside Mombassa. I had hoped to teach in the school there for a week or so, for something a bit different, but when we arrived last evening the man who organised everything was no-where! (actually the story is, he's landed himself in jail but nobody knows for what!) The others tell me he's a little excentric, but he had also failed to tell them or me that the schools broke up for summer holidays yesterday- TIA!! So there is no volunteering to be done.

Instead I am heading up the coast to Lamu for a few days- for yet even more relaxing, beaches and swahili culture.

Overnight ferry to Dar es Salaam

I couldn't help remembering the ferry ride I had taken from Sittwe to Mrauk U in Myanmar last year as I was checking in at Stone Town Port at 9pm. Visions of concrete floors with hundreds of locals all bedding down for the night, maybe even outside, were completely abolished when I stepped onto the air-conditioned ferry.

I was shown, with the other 5 mzungus (white people), to our very own cabin upstairs where there were soft comfy seats to bed down for the night. I was woken in the morning (8 hours later) to a man saying "taxi, taxi" ... we had arrived. The most comfortable easiest form of transport I have taken yet in all my travels!!