Astrid´s blogg

Mt Kenya, part 1

2012-01-10T18:33:00.017+03:00

The Naro Moru Route

What a great way of starting the new year, hiking Mt Kenya together with 4 other ladies and a teenage girl! A lot of pictures this time, and I have just copied in green the itinerary we got from our tour guide, and then I have commented a few of the pictures.

Day – 1 - Thursday

Drive from Nairobi to my office. Have an early prepared lunch.

Later proceed to Naromoru gate, check in, and start the hike

to reach Met station 3048metres for an overnight.

Lunch in Naro Moru before starting the hike.

Ready to go!!

Two and a half hours walk before we arrived at Met Station, just as it was getting dark.

Dinner: Soup, trout and fresh fruits. Delicious!

Day – 2 - Friday

Hike for 6-7hrs to reach Mackinders camp 4200metres for an

overnight.

Porters rearranging our luggage. Inga-May and Rita are ready to go.

Walking through many different zones of vegetation, starting in a very fertile hillside!

Further up...

Lunch time.

Me and a "Mzungu," as our guide called this plant.

Mountain hyrax - plenty of them around Mackinder`s Camp.

Finally there...

Tea and hot drinks were served almost as soon as we arrived.

Posing in my safari skirt :)

More posing...

Day – 3 - Saturday

Hike for 3-4hrs to reach Austria hut 4790metres

for an overnight.

Hyraxes enjoying the sunny morning at Mackinder`s Camp.

The living room.

The bedroom.

Ready to leave Mackinder`s Camp.

Clear weather as we were walking up, up, up...

The Austrian hut, 4790m. Point Lenana (4985m) in the background.

Room for six.

The cook preparing our meal in the hallway/kitchen just outside our room.

Starting the early morning climb.

Mt Kenya, part 2

2012-01-09T15:36:00.016+03:00

The Chogoria Route

Day – 4 - Sunday

Make a raise at around 5am and hike to the third highest

peak, point Lenana, 4985metres. Later proceed and descend

down through Mintos and all the way to Chogoria bandas.

We all made it, despite some altitude issues the day before!!!

Kvikk Lunsj - hele Norges tursjokolade :) Well deserved Norwegian chocolate!!

Marita was well dressed. Later we were told that it had been -9 degrees Celcius on the top!!

Just like a nice Easter day in Norwegian mountains :)

Down, down, down...

...and even more down....

Breakfast at Mintos` hut, three and a half hours after we left the peak.

In addition to our guide, eight porters and a cook took part in our expedition.

Inga-May is having a short break.

The view was stunning!!!

Margunn`s knee just couldn`t take it any more... Luckily the porters came back since it took so long, and they organized to carry her in turns.

Rich fauna!!

Late lunch: Noodle soup, fried chicken, eggs and toast. It is almost 4 pm, and we still have a couple of hours left to walk.

Finally, after having been hiking for more than 12 hours we reached the Chogoria bandas. We made it before the dark, and avoided elephants and buffaloes that normally come out from the forest at that time...

Day – 5 - Monday

Pick up by 4*4 from Chogoria bandas and transfer to Chogoria town.

After a 2,5 hours drive on a rough road, we were picked up in Chogoria town and brought back to Nairobi. Sore legs, but what a trip!!!

Lake Magadi

2011-11-06T11:38:00.010+03:00

Another trip with "The Norwegian Compound," this time to Lake Magadi, a soda lake close to the Tanzanian border.

Heading south from Nairobi, we first visited Olorgesailie, a prehistoric site run by the National Museums of Kenya.

After a short guided tour of watching old handtools and excavations, in addition to the beaded goods of the Maasai women, we moved on to the lake and the hot springs.

The scenery was really beautiful, so we stopped the cars several times to immortalize the view of the lake and the pink and pretty flamingoes.

Lunch break in the shade of an acacia tree.

A guard showed us where to find the hot spring pool.

Algaes made the bottom very slippery, but since local people and guards have a medicinal bath every day, there was a narrow path where one could walk safely to the pool.

When the air temperature is 38 degrees Celcius in the shade, a hot water bath isn`t really refreshing, but it sure was relaxing and felt very good!

Lovely Diani

2011-09-19T22:15:00.014+03:00

A great long weekend; pictures can tell. Baobab Resort Hotel is hereby recommended :)

Welcome-coconut-drink.

Relaxing by the pool(s), reading and learning useful things from magazines, like

how to pose...

... and how to NOT pose... :)

Kristin and I went to Shimoni one of the days, snorkeling. Fun to see the dolphins play by the boat, and the swahili seafood dishes served at the Wasini Island were delicious.

One night at Kitengela glass guesthouse

2011-09-05T20:40:00.018+03:00

Last Saturday morning, more or less impulsively, a phone call was made to Kitengela guesthouse to find out if there was a room available for the same night. A few hours later Rita and I found ourselves on the plains outside of Nairobi, for the most interesting weekend in the most interesting surroundings, hosted by the most interesting and eccentric animal and bird loving people.

Ground floor living room and bedroom.

Shower. On the outside the shower room looked like a porcupine, the bottlenecks sticking out in all directions.

Way up to the bedroom, where we could easily understand why this was called the Glasshouse.

Sculpture park and swimming pool

Feeding of animals.

In the afternoon we were called to join the hosts for a walk, to see all the animals, and all of a sudden we were feeding pigs, camels, austriches and horses, accompanied by most of the 11 dogs. From our walk we could see «The City of Mordar» in the distance.

We also got to know that we could ride the horses the following day, and we were excited to have a horse ride on the plains. But it turned out to be a short round each, within the Kitengela area, the groom leading the horse... :)

Nature walk

Hyrax

Lunch time

The shop

The end :)

NLM camping trip to Naivasha

2011-08-28T18:33:00.013+03:00

The school year started off with and an inspiring weekend trip and good fellowship at Fisherman`s Camp.

Accomodation:

Luckily cars are dry inside when tents are soaked from heavy rain. For people who like some comfort, a mattress is always recommended on a camping trip, whether you sleep in a Mitsubishi or in a tent...

Food:

Food is of course of uttermost importance when you`re on a camping trip! The three ladies` breakfast lacked nothing, and on the evening barbeque menu was Chicken Satay and Tandoori Chicken, accompanied with Thai Salad. Yummy :P

Wildlife:

One of the young rascals living next door...

Another neighbour, who visited just outside the electrical fence at night.

Activities:

After the Bible lesson on Saturday, we went by boat to Crescent Island for a safari walk and picnic.

The outdoor Sunday Service was followed by relaxation and lunch at Sopa Lodge before returning home.

One-day-trip to Tanzania

2011-08-08T19:30:00.016+03:00

ITINERARY:

Saturday:

7 am.

Taxi from Scripture Mission to the bus stop at Silver Springs Hotel.

7. 20 am.

Arrival at Silver Springs Hotel. Rita and I start waiting.

8 am.

Bus is supposed to leave.

8.10 am.

Bus arrives.

8. 30 am.

Bus leaves.

8. 50 am.

Bus driver pulls over and stops. He talks in his cell phone. Passengers complain.

9 am.

More complaints. Bus driver has passed a passenger he was supposed to pick up.

9.15 am.

Poor missing passenger arrives by taxi, and bus finally moves on.

11.00 am.

Arrival at border. Unorganized queues to get visas/passport stamps on both sides of the border.

12.15 pm.

Passengers who know how to find the fastest lines in the border queue chaos still wait for passengers who don`t, and for the bus driver.

12.20 pm.

Bus enters Tanzania.

2.15 pm.

Bus arrives at the drop-off point of the Norwegian passengers. Bus driver is asked if he remembers that this is the point where he is supposed to drop us off. He says he does, but then he moves on till the passengers tell him to stop right HERE!

2. 30 pm.

The travelers enter the Scripture Mission compound in Arusha.

3.30 - 6.30 pm.

Travelers drive to the city center of Arusha and walk around, visit a couple ofcafés for milkshake, ice cream, and coffee. The barista hardly understands why it is so important for the customers to have the coffee beans freshly ground instead of buying a packet of already ground coffee when it will be the same right after he has finished grinding the beans anyway... As far as getting around, Rita typically knows where we ARE, but not where we`re going.

6.45 - 8.30 pm.

We go downtown again with Margunn and Kristoffer, to eat dinner at Khahn`s. Charming grill on the pavement, and excellent food! Back to the compound for coffee and dessert and for the night.

Sunday:

9.30 am.

We get up and learn that it is smart to defrost rolls in good time before breakfast when you know the power will be off.

10 am.

Rolls defrosted on top of a pot of boiling water on the gaz stove are ready to be eaten.

11 am.

Breakfast is finished and car is being packed.

11.30 am.

We arrive at TGT recreation center when Rita has finally found out where we were should be going.

11. 50 am - 12. 50 pm.

Our goal, one of the main purposes of going to Tanzania (besides taking a Toyota Landcruiser, that had been in Arusha over the summer, back to Nairobi), is reached. We play squash for an hour :)

12.50 - 2.45 pm.

Lunch is ordered, and we relax by the pool till the food finally arrives, mine half an hour before hers. Then we eat, shower, and set off to Nairobi.

4.20 - 5.20 pm.

Border stuff. A man wants to sell car insurance, insisting that he had been selling insurance to this specific car long time ago. By coincidence the owner of the car calls from Norway and has it all sorted out for us. We get a sticker on the windscreen. Later we are stopped by the police, who only cheques that we have a valid insurance sticker on the windscreen.

7 pm.

It is dark and the brakes start making a mysterious sound every time it is used. We decide to drive polepole in the middle lane to try to avoid using the brakes.

8 pm.

We arrive the compound where we live, after a strenuous final hour of an otherwise wonderful, relaxing, and fun trip :)

Events and everyday life at the Norwegian compound

2011-05-24T11:34:00.017+03:00

Spring semester 2011

NCS

Math day at Norwegian Community School, March 10th

Tangram puzzles, group work.

What group can build the highest tower?

Mental arithmetic. How many correct answers do the pupils have?

Ring game.

Lunch time. One of the math activities was making a pancake batter for 6 persons, and pancakes is what the pupils got for lunch.

Margunn and I had been teaching at West Nairobi School in the morning. WNS had their twin day, and we dressed up like twins. One of the pupils found a nice "hole" in which he could put his head as the photo was taken.. :o)
Hard working teachers.

Dinner with some colleagues under the kibanda outside my house.

International sports day, March 16th.

Teams were mixed of students from the German, the Swedish, the French, and the Norwegian schools. Nice friendship event with a good opportunity for English practice. Soccer and hockey were some of the games played.

West Nairobi School also had a field trip one of the days. We went to Camp Blue Sky for team building activities and challenges. Nice day!

Flying ants

The rainy season suddenly gave the ants on my veranda lots of work to do. The flying ants were all over, and their wings spread out as they fell off when the flying ants died. The elementary students at NCS fried some, and seasoned with salt and pepper, and shared willingly. Not the most delicious snack I have tried...

May 16th
Barbeque party in Lilleheim`s garden, the day before our independance day.

Nice break from all preparation that needed to be done that this busy day, the decorating of the compound and the assembly hall, the baking of cakes, the ironing of flags and clothes etc.

School Trip to Lamu

2011-03-18T18:02:00.035+03:00

2nd - 7th March 2011

Norwegian Community School

Grade 5-7

After several weeks of fund raising in many different and creative ways, the day of departure finally arrived! Excited and happy students and teachers.

Day 1:

Arrival at Manda airport. A ferry boat brought us from Manda island to Lamu, and we were guided to Catherine house, where we were staying. We left our luggage, went out for lunch, and watched the dhow race while waiting for food. The Maulidi Festival was celebrated during our stay, as an extra bonus, and the dhow race was one of the events of the feast.

Girls just wanna have fun :o)

The house we stayed in was great! Plenty of space, and a nice roof terrace for eating, sleeping, relaxing, playing games, and having evening devotions.

Lunch in a local restaurant. Afterwards we hired a boat to take us to the beach at Shela, and we passed some beautiful places on our way.

Day 2:

Strolling around in Lamu town. Every day we passed the shop of this talkative salesman, who just loved to dress up our kids and arrange photos.

Ready for a day of cultural experience. Visiting the museum and the fort.

The donkey race final had been cancelled, so we had to arrange our own...

Outside the fort.

Day 3:

Going by dhow to Matondoni, a small village previously known for building dhows. Now the people mostly make baskets.

Life is hard...

We were not the only visitors in Matondoni this day. Maybe this fellow wanted some baskets, too...

As we passed these hospitable people, we were invited to taste sweet pasta. Nice :o)

On our way to the beach, after our visit in Matondoni, a lovely fish dinner was prepared aboard the dhow. Delicious! And lots of fruits were served, too.

Happy teacher!

In the evening we went downtown to watch the parade. Lots of people were watching, women in fashionable buibuis, and children nicely dressed up.

Day 4:

Snorkeling in the Indian Ocean

Lionfish and other beautiful fish praising God just by being what they are :o)

Math lesson. Trying to make a symmetric picture - need to work on that...

After the snorkeling we went directly to Shela to visit Mr. Thune, who is supporting many of the archeological and cultural projects at Lamu. His house was like a museum. The children enjoyed the swimmingpool and cold sodas, and the grown-ups had a chat on the roof terrace.

Day 5:

In the morning the girls went shopping while the boys went swimming.

Buying myself some new lamps...

In the afternoon, whenthe tide was high enough to go through the shallow mangrove passage, the crew of Mr. Thune`s dhow brought to Takwa, a ruin village at Manda Island.

Mangrove seed

Group photo in front of a baobab tree in Takwa village.

One of the two wells of the village. The wells were filled with salt water when the village became overpopulated, and the inhabitants were forced to leave the village and move to Shela.

Day 6:

Leaving for the airport...

Handwritten boarding pass.

Bye for now - I`ll be back in Easter :-D

Celebrity Night at NCS

2011-03-12T11:33:00.014+03:00

What a frightful night!! The Beagle Boys want to steal the Old Number One from Magica de Spell, the dime she has finally managed to steal from Uncle Scrooge, and that will make her the richest witch in the world.

Magica tries her best to keep the villains away from her treasure by hitting them in their heads with her purse, and escaping from them on her broom.

But the Beagle Boys never give up. They keep trying throughout the night. Will they succeed?

They did!! What a catastrophy!! What now?

Unfortunately Magica has forgotten her wand, so she really might need some help from Harry Potter`s friend Hermoine.

And Mickey Mouse should be capable of solving the mystery and find out where the Beagle Boys have hidden the stolen dime, but Minnie Mouse would probably not be of any help.

Maybe Robin Hood could steal it from the rich (thieves) and give it back to the poor (witch)?

Anyway, it is certain that Magica won`t get any help from Rannveig and Hans Karl, the irresolute NCS teachers. They are only watching the crime without even lifting a finger to help. Rannveig is just laughing the whole time, and Hans Karl keeps calling Magica and all the others "Din løk."

Not much help from Dolly Duck either. And Jan Thomas` only concern is the hair style of Britney Spears.

Perhaps it is better just to forget the whole thing about the Old Number One, and decorate some cupcakes instead. That would definitely be the right task for Jan Thomas, who, for some reason ended up having the Old Number One himself! EATING IT UP!!

Weekend activities

2011-02-14T22:39:00.021+03:00

What does a regular January weekend at the Norwegian compound look like? May be the pupils` fund raising for a field trip to Lamu is not particularly regular, but lately all kinds of money raising has been very popular among the young ones, like for instance arranging a Saturday café. And the always coffee thirsty social grown-ups willingly visit the café.

But some other activities are more common. I`m not the only one to enjoy spending the Saturday by the swimmingpool...

About once a month the people at the compound set out for a trip. Last Sunday we headed for Hell`s Gate National Park, where we rented bikes and biked into a nice picnic site 7 km from the gate. Dry weather made the animals hide, and only a few zebras and wart hogs were observed by the water hole and on the plains. But biking was nice anyway, and the landscape that inspired the artist who drew the Lion King movie is really beautiful.

Josephine`s pizza horns are the best :o)

I didn`t take a picture of the signpost saying "Be aware of flash floods", that was posted by the track down to the gorge. I would have, if I had known that we would all learn what flash floods means...

Trying to find shelter from the rain and the heavy hail... But we could not stay long before had to rush back to avoid the water that filled the gorge faster than I had imagined.

Luckily a pick-up had come to the picnic site to pick up most of the soaking wet kids and their bikes and bring them back to the gate.

Wet and happy... happy that I happened to have extra clothes in my backpack :o)

Paradise Lost

2011-01-23T20:34:00.020+03:00

The most popular picnic site in Nairobi a lot less crowded as expected, and we arrived just in time to get the nicest spot :o) The place was surprisingly clean and beautiful. Most of the people from the Norwegian compound had found their way out, and everybody seemed to enjoy just being there, hanging out, chattering, barbequeing, visiting some stone age caves, and fishing.

When we came back to the compound in the afternoon, soccer was followed by sauna and swimming. It was dark by the time I got home, tired in a very good way... What a wonderful Sunday!

I`m back in Kenya!

2011-01-16T21:51:00.006+03:00

How can I tell?

By being a passenger sitting on the left side of the car on the way home from the airport.
By the fresh roses and nice card I was welcomed with as I entered my new apartment early this morning.
By my African style furniture already being placed in my living room.
By the blue sky and nice warm 26 degrees celcius weather.
By the breakfast and sweet mangoes served outside in the morning sun and in the shade of a "kibanda." And later also dinner and pineapple served out in the sun.
By the "it`s-easy-to-see-that-you-come-from-Norway"-comment given by one of the young girls I got to know today. I think she was referring to my milky white skin, so I`ll probably have to do something about that in the near future... Should not be a big problem...
By the monkeys playing on my roof and eating bananas directly from the banana palm behind the house.
By the fact that termites have had a feast in my stored luggage. They seem to like cardboard and newspapers particularly well.
By the birds` pretty singing and the sound of drums from the slum area nearby earlier today, and by the evening sounds that cannot be described but have to be experienced.

ETHIOPIA

2009-07-22T12:54:00.125+03:00

I warn you; I won´t be able to be short when I write about my wonderful 1 month long vacation in Ethiopia! What I write is just as much a diary for myself as it is intended for you to read, but you are of course welcome to plough through every single word or just have a quick glance at the pictures, whatever you like. As for myself, I just feel so happy and privileged that I have finally been able to go back and travel around in my "second homeland," after 21 years, and grateful that everything worked out even better than I had planned!

ADDIS ABABA
The meal Margrethe had promised me lived up to my expectations. And I actually had injera close to every day, sometimes even twice! Good to be back at Makanissa, where I lived from I was 14-16 years old. Marianne came by car from Kenya, and she arrived in Addis the day after myself. Nice to have some days in the colourful capital with her, sightseeing, shopping, trotting. I also had my friends join in a nostalgic early morning breakfast at Entoto mountains! This time outside of the palace of Menelik II, completely by ourselves. No curious eyes staring, no kids leaning on their sticks watching.
Nice garden...

Silver shopping at Piazza.

Another nostalgic thing of mine - having ice cream on top of Wabe Shebelle Hotel. The ice cream tasted exactly the same, but the elevators had shrunk remarkably...

In the weekend we had a daytrip to Debre Libanos, one of Ethiopia´s most holy sites, where a saint was standing upright praying for 29 years, of which the 7 last were standing on one foot. Margrethe´s wonderful Ethiopian friend, Alem, and her sister joined us. A nun showed us around, and she even led us "the easy" way to the viewpoint on the cliff above the church. Alem and her sister met their relative where the nun lived, and unexpectedly we were invited to eat. Hospitality in Ethiopia is great. We Westerns have a lot to learn!

HISTORICAL CIRCUIT
part I - Lalibela
A two day bus ride for the price of 96 birr (about US $8 or 67 NOK) brought Marianne and me to Lalibela. Luckily one of the guards from Makanissa followed us to the Merkato Bus Station early in the morning, around 4.30 am. What a chaos! Crowded and noisy! The bus had uncomfortable seats and no seat belts, but I was offered the front seat where there was a little more space for the legs and excellent view (though that is not always what you want...)Certain needs is always an exciting factor when it comes to bus rides of unknown lengths, and this kept us fasting for hours. But after some time the bus suddenly stopped for the passengers to be released. The funny thing was that there was not much to hide behind, so people just spread out all over, just across the ditch. I searched for a lone tree and wrapped myself in a kanga to hide my milky white shiny butt...
Fortunately we had a good bus driver on the steep and windy gravel roads that went up and down the mountain sides! The landscape as we approached Lalibela was spectacular!! It was still good to arrive at Seven Olives Hotel and the wonderful veranda with a view!

On day one in Lalibela the guide brougth us efficiently through all the 11 rock-hewn churches in town before lunch! Very interesting! A ceremony was going on in the most famous one, Bet Giyorgis, so we were invited to watch the priests and deacons chanting. In the other churches the priests gladly showed us the crosses, icons, old books, and other treasures of the churches. Bet Giyorgis, 15 metres high.

Due to our efficiency we got time to drive to the Yemrehanna Kristos monastery 42 km outside of Lalibela in the afternoon. This church was extremely beautiful, built from alternating layers of marble and wood, and beautifully carved windows, but the most amazing is just the idea of building such a masterpiece inside a cave far out in the middle of nowhere!The second day we hiked up to Ashetan Maryam, a small monastery built in a cave atop of a mountain, at 3150m. Again, the most amazing thing is the idea of building these monasteries in such unaccessible locations. But that was probably the point.. Anyway, the hike was great, and it doesn´t happen very often that I have such a stunning view during lunch!
SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Lake Langano.

Flying down from Lalibela in the morning (you get a resident price on domestic flights if you use Ethiopian Airlines when coming to Ethiopia - good to know...) gave us an afternoon for repacking and washing some clothes before setting off south together with the Kiplesund and Mjølhus families. This was for me the most nostalgic part of the trip, again seeing the Lake Langano ("the world´s largest cup of English tea," according to Lonely Planet) the Arsi plains (robbed of trees), and not at least Awassa, my favourite childhood home! I lived there when I was 3-4 years old, and also from being 8-10.The city had changed a lot! So big!! We arrived at "Ferieplassen" early enough in the afternoon to have a hike at Tabor Hill.
Before having dinner in town we stopped by at Tabor Seminary. Undescribable to see the house in which we used to live! Many memories and emotions! Memories of wonderful days of vacation playing in the house, looking for kittens in the bushes around the compound, having 12 at the most, having dinner under the pepper tree, fresh rolls and limonade on the veranda, my mother´s yellow jam made of papaya and passion fruit, playing with Marit and Anne Kari, playing "Dimo" with our Ethiopian neighbours, eating Mimmi´s best-in-the-world shiro watt. The memories of my sister and I getting up at dawn to bake cookies to bring back to the boarding school in Addis, the tears that always pressed on when one of the school vans came to pick us up and the vacation was over and we had to say good bye to Mum and Dad and our little brother, these memories were a bit more emotional I have to admit. But I´ll stay longer in Awassa next time I go to Ethiopia!The next day we set off for Bale Mountains. In Dinsho we stopped and had a long break that included walking safari and horse riding safari! Some of the grown-ups found riding more scary than the children did, but after a while it was obvious that none of the old nags would move a single step away nor run any faster than they were really forced to.

The following day the Kiplesund family left us, and Mjølhus, Marianne, and I went to the Sof Omar Caves. Our guide was a descendant of Sheikh Sof Omar himself. As we had our lunch he went for a swim, since I guess keeping the monkeys away from eating tourists wasn´t part of his job... Anyway, my bread was snapped out of my hands by one of those cheeky little creatures! Since our guide hardly spoke any English and my Amharic is very poor, we were very happy that my friend and former classmate Gunn Eline and her husband Hans Ovar, who live an hour´s drive from Sof Omar Caves, arrived just in time to join us in the caves and translate everything the guide said into Norwegian! It really made the guided tour so much more interesting :) After the tour I said good bye to Marianne and the Mjølhus family, and spent three whole days in Raytu with Gunnis and Hans Ovar. Remote, warm, dry, but at least there was power a few hours every night instead of every second day, as in the rest of the country. Nice to see where they live and work, and to get to know their great children! And I was lucky to get a lift all the way back to Addis, 13 hours of which 8 were on a bumpy road. That means BUMPY!

View from the veranda.

Nicely decorated hut in one of the Project villages.

HISTORICAL CIRCUIT
part II - Bahir Dar - Gonder - Axum
After a few calm days in Addis Margrethe and I took the bus to Bahir Dar. This bus trip was completely different from the one to Lalibela, as Selam Buses have comfortable seats, seat belts, TV/DVD player showing National Geographics programmes, Ethiopian movies, and music videos (especially music videos..). Breakfast and sodas was served. Ghion Hotel in Bahir Dar was a budget place, but just fine. We stayed for two days, and the first day we went on a boat trip to visit some of the monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana. We were surprised that the weather was so nice, and after 2,5 hours we arrived at the island of the Monastery of Narga Selassie. After a visit in the church we were invited to join the congregation in their meal outside the church, as it happened to be a holiday of this church. We had brought bread for lunch, but gave it away as injera, shiro watt and tella (lokal beer) filled our stomacks! The monasteries on the Zege Peninsula were not that impressive - you kind of get a feeling that they are all the same, but we were probably just filled for the day.St. Giyorgis fighting the dragon.

On the second day we went to the Tis Issat Falls, or the Blue Nile Falls. We planned to have breakfast first, but impulsively we found out that it might be smart to check the bus schedule first. It turned out that the bus was about to leave, maybe in 10 minutes, when it was full, which it seemed to be. But a bus can carry innumerably more passengers than there are seats. Anyway, we dropped our lunch and went to the village of Tis Issat, where we had a very simple breakfast of bread and tea, surrounded by flies. It had been raining, and the roads were nothing but mud! Nice walk, and this is about how the refrain that followed us sounded: "Hello Mister, what is your name? That is a nice name. My name is x. This is my shop. Do you want to buy something? May be when you come back? Remember me when you come back." But we did not come back. We met a nice French couple and crossed the river to get closer to the Blue Nile Falls, had some great Ethiopian coffee with a view, and then we had to cross the river again, by boat, before heading back to the bus.

Souvenirs for sale, and the Portugese Bridge.

The falls had shrunk! It did not at all look like the postcards I remember... A hydroelectric plant swallowes much of the water.

Walking back to the bus.

In the evening it was good to have some food in a local restaurant, in one of the many colourful houses in Etiopia, before relaxing by the shore of Lake Tana, having a drink and watching the sunset.

The Ghion Hotel in Bahir Dar has a good reputation when it comes to organizing trips. That made it easier for us to accept the offer of taking a minibus to Gonder from the hotel. It would go straight and take about 2,5 hours (compared with 4 hours in a regular bus). We were told that the driver would take us to our hotels in Gonder, so it sounded like a good idea to pay the extra money and enjoy our breakfast for another one and a half hours. But we had not exited Bahir Dar before the driver stopped the van and loaded it with bags and boxes full of khat. His ears were completely deaf to our protests, and the khat chewing men that were hanging in the windows staring at us was not at all a very pleasant experience. The driver stopped several times along the way, to trade the khat, and even though the drive itself only lasted 2,5 hours, it took us more than 4 to get to our hotel. When we arrived in Gonder the driver had no idea at all where any of his passengers were going, and he refused to bring us to our hotel. We were so mad!! But on the phone to Ghion Hotel we were told that the deal was to bring us to the bus station. Next time we´ll take a regular bus. We missed the sight-seeing we had planned for the afternoon, but got our share the following day.

View from our hotel in Gonder.

The guide that led us through the history and castles of the Royal Enclosure of Gonder was full of knowledge, and made our stay very interesting! Also Debre Berhan Selassie Church with the famous ceiling of cherubs, King Fasiladas Bath, and Empress Mentewab´s Kuskuam Complex was worth a visit!Must have been quite some buildings and halls! The horns in the walls were pegs.

The famous ceiling.

Fasilida´s Bath. I loved the roots of the fig trees merging with the walls!

Empress Mentewab´s Kuskuam Complex from 1730

Also Gonder is a colourful city!!

The taxi driver that would bring me to Gonder Airport early in the morning did not show up at 5.20 am, as ordered, and I was tripping till he arrived 20 minutes too late. He just laughed and said that if you are told to be at the airport at 6, that means you can leave home at 6. He turned out to be right. The airport had still not opened when we arrived a few minutes past 6. I was on my own, as Margrethe went back from Gonder to Addis by bus. The flight to Axum went smoothly, and so did finding the Afrika Hotel stand at the airport. Free transport to the hotel, which was cheeper and nicer than most of the other hotels that I had stayed at.

Close to the border. The mountains in the far distance are in Eritrea..

I had breakfast in the sun, and then went to the Tourist Information Office to get an official guide for the day. Like all the other cities on the historical circuit, Axum also had a lot more to show than I was aware of before reading Lonely Planet. Interesting and intense day, but having a guide gave me company and spared me from the hustle. A tuc-tuc was rented for the three sites that were just outside the town (though walking distance on a good day), and even if it cost more than the bus from Addis to Lalibela I was happy to have it because of the heavy rain! For the first time, it was pouring down almost the whole day. Again I was amazed of the history of Ethiopia, the highly developed civilisation of ancient times, when it comes to architecture, written language, trading, etc. What happened?

Queen of Sheba´s Palace.

Impressive floor tiles (rocks weighing tons!), and the draining system.

The kitchen stove, and a brick used for bread decoration.

The Rome stelae that Mussolini brought to Italy in 1937,

returned in 2005 and raised less than a year ago.

The stelae field. The broken Great Stelea is believed to be the largest single block of stone that humans have ever attempted to erect. It is 33 m and weighs more than 500 tons!

Tomb of the False Door. The coffin of the king is well sealed, and his closest slaves were buried with him, in a surrounding antechamber, so that the secrets of the king would be kept.

A coffee break now and then is a necessity and a great pleasure! The Ethiopian coffee is undoubtedly the best in the world!!

The chapel in which the real Ark of the Covenant is believed to be kept.

In the evening I met the people we shared boat with on Lake Tana, who stayed at the same hotel, and we had dinner together. Then, the day before my return to Norway, I took the plane from Axum back to Addis. Five hours delay, but as the flight had been cancelled the previous day, I was only happy to get to my destination on the day my ticket was booked for, and in time to have a whole day of pampering myself on Hilton Hotel before flying back to Norway.

Colourful souvenirs of Axum.

Enough of monastries, ecclesiastical artwork, ruins, tombs, stelaes, and stones for a while, but what a wonderful, wonderful vacation!!!

EDINBURGH

2009-05-30T01:22:00.011+03:00

TOUR OF MAJORSTUA KAMMERKOR, May 2009Most pictures this time, as I assume many of the singers in Majorstua Kammerkor would be interested in seeing them. A great long weekend, though, and a great tour where we got two fantastic, yet very different concert experiences. In Rossyn Chapel (I felt at home - nice name..) we had the most enthusiastic audience, and the 30ish people that listened filled up the tiny little church. St.Giles´Cathedral was open to visitors all day, and quite a few sat down to listen during our lunch time concert. Great venue, excellent acoustics. We were all very happy :) Nice city too - I don´t need to tell..

I´ll stop now - it is way too late.... But more pictures will be uploaded later.

Winter break

2009-02-25T22:09:00.014+03:00

Nine days of skiing, crosscountry, downhill, good food, being with friends and family, that is my winter vacation in short. Friends were visiting the first half of the break, and then the last weekend was a good family weekend. My dad´s cabin, which is now almost fully equipped, will be used a lot in the future :)Family breakfast. Snow is great fun!

Perfect, perfect, perfect!!

2009-02-09T23:38:00.006+03:00

I don´t have words to describe yesterday´s skiing trip. The pictures speak by themselves. But I can say that they sell the best wafels ever at this cabin! Which lots of people seemed to know...
Chocolate is of course mandatory.. Yeehaa!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

2009-01-24T21:07:00.005+03:00

I spent the day in Winterwonderland! Perfect skiing conditions! Running all the way in the new snow was a little bit heavy for Cherie (who was very upset about me calling her ´tiny little` in a former blog post..), so she got a lift in Elin´s backpack part of the trip.How I have missed this! About 25 kilometres of skiing is good work out, and now I really deserve some chocolate :)

FURULUND - my Dad´s new cabin

2009-01-10T20:09:00.009+03:00

Yesterday my Dad and I went to Rauland, a three and a half hours drive from Oslo, to get the keys for his new cabin. Great cabin! I´m already excited about my winter break in February! Hopefully there will be beds and some more funiture in the cottage by then...
Tiles in the entrance hallway.Open kitchen layout.
Bathroom was nice and clean. A large bedroom in the attic. Two bedrooms downstairs.
Time to bring in some of the moving load. And then Dad unpacked the microwave oven and dished up with a coffee and a delicilous packed lunch -- specially packed for me :) Nice view, and a big veranda with lots of sunshine. Some time in the future we might be able to spot the cabin from the road, somewhere in the forest below the moon...

Hiking in the Tafjord mountains

2008-10-06T20:19:00.012+03:00

"Paint it all black" is a saying I once heard. Don´t have too high expectations, and you won´t become disappointed. Well, I was prepared for some grey, foggy, wet, and freezing days, but I did not expect all this nice weather! Not much black at all - the moutainsides were rather colourful and bright, the autumn season about to end. Extremely beautiful scenery!! We also had to cross some large, shiny white parts of new snow as we were trekking from one cottage to another. Quite challenging as the scree underneath could be slippery, and we also had to be careful that our feet did not sink deep down in between the rocks. I was happy to have poles, and despite the challenge I really enjoyed some real snow after four years without! Amazingly large, sweet, and juicy berries! Some extra energy...
I am really impressed by the Norwegian Travel Association and how well they run the cabins. They are so nice and cosy, so clean and well fit out, and the firewood is lying there just waiting for hikers to heat up and occupy the cottages. There are also stores of a variety of canned food that you buy, so you don´t have to carry it all yourself. When the the backpacks aren´t too heavy you enjoy the hike even more! It actually snowed the last night, and the Christmas feeling wasn´t far away... This country isn´t too bad after all :o)

AUTUMN

2008-09-29T19:18:00.007+03:00

What a beautiful season! And what a privilege to be able to enjoy it! After three months of trying to adjust myself back to living in Norway and six busy weeks of teaching and , it´s time to relax and breathe. Schools are having a break, and we have been blessed with wonderful weather. A three hours´ stroll in the forest today is hopefully good enough preparation for some days of hiking later this week...

Last swim of the year?

2008-08-31T22:43:00.006+03:00

After two extremely busy weeks of school I finally got a little bit out of town yesterday. Refreshing! The trip to one of the beautiful lakes in the forest just outside of Oslo was short, but then it was possible for Isak (4 years) and the two tiny little dogs to walk all the way by themselves, and it was also possible for me to join just for the afternoon. I would have stayed for the night if I could, as I really miss camping!! But since my choir was going to sing in church today, I had to go home by bus later in the evening. I was happy for the few hours I got to spend with my friends, though, walking up in the afternoon, putting up their tents, and looong hours of barbecueing. Great food and wonderful weather (as a typical Norwegian is very concerned about..) ! Only the toughest had a swim - I was not among them... And also - since they say that one of the dogs are snoring, my own bed was probably the best place to stay last night anyway...

My Norwegian Summer

2008-08-09T13:20:00.021+03:00

The summer is over, and tomorrow I´ll start working again. I am looking forwards to going back to my former working place, Kampen Skole, but it is weird that I am not going back to Nairobi, back to Rosslyn, back to the Norwegian compound, back to my friends in Kenya. I miss it a lot.

I don´t miss the driving, though, even if learning how to drive a car in this country has been quite a challenge! Everybody drives on the right hand, and on the road! No overtaking in the ditch, no zigzag driving on the highway, no matatus or cows or hand carts on the roads... And a big smile was glued to my face a long time after my first crossing of a zebra crossing, when I realised that the cars stops for pedestrians here. I have to admit that it´s a lot harder to do it myself...The summer has been good, and here is a brief look at what I´ve been doing since I came back to this beautiful country up north:
* One week of doing nothing at all, just trying to settle in Norway, staying with my mum, getting back my tiny little flat.
* One week together with my eldest brother and his two kids in Oslo/daytrip to Sweden/some sunny days at my cottage in the forest. Fishing and sunbathing.
* A few days in another cottage, belonging to my aunt. Myself and all the people mentioned above met my sister and her family, and we stayed 11 persons in a cottage with 5 beds. Nice and cramped.

* A couple of weeks at Jæren in the west, eight hours drive from Oslo, where my sister and also my youngest brother live with their families. Quality time with my eight nieces and nephews! Tropical heat the last week I was there, and a lot of sunbathing and swimming in small lakes. No morning baths, though :o)
* A visit to some Kenya friends at the idyllic south coast. We spent a wonderful day, sailing to a small island where we stayed all day together with their friends and family. * Meeting the Kiplesund family in Tusenfryd Amusement Park today, my last day of vacation. Great to see them again! And the children dragged me into all kinds of roller coasters, which made me quite dizzy for my drive back to Oslo... Still - a wonderful way of ending the summer vacation. From tomorrow it will be work, work, work....

Farewell for now, Kenya...

2008-06-22T14:18:00.019+03:00

I made it safely back to Norway a few days ago, and from now on I believe my blog will be a little less exciting than before, but here is an update from my wonderful last week in Kenya.I was happy for the opportunity to go to Lamu with Marianne for a few days just before leaving the country! The Swahili style place we stayed at in Shella was perfect for the rainy and sunny days, as we could sunbathe on the roof terrace and quickly get shelter under the open roof on the other half of the terrace when it started pouring down. Which it often did.. But we still had enough sun to get a little sunburned. Great house, great view and great service! Breakfast with fresh fruits, omeletts, pancakes, and the best coffee was brought up every morning.Daily afternoon half hour walks into Lamu town to different restaurants and tasty fish dinners gave us some exercise, and a couple of trips to the beach on the other side of Shella was also good, if we could avoid the strong winds and the whisking sand... Except from flocks of donkeys passing we had the beach all by ourselves. Four very relaxing days with a lot of reading and sunbathing. And - fruit juices in Lamu are the best!!
Then, back in Nairobi on Thursday I was happy that my friends Brenton, Jessie, Kasy, and Jess were willing to meet for a last lunch at Habesha, and spend some time eating cake in my empty house afterwards. Thank you for making my last day good!

248 speed bumps away...

2008-06-10T22:25:00.012+03:00

MERU NATIONAL PARK
Highlights day 1:

Finally setting off from Nairobi at 3 p.m. after hours of waiting for the roof rack to be constructed and welded and fastened to the roof.
Being allowed to enter the park even if we arrived 4 hours after it had closed for the night, and arriving at the camp site after yet another hour. Pretty scary, though, for the three girls of us, to be left alone to heat up dinner and put up the tents in completely darkness as Brenton was taking the KWS guy who had shown us the way to the camp site back to the gate, knowing that a lion lived close to the campsite and that someone was hired to kill the snakes. Noises came from the bush, we were in the middle of nowhere, were unable to put up the tents, and would have had nowhere to escape if a lion would suddenly come running. That the washrooms were only a few metres away was something we did not discover till Brenton came back and we could see it from the lights of his car...
1.30 a.m - creeping into the sleeping bag, dead tired.

Highlights day 2:

Breakfast by a hippo and crocodile river, Rojowero viewpoint.

Being dead silent and a little nervous in the car as we were surrounded by elephants who wanted to cross the road just at the same spot as we were standing.
Finding the male lions that someone had told us about.
Lunch and some sleep in the shade after the morning game drive.
Getting back to the main road again after finding out that the looong track, which was covered with grass and full of biting tsetse flies, ended up leading nowhere.
Sightseeing at Elsa´s kopje, an incredible lodge with beautiful huts and an amazing view.
Dinner.

Highlights day 3:

Finding out that the bus Kendra and Daylan were willing to take back to Nairobi early in the morning only cost 400 kshs. That was worth getting up for, at 5.30 a.m..
Finding a track that turned out to be just as bad as the track the day before, but this one actually lead to somewhere.
Long and relaxing breakfast and rest at the camp site.
Discovering giraffes at the camp site and being able to approach one of them to get pictures.

Getting down to Adamson´s falls, Tana River, and finding the most beautiful place for a picnic, completely free from crocodiles - I think...

Highlights day 4:

Sleeping long, having a long and relaxing morning. Perfect pace.
Baboons being scared away just by a sudden movement from inside of the tent!
Discovering ELEPHANTS across the small creek just below our tent, as we were frying eggs for breakfast.

Realizing that by the time we had left the campsite we had seen 5 different species of animals (elephants, giraffes, water bucks, impalas, and baboons)!
Getting the car going well again after struggles with overheating.
Counting speed bums. Kenya must be the world´s champion when it comes to putting up speed bumps!

MOTORCYCLING among zebras!!

2008-05-04T21:45:00.028+03:00

A motorbike weekend with the Dustbusters is definitely one of the highlights during my three years in East Africa!! Danish Per, the founder and leader of the motorbike safari company in Arusha in Tanzania, gave Marianne, her sister-in-law, and myself two hours of training on Thursday, the day before we set out in the bush . And since none of us had ever tried motorcycling before, it was absolutely worth the money! We did not impress very much the first 30 minutes; there was bumping and jerking and stalling of the engine not only once...But on Friday, we were ready for the real tracks! At 7 in the morning we were picked up at Scripture Mission and brought by the support vehicle an hour´s drive away, north of Arusha, to a trail at the side of Mt Meru. Helmet, googles, gloves and knee protectors were put on, and then we were ready to go!
Per was in front with his motorbike, stopping now and then to tell us how to drive to cross the challenging parts of the trail. The four unexperienced of us followed, each on a Honda XLR 250 trail bike, and the support vehicle was at the back to help if we had some problems of some kind... Don´t ask what happened here .. Lunch was great, and it was nice to stretch our legs and relax a little before moving on. Hmmrf, don´t know exactly what happened here either... And I had been so happy that my clothes had dried up during the lunch break...

Despite that I kept entertaining the rest of the group with my unfortunate pothole acrobatics, I had great fun the whole day!
Luckily we had several breaks, and Per´s wife had prepared very good food for us!
Beautiful scenery, partly very good roads, partly mud or rocks - plenty enough of challenges for me! But I am pretty proud that I rode about 95 km all by myself the first day!! And in the late afternoon it was good to get to the camp and relax in a comfortable camping chair with a cold drink and some snacks as the tents were being put up and dinner prepared for us! On Saturday I was sore, I say no more... The support vehicle turned out to be our salvation, as one fell and got badly hurt, another one was sick and had to give in after a while, and myself I got tired and lost concentration after some time, and then I became scared of every little bump. My motorbike was put on the trailer, and I was offered to ride on Per´s back, which was great fun! He had completely control, and then I got the speed I did not dare to have when driving by myself! Full speed into flocks of zebras and wilderbeasts, making them dustbusters as well - an extraordinary game experience! After a while I wanted to ride my own motorbike again, but when I got tired the second time I got to sit on Per´s back the rest of the trip, which was a lot more relaxing. The few sandy parts I tried had been both fun and challenging, and since I was happy about all I had done myself it did not feal like a loss at all to make use of the back-up it was to sit at Per´s back. That was just an extra bonus! I was just happy to be out motorbiking without having to defeat the sandy trails myself! Dustbusters (www.dustbusters-tz.com) is hereby recommended!!

...even though you might be sore and hate stairs for some days afterwards...

Fishing in Aberdare

2008-04-21T19:56:00.010+03:00

I keep ticking off my to-do-before-I-leave list... Another camping trip last weekend, together with Bodil and three of our students this time. We entered at Naivasha gate on Saturday, at the west side of the national park, and from there we crossed the Aberdare moorland plateau. Beautiful landscape, and amazing waterfalls. We stopped several times to go fishing, and one of the boys got a couple of mountain trouts. Some parts of the roads were muddy and extremely slippery at this side of the park, and the mud was crammed into the treads of the tyres, making them lose the grip. But I was happy both to have a 4wd Landcruicer and an experienced advisor at the age of 15. After having tried a couple of times to get up a very steep hill, where one side of the road was black mud where the wheels only slided or dug down, and the other side had big rocks, I was about to give up. But my student jumped out of the window of the car, started to move some of the rocks, and confidently gave me instructions on where and how to drive. I gave it a last chance, since it was getting late and we were only a few kilometres from the campsite if we could make it. Otherwise we would have to turn around and go back several kilometres, and the road was not very good from where we had come either. But what a relief when we made it!
Nice campsite, a little rain in the evening, but luckily dry weather the rest of the night, and also the following day! The bush bucks came for a visit when we were about to go to bed, and they kept grazing right outside of the tents most of the night. Fascinating! On Sunday we drove to the east side of the park for a game drive. A little scary, maybe, to have lunch just a few metres from a buffalo. If you use a magnifying glass, you might see him under the bush in the background of the last picture...

Kili and I

2008-04-14T19:14:00.014+03:00

I hate to say that time is running out, but I am planning to make a plan for the coming weekends; there are still so many things I would like to experience or repeat before leaving Kenya in the summer... Since it had been a while since I last camped, and even longer since I had been to Amboseli, a combination was good! Heavy rain as we left Nairobi on Saturday morning made us laugh self-ironicly, not having too high expectations about the tent part of the trip. It kept raining as we were driving and Marianne kept encouraging Daylan and myself, saying that the weather forecast promised sunshine after 3 p.m. And the forecast was pretty right! We only had a few drops as we had our coffee break on top of the Observation Hill. The camp site was not too far from the Observation Hill and our plan was to go there and put up the tent, and then have an evening game drive before dinner. But pitching the tent was quite a challenge. The tent was borrowed from the Norwegian school, and we had not checked it before leaving. In addition to the tent poles being much used, broken and taped together again, the tent turned out to lack tent pegs completely. Luckily there was a Maasai who was very willing to whittle us some sticks that we could use. So, after some struggle we managed to put up the tent well enough. But then we had a fight against the wind... It was pretty obvious that we could not have another game drive and leave the tent behind, so instead we looked for the most windless spot we could find and moved the tent. It was easier to put up this time... After all the work the barbeque and relaxing in comfortable chairs around the bonfire was well deserved. We were lucky that it did not rain at all during the night, since it is likely that water would have leaked into the old tent. The morning was cloudy, so we were happy that we had got a glimpse of Kilimanjaro the day before. But during our morning game drive, all of a sudden it cleared up. I have never ever seen the mountain like that before! A mighty sight!! (Hard to catch in a picture, though.)After having enjoyed the stunning sight of the highest mountain in Africa, game was only extra bonus. And we had lots of bonus, too.... Back at the camp Marianne did a good job by the fire, making us eggs and bacon. Meanwhile Daylan did a good job cleaning up the mess after the velvet monkeys that had been visiting our tent when we had been out on the game drive. Impressing how they had been able to unzip layers to get into the tent, and even open a backpack and find the food that was in there! (You wonder what I was doing? Taking pictures, of course :o)I can´t think of a better way of ending a camping trip than having a looong breakfast in the sunshine, by the base of Mount Kilimanjaro!

Cycling among zebras

2008-04-06T20:38:00.007+03:00

"Good idea," said Marianne as we exited the park. I think Bodil agreed. "The idea was old," I answered, not understanding why I haven´t done this until today!! I´ve been talking and thinking about renting bicyles in Hell´s Gate National Park for almost three years now, so it really was about time! No fuss at all, it is just to pack your lunch and set off! Zebras, wilderbeasts, gazelles, giraffes, and baboons - not exactly what I´m used to see when I´m cycling on a beautiful summer day in Norway...

Spring Break

2008-04-05T21:07:00.011+03:00

Just some pictures from Mombasa, where I spent a week together with Marianne, her sister, and a friend of her sister. The hotel was nice, but the rocky beach was a bit disappointing, as I had believed the sand on Diani beach was all like icing sugar...

But our snorkeling trip to Shimoni came up to my expectations.

Lake Magadi

2008-03-06T16:55:00.015+03:00

A couple of hours` drive from Nairobi is a beautiful soda lake, Lake Magadi, a popular place among flamingoes. You don´t need to worry about being cold here, that´s for sure!

Maasai women were waiting in the shade not far from the hot springs*, and they came out as soon as they saw our car coming, eager to sell their Maasai beaded jewellery.
A self-appointed guide was also very available.
Lunch in the shade of an acacia tree is compulsory on an excursion like this. Audience is hard to avoid, though, even though we went to a different place than where our guide had told us to go, but we were happy to share some water with the young boys in the heat.
*Hei Oddvar og Elin: Vi var bare et par hundre meter ifra i fjor, men bare slapp av - det var ikke store greiene vi gikk glipp av. Var ikke engang verdt et bilde :o)

Safari in the Nairobi National Park

2008-03-03T20:26:00.010+03:00

A little more scary it was when a young rhino came running full speed out from the bush, stopping in the middle of the road, facing the car, and looking as if it was going to run right into it! Luckily it chose to set off into the bush again.

Maasai Mara

2008-02-24T20:07:00.017+03:00

"Now, where are these tourists?"

"Over here!!"

If you have not already noticed, safaris is what inspires me the most to write. I do have ordinary days too, but not so many on my blogg, though . I haven´t been out of Nairobi since Egypt, due to the political situation in Kenya, and not being able to travel around made me even more craving to do it! But this weekend Bodil, Marianne, and I finally got out on a safari to Maasai Mara, to use a vocher Bodil had won at JK Mara Camp. The Rift Valley has been quiet for some time, but hiring a safari van instead of driving ourselves still felt a lot more comfortable and safe.

Finally, after a long drive with both safari and searching for the camp, we arrived to where we were going to stay! JK Safaris are not known for signposts... And even if there had been a sign here, I am not sure we would have stopped if it was not for the Maasai guide the company sent us after a while, to help us find the camp.
JK Mara Camp was an excellent tented camp out in the wilderness! Our driver saw two lions only two hundred metres from our tent the first night, and he had been pretty scared! The rest of us saw 33 lions altogeher during the weekend, and that is far more than I have ever seen! And the difference from other safaries was that this time the lions were not surrounded by dozens of safari vans, but vice versa. And of course, there were lots of other animals, too!

Picnic under a tree in the middle of the park was included in the full day safari we had on Saturday. Wonderful!

Exile in Egypt

2008-01-10T22:26:00.000+03:00

Definitely not the worst place to be when I could not return to Kenya on the planned date, due to the post-electoral crisis.
The Coptic retreat center Anafora was wonderful, and so were all the people who were serving there, not at least my good friend Margrethe, who is a volunteer.

I miss the daily evening prayers, though I did not understand any of the Coptic liturgy. The chapel was esthetic and beautiful, and the ostrich egg hanging down from the window shaped like an eye, reminded us of how God never takes his eyes away from his children, as an ostrich having eggs always keeps her eyes on them.

During my six days long stay at Anafora, we spent one day by the pyramids and one in Alexandria. As Norwegians we were obliged to see the famous library drawn by Norwegian architects!

I have always concidered traffic in Nairobi as really bad, but maybe I should stop complaining. We ended up having to take a taxi to get across the road from the central reserve...

Being tourist in Luxor wasn`t to bad either, though we tried to avoid other tourists as much as we could..
Staying at the West Bank, renting a bicycle, taking a local Egyptian car instead of a taxi, and seeing the Nile from a local ferry instead of a cruice ship, and entering the Valley of the Kings by foot across the mountain instead of joining a crowded tourist bus, is highly recommended!

Since I had to change my return ticket to Kenya, I was lucky to get to experience the Coptic Christmas celebration in Al Quseya, in the middle of Egypt. Our sweet Egyptian translator thougt that the four hours long Mass in the middle of the night was too much for us. May be she was right, but it was still a beautiful and very special experience! And can you imagine celebrating Christmas twice in two weeks? Thank you, Bishop Thomas, who gave me a lift to Cairo and organised for me to be picked up and brought to the Egypt Air office to get a new ticket! Thank you, Girgis, who picked me up and insisted to provide a mobile locker for my luggage the whole day, driving me around in Cairo as I was waiting for the evening to come, when the plane would take off. Thank you, Margrethe and all Anafora people, who took so well care of me during my vacation and exile time!!! I hope we´ll meet again at Anafora some time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2007-12-25T16:13:00.000+03:00

I am not dreaming of a white Christmas at all! I am totally content with what I have - the sun is shining from a blue sky, and the temperature has been between 25 and 30 degrees celcius the last few days. No reason to complain! Except from the Christmas Service in the afternoon and the dinner in the evening, most of December 24th was spent outdoors, partly at Villa Vega, Holmedahl´s beautiful house on the plains just outside of Nairobi. Jess, Tine and I spent a couple of wonderful days there. Breakfast by the swimming pool, and a little sun bathing and swimming before going back to Nairobi to celebrate Christmas. Perfect!
On Christmas Eve I was invited to Bodil, to celebrate together with her sister and some friends who are visiting. Who wouldn´t get into Christmas spirit by the fireplace next to the beautifully decorated Christmas tree on the porch, where the grasshoppers´ singing merged with the Christmas carols from the dvd player inside?

November update

2007-12-03T17:58:00.000+03:00

Visitors are always appreciated (just to let you know!), and especially when they are DAD! Though a short stay, only from Thursday afternoon till Monday morning, we used our time well!

Among other things: Friday afternoon - game drive in the Nairobi Park.

Saturday - we escaped from the rain in Nairobi and set off to Rift Valley and a 3.5 hours long hike, breaks included, on Mt Longonot. Very much to my father´s taste! I had a hard time following him - he keeps in shape excessively well! Harder this time than in October...

THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov.23-25

Thanksgiving Holiday in November, lots of things to be thankful for! Sunshine and beautiful beaches are some of them! Three wonderful and relaxing days with Bodil and two nice teenagers (who got a weekend off from their parents), never forgetting what a privilege it is to live in a country like Kenya and be able to just go and have a long weekend like this.

"All inclusive" at Turtle Bay, Malindi, is highly recommended!
This time a full moon was also included...

Suswa

2007-11-11T16:48:00.000+03:00

Suswa here we come! Can´t wait to see the view from up there!
A dream is about to come true - I think...
To make a long story short:

Rift Valley, dust road
Cars chased by locals waving a receipt pad
Maasai woman in one of the cars says it is okay, that we don´t have to stop
We don´t stop
Running men cry "Mnataka shida?" (Do you want trouble?)
We don´t, but we don´t stop

Lunch before trekking
Families remain by the cars
Rest of us head for the mountain
No guide, no path, no idea of how to get to the top
Maasai boys show us the way through the bush, to the rim
Discover that there´s another crater inside the one we´re standing on
Realise that we don´t have time to reach the top
Group splits, and some return, including Maasai boys
Want to cross the moat, want to climb up to the inner crater rim,
want to see the view from there
Where is the best way down?
Steep downhill
Bush and scree
Bodies full of scratches
Reach the bottom
Out of time
Steep up again
Where are the cars?
All we can see is bush
Car sees us and picks us up
Other car has left
Phonecall from the first car
Can we pick up the Maasai woman to prove she said we didn´t have to stop?
Road blocked by angry menWe don´t want to pay
We discuss
They want us to pay
We don´t want to pay
We discuss
Not enough diesel and time to find another way
We don´t want to pay
We pay
Men remove the rocks
We go home
The greatest adventures are often the ones that don´t go exactly as anticipated

Some quotes from Lonely Planet (Trekking in East Africa):

"You can go trekking on Suswa, but the logistics of getting there and finding a guide make it a challenge."
"Solo trekkers have been approached in the past and asked to pay for access to the land, but this should not be an issue if you are with a guide."
"As lions have killed Maasai herdsmen here in the past, it´s advisable to take along an experienced guide. Make sure they´re familiar with the territory and aware of recent local developments, especially regarding dangerous wildlife."

Good to know...

A FEW TIPS FOR CAMPING TRIPS...

2007-11-04T18:50:00.000+03:00

Either:

Make sure your camping stove works with whatever kind of fuel you can find in Kenya.
If it doesn´t - bring your own firewood (or a motorsaw), or be prepared that it might take some time to get food...
Tools for tyres might be useful, in addition to knowing how the brakes work. You might want to have the tools easily accessible, so that you won´t have to unload the car to get hold of them.
Double check regularly that the roof rack tent is well fastened on the roof, especially when the female driver drives too fast on bumpy bush roads.
Be prepared for all kinds of weather, e.g. by choosing a campsite with empty cottages that have overstructures you can use as shelter in case of rain.
Plan the timing well in order to get time to do whatever you have planned.

Or:

7. Ignore all the above, be flexible and consider everything that happens as part of the adventure. If mood, food, and company are good, and you´ll probably have a GREAT camping trip!

What´up ? (or maybe down..)

2007-10-09T20:58:00.000+03:00

Good question! Isn´t it just reassuring to know that you have an emergency phone number to call in case something would happen on the extremely wet, slippery, and muddy roads? The road standard in the Nairobi park vary a lot, especially after a night of heavy raining. In less than thirty minutes from entering the park we had to dial the number they had given us at the gate. And we dialled, and dialled, and dialled... Probably the office hadn´t opened yet, but the idea was good. Finally we called our regional director Rune, who drove down to the gate and gave them our details, and after one and a half hours of chatting and coffee drinking and no game driving at all, we were pulled out from the mud. And what a relief that not even the rescue guy was able drive our car loose, without using the winch. Anyway, so much for getting up early to be there at opening hours (6 am). But we all agreed that the trip had been good, except maybe cousin Åshild, who unfortunately wasn´t well at all that last day of hers in Kenya...

Another hike...

2007-10-02T21:33:00.000+03:00

Mount Longonot this time, an extinct volcano beautifully situated in Rift Valley. It took about an hour and a half to drive from Nairobi, and climbing up to the rim of the crater and all the way around would take from 4-6 hours, depending on whether you worked out really hard the day before or not... Perfect cloudy weather in the morning, and the sun shining from the blue sky in the afternoon. It just couldn´t be better! Pancakes made on a camping stove seems to be a tradition now... this time on the highest peak, which is 2776 metres above sea level. Good company, and I was happy to bring my cousin Åshild, too.

Ngong Hills

2007-08-26T21:11:00.000+03:00

Yes, I do like hiking, if you haven´t already noticed... Today´s trip with some of my colleagues from Rosslyn was no exception. Good company, fun driving, perfect weather, fantastic view, excellent food - pancakes cooked on a camping stove (takk til Oddvar og Elin som innførte den tradisjonen!)- no reason to complain! We even had a machine gun guard to protect us.. It is great to have such beautiful mountains so close, where the air is fresh as in Norwegian mountains, and the altitude close to 2500 meters above sea level. Only 20 km from where I live, and you can see all of Nairobi on one side of the hills, and far into Rift Valley on the other. They say it is possible to see both Mt Kenya and Mt Kilimanjaro on a clear day. We were happy for the clouds, though, as going uphill was pretty steep. We got warm enough without the sun shining...

Skoleting...

2007-08-26T20:20:00.000+03:00

Vi er allerede inne i tredje uke av skoleåret på Rosslyn - halvveis avgårde til første utdeling av 6 weeks report cards. Foreldrene holdes jevnlig oppdatert om karakterer, men det er jo det minste vi kan gjøre, så godt som foreldrene tar seg av Rosslynlærerne! En gang i året spanderer de restaurantmiddag på hele gjengen, og har vi bursdag legger de kort og godsaker i posthyllene våre. Dette skulle foreldre ved skolene i Norge tatt lærdom av! :o) Rosslynforeldrene står også bak ulike arrangementer på skolen, som gårsdagens feiring av skolens 60-års jubileum. Dagen startet med samling i auditoriet - lysbilder av alle lærerne og useriøs informasjon om dem. Etterpå fikk foreldrene utdelt elevenes timeplaner, og dette var løypa som førte dem innom alle klasserom hvor de fikk tilbringe 10 min. med hver lærer. Korte og effektive foreldremøter... Deretter var det lysbildefremvisning av Rosslyn gjennom 60 år etterfulgt av salg av pølser og hamburgere. Om lærerne måtte betale for maten? Selvfølgelig ikke - foreldregruppa hadde sørget for at vi fikk matbilletter på forhånd.

Ellers er jeg godt fornøyd både med elever og timeplan og størrelse på rettebunkene. Underviser i snitt 4 timer hver dag, og har to grupper à tre elever. 8. klasse for seg, og 9. og 10.klasse sammen. Ser lyst på resten av skoleåret!

Yrinibba

2007-08-05T11:57:00.000+03:00

Turen til Yrinibba kan bare beskrives som en av de heftigste fjellturer jeg har vært med på, og så absolutt en av feriens highlights. Pappa advarte på forhånd om at han ikke tok med seg hvem-som-helst på denne turen, men jeg ble godkjent da jeg på oppvarmingsturen kvelden i forveien gikk opp til Yri-setra på under halvtimen. Denne turen er forresten veldig bratt, men etter å ha vært på nibba var setra-stien bare å regne for flat bakke... For bratt og glatt - det var nibbaturen i korte stikkord (i tillegg til fabelaktig utsikt hele tiden!). Pappa fikk klar beskjed om at det var uaktuelt å snu og gå tilbake samme vei som vi klatret opp. Jeg hadde aldri tatt turen uten å ha med en kjentmann, men der var pappa suveren, ettersom det var han selv som hadde klippet løypa, etter et gammelt saue-far. Dessuten var dette kjente hjortejakt-trakter for ham, så jeg fikk alle detaljer om hvor hjortene hadde gått, hvor pappa og jaktkameratene hadde sittet på lur da dyrene ble skutt, og hvordan det hadde vært å frakte dem ned fra fjellet osv.

Min oppgave på turen var å teste hvor god merkinga var, og pappa sørget for ny spraymaling der det trengtes. Været var så som så - delvis tåke, men heldigvis ikke regn. Det holdt at fjellskoa trakk vann så jeg vasset i søkkvåte det meste av turen. Stien besto nemlig for en stor del av høyt vått buskas og våt lyng og mose. Den våte føret gjorde at turen gikk senere enn den hadde gjort om pappa hadde gått alene... Hele turen tok oss totalt ca 10 timer, selv om det hjalp på farta at vi hadde med akebrett til snøfeltene vi skulle passere på nedturen. I det store og hele en flott tur - anbefales for alle som ikke har høydeskrekk.

WELCOME TO FOURTEEN FALLS

2007-05-13T20:53:00.000+03:00

WARNING! WALKING IN THE RIVER MAY CAUSE YOUR DEATH.

Herlig med mysterier som blir oppklart. Har lenge lurt på hvordan det er ved Fourteen falls, som ligger noen mil utenfor Nairobi, og nå vet jeg det. Vel verdt å vite. Det koster ca 3 kr pr.pers og 8 kr pr. kamera for å komme inn i parken som har fjorten fossefall, masse festglade kenyanere og mye søppel. Fint sted å steke komle på stormkjøkken og lytte til "Fourteen falls´entertainment man," som byr på live gitarmusikk og sang til maten - gospel, country eller fourteen falls-sanger. Fritt valg. Familien Sodis og jeg var godt fornøyd!

Jentetur til El

2007-05-10T17:54:00.000+03:00

"Det viktigste er å vinne tur," gjentok jeg for Camilla (11), som satt ved siden av meg på julemesseutlodningen, hver gang det ble trukket et lodd ingen av oss hadde. Før trekningen av siste gevinst trakk jeg frem mitt gule lodd nr. 100, viftet med det og pekte på meg selv mens jeg kikket rundt og signaliserte at den premien skulle bli min. Jeg hadde likevel vanskelig for å tro mine egne ører da de leste opp gul nr. 100... Tur for to til El Karama Ranch på slettene nedenfor Mt Kenya, to netter full board, inkl. guidet gå-safari og natt-safari.

Det var et naturlig valg å ta med Bodil, som hadde gitt meg vinnerloddet. I tillegg inviterte vi med oss Tone og Margrethe, og dro av gårde på en skikkelig jentetur forrige fredag. Vi knotet en del for å finne frem, for skiltingen var elendig, det var et nett av små stikkveier å velge mellom, det var dårlig med mobildekning og mørket kom så altfor fort. Stemningen i bilen ble etter hvert en blanding oppgitthet, lattermildhet og tissetrengthet. Ikke bare-bare å sette seg ut der man vet den finnes ville dyr... Men vi traff da omsider en bil og fikk en forklaring på veien, og kom frem et par timer etter at vi burde ha vært fremme. Herlig helg! Nydelig sted, god mat, godt selskap og masse dyr, selv om alle katter gjemte seg godt...

Mount Kenya

2007-04-28T14:52:00.000+03:00

Håper jeg får sjansen igjen, jeg sier ikke mer.... Eller kanskje det blir Killi neste gang...

Påskeferie

2007-04-28T14:13:00.000+03:00

Sånn kan det se ut når påskeferien avvikles på Kenyas herlige kyst. Havutsikt fra verandaen når du gløtter opp fra boka, der du sitter og slapper av i skyggen. En kort spasertur, og du er nede ved det Indiske hav hvor temperaturen ligger på badekarnivå og fiskene er formet i alle slags tenkelige fasonger og malt i alle mulige mønster og farger.. Egen kokk som disker opp med de lekreste sjømat-retter er heller ikke å forakte. Om jeg savner påskefjellet?