Exile in Egypt

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!

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

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

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...

Either:

1. Make sure your camping stove works with whatever kind of fuel you can find in Kenya.
2. If it doesn´t - bring your own firewood (or a motorsaw), or be prepared that it might take some time to get food...
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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..)

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...

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.