Fishing in Aberdare

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

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

"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

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

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

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

"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!