AFRICAN ADVENTURE - Kenyan Coast

After our Mt Elgon trek we were about ready for some easy travel so we headed to the Coast. The first port of call was Mombasa. A busy port town and Kenya's second largest city. It's hot, humid and sultry and was great to feel after too long in the UK.

This was our introduction to the history of the coast. The length of the coast has been fought over for centuries by various people. Arabs from Oman, Portuguese sailors and of course the ever present British are the main players. It was a major link between the Far East and eventually Europe, with activity dating back as far as the 12th century. As with all trading centres, there had been plenty of wealth generated at times and some subsequently squandered. Ruins are scattered along the coast. The wealth was generated by all the nice commodities: ivory, spices and slaves. The area has a different feel and is due the Swahili culture. The old parts of town are mazes of tiny alleys with highly ornate wooden fixtures, including doors, windows and balconies. Islamic religion is more prominent and this is reflected in the clothing (both women and men) and mosques with their regular call to prayer (including 5am). A crazy mix of Africa, Arabic and Eastern cultures.

A mosque at sunset above, and a typical carved door below.

The main attraction in Mombasa is Fort Jesus. A fort built by the Portuguese around th 15th century. A coral rag castle. A lot of the construction in this area is built by carving coral blocks out of the ground, left over from higher ocean levels a million years ago.

Mombasa didn't really satisfy our coastal cravings as it is a bustling city. So after a few days we headed up the coast to Malindi. An Italian resort town where they flock to escape their Winter. Being a whitey we were greeted with 'Ciao' by all the local kids. This was great for a bit of Italian influence in our diet. We had a delicious pizza and numerous gelato excuses in Malindi. However the beach wasn't quite the picture the guide book painted, as the whole ocean was a vibrant shade of red, thanks to the all dust being washed down the rivers from a bit of rain inland. Great. It was also our introduction to the hustle on the beach. For the next 4 weeks we were offered snorkelling trips multiple times on a daily basis. Also jewellery and whatever else they could think of.

We did however find a saviour. Watamu, a smaller town about 30 minute drive down the road. A beautiful white sandy beach, crystal clear water and less hustle. So we spent the next two days doing day trips because we couldn't be bothered changing hotels.

We also did a day trip out of Malindi to the Gede ruins. A city of ruins from the 13th century that was only discovered 50 years ago. The city was quite developed with a large outer wall, a large mosque, numerous water wells, toilets and flowing water. All of this wealth created by the trade on the nearby ocean.

We then caught a long bumpy bus up to Lamu. Lamu is on an island and there are no roads and no cars. Everything arrives by boat. Donkeys are the work-horses of the island. Lamu was great and we ended up spending nearly a week here. So nice and peaceful without any road noise. Wandering around the narrow alleys and exploring the city. Or wandering up to the nearby beach. Time passed effortlessly.

One of our places we stayed in Lamu. Very cool catacomb of concrete.

We spent Christmas in Lamu. Breakfast was a simple affair of coffee, fresh fruit and pastries. We then went out to a big seafood lunch (Lobster and Crab). And had a casual dinner and a few drinks with some friends.

Boxing Day we celebrated in typical style with our own little sailing trip. Dhows (the local boats), have been hand crafted here for centuries. They are completely made by hand, everything down to a hand-sewn sail. They are amazing and sail really well.

We went out, did a bit of fishing and then came back for BBQ lunch on the beach.

After Lamu and clocking up a month in the continent, we were ready for another dose of animal action. So we headed back down to Mombasa and booked in for a 3 day safari through Tsavo West and Amboseli National Parks.

More up close and personal interactions with the animals. Plenty of elephants although the animals weren't as prolific as the Masai Mara. We were expecting to be camping, but ended up in some amazing lodges. One of those mis-communications in our favour. The one below was our first night. We awoke to a herd of buffalo feeding in the morning. This is on top of the elephants drinking throughout the night and a leopard wandering across the one spot light they had set-up.

Tsavo West had some amazing landscapes but a lot of vegetation, which makes the animals harder to spot. But when you do spot them they are close.

Amboseli was big open Savannah plains. With huge herds of elephants and Kilimanjaro looming nearby.

Crystal clear Kilimanjaro (5,800m asl) at 5:30am.

After our safari we went back to Mombasa and hung out on the southern beaches for a few days. These are very touristy. We did manage to get away from the crowds in a sacred forest called Kaya Kinondo. A small patch of forest that is believed to be sacred by a local tribe. It was great to wander around and here the stories and beliefs. Bella is powering up by hugging a tree.

Next is Tanzania.

Photos

Kenyan Coast

AFRICAN ADVENTURE - Kenya Interior

We left London on the 30th November just as the first snow of the year was beginning to fall. A very satisfying feeling knowing we were leaving the cold Winter behind and heading south to the Equator.

Things didn't start well when we got to the airport and were told our flight was delayed 3 hours due to fog in Cairo. This turned into 5 hours by the time they had to de-ice the plane and get another runway slot. We then arrived in Cairo around 1am knowing that there was a good chance we had missed our connecting flight to Nairobi. This proved correct and we were stuck at the transfer desk with over 100 other people in a similar situation. Egypt Air had no idea how to deal with the situation. They took all our passports and boarding passes and put them in a big pile. We then spent 8 hours waiting on the floor, with no one telling us anything and with us asking to be transferred to a hotel. The scene was pretty crazy with people crowding the desk and demanding various things. At one point one guy walked behind the desk and started going through the passports looking to take his own passport back. The Egypt Air staff didn't like this but didn't call security or anything. Eventually we got to a hotel, where we spent about 10 hours (about 7 hours in bed), had three meals and then went back to the crazy airport. More disorganised chaos with one service window handling 50 people, and piles of passports in no particular order. Their system was to serve the person shouting the loudest, find out where they were going and then look there every single boarding pass / passport. Some more shuffling and moving, more waiting. We eventually got a passport in our hand 5 minutes before our flight was due to leave, of course it was delayed at least 30 minutes too. We then arrived in Nairobi around 7am to discover that our bags had somehow not made our flight, despite having 24 hours to be moved to the right place. We then had confusion, because we were changed from Egypt Air to a Kenyan Airways flight, so each airline was palming off responsibility to the other. We eventually got our bags delivered to the backpackers on Friday night wearing the same clothes we left London in on Tuesday morning.

We liked Nairobi. It reminded us of a big Suva in Fiji. But as soon as we got our bags we were itching for our travels to begin, so the following morning we boarded a bus towards the Masai Mara National Park. This was our first glimpse of Africa and it was great. Passing through villages with colourful markets, full of Masai people in colourful red fabric and beaded jewellery, small herds of cows and goats feeding beside the road with someone looking over them. Animals we saw from the bus included baboons, gazelles, jackals, wildebeasts and zebras. We spent the first day wandering the area outside the National Park with a local. We went to village and climbed a small hill, but were just appreciating the vastness of Africa and being a world away from London.

A Masai above and the vastness of the Masai below

The next day we went on a proper safari. Just the two of us, a land cruiser and a guide. It was great. We left at 6:30am and spent 10 hours spotting animals. The Masai Mara is teeming with wildlife. Massive herds of wildlife and nowhere for them to hide. It's mostly open savannah with very few bushes and trees. Zebras. Lots of zebras. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Across one hillside, down the valley and up the other hillside, covered in zebras. Giraffes, buffalos, wildebeasts and elephants. Three great lion experiences. The first was two lazy males sleeping under a tree. The second a whole family, including cubs and the third was one lone young male. Antelopes of all sizes including Thompson's Gazelles, Topi, Eland, waterbuck, imapala and hartbeests. We got lucky and saw a black rhino. In full view out in the open. There are only about 500 left in Kenya with most in private reserves or fenced off national parks. We also saw hyenas, mongoose, hippos, crocodile, warthogs, jackals and a bunch of cool birds including yellow crested cranes, vultures, storks and egyptian geese. Unfortunately no cheetahs or leopards.

Eland above. The others you might know.

We then headed up to Lake Naivasha and to the Hell's Gate National Park. We found a great campsite on the edge of Lake Naivasha where the hippos come out of the lake each night to feed. There is an electric fence that I presume is sufficient to convince the hippos that the grass around our tent isn't that good. Hell's Gate NP is in the Great Rift Valley and has numerous volcanic plugs and escarpments. It's also one of the few parks that you can explore on foot. So we walked about 20kms exploring the park. We saw plenty of zebras, gazelles and warthogs and a few giraffes and a group of buffalo off in the distance. The park also has a sandstone gorge which we took a 1hr walk around with a guide. Very narrow and windy and about 10m deep. It constantly changes with flash flooding each wet season.

The Gorge

A Colobus Monkey around Lake Naivasha

Park Fees are a constant when travelling in East Africa. We went to Kenya because they were reasonable cheap, but our guide book was outdated and they were all increased in 2009. The biggest and most disappointing increase was for Mt Kenya. We had planned on climbing Mt Kenya as Kilimanjaro was out of our budget at US$1000 pp ($500 on park fees). But seems Kenya has caught on to this as well and increased the fees from US$20 pp per day to $55 plus increased guide and camping fees. And when you need 4 days to complete it, this adds up. So we had to come up with a plan C. This ended up being Mt Elgon on the Ugandan border. At 4200m it is still a fair climb. We rushed it into 3 days / 2 nights. We had two armed guides (mainly in case we ran into buffalos or elephants). Was great wandering up through the forests filled with monkeys and a bamboo forest. We eventually made it to the alpine area, where there were no trees but plenty of grasses and flowers. We attempted to climb the peak but gave up as it was pretty much rock climbing up a cliff face covered in moss and dripping with water. The guides claimed they have been up before but I have my doubts. The trip was a bit rushed and under-prepared but still good. The second day we walked about 35kms including the summit attempt. Pretty ridiculous.

Around 3,500m asl. Looking down where we came from. And a bit higher up looking at the summit (below).

After all this hard work and feeling a bit out of place we decided it was time to head to the coast. The only problem was it was two day's bus ride away. But both passed pretty well. We had to take a day's rest in Nairobi as we had to book the bus for the next day.

There have been plenty of challenging bits along the way. Independent travel is not as easy here as it was in South America. Most visitors either come here with their own car or a lot of money. Transport has been the toughest to sort out. Working out when and how much you should pay. Public transport was really busy in December as everyone is heading home to the village for Christmas. Food, normally a popular topic here, was nothing to write home about. Simple food. Beef stew. Roast chicken. Lots of rice and chips. And Ugali. A starchy ball of carbohydrates. Made from Maize flour and water. No Ugali, no life: the motto of our guide at Mt Elgon. He loved the stuff. Basic English is spoken by most people, but it is not their primary language. Swahili and English are the official languages, but most speak Swahili to each other.

Loads of photos here.

Kenya Interior

The Ultimate Weekend Dash

Barcelona

A city whose name conjures up idyllic preconceived ideas of everything great about Spain and the Spanish culture.

We headed there recently for one last mad city break long weekend from London. We were meeting up with Bella's parents who had been there all week. We flew out on Friday morning and needed to get up at 4am. We were home again around 1am on Sunday night/Monday morning. Fun. The effort was rewarded a few hours after the 4am start when we were waiting for the bus from the airport to Barcelona and we got ourselves a short, dark coffee and a pastry. The little things that make Europe great.

We spent 3 days in this city where you could easily spend a lifetime. I had chorizo three times in the first 12 hours of being there. The city bumps and jives. There are performers on every corner, from musos, to dancers to circus acts. The buildings drip with character and individuality. Something that often lacks in European cities. The city is busy but feels comfortable, apart from the continuous stream of tour groups that are toting around everywhere, blindly following someone with a sign.

Sure it has more gothic churches than you can poke a stick at, but they also embrace new buildings.

Somewhere along the line, someone decided that tile mosaics where cool. Barcelona have taken this and run a long way. Below is a picture of the Palau de Musica Catalan. I stole this one due to forgetting my camera. We watched a Spanish Guitarist do his thing on stage here one evening. The music was great but the building was something else. The whole ceiling was covered in tile mosaic and then the have this massive glass ceiling droplet. Statues poking out in places and then blending in with a mosaic. Beyond words and beyond photos.

The city has a different feel in architecture due to the Modernista movement and a guy named Gaudi. Taking it on a simpleton's level, he just made stuff look good and different. Including everything from a park (well a road through it)

to a apartment block

to a catherdral. The Sagrada Familia. He died during it's construction which is still very much in progress.

Both inside and out.

Barcelona. A very cool city that I would love to spend a year exploring, but 3 days will have to do at this stage.

The title of this entry is so named due to the fact that it is our last weekend getaway. We have two and a bit weeks of work left and we are then on a permanent weekend again. We are throwing in the working towel and taking up the backpack again. We have 3 months planned in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt) and then will come back to Europe to buy a car and do some travel through the continent. With all going well we should travel through the Summer and look to be heading back to Australia around August 2011.

So who knows when the next entry will be....

More photos

Barcelona

2 & 2 is 4

Autumn has arrived and we are getting spells of a looming chilly Winter and the occasional burst of a Summer gone by. To speed up our remaining time in London we have had the help of some more visitors. Bella's parents arrived on the 27th September. We spent the first week showing them around our home turf in London. They then headed off in a rental car with us joining them for the weekends to tour around the UK countryside.

The first weekend we spent in the South-East corner of Wales and the West Midlands of England. This is castle country. Each village has a pile of rocks that use to be, or still is, a castle or an old abbey. Wales did not disappoint with the weather and once again we were greeted with rain, low cloud, fog and other weather components. As soon as we crossed back into England the sun came out. Below is Chepstow castle.

We stumbled around the castle for a while and found these doors that date from around the 11th century. The oldest in Europe apparently.

We stumbled across some slightly confused Morris dancers. Normally an English tradition, but they were in Wales. Reminded me of a cross between A Clockwork Orange and the Beverley Hillbillies. I'm pretty sure the head Morris was speaking in English but I hardly understood a word he said. We were definitely in the countryside.

We stayed in a B&B that was an old corn mill. There was a choice of two pubs in the village. We chose the one located next to the driveway of our B&B. A cosy little gem with a chatty barman and locals, and served some decent pub food.

The next day we headed over to England to the town of Ludlow. Another castle and a big cathedral. But also home to an amazing bakery full of slices and most notably a creme brulee, that cost all of 1.30 and was delicious. It also has some amazingly old pubs. The one above is The Feathers from around 15th century.

The next weekend we headed to Northern Ireland and specifically to the Causeway Coast. This is the coast running from Belfast up North around to Derry. It is noted for being quite a scenic place and it did not disappoint.

We awoke on Saturday to bright sunshine and clear skies. Ireland delivers again when Wales had failed us last week.

We spent the day exploring the coast by car and by foot. The Giants Causeway was great. A great example of the strange geology in the area. Also a great legend with the giant Finn McCool fighting his enemy from Scotland here. See the album below for a photo of Finn.

Just a bunch of really strange shaped rocks.

We slowly made our way back to Belfast via the country lanes right on the edge of the coast. A great view and a great drive.

Would also be good if you were a sheep. Apart from the Winters.

Right. I'm off to bed as I have to get up way too early one last time for a weekend away in Barcelona.

Photos here.

Octobre