{"id":2563,"date":"2024-11-25T20:13:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/?p=2563"},"modified":"2025-01-21T12:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T12:33:47","slug":"nairobi-and-excursions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/?p=2563","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi and Excursions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friday 22\/11\/2024<\/strong> – Nairobi (peke yangu)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One last run in Naivasha with the ever-changing view over the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After breakfast we had a leisurely drive back to Nairobi, and a not-quite-so-leisurely time trying to get to a hotel on top of a shopping centre next to the biggest mosque in East Africa late on a Friday morning. But we made it, dropped off the car (and got a refund for the tyre). I managed to find a camera repair shop to sort out my camera that had jammed on the boat back from Crescent Island, then went for a mooch around Nairobi city centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first stop, after lunch, was the Jamia Mosque next to my hotel. Rather than just wandering in (as I think I could have done) I asked if I could enter which led (after a bit of a wait) to a guided tour by the director. The old part of the mosque was started in 1925 (so a centenary is coming soon!) and designed by a Scottish architect based on buildings from the Mughal Empire but with “modern” twists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The mosque was extended in 1998 adding this impressive exterior…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The extension extends around this covered courtyard, admitting light to the huge prayer area. It really is an impressive building, but much more – a place of prayer and a community centre<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the mosque I explored more of the CBD of Nairobi – places I visited when I was working here over 15 years ago – including the Holy Family Basilica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The baptistery is new since I was last here; simple but stunning stained glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was also taken by this cross<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saturday 23\/11\/2024 – Aberdare National Park with Coach Steve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An early start today – meeting at 04:45 for a 05:00 prompt departure – so I had an early Uber pickup, and of course everyone else was on African time. A long bus ride followed, heading back towards Naivasha before turning north, before eventually stopping for breakfast at a place called Engineer, then up into the Aberdare National Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bus took us further into the park, then we hiked (mostly on a road-like track) towards Karuru Falls. The countryside was impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first step of the falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was difficult to capture all 3 steps – this was my best attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some pretty flowers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We then hiked back to the bus and set off towards Chania Falls. However, the state of the road was not in our favour .This couple got their road car through eventually, but it was determined that our bus would not make it (specifically would not make it back up the slope).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After considerable African-style discussion and negotiation, a solution was found where we all squeezed into a Land Cruiser pick-up – 3 of us on the front passenger seat and about 14 in the back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not the most comfortable ride, but it got us where we wanted to be<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where we wanted to be was Chania Falls – accessed by a short hike down to the river viewing point. Meld and I came here in November 2013!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The falls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our team admiring \/ photographing the falls (and themselves!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some found the water too tempting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More flowers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Happy hikers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After spending quite a while admiring the falls we returned to the pickup, then to the bus, then back out of the park to a hotel for a late lunch, then back into Nairobi. It was a pleasant outing, though not as much hiking as I’d anticipated, and the premium park entrance fee made it a pricey one. But it was good to catch up with Steve and meet some new people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday 24\/11\/2024 – Mount Longonot with Dr Faith<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My friend Faith (who climbed Kilimanjaro with us) arrived early and picked me up from the hotel. It was too early for breakfast at the hotel, so we stopped near Limuru – mandazi, arrowroots, eggs and chai!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were reasonably early at Mount Longonot, ready to hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We saw a few animals on the ascent, but not very close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since I was last here (2008) they’ve concrete part of the path to combat erosion. It makes it easier going, but not quite as “wild”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can see why<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We reached the point where the path joins the rim, everyone wanting a photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The view into the crater is amazing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The view towards Lake Naivasha (dehazed)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rim is by no means flat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the summit – the highest point on the rim<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We managed to become part of a much larger group here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My team! Once we got on the second half of the rim we mostly ran, as we did for most of the descent too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watering one of the trees that Faith and her friends had planted recently<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After Longonot Faith decided we should visit the geothermal spa which you could virtually see from the rim. However, it proved a long drive, and would have required paying park admission again, so we headed back. We stopped at Elsamere (home of George and Joy Adamson of Born Free fame) – a lovely spot that I’d like to visit properly when I come back again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then the drive back to Nairobi (with a late lunch at Mai Mahiu) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a long day – beer, football and nyama choma at Quiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a couple of beers we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage then to get the night bus to Mombasa – the start of the next chapter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 22\/11\/2024 – Nairobi (peke yangu) One last run in Naivasha with the ever-changing view over the lake. After breakfast we had a leisurely drive back to Nairobi, and a not-quite-so-leisurely time trying to get to a hotel on top of a shopping centre next to the biggest mosque in East Africa late on a… Continue Reading Nairobi and Excursions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","radius"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43dbc-Fl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2604,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}