This is a summary of my travel in Kenya. Normally at this stage I would give you a chronological account of my movement’s but instead I will give you some of my first impressions of Kenya and Africa. I have spent my time in Kenya with Olly and his family, Mr O’Meara (Robert), Mrs O’Meara (Fleur) and their other two sons Liam and Robert. When you picture a Kenyan holiday you immediately think wild life expeditions bouncing over the grassland plains in search of an Elephant or a big cat. However this holiday has been uniquely different.
It has been spent mostly at the coast at a place called Watamu this is situated about 60 km up the coast from Mombassa. We are staying in a family friends beach house. Most of what I have learnt about Kenya has been from the O’Meara’s. The O’Meara’s are from ‘white Kenya’ that makes up only 0.1 % of Kenya’s population of 38 million. One of the first glaring differences between a NZ bach and a Kenyan ‘bach’ is that we have a cook and a house worker, These guys live and work at the house and prepare all the meals and duties round the house. We have a lot of structured meals Breakfast alternating between cooked and continental meals, followed by a cooked lunch usually a seafood curry or fish and chips. Then we have Kenyan tea and cake for high tea and finally dinner is (yes you guessed it a seafood related dish). It’s lucky I like seafood. We all supped around the table together, and there was a dress code, so we couldn’t eat without shirts. Even though it was so hot! It was around the table through the O’Meara’s family’s discussions that I learned a lot about Kenya.
Kenya was first explored by the Portugese sailor Vasco Da Gama, but it was properly colonized by the Omani Arabs in the early 1800’s then the Germans then the English (Imperial British East Africa company) in the 1890’s. In 1963 Kenya was declared independent with Jomo Kenyatta the first president. Currently a coalition government exists between PNU and ODM with members from both parties sharing positions of power. The current president is Mwai Kibaki (PNU). Apparently Kenya is the third most corrupt country in the world. So a lot of the revenue raised by the taxes goes into the politicians back pockets. As a result there is a large division of wealth within the country, there is a slum in Nairobi which is home to 800,000 people. Many of the main highways in Kenya are actually funded by foreign countries and these are the good roads. What else? Kenya has a lot of problems with muggings, so we had to drive around the city with the windows pretty much closed and the doors locked, otherwise people could grab your luggage or threaten you with faeces or acid. Kenya has a large Tea and Coffee trade, however recently these commodities have been struggling.
Back to the beach… Our day usually consisted of an early morning run (well we tried to go for one) followed by a swim then breakfast. We usually needed provisions, so some mornings we went to Watamu or Malindi. We usually needed fish or beers. Tusker or Pilsners were the beers of choice. Time at the house was spent lazing around, playing chess, squeezing orange juice or reading. It was very hot and humid, so we tried to keep out of the sun. We did manage a few activities though; we went to Gedi (a 14th century Arab ruin), the Watamu snake farm, where we saw a lot of deadly serpents as well as crocs and lizards; snorkeling out at the reef – This was great fun lots of coral and tropical fish which would eat the bread right out of your hands; Walks through the jungle, keeping an eye on the monkeys and squirrels. We spent a lot of time in the water throwing the rugby ball about but even then it was difficult to cool off. The beach itself was really nice, seaweed and scurrying crabs were the major occupants. One other thing that amazed me was the bubbling quicksand at some parts in the shallows. Late afternoon we sometimes went for some Italian icecream, which was according to the locals the best in Kenya, I didn’t disagree. In the evening we steered clear of the splash bikini parties or happy nights, instead opting for the oceans resorts Ocean sports or Hemmingway’s. Beers were pretty cheap so we had a few good nights there, pity there weren’t a bus load of sweedish backpackers staying then it would have been primo.
Another thing that I learnt a lot about on my trip was Bamboo, Ollys brother Liam is proposing a venture involving growing bamboo for gasification and the production of electricity. A smart idea considering the country’s electricity problems and the high spot price of electricity.
On the way back to Nairobi we went a slightly different route, via the Tsavo east National Park. A mini safari, it cost 50 USD for me to enter the Park but it was well worth it. We saw warthogs, waterbuck, grants gazelle, Impala, Urdu, Giraffe, Zebra, Hippos, Buffalo, Elephants and the best of all a pride of 17 Lions. Kenya has an amazingly varied countryside and is epitomized by the acacia tree silhouetted behind a rising sun. It was the end of the dry season so any drop of water was precious to the land and the wildlife. Other interesting sightings were the African army ants spread across the road, the baboons in the Baobab tree and the large number of overturned lorries on the side of the road.
It was a long trip back to Nairobi and we did our best to avoid the Nairobi jams, but we finally made it back to the Muthaiga Country Club, for high tea and a dip in the pool to remove the layers of dust that had coated us. Muthaiga was once and maybe still is the premier club in East Africa, there is an etiquette that is observed whilst there and it is very colonial. It is attended by the whos who of Kenya. It boasts facilities such as croquet, golf, squash, billards, tennis, mens room, library, you name it. My last day in Kenya I went to the Museum, which showcased the amount of wildlife Kenya has as well as customs of the local tribes and the recent accolades of the Kenyan Rugby sevens team. We stopped in at Olly and Bobs old work, the Talisman for a beer and a meal. My favourite restaurant in Kenya, it had a great vibe.
Kenya has this kind of raw excitement about it, where everything and nothing is a surprise. It’s a country with amazing natural beauty and diversity, and there is a toughness about the Kenya people, who just get on with living. I have barely scratched the surface of this country. I will definitely return one day…
It has been spent mostly at the coast at a place called Watamu this is situated about 60 km up the coast from Mombassa. We are staying in a family friends beach house. Most of what I have learnt about Kenya has been from the O’Meara’s. The O’Meara’s are from ‘white Kenya’ that makes up only 0.1 % of Kenya’s population of 38 million. One of the first glaring differences between a NZ bach and a Kenyan ‘bach’ is that we have a cook and a house worker, These guys live and work at the house and prepare all the meals and duties round the house. We have a lot of structured meals Breakfast alternating between cooked and continental meals, followed by a cooked lunch usually a seafood curry or fish and chips. Then we have Kenyan tea and cake for high tea and finally dinner is (yes you guessed it a seafood related dish). It’s lucky I like seafood. We all supped around the table together, and there was a dress code, so we couldn’t eat without shirts. Even though it was so hot! It was around the table through the O’Meara’s family’s discussions that I learned a lot about Kenya.
Kenya was first explored by the Portugese sailor Vasco Da Gama, but it was properly colonized by the Omani Arabs in the early 1800’s then the Germans then the English (Imperial British East Africa company) in the 1890’s. In 1963 Kenya was declared independent with Jomo Kenyatta the first president. Currently a coalition government exists between PNU and ODM with members from both parties sharing positions of power. The current president is Mwai Kibaki (PNU). Apparently Kenya is the third most corrupt country in the world. So a lot of the revenue raised by the taxes goes into the politicians back pockets. As a result there is a large division of wealth within the country, there is a slum in Nairobi which is home to 800,000 people. Many of the main highways in Kenya are actually funded by foreign countries and these are the good roads. What else? Kenya has a lot of problems with muggings, so we had to drive around the city with the windows pretty much closed and the doors locked, otherwise people could grab your luggage or threaten you with faeces or acid. Kenya has a large Tea and Coffee trade, however recently these commodities have been struggling.
Back to the beach… Our day usually consisted of an early morning run (well we tried to go for one) followed by a swim then breakfast. We usually needed provisions, so some mornings we went to Watamu or Malindi. We usually needed fish or beers. Tusker or Pilsners were the beers of choice. Time at the house was spent lazing around, playing chess, squeezing orange juice or reading. It was very hot and humid, so we tried to keep out of the sun. We did manage a few activities though; we went to Gedi (a 14th century Arab ruin), the Watamu snake farm, where we saw a lot of deadly serpents as well as crocs and lizards; snorkeling out at the reef – This was great fun lots of coral and tropical fish which would eat the bread right out of your hands; Walks through the jungle, keeping an eye on the monkeys and squirrels. We spent a lot of time in the water throwing the rugby ball about but even then it was difficult to cool off. The beach itself was really nice, seaweed and scurrying crabs were the major occupants. One other thing that amazed me was the bubbling quicksand at some parts in the shallows. Late afternoon we sometimes went for some Italian icecream, which was according to the locals the best in Kenya, I didn’t disagree. In the evening we steered clear of the splash bikini parties or happy nights, instead opting for the oceans resorts Ocean sports or Hemmingway’s. Beers were pretty cheap so we had a few good nights there, pity there weren’t a bus load of sweedish backpackers staying then it would have been primo.
Another thing that I learnt a lot about on my trip was Bamboo, Ollys brother Liam is proposing a venture involving growing bamboo for gasification and the production of electricity. A smart idea considering the country’s electricity problems and the high spot price of electricity.
On the way back to Nairobi we went a slightly different route, via the Tsavo east National Park. A mini safari, it cost 50 USD for me to enter the Park but it was well worth it. We saw warthogs, waterbuck, grants gazelle, Impala, Urdu, Giraffe, Zebra, Hippos, Buffalo, Elephants and the best of all a pride of 17 Lions. Kenya has an amazingly varied countryside and is epitomized by the acacia tree silhouetted behind a rising sun. It was the end of the dry season so any drop of water was precious to the land and the wildlife. Other interesting sightings were the African army ants spread across the road, the baboons in the Baobab tree and the large number of overturned lorries on the side of the road.
It was a long trip back to Nairobi and we did our best to avoid the Nairobi jams, but we finally made it back to the Muthaiga Country Club, for high tea and a dip in the pool to remove the layers of dust that had coated us. Muthaiga was once and maybe still is the premier club in East Africa, there is an etiquette that is observed whilst there and it is very colonial. It is attended by the whos who of Kenya. It boasts facilities such as croquet, golf, squash, billards, tennis, mens room, library, you name it. My last day in Kenya I went to the Museum, which showcased the amount of wildlife Kenya has as well as customs of the local tribes and the recent accolades of the Kenyan Rugby sevens team. We stopped in at Olly and Bobs old work, the Talisman for a beer and a meal. My favourite restaurant in Kenya, it had a great vibe.
Kenya has this kind of raw excitement about it, where everything and nothing is a surprise. It’s a country with amazing natural beauty and diversity, and there is a toughness about the Kenya people, who just get on with living. I have barely scratched the surface of this country. I will definitely return one day…
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