Last weekend was the Safaricom (half) marathon in Lewa Conservancy which Huawei sponsors and thus enters a team of runners for every year. A conservancy is like a national park, but not managed or necessarily owned by the Central government (e.g. owned or managed privately or by a charity or local communities) but it is full of wildlife and thus the run is off-road and among wildlife--both tough and spectacular. All the locals walk for miles in the morning from their communities through the conservancy to watch the race and there is a market and festival set-up for them as well as a stage for some entertainment at the finish line.
Its been going almost twenty years and is very well organised, with armed rangers on the course and helicopters overhead to keep an eye on any animals coming near the runners. I only saw a few giraffe, but did enjoy the views, and it was tougher than any previous half marathon I've done: I'm used to the altitude now and also the heat, but it was still fairly hilly. I was happy with the time, having trained a fair bit with my team mates. The girls managed to drive around the course and watch me once, and at the finish.
The kids gorged themselves on oranges at the finish line before we had lunch; and in the afternoon we did a game drive, punishing our poor car, but seeing Rhinos, Elephants, Zebras and more besides. After a couple of hours the kids were getting bored, and we realized our car may not be 4-wheel drive (though it is an SUV) as we struggled for grip up a steep incline with loose gravel.
As Ramadan was ending, Monday was a public holiday (though only declared so one week earlier once the timing of the moon was confirmed), so we stayed in the area for a few days to make the most of it (it was a 4-hour drive from Nairobi). Unlike most other runners who stayed in tents in the Conservancy, I decided against this since it would be 3 nights with Andrea and the kids and it would be cold in the evenings. We found a great farmhouse on Air BnB for 3 nights, only a short distance from Lewa (though it took a long time on an absolutely dreadfully bumpy track) run by a White Kenyan lady whose grandparents moved to Kenya a long time ago. There are 40,000 or more White Kenyans, many of whom own farms in this part of Kenya which causes tension, but more on that another time.
This lady farmer only bought her farm a decade ago (her family has some other properties in Kenya) and is a real environmentalist; though also a very practical person who plants tress to ultimately sell them for timber, has diversity in flowers for bees to pollinate and make honey to sell, in grasses to sell for hay and for sheep to graze, in vegetables to eat and feed the animals etc. She's learnt agriculture and has now developed a good, economically viable model and we learned a lot; the kids also enjoyed their time at the farm. Nestled on the slopes of Mount Kenya, she has stunning views towards Lewa and several other National Parks and Mountain ranges. The farmhouse was great, with solar providing electricity and solar water heaters for hot showers. A fantastic kitchen, warm blankets, comfortable beds and a fire all made it a comfortable stay.
The farmhouse is in part of what is known as the Elephant Corridor whereby several landowners and charities have set aside some land to be used as a corridor for elephants to use to get between Lewa and Mount Kenya, including a tunnel underneath the main road. We didn't see any elephants in the corridor, but a few other animals were hiding in the bushes. The farmer had put up an additional small electric fence on her property to stop the elephants and large animals coming too close or destroying her farm.
One one of the other days we went to Ngare Dare Forest, another protected area, where we once again punished our car going off-road through this ancient forest, through rivers and all sorts. We did see a family of elephants, did a short hike to see a beautiful remote waterfall and walked along the Canopy Walk, 20m up amongst the trees. We also managed to find someone to bring us extra fuel in a container on a motorbike so we wouldn't get stuck in the middle of the forest, having underestimated the length of the drive in the forest (and the amount of fuel being burned in first gear most of the way)! By the end, let's just say the car wash people really earned their income with a thorough wash and vacuum needed of the inside of the car from the dust as well as the outside.
Though the kids slept for a couple of hours each way (and watched the only DVD that works in our Japanese car's DVD player, Love Actually, which we've now watched more than 20 times in the last 6 months), there was still time for Hannah to demonstrate her latest skills which is to regale us with long stories and argue with us about the origins of volcanoes and all sorts. She's really developed opinions and an ability to articulate them in the last couple of months leading to long conversations, and no longer just the "why" questions of before. Leah on the other hand is also now having conversations by stringing together complete sentences, although her pronunciation takes some getting used to and a bit of guessing!
As always, the kids befriend most strangers quickly, such as the farmer, which makes our job easier, though they're still not hot on long walks unless they can be distracted with said friends, chicken, sheep or something else. A very enjoyable long weekend
