An Adventure in the Aberdares

Over Easter, apart from playing football, going for a run, enjoying the forest and meeting some friends for dinner and also for a drink by the pool at the fancy Muthaiga Club, I spent 2 days and 1 night in the Aberdares.

The Aberdares are a range of hills and Mountains starting about an hour outside of Nairobi and stretching North. The area is fully surrounded by a 200km electric fence and thus the animals inside it are unable to leave, but the area is big enough for them to roam freely as a massive national park that has no-one living in it.

Starting at around 1,500m above sea level and going all the way up to 4,000m there are a variety of ecosystems from bamboo forests to tropical forests and grasslands. As well as smaller animals there are a lot of elephants and some leopards. There are several entrance gates, a few campsites and only a couple of huts or lodges for staying inside the park; so the whole area is very wild and undisturbed. There are a few beautiful waterfalls, some open areas in the middle, a range of hills and mountains to climb and large areas of dense forest. 

There are very few roads and very few footpaths, and certainly no signposts so hiking usually requires guides and ideally armed rangers in case an elephant decides to march down a narrow path between trees towards you and needs scaring away. I had been there twice before - once on a day trip to climb Elephant Hill and once with the family when we stayed at the Ark and did a Safari to one of the waterfalls.

This time I went alone with a tour guide, a chef, and a driver, in a little tiny car. We went into the park through the wrong gate which sort of messed up the hiking plan and the sleeping plans, and still meant that after leaving Nairobi at 7am, we spent over 4 hours driving to the entrance and another hour and a half driving through the Park to reach a campsite. The little car just about made it, despite some muddy stretches (thankfully though none of the roads are paved/tarmac, they are mostly stone and not too muddy) and the last few metres through some grass track to the campsite.

The campsite was a small patch of grass with a fire in the middle, a hole in the floor toilet nearby and a shed for cooking in outside of the rain. We quickly put the tents up once we arrived as it began raining and then sheltered in the shed whilst it chucked down with rain for 2 hours. Eventually it stopped and we took a 90 minute walk down one of the roads towards a waterfall. It was pleasant and good to finally stretch, see elephant tracks, some Dik Diks and antelope, and warm up for the next day even if it was not the walk we were supposed to do (or even the campsite we were supposed to be at)!

The chef cooked some decent rice, vegetables and chicken for dinner and once we had eaten and failed to restart the camp fire (as all the wood was so wet), it promptly began raining again. The two tents that we had just about did the job, in that they were waterproof, but they were only one layer so water seeped in to make a small puddle at the bottom where the door was. There was no sleeping stuff for the chef and the driver so they slept in the car, which refused to warm up despite running the engine for a while. They had a miserable night. Though we didn't sleep much better in the tents with so much rain, and having to sleep at an angle or tucking in my legs so they wouldn't be in the puddle... aah, the joys of camping.

The next day the chef was up early to cook a breakfast of sausages, bread and butter, and tea. It was good enough I suppose. Thankfully it had stopped raining so we could eat breakfast, put the tents away, and drive to the foot of the mountain without the car skidding off the road (which had dried out). However once we got to the foot of the mountain we were unable to drive up the dirt road that would reduce the walk by a few kms, though the driver did his best to get up the road. Eventually the mud and the steepness got the better of him, so we abandoned him to spend the next several hours reversing back down the dirt road to wait for us on the stone road!

Half an hour up the road past spectacular views of Mount Kenya we reached a small car park (which I think had been where we had tried to drive to, but would never have made it). It was there my suspicions about the Guide not having climbed the mountain from this side before became evident. He had done it from the other side that we were supposed to have come from (or at least he said he had....). So he wandered off one way from the car park to see where the path up the mountain began and I wandered off the other way. I thought I found a path (thanks to finding a video online someone had taken that gave hints as to the routes, and I was grateful there was an internet signal at the car park because there had not been at the campsite) and told him so but he still spent 20 minutes looking around!

Eventually we set off in the glorious sunshine with amazing views of the valley and of the other mountains on the other side of the valley, following a tiny path that did actually have some small ribbons tied to some pieces of bush every km or so to show the way (though there were none at the car park where we really needed some!) After an hour of very pleasant hiking it then began to rain and then it began to hail. And the next 2 hours until we reached the top was, unfortunately, pretty horrible. Cold, wet, a path full of hail and water that was almost impossible to find since everything was covered in hail. I had only brought a light waterproof jacket that was not really up to the job, and I had good hiking trousers but nothing that could handle this, and even my hiking boots were only designed for small puddles. Not walking through streams

We were literally walking through a stream since that was what had made the footpath! Whenever it rained the water would run off the mountain and find a groove or something and that was what had carved out the footpath. In total it was 3 hours to the top (not including the wandering around the car park), and about 2.5 hours down even though it was an extra 3 km to get to the car (that was now at the stone road waiting) since i fairly jogged back down the mountain in such a hurry to get changed into some clean, warm clothes, and to reduce the miserable experience of walking through a hail storm and in a stream with limited visibility. We never met one other person on the hike!

Anyway, we reached the top (with me leading the Guide almost the whole way actually), got the photo, ticked the box and got down in one piece. The first hour or two was enjoyable but one cannot control the weather up in high mountains unfortunately so it was what it was. We had made it. The Chef had cooked up some spaghetti, potato, meat and vegetables from his gas stove that was set up in the boot (with the lid of the boot up he could cook without getting wet) which was very much welcome. We ate, got changed and began the long drive back to Nairobi.

Only to get an hour outside of Nairobi and hit trouble. The highway back is being upgraded to a dual carriageway and there are parts that are done with 4 lanes (or more once there is traffic and cars squeeze into every little gap) but some parts, especially bridges, that are still single lane. And of course 6 lanes into 2 does not go. So the cars back up, cars push in, cars go into the other lane and thus block oncoming traffic, and it all means no-one moves. We seemed to have joined the traffic jam an hour after it started. Another hour or so and some police officers had turned up and begun trying to sort out the mess, and so half an hour later we had gone 2km and were back on track. To finally get back to Nairobi at 11pm.

Not the most successful weekend ever but it was an adventure. Maybe one more typical of hiking/camping in England than Kenya (in fact every Kenyan I have shown the photos to of the hail are amazed since they have never seen hail before, or snow for that matter, and ask me to send the photos to them).

A sense of humour

Kenyans have a good sense of humour. There could be many reasons - often as a way to deal with a sense of hopelessness about much in their country (especially politics and government but also other institutions such as sports), sometimes as a take on their culture and stereotypes (especially male-female, drinking, relationships, tribal identities and the like), and often just as a way to lighten up life that, unfortunately, for many people is not that great.

Kenyans are very happy to make light of everything and very quick to criticise their own culture and country's faults for a good laugh. There may be a downside to some of this of course, by ingraining more of the cultural stereotypes that may be harmful to certain groups, particularly those of women, as I suppose no matter how lighthearted a joke is it is funny when it rings true and thus perpetuates something.

With the current fuel crisis there were jokes circulating of men using it as an excuse to be gone for the night. Then, now many people had to go to their mobile phone company's shop to re-register their details, so that was another excuse to be gone. It all makes a lot of sense when the cultural stereotype is of men having relationships on the side, and always needing excuses. The jokes are funniest when the man in the cartoon is taking a massive suitcase with him "to go get fuel".

Aside from that, with the election coming up in a few months there is a strong sense amongst most Kenyans that it doesn't matter who one votes for, its still rich corrupt Kenyans who run everything from a few families and a certain political class, even if one of the candidates tries to pretend otherwise (at least he is not from one of the families, but he certainly is from the political class and not a poor man....). The last election was the butt of a lot of jokes with, yet again, more queuing to vote, the re-run after the first election was voided, and the role of the government throughout (at some point TV stations were turned off during a heated few days). There was some violence though it could have been worse. Maybe it is the sense of humour that helped everyone get through it....

Fuel - who knew it could be so interesting!

Though the price of oil always gets in the newspapers around the world whenever it is very low and very high because of the macroeconomic impacts and geopolitical implications, it is never something that affected me personally. Fortunate enough that extra levies on flights or slightly higher petrol prices did not make a big dent, I have not had to change my lifestyle, though it doesn't involve driving much anyway, with only short trips to school/work and around town at weekends usually.

This all changed a couple of weeks ago in Kenya. The price of petrol here is fixed by the government and changed every month based on its actual cost plus allowable margins for those transporting and selling the stuff. A year or two ago the government began implementing a mechanism to charge an extra tax on petrol (on top of the regular tax) that would go into a special fund that could be used to subsidise petrol when prices were very high. A great idea, particularly when prices collapsed when COVID-19 first hit, but one that sets high expectations for the public which are hard to meet during a protracted high oil crisis due to the Ukraine War and general budget, foreign exchange and exchange rate crises in the Country due to the Country's large debts, high import bill and slow economic growth.

It also means that a market that is already tightly government controlled becomes even more intertwined with the government's ability to manage a market well and to respond quickly and efficiently. So setting prices infrequently when prices are changing a lot is a problem. Promising to reimburse the petrol companies but taking a long time to pay them, if at all, is a problem. Setting expectations but then changing those expectations by not being able to guarantee subsidy programs into the future, due to lack of funds, or possible changes in policies/subsidy amounts, is also a problem.

And when there are these problems there can be unforeseen consequences that cause even more problems. Such as (or so it seems from the media) the petrol companies choosing to sell more petrol to neighboring landlocked countries (who get their petrol through Kenya) instead of selling as much in Kenya, or holding onto some supplies for a few days extra here and there until they get paid their subsidies, or the monthly price review changes what they can sell the stuff for.

The result is a lack of petrol at petrol stations, no-one knows when there is petrol or where, and no-one has confidence if there will be petrol tomorrow or the next day... Hence mad rushes to get petrol whenever there may be some available and very long queues for petrol. Since petrol stations don't have much space to accommodate long queues then the queues back out onto the roads. This first affected me 10 days ago when I was on a business trip and driving on the main highway north, and since big highways need petrol stations, and that stretch of the road is only single lane (at the moment, it is changing thankfully), then the queues block the road. And in Kenya no-one likes to sit in a queue in the best of times, always deciding to overtake to make a second lane, or a third lane, or a fourth lane on the pavement on the inside.... But certainly when most cars are not actually needing fuel, being stuck in a queue on a highway behind the cars queueing for fuel is not great.

We managed to find a side route off the highway which only slowed us down about 10 minutes, and we were probably quite lucky that the queues must have only just started because within another 20 minutes or so they may have been so bad the diversion would not have worked. Another hour or two later we had the same problem again. When we came back the next day we were able to get fuel very easily because our car was the only one that wanted diesel! The police were out at all the police stations and the highways trying to help manage the queues with various one way systems and in some cases requiring people to park elsewhere and instead queue on foot with a gerry can (I think fuel was also being rationed). In some petrol stations we saw hundreds of people lining up with their gerry cans at one petrol station, and at the next petrol stations dozens of motorbikes queuing, and at the next, dozens of cars... (it seemed that the police had organized it that way).

Then back in Nairobi when I saw a petrol station with petrol one lunchtime I just went it and topped up even though I didn't really need petrol... Just in case. And now, more than two weeks into the crisis, I am wondering whether to drive across town during the holiday weekend and use up precious fuel, or go out of town for a couple of days... Or not risk getting stuck somewhere! Meanwhile the traffic jams in Nairobi from the queues coming out of the petrol stations have been crazy; routes need to be planned to avoid any road near a petrol station! Not that most people actually were queuing for fuel, but they were stuck in the fuel queue on the road.

The government has of course responded to the public pressure and started talking about arresting the fuel companies' leadership for one reason or another whilst assuring everyone there is enough fuel, it is just not being released properly. Of course this ignores the fact that because no one really trusts all these statements, nor knows what will happen in the future, the general feeling of panic buying still continues and makes everything worse. Prices were supposed to go up 25% or so last night in the monthly price review as it was expected the government could not continue with the subsidy, but in the end the government has committed to conintue subsidising.

Where the money will come from I don't know as I don't think that there is anything left saved up from when prices were low, and I don't think subsidising fuel using general tax revenues is a good idea. It would be better to spend that money on direct subsidies to the poor or specific subsidies for fuel for public transport to keep those prices from rising, rather than subsidising fuel in general that is mostly only used for the middle and upper classes (though apparently it could make sense to subsidise diesel that is mostly used in agriculture, industry and electricity generation).

The latest this morning is all about the promises for the market to be back to normal within 3 days, whilst the CEOs of the local petrol companies are being investigated for breaking the law. And I may just dig out my bike :)