Another vacation at the beach

Another month passes, another opportunity for a vacation at the beach, this time with less ambition, and less rain! Just a few days in the same hotel (Pride Inn Paradise) which has a small waterpark along with the two pools and beach, and a half-hearted kids club that is just a few hours a day (it might be better during High Season if there are more kids).

This time the only time we left the hotel was to get lunch once somewhere else (all the other meals were at the hotel) and when i went for a run at the Haller Park Forest Trails. A former quarry that was returned to nature several decades ago and is now a lush forest makes a great shady place for a run. They have some excellent children's (and with parcour, even adult's) playgrounds along with a few different marked routes from a few km up to 10km. Generally the routes are well marked though you need to keep your eyes out for the colored wooden arrows nailed to trees, as sometimes they are covered up. 

I highly recommend it as a place for running or even cycling. Not too many hills, not too many puddles/muddy patches (even when it has rained a lot), and almost no other people! It is entirely walled/fenced in, though there is a public footpath running through the middle allowing residents to cross through (and there seems to be the odd security guard at either entrances to that footpath or nearby it so it is quite safe). Nearby is an animal park/zoo though we didn't go there.

When it rained the kids were inside, occasionally watching a few minutes of youtube (if they also did some maths or reading first), sometimes playing monopoly and otherwise Hannah would knit (her new favourite pastime) and Leah would play with her toy horses (her favourite pastime for at least the last 4 years). When it was overcast or occasionally sunny we would all be in the pool, and at least no-one got sunburnt. Hannah really enjoys practising her underwater handstands, and occasionally racing me (she is really fast at breaststroke, easily beats me at backstroke and tends to be slower at front crawl - though unfortunately when she had a swimming competition two weeks ago the best she could do was around fifth). She was allowed some fantas or lemonades from the pool bar sometimes.

One of Leah's friends came over for half a day and they all played nicely in the pool and in the waterpark, whilst Andrea and I learned about the family's planned move to Uzbekistan. 

Apart from the short vacation, we had a delayed birthday meal at Inti, one of the most expensive restaurants in Nairobi that is Peruvian Japanese and at the top of a 35 storey building with wonderful views. It's not very kid friendly but the food is very good (though not sure it is worth the price). A lot of adults go there for the drinks as much as anything else.

We also saw the school play, Matilda (I think the kids have seen Matilda three times in the last year or so), performed by the 13-16 year olds with several of the actors and actresses really impressive. The school has a wonderful auditorium. There has been and continues to be lots of kids playdates, and there was a half-marathon on the new Nairobi Expressway which goes (mostly) above the city with nice views. And of course there was the end of the football season that was quite thrilling, not only for Tottenham getting into top 4, but also trying to watch 4 games at once to see the championship and relegation places decided. If every week was like that it really would be exciting!

When rain hits a vacation

Shortly after Easter there was another long vacation due to a former President's funeral, labor day and Eid, so we headed to the Coast. This was not the typical family holiday as it involved a fair amount of moving around, and was not the most successful vacation we have had, but maybe that is because we generally have been quite lucky in past vacations!

Andrea and the kid first had a wonderful 24 hours at the Serena Beach Resort near Mombasa which included lots of fun at the kids club, in the pool and a night at Fort Jesus for the Light Show. But then when they came to meet me in Diani they had a nightmare journey waiting for the ferry to cross over South from Mombasa island, with the total trip taking almost 4 hours instead of less than 2 hours. 

Eventually they reached me in time for dinner at Ali Barbour's Cave, a very picturesque restaurant in a cave (surprisingly) which is nice and romantic, though being by the Coast, has a lot of sea-food (not to Andrea's taste) and being fairly upmarket, had small portions at slightly inflated prices (again, not to Andrea's taste) and no kids menu of course. Anyway, the venue was nice, and it was a worthwhile experience on the whole.

That night was spent at Stilts, a backpacker place, where we had a cheap cottage, surrounded by forest and birds which doesn't help get a good night's sleep. It does not have a pool, but there is a very nice (and actually not too expensive) place across the road called Flamboyant that lets people come and use their nice pool and beach as long as you buy food or drink (this is quite a common arrangement along the Coast), which is what i had done whilst waiting for the girls, and what we did the next morning after breakfast.

We then wanted to visit a Boardwalk over the mangroves at Gazi further South, but as it was Sunday morning everyone was at Church, and when we finally found it, it had begun to rain, so we changed our minds and just went straight to our hotel for the next two nights, Shimoni Reef Lodge, which was booked because I thought it was the nicest place around in a village without many options (though it turns out there might have been nicer places, it was hard to tell if they were open or not).

After lunch, and playing some board games whilst it was raining, we went to the Shimoni Slave Caves, where Arab slave traders kept East African Slaves once they had been obtained inland, and until they were ready for onwards shipment. It was quite grim to think the poor slaves had to live in these caves with the bats with just drinking water and dates for weeks, but it is an interesting (if short) tour by a local. After that we rented a boat to go to Wasini Island which did have a boardwalk over the Mangroves that was open.

As we entered some other foreigners were leaving with plasters on their legs and warnings to be careful of the boards, as they had fallen through one that was rotten.... quite ominous, but anyway, we were careful, following the guide, and avoided some of the worse parts, and quite enjoyed it. The tide there is quite strong so the view of the mangroves was different by the time we left compared to when we started.

After a decent night's sleep the next day we got up early for a boat trip out to Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park the other side of Wasini Island. The marine park is a flat island that mostly disappears under the tide but during low tide is a beautiful beach, and at all times has amazing fish and coral all around it. The snorkeling was wonderful, and there was no real need to bother with scuba diving. It was hard to get Hannah away, she enjoyed it so much (and it was the first time she had spent a significant time snorkeling since she became such a strong swimmer).

The main point of the boat trip was to see the dolphins that are supposed to frequently pass by that area, but we didn't get any sight of any, so we are skeptical as to how often they do pass by. After a decent lunch on Wasini island we then got back to the mainland to relax at the pool and then ventured off down a track to try eating at a different place for dinner - Firefly eco retreat, which was quite dead and quite dark, but the small team there did their best to make something for us.

Early the next morning we were up to be driven into Shimba Hills, a couple of hours away. We failed to see more than 1 or 2 deer in a 2-hour safari drive through the park which was actually quite incredible. I can't imagine it is possible to see so little wildlife in a national park that is actually quite open. Anyway the day was rescued by the wonderful 45-minute hike down to a waterfall, half an hour playing at the waterfall and the 45-minute hike back up again. Even the kids made it and enjoyed it.

Next was lunch at our last hotel for the trip, the truly stunning Mandhari, near Kwale Town, and on the edge of a cliff overlooking Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary. Built a decade ago by some Europeans who were barely ever there, to really use it as a second home, they added a couple of additional rooms and began renting out along with the chef and manager. The property has spectacular views which you can enjoy in so many different ways, from the infinity pool to the bed on the edge of the cliff, to the bar and BBQ with bar stools literally on the edge of the cliff, to the dining table in the games room or even from a toilet built on the edge of the cliff with a door that opens up.

The three properties are also stunning in their design and views. We had the two bedroom place. The service and the food from the two staff was amazing and we had a wonderful 16 hours, including a few hours swimming in the pool when it was not raining (too much). The next morning we went down to the elephant sanctuary, drove a kilometer in, got stuck in the mud as it was raining and had been raining for hours, managed to reverse out the mud and carefully and desperately escaped from the park back onto the road for fear of missing the flight at lunchtime. All without seeing a single elephant during the short 20 minutes we ventured in and out of the park! Well we had seen some of the park's elephants from Mandhari looking down from the cliff if that counts!

Anyway, we did make it to the airport, after spending an hour in the lovely Kokkos where the kids and Andrea enjoyed playing various games with the massive World Map on the wall. Unfortunately Andrea and the girls' flight had issues and had to divert via Mombasa and wait there as Wilson airport in Nairobi was closed and their plane was borrowed for another flight. But eventually they got to Nairobi around the same time as me (despite me leaving 2 hours later on a different flight) and we managed to get home.

Quite a trip, of varied success, but it certainly could have been worse and did have some highlights, despite not seeing dolphins or elephants. One great hotel, some good snorkelling, some time by the pool, and some good family time are all positives!

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 :)

Life as normal in Spain and in the office

Back in Kenya life continues pretty much as normal, back in the office and back at school, wearing masks (though that might change soon) and enjoying the hot weather at weekends. 

We returned to the office initially in October (though then went back home again until February) and honestly it did feel strange after 18 months working from home. Funnily enough I had seen various government people more in person than my colleagues whilst going out to meet them. But it's nice to see people in person, and to be able to have an informal rapport during work by talking about non-work things which didn't happen much during phone or video calls. There's more spontaneity, more social discussions and communications is much better. There's also more chances to see colleagues in other departments around the building and it's nice to wonder around the office sometimes just talking to different people.

There are several events coming up before Easter that we are planning towards, and in February we did something for Safer Internet Day. The kids are in a routine and there is not much to report apart from the week in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress.

Back to normal after COVID-19, the number of attendees was lower than usual, so queues for passing security, for toilets, or for food were not as bad as previous years, but the numbers were still high enough to make the event successful (a lot was done online too – with some speakers speaking online and many events broadcast online). The exhibits seemed close to the numbers of previous years and 5G was plastered all over the place. Amongst the exhibits a lot of crowds enjoyed the robot bartender, despite it being very slow, the robot dogs, some VR/4D/Metaverse type theme park rides and the like.

I wasn't able to explore all the exhibits but was successful with work activities and managed to bump into or have a coffee or drink with some colleagues from around the World at various times. Colleagues who at the best of times I rarely saw face-to-face, and certainly recently have not seen much at all. In the venue everyone had to wear masks (and on transport), but that didn't stop Barcelona being as busy as ever with big crowds on the main streets, in bars and restaurants and in shops. As ever the touristy restaurants by the marina always found one dish to overcharge customers on with a surprise in the bill. Amongst all the meetings, exhibitions and events, there was time for some runs along the marina and the beach (which really is delightful with playgrounds, showers and impeccable sand as far as can be seen) in the morning and regular use of the bikes on the street to zip around.

Back in Kenya, the main news is always about the elections coming up in August, as finally the various parties in Kenya come together to form coalitions and nominate their candidates, whilst various national government leaders have stepped down to run for elected office in their local areas. Kenyan media is obsessed with politics even years before an election and now with just a few months to go, they are really enjoying the regular rallies and coalition discussions. It is shaping up to be a fiercely contested two-way battle.

Getting COVID

Almost two years into COVID-19, we finally got it. It started with me, with both vaccinations but not yet a booster, and probably was picked up during the only time we went to a restaurant (and thus ate without masks on) though no-one else in the group picked it up then (the other adults had either all had COVID-19 or had had their booster). I only found out a few days after the meal when I went to get my test a day before my planned flight.

 

Not displaying any symptoms I even paid for a second one, which was also positive, and then the day after that I began to get a sore throat. It lasted a couple of days and was soothed with Strepsils, and then that was it (though the lateral flow tests were still positive until about a week after the initial test). It was not really possible to isolate from my family, so a couple of days later Hannah tested positive and the day after that Leah did too. Neither had any real symptoms although each was quite tired and sleepy for a day or so. Eventually, almost once I was negative, Andrea also tested positive. Unfortunately also only finding out when she went for her pre-flight test (and only getting a mild cough for a few hours a day or two later). She had had the booster when she was in Germany before the UK, so it must have helped, but eventually gave in after living with 3 positive people for a week!

 

My mum, who had had the virus a year earlier and one vaccination never got it from us again, probably showing the strength of natural immunity from prior infection vs vaccination (though the extra vaccination in affect was like a booster presumably).

 

So apart from messing up flights and travel plans until we were negative, and disrupting some activities whilst isolating, it was not a particular big deal, most likely because we were all vaccinated, relatively young, and because it was presumably the Omicron variant which is less severe than previous ones.

 

We have been fortunate though as I know many people who have been in hospital with COVID-19 and some people who have lost family members. Anyway, as things look now, it looks like everything will be back to normal soon with the virus being treated the same as a cold or flu without any specific measures (maybe the odd optional vaccine), needing to count cases (if they don't really lead to hospitalizations then case numbers are irrelevant) or anything else.

 

British Christmas

After a very long time I finally spent a Christmas in the UK. My usual visits to the UK have been in the Summer, or when we were living in China then over Chinese New Year in Jan/Feb. This time I landed on Christmas Day and saw the family once I got the airport test result back; and the next day Andrea and the girls came in from Germany and did the same. It was nice to have a fairly big family Christmas gathering with my sister and her kids as well.

 

Hannah in particular has really enjoyed playing with Jake who is two and a half and a real ball of energy. We took the kids ice skating for their first time which went quite well. Hannah has done more roller blading than Leah so was fairly good, whereas it took Leah a while but she made progress and really enjoyed it. It was at a winter wonderland at Brent Cross which had set-up all kinds of activities but was very quiet. They tried to go again another time but the warm weather (and probably low customers) meant many rinks that opened just for Christmas were closed.

 

We did a trip into London to go to the Museum of London since Leah had been studying the Great Fire of London at school and Hannah had been studying the Victorians. There was a small exhibit on the Great Fire, but not as much as Leah had hoped for. The museum is reasonably small by British standards but still quite well done, and nearby are various remnants of the London Wall. We mostly avoided the World War exhibits and an hour or hour and a half was fine for the age of the kids that we had. After lunch with a friend we then went to the Science Museum, which was crowded, and browsed the space section as well as some other interactive exhibits. To be honest the interactive exhibits are quite disappointing; either very childish or too much like computer games that can be done at home (maybe that is the problem now with COVID-19, that many museum activities have been moved online so there is less need to actually go there!)

 

We also went to Go Ape, though Hannah and Leah preferred to jump around on the Nets and play in the Treehouses with their little cousin rather than do anything too adventurous. The kids also went to see a few shows – Cinderella panto in a local theatre, Dick Whittington and his Cat panto in another local theatre, Matilda in the West End (Hannah has read the book at school), and Frozen in the West End too. I went to see Tottenham play and also see the Hamilton musical.

 

There was a short visit to the Ashridge Enchanted Forest which is a country house with a lot of fairy lights on the trees in the gardens. Having some mulled wine and food was nice, and the kids did get their steps in for the day, but I was slightly underwhelmed. Still generally it was an enjoyable evening.

 

There was quite a few trips to the local parks and to the local forest where the kids could feed the deer and walk with the dog without too much complaining. Bentley Priory is a very nice place with some wild parts, some great views out over London from the hill, some pretty parts with a lake and some local wildlife too. My mum usually goes there every day to walk the dog.

 

The trip became longer than expected since we all got COVID at one point or another and had to isolate and delay flights. But overall it was a good trip with quite a bit happening (when one or other of us was not isolating) and despite the generally miserable weather that was cold and wet (although the first week around Christmas was quite warm and dry). I had gone running quite a lot with my dad, and we all ate way too much, but we did spend a fair amount of time with our family (when not isolating, although most of the time we were isolating with our family since we had nowhere else to stay!)

 

The school in Kenya organised online learning for the kids who could not attend school, which seemed to be quite a few, who were either isolating in Kenya or stuck overseas during the first few weeks of term; and Hannah did really well getting up at 5am to join the online lessons, whilst Leah had less work to do and it could be done at any time during the day. It also meant I was up early an din sync with everyone else in Kenya. Anyway, we got into a routine for a week or two until eventually with all the COVID tests sorted we could return to a welcome warm Kenya.

 

Aberdares weekend

With excellent timing the national holiday that falls on the 12th of December fell on a Sunday this year so Monday the 13th was a public holiday, and we took a three-day trip to celebrate my birthday up to the Aberdares, a massive forest in the center of Kenya that is entirely fenced (400+km) and full of wildlife as well as many hills/mountains and the main waterfalls in the country.

We stayed at the Ark, a fairly unusual hotel that is inside the national park, designed to look somewhat like a ship, and the sister property of the Aberdare Country Club. We had lunch at the Country club and enjoyed the pool and horse riding in their small conservancy full of giraffe there before we went to the Ark, which doesn't have many facilities, so most people just stay for the night. The attraction there is the location next to a small pond that is salty so many animals come for the salt in the water, in the mud and in the rocks.

Each of the three floors of the hotel have either an outdoor or indoor balcony right next to the pond so you can be a few metres away from the animals whilst having tea and cake. There are almost always elephants there, as well as other wildlife, though we didn't see any rhinos or leopards unfortunately. It is quite surreal, and simllar to the Salt Lick Hotel in Voi where we went for Andrea's birthday.

After eating dinner, sleeping very well (with hot water bottles due to the relative cold at fairly high altitude), and eating breakfast, we went for a game drive to see more animals and to see the second highest waterfall in Kenya, driving higher and higher from forests to bamboo and then to moorland. On the way we passed Treetops hotel that is currently closed, but which in a previous incarnation was where Princess Elizabeth was staying when her father died and where she became Queen Elizabeth 2nd. The waterfall was nice, though it was quite a long drive to get up there and back.

After lunch at the Ark we went back to the Country club to enjoy the facilities there and have dinner, sleep, and then have breakfast before leaving to go back to Nairobi. Though we stopped off for another wonderful 3 hours of whitewater rafting in Sagana yet again which is always really good fun.

In other noble recent activities, back in October Leah had her birthday party at our house with one of these horizontal water slides that you run and jump onto and slide along, as well as some party games; the kids went trick-and-treating for Halloween in a shopping mall where each shop had sweets; I did the Nairobi half marathon up and down the Southern Bypass along the Nairobi National Park; we fostered 2 kittens and a puppy for 2 months; we went camping with the Travelling Telescope to look at stars at night and also went to their Planetarium in Nairobi another night. Highly recommended, especially the planetarium.

December in Nairobi

December in Nairobi is normally marked by the arrival of the hot dry season; thankfully it has rained instead, because the rains that were supposed to arrive in September of October arrived very late (and in some places, not at all), and so the "short rains" (compared to the "long rains" with the longer rainy season around April-June) have dragged on into December. When it rains in Nairobi it is not normally a major problem since most of the rain is overnight when it cools down, or early morning; though if there are heavy rains it can affect traffic and does start to open up potholes in roads. The ground dries up incredibly quickly, which is nice (for people like me, maybe not for farmers).

It seems now that the rains have begun to peter out, and once the public holiday in the middle of December has passed, Nairobi also begins to empty out as most people make their way back to their villages for the holiday season, or to the Coast where the tourism and transport industry must make a third of their revenues in just a few weeks with crazy prizes. Public schools only get 2 weeks off this year as the calendar is adjusting after COVID closed schools in 2020 so from today onwards Nairobi really will be a ghost town during the daytime, but somehow in the evening people reappear to keep bars busy!

Every year christmas becomes slightly more visible and commercial. Not that it is not important, which it definitely is, as the majority of the country are practicing christians, but more and more shopping malls get built and ply on the Christmas lights and Christmas music, and more and more Christmas markets appear at weekends for middle and upper classes. But it still quite tame compared to more developed countries. There aren't any public Christmas lights on streets, almost no homes have Christmas lights or decorations and Kenyans are not really into any particular Christmas food that I am aware of. There doesn't seem to be a tradition of Christmas cards.

The Christmas markets that often take place at Schools, Public places, Shopping Malls or Hotels are quite good fun, since it is normally warm so one can drink, eat and shop in shorts and t-shirt and enjoy a nice day out. Even in just 5 years here, the number of such markets has ballooned from just a few to dozens although many of the same vendors can be found. At one of the biggest ones I was amazed to see just how many local artisans are making clothes, bags and home items. There are some very high quality goods, many of which are exported with African colors and designs. I finally got some shoes which are really nice (Kitu Kali) and made in one of the slums but to a pretty high quality and very comfortable. They look smart enough for typical work meetings too.

In the past we would go to the German School Christmas Fair, but of course this year we were at the Braeburn Christmas Fair which has a dozen or so stands from eternal vendors and a dozen or so from kids who were selling these they had made (mostly baked goods) along with a band and Carol singers. Braeburn also had a pantomime which was really well done (mostly adults, but a few of the older kids).

Work is usually very busy from October to December trying to get everything done before the holidays and we have had a few big activities in the last few weeks, all of which went very well, and things will be slower next week. After that I should be going to the UK for a week (Andrea and the girls will meet me there from Germany where they went last week), though right now, what will be open, what will I do, and who will I be allowed to see?

Sailing

With a public holiday during the school half-term came a chance to go to the beach, for the first family beach holiday for two years, with previous attempts at Easter 2020 and Easter 2021 both being cancelled due to COVID-related domestic travel bans. Having been to Malindi, Diani and Mombasa, this trip we went to Kilifi, the least touristy of the remaining tourist places on the Coast (another, more touristy and more high-end one is Watamu which we visited during this trip).

Kilifi is a very local town with only 2 hotels of note alone with many smaller hostels, backpacker places and airbnbs. We stayed in one of the hotels which has a water sports club based on its beach so that we could be close to the sports club, would get some activities thrown in as part of the package, and to make life easy (we even went full-board). 

Over the 5 days, we got into a routine with runs in the morning, breakfast, swimming pool, lunch, water sports, dinner. The water sports included sailing small boats, windsurfing, catamaran, and scuba-diving (for Hannah only as Leah is not old enough) for the kids, with Andrea and I also doing some. The hotel also had some entertainment in the evenings and a Crazy Golf Course; Crazy Golf was even crazier when we did it as it since it had rained the previous day and some of the course was still under water or had obstacles that had fallen from the trees!

Windsurfing proved too hard for Leah, with the heavy sail, but Hannah managed well, and without too much wind it was not too difficult. Sailing was quite successful, and the kids enjoyed the catamarans' speed. Hannah is such a good swimmer, that she normally spends half her time under water anyway, so her first scuba-dive in the pool went very easily for her. Next time we'll see if she can try something in the sea or take a course if she is interested.

We drove an hour north up the coast twice to visit some friends who were staying in Watamu, which has a lot of high-end hotels, to spend time by the pool with them and also go snorkeling from a glass-bottom boat. There is not that colorful coral left (appararently after an el nino event sometime ago) but what is left still supports a decent amount of fish which is fantastic to swim amongst when the tide is low. The tide is very dramatic on this part of the coast with it changing a few metres in height each day, which translates to the sea going out tens or even hundreds of metres until there is a deeper drop. Dropping some bread into the ocean never fails to attract fish for those who are impatient!

During COVID-19 quite a few people worked from the coast, and that seems to have helped many of the tourism and hospitality places survive without as many short-term tourists. Kilifi has organised an annual New Year Party for a while and whilst we were there this year also organised another event though of a different nature - mainly yoga, mediation, talks and the likes. 

The final note on Kilifi? Well just like the rest of the Coast, they move at their own pace, which is slow. Even the motorbike taxis, the minibuses as well as the cars, service and everything goes slowly.

Meanwhile, during our vacation the President announced the end of the curfew after 18 months so bar's and restaurants are all open late again and Kenyans have eagerly gone out to enjoy themselves. Traffic is often high Friday and Saturday evenings (at least for the moment) and there is loud music from our nearest bar (smack in a residential area, but I don't think there are many rules around that) although usually only until about 11pm. So apart from the mask-wearing "requirement" that is not really followed any more, no other restrictions really remain for now, since the rates are so low.

Though only 5% of adults are double vaccinated, about 15% have had a first dose, and because these are mostly in the cities, in Nairobi it is over 30% of adults with a first dose. Combined with the high levels of immunity from infection over the last 18 months it looks like COVID is mostly a thing of the past here (and the weather is getting hotter anyway for the next 4 months, not that it was particularly cold).

Public Transport Buses

Alongside Kenya's first toll road that is being built on pillars on top of an existing road, Kenya is also building a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system which is a dedicated bus lane, normally on the inside of the roads and thus accessed through footbridges that drop down into the road. There will be one added to the existing road under the toll road and also several others added to the other highways in Nairobi that are either three lane or two lane.

I am not sure if it will make a big difference to traffic even if there are enough buses (to start with there will not be many) and if they are well used, since they will just replace the existing privately operated buses. However it should let those who use the BRT save time in traffic jams, and maybe encourage other drivers to switch to public transport, if it is efficient, clean and orderly, which is not the case with the current privately operated buses (those often colourfully painted, privately funded and operated minibuses, though with licenses to operate on certain routes).

I was also going to indicate that those private buses are unsafe, but the irony is that sitting in that bus is generally fairly safe, it is those sitting into the cars surrounding those buses that might not be safe due to the crazy driving of those buses. 

One of the reasons they are so dangerous is that they tend to act as if they can create a special bus lane whenever they want. Usually into the oncoming traffic lane, but sometimes on the inside lane, sometimes on the pavement (or half on the pavement), sometimes on the outside, sometimes in between lanes, and often at junctions where they go in a lane to turn left or right (that does not have a queue), but actually they go straight on cutting in. Such behavior is dangerous to other drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians and is called called overlapping. In other words it is a long-term overtake manouver where there is no gap in front to overtake into. 

The most dangerous aspect of it is when it is in a lane of oncoming traffic, which may initially be empty but then someone comes and the bus has to force its way back into its own lane, and the oncoming vehicle often has to brake dangerously whilst that happens. Ultimately though the bus has pushed in front of a few vehicles here or there to save it time, it of course has delayed those behind it (in private vehicles, so maybe the bus drivers feel they have a moral right to do that since they are ferrying more passengers and of lower class), but it normally messes up the traffic coming the other way especially badly which otherwise would not have any traffic.

Slowly the BRT is coming together, which is great, but I think all of us wish that of greater priority should be enforcing traffic laws against dangerous driving, in particular of the dangerous private buses (which are also immensely polluting belching out fumes because they are so old and do not invest in the bus itself). Still, it is nice to see the BRT stations slowly being built and it will be interesting to see how it works whenever it is launched! 

Germany and UK Summer holiday

In August I took a vacation in Europe, spending 10 days in Germany and then 5 days in the UK (having had to spend 10 days out of Kenya in order to avoid going into a quarantine hotel in the UK, as Kenya was on the UK Red List at that time, even though it was on something equivalent to the Green List in Germany!)

My dad came to Germany and we went camping to a wonderful place (Ortrand Lausitz) with a pool and slide (and no COVID restrictions meant it was a normal holiday). We rented bikes for a day and cycled all around a lake nearby (Senftenberger) with the kids doing well, especially Leah as I think it was about 15km or so. She even climbed a tower on one side of the lake to get a view, and that was over 20 flights of stairs. A very nice cycle path around the lake through countryside, and we also stopped by a beach on one end which had one of those inflatable adventure parks on the lake to entertain the kids.

We had a couple of days at home there with the usual walks with the dogs and eating with the family and then went away again for a couple of nights, this time to stay in a static caravan, where we rented pedalos on the lake and also managed to get the kids walking. We also went to Berlin for a day for a few museums. The spy museum was very interesting and quite kid friendly, though it was hard to drag them away from the game there where they had to get across a room full of lasers. The Science Museum was also fun, with plenty of planes, boats and things for kids to play with. Of course we barely scratched the surface of that one.

After taking various COVID tests we then flew to England for 5 days (with a very long queue at the airport immigration since kids cannot use the passport machines) to finally see the rest of my family who I'd not seen for 15 months, and the kids had not seen for over 18 months. We managed to spend a lot of time with my nephew who is now very talkative and active. The kids had lots of fun at a local children's farm in Langleybury, and my kids really enjoyed talking with their aunties and grandma, whilst walking to local playgrounds and picking blackberries.

A visit to Cassiobury Park's impressive playground and swimming area (that had a reservation system to manage numbers) included a small train ride, a short walk and an education experience learning about canals and locks thanks to a very friendly man who was punting his canal boat down the canal. Leah especially really liked helping him out.

Apart from baking cookies and playing a lot, we also took the kids tenpin bowling (it might have been their first time actually) and to see a Tottenham game in the stadium. Unfortunately it was an evening game so Leah started to get tired and complain of the loud noise, but hopefully they'll remember the experience. They certainly like to support Tottenham when they see games on TV anyway. The stadium is still impressive, and it was quite surreal to be in a place with 30,000 people, who didn't have to wear masks (in theory  everyone was supposed to be vaccinated to to have tested negative to get in but there weren't many checks).

The home-testing for COVID was only half successful as Leah and I were negative but Hannah's was inconclusive so we had to take another test (partly as part of the day 2 testing regime in the UK and partly to get back into Kenya again), which was a pain. That might not be necessary much more thankfully. We took the kids (now this phrase includes Jake, my nephew) to Gulliver's Land (my kids must have been at least two times before) which is a theme park mainly for under 10s. Unfortunately it was the last day of the summer holiday so there were long queues but it was manageable. 

On our final day in England we went to Regent's Park where there is an outdoor theatre that with kids shows in the mornings that was quite sweet (and also quite childish, though OK for Leah's age), and met Jon and his family in the playgrounds there. There was a slight panic going to the airport as there was a traffic jam (though fortunately it has dissipated by the time we reached it) and we missed one of the junctions on the motorway, but eventually all went well, and we got back into Germany (who were very thorough checking for test and vaccine records) to spend a night by the airport before flying back to Kenya the next day.

A wonderful time and hopefully it won't be such a long time until the next visits, nor so complicated, as by the time I write this Kenya has been taken off the red list in the UK so travel is easier. Wonderful to spend time with Jake especially at that age, and allow the three kids to play so nicely together. Next time there will be Zach to play with too, just born to my sister last week. At least my kids are now old enough to mostly feed and dress themselves, as well as read, cycle and everything, so it won't be too chaotic in future holidays!

Transport in Kenya

Let's start with driving. Kenya got it first highway about a decade ago, three lanes each way, and since then has embarked on a building spree. Dual carriageways now go most of the way around Nairobi in a ring-road and enable trucks to bypass the city center, and the main arteries into and out of Nairobi are being upgraded to dual carriageway, with bus stops built in (known as a "stage" here), proper pavements and even a segregated lane for bikes or motorbikes ("boda boda"). The main road through Nairobi coming from the Coast heading towards Uganda is having a toll road built above it which will be ready in 6 months or so. Other flyovers are also in the works, as is a segregated bus lane on the main highways with footbridges to reach them (known as a Bus Rapid Transit). 

Since the management of Nairobi changed a couple of years ago, pavements have been built all over the place, roads are being repaired quickly, and there are even some bike lanes in the city center. There is a plan to roll-out traffic lights more widely, but so far it is just a plan with only a handful done so far. There are cameras around the city but they are not monitoring speeds, just tracking vehicles for security and safety purposes, and they've cut down on vehicle thefts (and possible on regular crime, at least where there are cameras). Across the rest of the country thousands of kms of roads are now tarmac, and more dual carriageways are under construction. It really is incredible. There are a few gaps remaining in the road network, but work is already underway on those. Within a couple of years, there may still be some frustrations on some routes that are single carriageway only, but there won't be much to complain about.

The reason dual carriageways are so important are because of the very slow trucks that ply the main highways and the Matatus, privately owned buses ("Public Service Vehicles") which come in a few different varieties from the small minibuses that sit a dozen to the larger ones that are like Coaches. Not only do they consistently ignore basic traffic rules at junctions, or by not pulling over properly to pick up passengers, braking very late, but they also like to pretend a single carriageway is a dual carriageway to overtake stationery traffic, then have to push in when a vehicle tries to pass the other way. It is incredible dangerous especially on highways. The quality of the Matatus is very much lacking (though they are very colourfully painted, often have wi-fi and certainly play music to entertain/attract customers) with drivers and ticket inspectors incentivised to go as fast as possible to get as many trips done in a day and get as much money as possible, which they may or may not declare to the actual owners (although now with more mobile money payments going directly to the owners of the vehicles that issue is less important). The biggest bugbear that I have is that the majority of the vehicles belch out smoke for any pedestrian nearby.

Driving around cities is not normally too bad compared to other developing countries, or maybe I have just got used to it. On highways, it is tricker with frequent speed bumps everywhere (which are rarely painted white or have warnings) in order to reduce speeds when travelling around corners or through villages and towns. There is a variety of speedbumps used, some of which are pointless, some of which are dangerous and none of which are consistent. In theory there are streetlights for most of Nairobi, and some other towns, but they are not often turned on (sometimes to save money, sometimes because of electricity connection problems). On highways, there are no lights, and most drivers use full-beam all the time which is very hard to deal with, especially when there is overtaking involved, but even when there is not. On the other hand one often comes across vehicles with some lights that are not working. When travelling in the UK, it is not only nice to have white lines everywhere, street lights in most places, but also cats eyes to mark the edge of lanes. Sometime so simple but so useful that is a rare sight here.

There are some cars assembled in Kenya, but the vast majority are imported second-hand cars from Japan (where they also drive on the left), with fairly reasonable prices for the quality (usually excellent - Japanese msut be the most careful drivers in the world, who drive the least, and have the best roads). Of course the cars are driven here until they really can't be driven any more, but they don't generally seem to be in such bad condition as in many other developing countries (I think of Egypt for example....), maybe because the price to import second-hand is not too hight, or because Kenyans seem obsessed with getting their car washed frequently (and cheaply, at the "car washes" that are every few hundred metres in the cities - a car wash being a man with a bucket and sponge on the side of the road where there might be a river, or sometimes just a sewer as a source of water!) or maybe because there are also a lot of car mechanics which are fairly reasonable. In reality it might just be that traffic here, and drivers, are actually not that bad (though people may not admit it) compared to many other countries. Traffic is generally quite predictable on certain routes at certain times (and it will be better once the last few roads in Nairobi at least are finished, and even Mombasa roads are being improved, whilst other cities don't really have any traffic problems) and apart from the Matatus most drivers generally obey traffic rules.

Motorbikes are especially problematic for drivers. As much as they play a very important role in the economy and society both ferrying people and goods, they could be anywhere in the road at any time. There is a half-hearted attempt to encourage their drivers and passengers to wear reflective vests and helmets, but that has actually declined during COVID to reduce infections. A lot of accidents involve motorbikes, whilst they are often used for thefts too. None-the-less they are a life saver as a form of getting around for most people since the Matatus are not particularly cheap, and they can save a lot of time weaving amongst traffic. They are also now easy to call using apps in the major cities, as are taxis. I remember my earliest visits to Kenya when you had to find a taxi on the street, haggle for a while and pay a fortune. Thankfully those times are over, though once I actually flew somewhere and rented a car for a few days at a bargain price, before flying back again which also worked out well.

In the past traffic police would frequently stop vehicles looking for an excuse for a bribe, but it seems to have reduced in recent years. They do still cause problems for the Matatus stopping them all the time to check if they are overloaded or not (particularly during COVID-19 when they are only supposed to have half-capacity) or finding any other excuse to get a bribe. Not that it actually leads to better driving from the Matatus or anything....

I have commented before on the train, which we took at the end of March (the new train that is sort of high-speed), though there are also efforts underway to rehabilitate other train lines built by the British, which at least could transport cargo, such as oil. The quicker that can be done the better going by the most recent (of many) accidents this week when a tanker overturned. Horrifyingly the injuries and deaths came from the locals coming to syphon off oil from the tanker which then exploded surrounded by people.

Kenya has hundreds of airstrips (patches of grass) which anyone with a plane (or who wants to charter a plane) can use to travel around the country. A few airlines run planes on routes that have several stops on them and they just stop at the airstrip (or airfield) if there is a passenger that has booked to get on or off. It works quite well, and these small airplanes fly quite low providing incredible views. There are around a dozen actual airports (of which half may have buildings that looks vaguely like an airport, the others are more like bungalows with toilets). They serve a good purpose and flying is cheap, generally safe (at least compared to the danger of the roads!), and a good way to get around. Only a few of them handle international flights, with the rest being domestic.

What else is worth noting?

- certain junctions that always have beggers at, trying to get money whilst you are stopped

- the argument whether traffic police are better than the traffic lights or not (since where there are traffic lights they are often not used at rush hour with the police taking over)

- the fairly high cost of parking, though fairly good range of parking options, in the city center and in shopping malls (most restaurants have bigger car parks than restaurants)

- the lack of bikes almost anywhere, or any bike racks and bike lanes, making cycling a non-starter unfortunately

- the very low cost of third-party car insurance ($40 or so a year), and very high cost of comprehensive insurance (5% of a car's value)

- the low cost of drivers, which many people employ, if they can afford

- the huge number of yellow school buses, since a lot of people (at least in Nairobi) go to private schools (some low cost, some not so) and thus kids needs transport to get to their school

- the lack of footbridges or pedestrian crossings, but they are slowly coming

- the commuter train service that has been reinvigorated around Nairobi (again, using the tracks built by the British) that seems to be working and well-used, but will only be really useful once there are more trains, which is happening

- the fact that the majority of Kenyans cannot afford public transport and walk an hour or two to and from work (or wherever they go to look for work) which means there are always many people walking at rush hour especially on routes to/from the slums.

Domestic Tourism and Travelling

The two top reasons to come to Kenya are most certainly the wildlife and the beaches, but there are other things to see and do here. During some recent national holidays with long weekends we tried out something new in a place called Sagana, about an hour an a half North of Nairobi towards Mount Kenya. An otherwise fairly sleepy town that is well positioned on the northern trade routes and in a fertile area, one of Kenya's two main rivers passes through the town and has become the main location in the country for river-based sports.

The whitewater rafting is the main highlight of activities there with some of the drops a level 4 (with level 5 being professional) and provide a real rush. During a 3 hour trip, as well as the several large drops, there are also plenty of smaller rapids and some more leisurable cruising parts where you can even swim/float in the river alongside the raft. The instructors do an excellent job and it is a wonderful trip. There are also opportunities to jump into the river from bridges or the top of waterfalls, there are small whirlpools which you can slide into off of the rocks, small boats to paddle around in, zip lines and various other activities. All well organized by various tour companies operating alongside the river. They also offer camping and glamping, which our kids particularly like. Nearby there was even a hidden gem of a gorge that has developed as the floods have carved through the salt that forms the earth there (and from the locals who are digging out the salt to sell it as well).

There are a lot of great things around, so we need to make more of an effort to go explore at weekends. With international tourists still scarce and that unlikely to change for the next few months there is more attention on domestic tourism, even farms and garden centres in Nairobi who have organised tours for kids (and eater egg hunts or other activities).

We also paid a visit to a friend we made from an Airbnb stay 4 years ago, who built a farm on the northern slopes of Mount Kenya, and visited Lewa Conservancy. An incredible place that I blogged about separately (https://blog.huawei.com/2021/06/24/race-to-save-africas-natural-heritage/) which Huawei supports financially every year as part of our environmental initiatives, they took us on a game drive viewing rhinos, elephants and the like, showed us their amazing Control Centre where they monitor wildlife movements and respond to any issues, and also did a demonstration of the dog tracking unit. The kids enjoy viewing wildlife more and more, but still get bored after a couple of hours!

I also had a business trip to the coast. Kenyans love having meetings, seminars and conferences at the coast (and sometimes in Naivasha, by the lake too) especially government workers since they get generous travel benefits. Attending the conference, it was very easy to meet many government friends in the evenings, even if they were there for other reasons, as they had free time and were at hotels nearby. One of the popular restaurants was for grilled meet, which customers pick and then they cook for you. I am sure that before the COVID-19 curfew the buzzing atmosphere would get out of control later at night! 

The hotel I stayed at, Sarova White Sands) is one of the nicest there, with excellent service, great food and world-class facilities with several swimming pools, kids clubs, watersports etc. With July one of the coldest months of the year in high-altitude Nairobi, it was nice to get some warmer weather at the coast, run along the beach and enjoy some outdoor eating in the evenings which isn't possible in Nairobi.

Ngong Forest

After so many visits to Karura Forest, last year we looked for alternatives. Ngong Hills, with the wind turbines at the top has been one option. From start to finish, after the initial climb up there are still several more ups and downs before the final descent and it takes a few hours to finish. It is not that suitable for kids, but they are willing to do a couple of the ups and downs after a drive close to the top. The windmills seems to help motivate them, though the view at the top towards Nairobi on one side and the Great Rift Valley and its volcanoes on the other side is spectacular. It can get quite busy sometimes too.

A great option for kids is the Oloolua forest trail which is about 5km and has a few bridges over small rivers, some varied terrain and a waterfall. There is also a picnic site and a campsite. Hannah's class had a day trip at school there recently. It is close to the Giraffe Center in Karen, though there are not really any market paths, so you just follow a rough circle and kind of hope that eventually you come back. There is a cave that is a good 15m deep, and a couple of very rickety staircases at one point. 

Then there is the Ngong Forest, which has over time been sliced and diced by two roads (Southern Bypass and Ngong Road) so that now there are 4 sections on either side of the junction. What remains of the forest is quite large and has remained well protected with  mostly indigenous trees. Section 1 is the section that is most used by the public, but also the smallest, with a circular route taking about 4km. It is a fairly simple rectangle with a few smaller paths around, and an extraordinary pretty lake by the car park.

Section 4 is the biggest section which has running/walking (and theoretically cycling, but most of the paths would be treacherous and too difficult for bikes) trails marked out from 3.5km, 5km, 10km, 15km and 22km. The paths are very enjoyable... very narrrow, very winding, very hilly, and with a lot of roots sticking out. There are a couple of rivers to be crossed, a shooting range one can hear in the distance and some varied ecosystems, with some more grassy, another more marshy and the majority just forest. There is a nice playground that the kids enjoy. When running, it is harder than a regular run and takes up around 1/3rd more steps, which feels like more distance, and certainly adds a lot of time, from having to take so many small steps on the twisty paths, and to avoid tripping.

Ngong Forest plans to open up section 3 and add a cafe and restaurant amongst other things, once it has raised enough money to fence it, secure it and mark out the paths. It has taken the model of Karura Forest with a non-profit association managing it, though the land and staff are from Kenya Forest Service and Kenya Wildlife Service. They are great examples for balancing the environment with pleasure, whilst finding a viable commercial model. Karura Forest has been a resounding success, with hundreds of cars packing the car parks on many days. Ngong Road Forest still has a long way to go to attract the numbers that it needs to in order to get the revenue it needs to be sustainable and to invest in the other sections of the forest. But it seems to me that is on the right path.

Playing and learning

The kids started going back to school in early May and it has been very successful, without any COVID cases, with Hannah joining the swimming team and doing some intensive training twice a week, and with extracurricular activities too, particularly music (piano and recorder). They are very happy at school and the teachers are all fantatic. Leah is a bit slower to make friends, but she's still happy. She's actually ahead of the class in some areas after the 4 months of tutoring she had earlier, and she likes school.

For the first time since Shenzhen (when I would take Hannah on my bike to kindergarten and then cycle off to work), I am involved in the school run (previously Andrea would take the kids to German school, work from there and bring them back) doing the morning trip for Hannah, Leah and a neighbour whilst Andrea does the afternoon trip. Though it is not the most environmentally friendly reason it is much cheaper than the bus, much quicker, and also nice to spend time with the children in the car.

The children are very talkative in the car, and just like it was interesting to be so involved in knowing what the children were doing in class whilst they were learning online, hearing them talking in the car provides interesting perspectives on how they are growing up, what they are talking about with their friends, and so on. So the conversations are often about friends, YouTube celebrities, or just playful joking. Our kids seem to adopt strange Kenyan accents when talking to their friends, though they are able to drop it at home (if they want to, often they don't want to!).

In the evenings and at weekends the children continue to love playing, usually downstairs, but sometimes indoors, usually physical games with running around, hiding, bikes and other activities. Sometimes they do role plays, and they quite like pretending to be teachers and students and setting up a classroom and giving each other work to do, and helping each other out. They've done some more shows to whoever is willing to watch in the apartment (including selling tickets and putting up posters), like playing investigators or other games and generally enjoy exploring. Leah particularly still likes playing with her horses, unicorns or lego sets. There's been fashion shows and face painting and all sorts. It is wonderful to observe and sometimes fun to participate.

There are still the frequent issues with watching TV or playing computer games, which we try to limit, which is a shame since they play so nicely, and they even enjoy reading when they get around to it (which is not as common as it should be, though we are trying). Sometimes the friends can be a great influence encouraging reading or playing together, other times not so good - with the demand to play computer games against each other, or watching TV at their house a lot; let alone the influence of accents and need to keep on information regarding the latest YouTube celebrity.

I suppose this is what it is like now as kids start to grow up, experience peer pressure and parents start to lose some influence over their lives. Coping with that might be a blog for another day!

April

I lacked a better title for this blog, so went with the obvious! A month has passed that was marked by the long rains and the closure of schools and restaurants, as well as a virtual border around Greater Nairobi. 

This meant the girls started their new schools with online learning. Hannah was quite capable of doing everything independently, whilst Leah still needed the tutor to help due to her challenges focusing on studying (rather than playing, particularly with the temptations at home) and the need for more support in more basic subjects. However both have progressed well and the quality of the online learning has been fantastic with excellent attitudes and commitment from the teachers, very good material, some innovative thinking and prompt feedback on submitted work. The approach (just like a real classroom, sensibly) was mostly live explanations for a while, then individual work (not much group work unfortunately), whilst the teacher was available online for support at any time.

Both children have therefore started to learn French and Swahili, whilst also having various PE, PSHE or even swimming lessons (swimming is basically still PE) and Leah was the star of the week in her first week, though it hasn't really inspired her. Only one more week to go until the schools reopen and they can start to physically meet and make new friends. The routine of the last few weeks with Andrea going to a rented office to work and me and the tutor being at home all day will then change - and I'll be alone working during the daytime, probably more productively!

With restaurants closed, most entertainment places also closed, so we've just been walking, horse riding and cycling, and letting the kids play at the weekends. The Easter trip to the beach was postponed yet again, and we managed to find the odd food court that would sell take away food and let you eat it there, and the odd picnic bench in a park.

So now everything is back open again weekends can be more fun, and we can even plan more trips outside Nairobi. And there will be less cooking at home too!

A weekend with the elephants

March whizzed by in a routine. Weekdays Esther would come to tutor Leah whilst I would work at home (either the balcony or the bedroom) or occasionally go out for meetings, and frequently got for a walk to get a coffee; weekends we'd go to Karura for Leah and the neighbor's kids to cycle whilst I would job, and then other fun activities such as go karting or swimming or a fun fair.

Then Andrea and Hannah returned to Kenya from Germany in time for a 3-day weekend away. We took the train that was funded/built by China a few years ago (known as the SGR, or Standard Guage Railway) with everything very similar to Chinese trains and stations, from the security machines to chairs in the waiting rooms and the bridge over the platform. I'd booked economy class as that enables groups to be around a table facing each other, in theory. In practice we were unfortunately mixed up with other people, which when eating and drinking and taking masks down is good for neither them nor us. On the way back we took first class, which is more like an airplane, with more spacious seats, all facing the same way, and right next to the dining car. 

The train has had various forms of criticism over the years, mostly around the cost and design including issues around high land costs (possibly due to corruption), and the high cost overall for what has been delivered, which is a single line track (with passing places every 50km), with a top speed of around 100 km/h. It was decided to build a brand new track (rather than upgrading the old track the British built over 100 years prior, which had still been working until recently, though slowly and with frequent problems, and of which another stretch going to Western Kenya and Up to Central Kenya is being restored). The ticketing systems work well, the service was excellent from the fully Kenyan staff, and the train ran on time (there are only a couple of passenger trains a day).

Our ride was 4 hours, which is 2/3rds of the way going South-East from Nairobi towards the Coast, where we alighted at Voi, for a 45 minute road transfer to Salt Lick Lodge in the Taita Hills, close to the Tanzania border. There is a sister hotel called the Taita Hills Hotel which has the swimming pool and is where lunch is served, so we took lunch there and stayed by the pool for a few hours before taking a game drive in the late afternoon. We saw a few lions and most other game animals and the kids generally enjoyed it. Then we finished up at Salt Lick Lodge, a truly unique experience as the entire structure is built on stilts above a watering hole (that has two man-made boreholes providing it with water year-round). We were very lucky as we were coming at the end of the dry season and it had not rained for a while, so all the animals came there for water. As we drove up, we could see hundreds and hundreds of animals surrounding the lodge, even from a distance.

Once we arrived we were excited to walk to the balcony where you could almost touch the elephants drinking (there were at least 20, alongside the hundreds of buffalo, zebra, antelopes and other animals) and also go into a tunnel that went underground and came out in a small viewing building that was at ground level (mostly sunken underground actually) on the other side. Unfortunately we saw a zebra drown in the watering hole, as it had been injured by a lion previously and though it managed to get to the water, once in, it couldn't get up. Later that night rangers took the zebra away.

As it was Andrea's birthday we had a candlelit dinner outside overlooking the animals (there were a few floodlights on so we could see them) which was wonderful (especially the wine), and the Lodge provided a wonderful cake delivered with a whole team of singing staff that was quite memorable (they had also provided flowers too). It was a memorable evening, even if the night was quite restless as the elephants were quite noisy as they were wondering underneath our room and drinking. We could look out of our window and watch as different animals would turn up in a long line, drink then wonder off in another direction as other animals would come; though frequently there was various species mingling together, and throughout there were lots of birds and other smaller animals like Meerkats.

The next morning we took another game drive, this time seeing more lions closer-up as they roamed around but still didn't see any cheetahs or leopards unfortunately. Then it was back for breakfast, a few hours resting in the hotel and off to the Taita Hills for lunch and swimming. Later that afternoon we took a nature walk with some rangers down the hill past a few more elephants and to another lake that was more like a wetland or marsh. The rangers did a great job telling the kids about everything and looking at different footprints and poo!

After that we were taken for what is known as a "sundowner", which is usually having some drinks/snacks outdoors and watching the sun go down. Though at Salt Lick they took us on a long drive up a hill to an area with a fire and a few huts. Alongside the drinks and snacks there was around 15 locals doing a performance, just for us four, which was delightful, and we joined it with some dancing, and even some banging on the drums. It was wonderful experience and delightfully well done with incredible views (though not so much of the sunset that was mostly behind clouds, still it didn't rain whilst we were up there).

Whilst on the hill we could see heavy rain falling in other parts of the conservancy, and once we came down the hill we could see there was rain in various parts. It was almost surreal getting back to Salt Lick that night and not seeing a single animal at the watering hole, compared to the hundreds the night before. We had another wonderful dinner, slept better without the animals, had breakfast the next morning and then took the train back to Nairobi.

It was a fantastic few days and highly recommended. The service was excellent and the kids are already begging to go back, which is unusual as they have seen so many animals before in our other visits to national parks that normally it doesn't get them so excited.

Unfortunately, whilst we were away, due to the rising cases of COVID-19, including increase in hospital cases, the President announced that restaurants would go take-away only, most entertainment and tourism facilities would have to close, schools would close (it is Easter holidays anyway, but it looks like there will be online learning after the holidays for a few weeks for the private schools, whilst public schools have extra time off during exams, and then hopefully in May schools will re-open), and there would be a virtual boundary in the region around Nairobi to stop people coming in or out and thus spreading the latest South African variant that is causing havoc in Nairobi more widely.

By most country's standards, this third wave is not so serious, with deaths rising to a maximum of 20 a day, and numbers in hospital being a couple thousand, but that is still a cause for concern. So we hope that this wave will pass in a few weeks, as has been predicted (this South African variant is reinfecting people a second time, and since Schools went back in January the cases have spread quite rapidly). Meanwhile we can still play with the neighbors, go for walks and picnics in the forests, go to shops, and even play mini-golf, so it could be worse. 

Food in Kenya

2 years ago Andrea was making frequent trips overseas and left both the kids with me; I'd put them on the school bus early on, go for a run and then go to work. They'd come home on the bus and a local kindergarten teacher we had hired would pick them up and look after them until I got back from work. During these trips I'd be doing the cooking, though only 1 meal a day, and just for me and the kids, and just for a couple of weeks. We managed.

Last year I was cooking just for myself most of the time, which is really very simple since I am not picky, and I was happy to be repeating a handful of meals over and over again. For the last month, with Hannah and Andrea in Germany I have been cooking again, but this time for Leah and the teacher (lunch only for her). Thankfully the teacher is also not particularly picky, so we've managed. 

Hannah eats almost anything which is great, but Leah is the one who is picky nowadays, especially with vegetables. At any one time there tends to only be 1 or 2 vegetables she will eat, but she will eat them like crazy if you manage to find out the right one at the right time (and get her to try it, because then she realises she likes it; it is this switching that is the challenge)! Tomatoes and cucumber sometimes work, corn is pretty common, broccoli too. Butternut Squash soup is a good one (though certainly easier and quicker to buy than cook). She's always quite reliably good at eating meat (mostly chicken, but frequently beef too) and some fish (especially steamed, fillet). And in the last year or so she has certainly got more into chicken/fish nuggets/fingers.

Leah has always been obsessed with carbohydrates, so for a long time we have limited these. Rarely eating too much rice, noodles, pasta or sweet potatoes, for example. And very rarely Chips. This brings me onto Kenyan food, which, as with many diets around the world (Europeans tend to be big on potatoes; Asians big on noodles/rice) also are heavily carbohydrate-based (presumably it is common because it is cheap, filling and provides good energy for those working physically). 

Though in Kenya it is quite different forms of carbohydrates. For breakfast, a Mandazi is quite common, which is a form of fried bread (it looks like a samosa, but is hollow inside) - as are sausages and boiled eggs. During lunch and dinner Ugali is the most common, which looks sort of like rice tightly packed intogether or just a big ball of dough, simply made of flour and water. It is very useful for mopping up sauces and stews (using the hands) which the gives it flavor. Other popular carbohydrates are chapati (presumably a legacy of the Indian influence) which is similar to naan bread. There are also lots of root vegetables, such as taro, yams and cassava (especially for a snack alongside the typical Kenyan tea that is made of milk and sugar, not water). Corn (or maize) is common too.

When it comes to vegetables, there is quite a good variety locally available, often green in color including spinach (mchicha), Sukuma wiki which is similar to kale. There are also an interesting mix of beans available (maharagwe), and kachumbari which is tomato and onion salad. Kenyans are very much into their meat, with the famous phrase nyama choma meaning grilled meat covering all sorts, mostly beef, goat and chicken. Fantastically, the word in Swahili for chicken is kuku. Fish is also common, since there is a large coast and lake in Kenya, and can be cooked dry or wet, as with some other ways of eating meat (i.e. if not grilled) - with wet meaning in a stew with sauces.

There are of course plenty of regional specialties based on the climate and culture there. Most notably in Northern Kenya, which is quite arid, the predominance is of meat, such as goat; whilst along the Coast there is a heavy Arabic and Indian influence which means plenty of rice based dishes like pilau and more spices.

Kenyan food is alright. I wouldn't say it is spectacular, but it is certainly not awful. You of course get what you pay for, which poor quality and very tough meat something that annoys me and my teeth! There is not as much variety as Asian food in general, but of course, living in Nairobi, almost anything can be bought from anywhere in the world. Here foods from all over the world can be bought in restaurants or even in supermarkets, so there is no complaints. You can choose the cheap fast food restaurants (that often serve Kenyan food, not only American style) or higher quality restaurants. And of course, almost every restaurant delivers nowadays (especially since COVID-19, but even before then) and most of the middle class restaurants come with large car parks and playgrounds alongside lots of outdoor seating which is excellent!