After a sweaty Friday afternoon spent running around Kisumu buying car hub bearings, copper and other oddities for the access:energy workshop, I jumped on a bus bound for Busia, a town that sits on the Kenya-Uganda border. I met with Garret, an adventurous fellow that works for IPA. We stayed the night at the IPA house in Busia and arose early the following morning to head into Uganda. Garret rides a motorbike which I had a backie on until finding a matatu (known as a taxi in Uganda) to take me to Jinja. There, we met a few other folks from Kampala (a trainee doctor called Mara, and two researchers, Steve and Sid) and headed for a relaxing weekend away on a little island resort called the Hairy Lemon.

A short canoe ride guided us to the island and it took a game of frisbee golf with the owner of the Island and resort before I realised that it could be circumnavigated in just 5 minutes. It was a beautiful spot. We grabbed some beers and spent the afternoon wallowing about in the Nile and reading our books. This was the general theme for the weekend - a chance to unwind, rest, talk, laugh, and play games. It was clear the Hairy Lemon was designed for nothing other than this. My favourite part was the vollyball, which they had set up in the river.

So I’m feeling refreshed from a thoroughly enjoyable weekend in excellent company. I grabbed a lift to Nairobi with the others and I’m now sitting on the Kamba bus back to Kisumu. Unfortunately, it arrives at the less-refreshing time of 2am.

Hell’s Gate

Back from a long weekend adventure with Jon, Leigh and Trever to Lake Navasha / Hell’s Gate. On Saturday we woke at sunrise and cycled from Fisherman’s Camp where we stayed to the park, along rolling hills past huge intensive covered flower farms. It was roughly 12km to the park and we entered through Ol Karia gate where there is an expansive network of geothermal wells and pipework, supposedly providing 25% of Kenya’s power. Geysers are everywhere, sending rockets of steam into the sky. It was very dramatic on a misty, slightly chilly morning. You could see some of the local environmental impacts: smells of sulphur and reservoirs of blue-tinted water. 

As I was cycling along with Jon, a giraffe suddenly leaped out just in front of us. It ran in front of us for a while before crossing to the other side of the road to  It an incredible moment.

We eventually came to the Lower Gorge, hopped off our bikes and hired a guide who took us down into the beautiful gorge for two hours. This is the main attraction of the park and you walk between magnificent cliffs, scramble over rocks and feel the hot and cold water springs that seep through the rocks. Up in the cliffs are small caves where baboons sleep, but we didn’t see any this time. Our guide excitedly told us that this was the spot Tomb Raider II was filmed. We finished the hike with a short climb to an incredible view point where we could see the Central Tower rising out of the valley. 

As we cycled out of the park, we passed the usual collections of zebras, bucks and gazelles, and passed Fischer’s Tower, a 75ft rocky tower, another the high volcanic plug. For Maasai community, the tower is a Maasai girl which has be turned to stone after disobeying the family before her wedding. We were too tired and hungry to climb it, and we peddled on, leaving the park through Elsa Gate and cycling back to the camp. 

In the afternoon we headed to Crater Lake via a smaller nearby lake where there were thousands of flamingos. We had a pleasant walk through the park, getting a little lost before finding the lake. We saw many Colobus monkeys in the trees and various grazing animals. No Rhinos, however being on foot, it was probably for the best.

In the evening we made a camp fire and celebrated the remaining hours of Trever’s birthday. It had been a long day and we were all pretty tired.

Pictures coming in the next blog post.

An early morning boat ride on Lake Victoria. Lots of birds and many hippos basking in the water. A beautiful way to start the day.

Six Peaks

The idea started as a six peak challenge. Rather than the real six peaks of Great Britain (potentially fun, but strenuous and costly), we thought about six peaks of London: beautiful places with beautiful views of London. We visited a bunch, mapped them (see here), and ended up choosing three (rather than six, more through laziness than anything else).

The aim was an activity at each peak. Starting at Telegraph Hill Upper Park, where we ate lunch, played a bit of scrabble and had a good old traditional egg and spoon race. Then off to One Tree Hill, via Nunhead Cemetery, which is a vast and beautifully overgrown hidden treasure of London. Here, we were fortunate to get a spooky tour of the Crypt, from the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery. Next, was One Tree Hill where there are amazing trees and lots of edible fruits. After snacks and cider, we headed through Peckham Park and up to Franks Bar, which is on top of the Multiplex Car Park, where there was a surprise orchestra and incredible sunset over the London skyline! A perfect day.

Here’s the route and some photos:

Coming soon to London. The Six Peak Challenge. A tour of six beautiful peaks across London. 

This idea came from the lovely idea of doing the actual six peaks challenge. This involves climbing the summits of the highest peaks of the six regions of the British Isles. This sounded amazing, but involved lots of exercise and preparation. Maybe one day. But it got us thinking. There are so many spots in London where you can gaze across the city and think, wow! London is beautiful. 

And so the idea was born. The pictures above are from an investigative cycle trip with my friend Tom. 

A home-made and bound trojan giraffe that we gave to Peterborough town this Summer, with folks from the Borough Common, August 2010.