Kenya
March 20th - April 21st, 2008
After Hong Kong, we headed back to Phuket for about 10 more days, after which we returned to the chill of Tuscany in early March. Time for a quick run around the garden for a bit of pruning and then off again, this time to Kenya to see Ben, Karina, Frank and Digby. We had been over the previous November for 2-3 weeks and were really keen to return. The trip was wonderful - a total of four weeks in all. After a couple of days at Nanyuki, we headed for the coast for a few days at Mtwapa where Karina's Dad Roger and wife Carol live in idyllic surroundings overlooking the Indian ocean. If you go to the link on the home page, you can see Roger's amazing sculptures. After the warmth of the coast, it was back to slightly cooler weather in Nanyuki where Ben and Karina live. In order not to be in their hair for too long, we rented a house a few hundred metres from theirs for a couple of weeks, a vast colonial style bungalow with a huge garden for Frank to charge around in.
The first leg of the trip to the coast - Nanyuki to Nairobi - was by helicopter and therefore considerably more exciting than running the gauntlet of the main road. The image we used on our Christmas card this year was the upper one on the right. It was taken about ten minutes out of Nanyuki. In the background are the start of the foothills of Mt Kenya on the left of the image. The mist rising from the trees of the plateau gives the whole scene an unworldly, mystical atmosphere.
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This image was taken a few minutes earlier just after we took off and shows the mountain with a fresh fall of snow above about 14,000 feet.
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And of course Frank was having fun advising Ben on how to fly the helicopter.
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On the way, we flew past the Aberdare Hills and took a detour up a river valley to the head where there were two waterfalls emerging from the rocks. We hovered in front of them witnessing views you can only get from a helicopter - magical.
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At Mtwapa, a few kilometres north of Mombasa, there is a colony of Silvery-cheeked hornbills that roost and play in the palm trees around Roger and Carol's house. Roger has made many sculptures of these noisy and rather weird birds. They obliged me by flying back and forth between palm trees as I aimed the camera at them in the early evening light.
Mtwapa and Mombasa were full of great photo opportunities, several of which have, or soon will be put in the Image Collection. Just a couple here of the dramatic storms that can form out in the Indian Ocean.
and of Frank and Digby learning to swim - Frank the Frank way and Digby the smiley way.
Back in Nanyuki in the garden of the house we rented, I was wandering in the undergrowth one day when I realised I was about to be attacked by a fearsome beast of gigantic proportions. Fortunately intrepid hunter Frank was on hand to rescue me, sorting the beast out with just one arrow.
We celebrated with a few wild rides on the swing.
One of the highlights of the trip was on the last day when we took a spin with Jamie Roberts in a Waco biplane. We cruised the local area taking in a couple of game parks getting a different perspective on the game.
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