The Globe and other parts of London...

We popped into the British Museum to visit the African section to find it closed to the public due to a 1 day strike by staff!  Muhoro, Rose and Donna checked out the Egyptian section instead.  Kevin decided to explore the Japanese part on the fifth floor to discover that was closed too!

We crossed the river, had lunch and then set off in search of the Globe.  Here we met Alex and then took our seats.  We were sitting under cover, and as it was very warm, was great to be in the shade.  The play, Midsummer Nights Dream was fantastic!  Well acted and extremely funny.

We wandered back to our train taking in a few more sights of London including the Golden Hind.  When we got home we found Julia and Chris cooking in the kitchen - brilliant! A few more folk turned up - Suzy, Terri, Tom, Jack and Ginette, future volunteers!

Jalia Fund Raiser

Off we went to The Albany pub in Great Portland Street for the Jalia quiz night.  Rose and Muhoro were of course guests of honour!  Well done to Kate and the team for raising over £800!  It was a great night.

Visiting the RDA Stables

We sun was attempting to come out so we popped up to the RDA Stables.  They felt at home amoungst the horses (though they are more used to cows!) and Muhoro would have been happy to help with the mucking out.

Karate Kamp and Hatfield House

We began the Kamp with Rose & Muhoro answering the children's questions on Kenya, points were given to teams with the best questions.  One child asked if naughty children were fed to the lions!  Thankfully no!

During the day Rose and Muhoro were taken to Hatfield House for a visit by my mother and sister, Ang.  They both enjoy history particulary Elizabethan and they both know an awful lot.

They came back to Kamp to judge the colouring competition (african masks) and to award the medals to the winning team.

Dinner was cooked by Leanne's own fair hand (which was lovely) while Rob showed them the chickens.

 

Tea at Luton Hoo

After a stroll around St Albans taking in the Abbey, clock tower and tea with my niece, Odette, we headed to Luton Hoo in the afternoon.  There we met my mother and sister Angie.

Rose wore her 'Sunday best' and was delighted with the venue.  She chose assam tea and tucked into the dainty sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and delightful cakes.  After endless cups of tea we strolled around the garden (the rain had stopped by then!) before leaving.

In the meantime Muhoro and kevin were driven by Julia to the John Bunyan in Wheathampstead, a local, rural pub to taste an ale or two!

Sunny Weekend

The sun shone on our weekend visit to Bournemouth!  Fish & chips, stroll along the pier, sandcastles, beach hut... ice cream.  Donna, Tim, Harrison & Evan welcomed us to their home town - Harrison thinks Rose is the Queen of Africa!

Kate, Carly & co took Rose & Muhoro to Corfe Castle for them to explore one of our many ruins and soak up the history.

On our way home we took in Salisbury Cathedral, Sarum and Stonehenge!

London

Back from 2 days in London.  A successful meeting with Walkabout Foundation - secured 300 wheelchairs for Muhoro's Disability project in Nanyuki.

Lunch at Covent Garden and then met up with Krista at AKA and together began to sightsee.  We included Buck House, Houses of Parliment & Big Ben.  Rose wasn't keen on getting on the wheel so we had a cup of tea at the upside down purple cow instead!  We pointed out many sights and ended up in the West End and enjoyed Jersey Boys.

Today was very wet so we toured Tower of London, lunch in Wagamamas and went to view famous paintings in the National Gallery - Rose is an art teacher by trade!  A quick trip to Harrods before going home.

Relaxing tomorrow...

Rose & Muhoro are trying to acclimatise to our weather! They are finding it very chilly.  I explained that we were are too!  Rose is also struggling with the daylight at 9 in the evening - it is always dark by 7 in Kenya all the year round. 
 
Sunday was a day to relax and taking afternoon tea with the family.

Monday was a visit to Ayletts Nursery shown around by Julia followed by a quick visit to Alley Cats Hair Salon.  Apollo offered to colour Rose's hair pink!

They visited Bernards Heath School and been entertained by children singing, shown around by two year 6 students and shown classroom activities.  They chatted to 300 children at Bernards Heath School about their school in Kenya.  Later they toured Aboyne Lodge School and watched the karate lessons.

Today they have been taken to Oxford - the house is very quite! 

Tomorrow London...

Fund Raiser

What an amazing night!  Rose cooked wonderful African food of vegetable rice, cabbage, bhajia & chapati.  Rose & Muhoro took the stage and told us all of the wonderful work they do back in Kenya.  The auction was a great success and raised plenty of money.  We had a great array of raffle prizes...

Rose & Muhoro were overwelmed by all the support from everyone who turned out and was very pleased with all the attention. Volunteers arrived to visit them from various parts of the country who had previously visted them in Kenya...

A hugh thankyou to the helpers - Julia, Gra, Geri, Angie, Carla, Tanya, Megan, Beth, Emily, Jolan, Alex, Harry, Abi, Sam, Adam, Jo's daughters and Kevin...

We rasied over £2,000 - THANK YOU to everyone!

Rose & Muhoro have arrived!  At first they felt the cold but aclimatised to it today.  They are currently both in the kitchen making chapati's for this evening.  Rose was up early chopping carrots and peppers.  She is wearing typical attire, a Leso and barefeet!  I fear the house may burn down - its getting very smoking wth Muhoro at the pan!

We will be attending Garden Fields School fete today and setting up a stall there.  Kevin will be rnning the karate demonstration.

This evening is the FUND-RAISER!  See you there!

Rose & Muhoro visit the UK

Rose & Muhoro are now boarding the plance in Nairobi.  They will be staying with us for 2 weeks and we have a very full itinery for them!  Firstly the fund raiser on saturday night - please come and meet them there.  Tickets available on the door at £5 each.  Entertainment, auction, raffle, food, drink....

Day 4 – 32km – That Mountain was ‘Summit’ else…

It was 2.30 am when I had to get up today and 0 degrees!  I slowly dragged myself out of my sleeping bag and slipped my boots on, considering the temperature I had decided to not get undressed before I went to sleep so I didn't have to much to do to get ready other than wash my face and teeth and down a cup of coffee.  At around 3am Nicholas and I left to climb to the summit of Mount Kenya.  As soon as I stepped outside I was astonished at how dark it was compared to England at night and the sky was unbelievably clear!  I felt like I could pluck the stars out of the sky as the seemed so bright and close.  My vision was extremely restricted during the initial stages of the day’s ascent, and all I could make out for the first hour was my guide’s feet with my head-torch. 

Now I don’t mean to boast (well I do actually) but I didn't feel any altitude sickness whatsoever and managed to rocket up the mountainside in 2 hours! It normally takes 3.5; according to Nicholas I was the fastest Englishman to climb it in his 12 years of being a guide! As we approached the top it was starting to get light so we sat and waited in -5 temperatures for the sunrise, I have to admit this was possibly the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed!  All around me was a carpet of clouds with small peaks poking through, as was the glorious sun as it rose.  

It was so cold and windy that my camera refused to turn on but luckily I managed to get this cheeky snap from my mobile phone. I considered this lucky as otherwise I would have had no proof I made it!

Once I saw the sunrise and took my picture I decided I wouldn't hang around as I was starting to lose the feeling in my feet, so Nicholas and I belted down the peak twice as fast as it took us to climb!  I suppose the thought of breakfast and a quick rest aided in our enthusiasm to descend.  Over our breakfast Nicholas told me that we were 2 ½ hours ahead of schedule so I suggested that rather than walking to our first camp ‘old moses’ and camping the night there, that we should just mission it all the way back to the start considering my time in Kenya was fairly limited and I didn't want to waste any unnecessary time.  He looked at me like I was crazy but in the end agreed that it was a fairly sensible idea so we packed our stuff up and made our way back, and after 22km we arrived at ‘camp old moses’ for lunch. 

Once my stomach was satisfied and I had comforted my overly sore feet we embarked on the final 10km to where we had began. This last section was possibly the most exciting of the whole trek as the wildlife seemed to be rife! At one point we were surrounded by literally 50 baboons acting like a bunch of drunken teenagers on there first holiday! Needless to say I was rather anxious but I was reassured that they were more scared of us than visa versa (Yeah right!!!).  I was also stopped in my path by some female bushbuck, these are basically African deer but with some interesting marks and stripes. A little further down our path and after 4 days of hard graft I had completed my challenge!  I was overjoyed and rather proud of myself and was very much looking forward to finally having a shower and a well-deserved Tusker! (A Kenyan beer).

JOB DONE!!!.

P.s.  Just for fun I decided to trek the whole day dressed as a monkey! Needless to say every guide and mountaineer I passed laughed at me. (And yes they are clouds casually blowing past).

Cake Sale

We set up a stall this morning selling cakes and also some of the African bits and pieces we have including jewelry, wooden animals, key rings, letters openers...  we made £145!

Thank you to Lily, Kirsten (mum), Millie, Ruth, Leanne for making such lovely cakes and also for manning the stall (also Ralph & Cameron).

Mount Kenya continued...

Day 3 – 7km – The Temple and Lake Michelson…

Today was another early start, getting up at 6am in order to leave by 7am. We had to leave this early in order to complete the day’s hike before the weather turned ugly, and being the same level as the clouds we were the first to know if the rain/hail fell!

So as I put my coat and boots on my guide gave me a pair of gloves and told me to wear my hat!  Being in Africa I was slightly puzzled but once we were outside and I saw that everything was covered in deep snow I understood. Our first task was to climb almost as high as the summit in order to veer off for out detour, but for someone like me at 7am and considering the weather I was less than enthusiastic! However Nicholas ensured me that this was the best thing to see in the vicinity of the mountain, and coming from someone who has climbed it for the past 12 years I felt inclined to believe him. So we started to climb and after about 1.5 hours we turned left and found somewhere to rest for a moment and Nicholas pointed out a cliff in the distance past miles of vast, white, rocky landscape. From where I was sat it looked cool so I couldn't wait to get nearer, so with my rucksack back on we honed in on this awesome piece of natural architecture.  It took another hour or so to reach the top of ‘the temple’ but I was enjoying the relatively flat and downhill landscape considering my AM climb.

The view from the top of ‘the temple’ was immense at every angle but especially when I looked over ‘Lake Michelson’, which led onto the ‘Gorges Valley’ – talk about postcard material!

Nicholas asked if I fancied climbing down the cliff to the lake, of course I wasn't going to say no but in the back of my mind I did wonder how we might get back up! Heading down to the lake was the most fun I’d had so far as the descent was a near vertical drop and the shortcuts Nicholas insisted on taking made me feel like Indiana Jones. After 30 minutes of clinging on for dear life we reached the lakeside…. WOW!! 

If you could set up camp anywhere in the world this would definitely have to be the location of choice. The water sparkled like diamonds reflecting off of the blistering African sun, and was surrounded by American canyon looking rocky peaks. The opposite side of the lake from where I was sitting looked like the gateway to heaven as it was past a golden lake to the valley that was covered with clouds for as far as the eye could see. On the rocks behind me about 50 meters up I spotted a large eagle which Nicholas told me was an ‘Argur Buzzard’. I must admit I did try and scare the bird in order to see it fly but my screeching had nowhere near the desired affect!

The day’s euphoria was short lived as I then realized we were about to embark on a 4km climb back to Camp Shipton and to make matters worse I was dying for the loo! 

The way back to camp seemed a completely different world as by now all the snow had melted and all the rocks and obstacles were now visible. The climb back wasn't all-bad as every time I turned around I was blessed with fantastic views and lizards were constantly shooting across my path which was pretty cool. After a couple more hours we reached the point where I first saw ‘the temple’ and I knew I only had to travel downhill from now on, which made my legs and my bottom very happy…

School Uniforms

Rose texted very early his morning! - "The uniforms have been delivered. Only a few girls' skirts need alteration then everyone will be shiny as new pins!  Wait for pics. It's raining so hard we have to transport all the kids after classes otherwise they'd be so late! My flu is gone! Give my love to all xxx"  So pleased Rose is feeling better and that the children now have new uniforms.

Sheep

Rose wrote today: "Today was my luckiest day. I received presents from your mum and one of the sheep has given birth!  Nicholas reckons by the end of the year they will have doubled.  I'll visit them and send photos.  Its still raining gumdrops!  Give everyone my undying love xxxx".

Just to let you know Nicholas is Rose's brother and looks after our sheep, which we while in Kenya.

Send A Child To School Scheme

Rose wrote this morning: "SOS !!! Hi everyone. I am appealing to all our friends and well-wishers to come to our rescue. I have no money for the children's food and transport to school. We may be forced to close school earlier than normal."

I have sent some money this morning from our fund-raising "pot".

Club Rafiki are launching a new project - 'Send a Child to School Scheme'.  We would like you to sponsor a child - this can be paid monthly, termly or even yearly.  Their school fees, transport and food would be covered from this amount.  

This is now quite urgent so if you would be interested please contact me: evecoles.kenya@gmail.com

Mount Kenya Blog

Harry Minter: Man vs. Mountain

Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (5,199 metres (17,057 ft)), Nelion (5,188 metres (17,021 ft)) and Point Lenana (4,985 metres (16,355 ft)).  Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around 150 kilometres north-northeast of the capital Nairobi.  Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.

Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African rift. Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the centre. There are currently 11 small glaciers. The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya.

There are several vegetation bands from the base to the summit. Different types of forest cover the lower slopes. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax. An area of 715 km² (276 sq mi) around the centre of the mountain was designated a National Park and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The park receives over 16,000 visitors per year.

Day One – 11 km – en route to ‘Old Camp Moses’

After ensuring that both my bag and belly were fully packed, I set off to Nanyuki Prep School to meet my guide to escort me up Mount Kenya. Nicholas arrived around 10 am in a taxi that was to take us on a 45 minute drive to the base of the mountain and the start of our ascent, and whilst the bags were being loaded into the car all the children from the school came to wave me off which was rather nice yet a tad embarrassing.

It was about 27km to the beginning at ‘Sirimon Gate’, so I used this time to get to know my guide and ask some of the many questions I had. Before I knew it we were entering the national park and entrance to the mountain, although I wasn’t sure we would even make it due to the fact our beaten up old saloon was being torn apart by large rocks and boulders on the worst road I have ever seen. I doubt the same car would be picking us up. Sirimon Gate stands at 2650m above sea level and is where I started my journey after showing my passport to the park ranger; we then set off on our 10km climb to ‘Old Camp Moses’.

This part of the walk was relatively easy and I was able to ask Nicholas about possibly every plant, animal and bird I saw. About 15 minutes in I stumbled across what I though was a bail of hay but turned out to be elephant dung! I quickly took a picture and moved on. 

My mind was constantly active today as a vast, dense forest full of activity constantly surrounded us. At one point I heard monkeys shrieking and was informed that they we Baboons fighting. 

After lunch we continued up the path towards our resting place for the night and it wasn't long before we were investigating elephant tracks and the trail of flattened trees and bushes from where the elephant had  muscled through.  Not long after we arrived at our destination, ‘Old Camp Moses’.

Day Two – 16km – en route to ‘Camp Shipton’

Today I had to wake up at around 6.30am, so I decided to get up and get some photos of the sunrise, as I was surrounded by views.  I then went to freshen up and stock up on energy for the day.  Breakfast consisted of Uji, followed by pancakes, sausages and eggs!! After whopping down this mammoth meal I got my things together and we set off at 7.30am.  The first task at this early hour was to climb a gradual slope to the Kenyan Weather Station which stood at 3550m above sea level, being as full as I was this wasn’t as easy at it sounds. Although once I reached the weather station and turned around it was already worth it as the view was spectacular and definitely something I’d consider getting out of bed for again.  We then started to descend towards a small stream (this is actually the river that flows past where I had been staying), and I thought YAY this is great! Until I reached the bottom and was informed that we would be climbing up the other side which was steeper and much higher than what I had just happily strolled down.  As I climbed up the other side I was startled by what seemed to be a glittery blanket, which appeared to cover the majority of the surrounding landscape.  Nicholas, my guide told me that millions of years ago Mount Kenya used to be a volcano that is now thankfully extinct and that these little stones, called Quartz were left embedded into the mountainside.  We carried on clambering up until we reached the top of this little valley and were greeted by another view! Except this one took the biscuit! The peak’s stood tall and proud to the left, Nanyuki and surrounding villages to the right and the unique ‘Mckinders vally’ in between.  We now had to follow the valley to the base of the peak’s and our next camp.  So we continued down towards the floor of the valley with the peak in constant view and after walking for about another hour or so we stopped for lunch. Whilst eating my instant noodles and baked beans the temperature suddenly dropped and I realized we were surrounded by clouds actually close enough that I touched them, Nicholas didn’t seem to be bothered but I was far to excited that I grew child-like and began running around in them with my arms gesticulated.  After lunch we continued along the river towards to mountain, which gave me more opportunities to take photos of the wildlife such as the Malachite Sunbird and the Rock Hyrax, which to me looked like giant Guinea Pigs.

Eventually I reached ‘Shiptons Cave’s’ which were fascinating to look at and marked the start of some real climbing. Reaching the ceiling of these caves was a huge leg burner as most the way up my calves and quads were actually on fire, but with the promise of our camp only 200m vertical I found the determination to keep going at a steady pace. Once at the top of the caves at approximately 4150m above sea level I was able to look back over the 6km valley we had just hiked along which was amazing and gave me a bigger boost to reach the summit. 

After taking pictures and resting my legs for a second we then set off to complete the days journey by climbing about another 50m to our camp. After a 7 hour, 16km trek we were greeted at our camp by a ridiculously heavy hailstorm!

New Uniforms

Rose's latest text - "We've just finished taking measurements.  So in two weeks, we'll be wearing shiny new uniforms! :) xx"  

School strike is over

Rose sent a text to say that Kenyan schools have re-opened after a three week strike.  So now all the children are back at school for the rest of term.  Great news!