Only in Kenya (Days 4 and 5)
On Sunday we drove around the Nyali area checking up on properties Hassan's father has bought, but not developed, and establishments run by his friends and business relations. Ostensibly the purpose of the trip was to visit the Slave Caves at Shimoni--caves that open into bay and were used by early Arab slave traders to hold slaves before their transport across the Indian Ocean. However, since the drive to Shimoni took about two hours and the caves themselves only took about 15 minutes to tour, I suspect that the Caves were chosen for their proximity to Nyali rather than vice versa. Hassan apologized for a day spent mostly driving, but I enjoyed peering out the van windows and learning to identify banana and papaya trees. We drove for a half hour or so down a bumpy dirt road to get to Shimoni at which point we were accosted by every young man in the area with offers to take us on tours in their little boats to see the dolphins or escort us personally to Wasini Island. The caves themselves were a bit eerie as places that mark the darker sides of human history often are.
Monday Hassan and I took off by ourselves for the morning and afternoon. We took an old beat up taxi with neither seatbelts or dashboard up to the Forest Trails Nature Walk. This park, along with Haller Park (which we visited later in the afternoon) are reclaimed quarry sites--as the Bamburi Cement company depletes the quarries it plants fast growing trees in order to re-establish a top soil and then introduces more longer term flora and animal life. Much of the reclamation is well-established now and walking through it feels like walking in the Pleistocene. I kept expecting dinosaurs. While no prehistoric lizards made an appearance, we did see several green vervets (I think...my monkey identification skills are not so good), a water snake, and and Eland. And lots of little poops made by an unidentified creature.
After our walk we crossed the street to have lunch at the Whitesands beach hotel and play on their beach. We swam in the beautiful ocean and rode a camel named Alex accross the sand. At the hotel we saw several of the same kind of monkey we saw at the park. I asked the hotel guard what kind of monkeys they were. He looked at me and explained very patiently, "There are not kinds of monkeys. There are monkeys and there are baboons. That is a monkey."
Then we headed over to Haller Park, the other side of the reclaimed quarry. Haller Park was made famous by the story of Owen, the orphaned baby hippopatamus who was rescued and brought to the park where he was promptly adopted by Mzee, a 130-year old tortoise. We saw the hippo and one of his new hippo buddies from accross the lake, and several giant tortoises, one of which was probably Mzee.
The Slave Caves
Windy Roads
The quarry in process of becoming a forest:
Monkey!
The forest:
an Eland:
Possibly Mzee:
Monday Hassan and I took off by ourselves for the morning and afternoon. We took an old beat up taxi with neither seatbelts or dashboard up to the Forest Trails Nature Walk. This park, along with Haller Park (which we visited later in the afternoon) are reclaimed quarry sites--as the Bamburi Cement company depletes the quarries it plants fast growing trees in order to re-establish a top soil and then introduces more longer term flora and animal life. Much of the reclamation is well-established now and walking through it feels like walking in the Pleistocene. I kept expecting dinosaurs. While no prehistoric lizards made an appearance, we did see several green vervets (I think...my monkey identification skills are not so good), a water snake, and and Eland. And lots of little poops made by an unidentified creature.
After our walk we crossed the street to have lunch at the Whitesands beach hotel and play on their beach. We swam in the beautiful ocean and rode a camel named Alex accross the sand. At the hotel we saw several of the same kind of monkey we saw at the park. I asked the hotel guard what kind of monkeys they were. He looked at me and explained very patiently, "There are not kinds of monkeys. There are monkeys and there are baboons. That is a monkey."
Then we headed over to Haller Park, the other side of the reclaimed quarry. Haller Park was made famous by the story of Owen, the orphaned baby hippopatamus who was rescued and brought to the park where he was promptly adopted by Mzee, a 130-year old tortoise. We saw the hippo and one of his new hippo buddies from accross the lake, and several giant tortoises, one of which was probably Mzee.
The Slave Caves
Windy Roads
The quarry in process of becoming a forest:
Monkey!
The forest:
an Eland:
Possibly Mzee: