Ngong Hills

I somehow forgot to do a blog post on a hike I did last month. The men from our church got together a while back to discuss kick-starting regular meetings. The group was pretty active when we arrived in Nairobi about two and a half years ago but it later faded to mostly nothing. We agreed that we would start by a regular monthly breakfast and then organize some sort of other ad hoc activities such as watching football (soccer obviously), hiking, paintball, etc. – stuff guys do.

In March we decided on doing a hike just on the outskirts of Nairobi. I had done it one other time, also with the men’s group, though this time I’d say only about a quarter of them were among those who participated last time.  

The hills are not really that far from where we live but with traffic and road construction, it always seems to be a bit more of a daunting drive than it should be. I suspect that once they get Ngong Road done it will be quicker and more tempting to visit more frequently.

For as much as people visit this place, it’s less than straight forward to locate. I’ve grown accustomed to pathetic signage, and Google can compensate for this, but even technology sort of messes with you in finding the shortest route. You get there eventually but I think it would be good just to put up a few signs.

The little kiosk where you pay your entry fee no longer accepts cash. This is something I mentioned in the Amboseli blog but they say it’s basically because either the people taking the money have a tendency to disappear with it or the place gets robbed. Such things have contributed to pushing Kenya, and similarly other parts of Africa, faster down the road of automation. Even though just a little over 1% of the continent’s transactions are online (making one think there is little automation going on), countries like Kenya have been one of the world’s leaders in paying with your phone.

About 22 people signed up for the hike and about that many showed up. The plan was to stay more or less together and we sort of did. It’s not a difficult hike but it can be a bit tough if you don’t have the habit participating in physical exercise. With a trek of five hills, out and back, we had a few that didn’t make it the full five.

This sort of activity is ideal for socializing. Over the course of the morning you end up mingling with just about everyone. The weather was perfect though there was more of a haze than I would have liked. You could just barely make out Nairobi in the distance, similar to when I did the hike a couple years ago.

When we finished, we piled in the vehicles and headed to the home of one of the guys from church – a really nice older home not far from the hills. It’s sort of old school Nairobi. Not sure how old the house is but I suspect it goes well back into colonial times. We proceeded to have a wonderful barbecue before heading our separate ways.

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of football team or some nuclear weapons – but at the very least you need a beer.” – Frank Zappa

Confined to my Work

As I’ve mentioned before, my time in Mogadishu tends to offer me the opportunity to catch up on work, write and sometimes even think. Whether it’s the travel between the two countries or evenings in the guesthouse (without the ability to leave, for security reasons), I normally return to Nairobi more caught up than when I left. It does take some discipline to avoid using that time for unproductive things. Having said that, unproductive activities are occasionally useful to clear my head and relieve some stress. 

I’m sitting here in the guesthouse alone sipping on a cup of tea. It’s quiet except for the occasional pop of gunfire (more on that later). It’s a rare occasion to be alone given that there is generally at least one other person, including my deputy director of operations who lives here much of the time. But he’s out of town and there are no other guests. By “guests” I generally mean people that are here providing some sort of technical support or our staff from other locations in Somalia. 

Being in the Mogadishu guesthouse is a bit like being under house arrest. You’re basically locked in and you don’t have the ability to leave the premises and walk around, even within the neighborhood. I was talking to one of my staff the other day who confess that even for him, as a Somali, he’s uncomfortable walking around, particularly in the evening. Female staff more often than not go from hijab (head covering) to full face coverage, not necessarily for religious reasons but because men are more likely to leave them alone. Pretty sad really. Anyway, I reside in the confines of our building, working until my eyes cross, sometimes reading, and eventually falling asleep.

I was prompted to write partially due to the fact that the evening has been rather eventful. It began late afternoon when I heard a crackling sound over near the wall-mounted air conditioner. A bit earlier I had thought that I smelled something burning. The sound stopped so I went back to work. Someone smarter than I would have likely walked over to take a closer look, or maybe shut off the breaker. But no, I continued working feverishly since I was in the middle of something that needed a degree of concentration. 

A few minutes later the crackle turned to popping and soon I could see sparks. This, of course, got me out of my chair. But by the time I approached the breaker, flames were shooting out. The cover for the wiring, about the size of a square dinner plate, was on fire and melting down the side of the wall. It was dangerously close to the curtains so I started by pulling them out of the way. I looked for something to put out the flames. It was slim pickings. Finally I saw a towel that was used as a liner for the utensil container. I pulled it out and beat the flames with it. At the expense of what had been a decent towel, the good news is that it was mission accomplished. The bad news of course was that there was that the electrical work was completely fried and, more pressingly, I now had no AC in the hottest time of the year in Mogadishu. 

Fortunately an early evening breeze had picked up so I opened a door to the balcony and a couple windows. I was a bit hot and sticky but within a few minutes I’d adjusted and went back to work thinking that the event was the extent of my drama for the night. 

However shortly before 8pm there was a loud explosion which shook the building. It was all the louder given that the door and windows were now open. The evening sounds of people chatting, goats walking by on the dirt streets, etc. all seemed to go silent. Within seconds gunfire erupted, starting intensely and then tapering off. Which brings me to where I am now. I can hear sirens, likely of ambulances heading in the direction of the blast. I’ve been monitoring Whatsapp, email and so forth to get information as to what is going on. Usually my security guy is the first message alerting me (and other staff in Mogadishu) what is going on. Sure enough it was an IED attack only a block away. No word yet on casualties but it appears to be an attack on a vehicle. This sort of thing is not always done by militants. It can be a targeted assassination attempt, often times as a result of personal or business dealings. It’s often how scores are settled. 

I’ve heard and felt a number of such incidents during my time here. In fact attacks in Mogadishu in general have been on the rise lately, particularly larger attacks by militants targeting hotels. It’s not clear where this is going. There seems to be a bit of a standoff with no end in sight. The country as a whole seems to be on the right track but they will need to get a handle on the insecurity in order for the real progress to be made. 

Hopefully that’s the extent of the drama for the day. As I said, I wouldn’t mind if things were a bit more boring.

Amboseli

The weekend before last we were able to get away for a much anticipated safari. The girls were on vacation and I more than qualified for a comp day given the number of Sundays I’ve worked recently (Sunday is the beginning of the work week in Somalia).

Amboseli from the sky

We honed in on Amboseli National Park. It’s been on our list and people we know speak very fondly of the place. It’s only a 3-4 hour drive from Nairobi but we opted to fly. We wanted to maximize the time there and we only had 3 days. Also, driving in Kenya isn’t always pleasant and the return can undermine all the restfulness of the weekend. It’s not that I was excited to go catch a flight. I’ve taken eight international flights since the Christmas holidays (yes, they were all to Somalia but it’s still a lot of travel).

We were initially planning on leaving on the Thursday evening. However the flight changed on us and we had to wait until Friday morning. In the end it worked out okay (and cheaper) given that we were still able to get two game drives in on Friday, two on Saturday and a relaxing morning on Sunday before returning to Nairobi in the afternoon. The 38-minute flight is far more exciting for the kids than a 4-hour drive.

Day 1

The early start wasn’t pleasant for the girls but once we were going they were fine. Typically the national parks (and often UN and others) are served by Cessna 208 Caravan planes. They’re sort of the workhorse of Sub-Saharan Africa. They’re reliable and they can land on shorter airstrips. I’m guessing they’re cheaper to operate since they normally have less than ten passengers. Our flight had another couple and a baby so we were seven plus the two pilots.

On arrival you normally see a few safari vehicles lined up, either bringing people or picking up people, or both. Since you land on the inside of the park, the park entrance fees are paid right at the little airstrip. This place, and many of the parks around Kenya, no longer take cash. I’m told it changed due to the vulnerability of these places to robbery/theft. And it’s more efficient. But one needs to know this in advance to make sure they are prepared to pay by credit card or m-Pesa (electronic money transfer). One problem is that the credit card machine relies on a cell signal, which is quite weak there. It took the guy quite a while to get it to work, walking out of the little building with the machine held in the air like a torch waiting for the cellular transmission gods to respond to his appeal. After some time we started hearing the clicking of the machine telling us the payment was going through. Soon we were loaded up and headed on our way.

The place we were staying was only about 15 minutes away. It was surprisingly green thanks to a series of swamps that supply water even now in the late stages of the dry season. This obviously helps support a vibrant animal population.

Given that it sits on the border with Tanzania, the local population is primarily Maasai – including our guide, Isaac. We don’t see them as much in Nairobi as we did in Dar es Salaam. There they are viewed as particularly trustworthy and they tend to be hired as guards. All the better when they wear their traditional clothing – always a hit with the tourists.

Amboseli is the second most popular park in Kenya after the Maasai Mara, also on the border with Tanzania. Proximity to Nairobi helps but it’s also a stunning location. Situated at the base of Kilimanjaro, it’s easy to forget that Africa’s highest peak is a Tanzanian landmark rather than Kenyan (it makes Tanzanians angry to see their beloved mountain on Kenyan tourism posters). My brother, Priya, another friend and I climbed it back in 2006 and it was good to be back in her presence.

First things first. We checked in and proceeded to settle into our room. The view of Kili and the passing wild game was amazing. The room itself was quite nice too. No complaints.. After a coffee and a brief moment of down time, we were off to meet our guide and head out on a game drive.

Guides can have a big impact on how much you enjoy the experience. Not only are they knowledgeable about the creatures you’re seeing, they need good connections such that they alert each other to interesting sightings. And Isaac started off strong. Within 5-10 minutes we were in the presence of a lion and lioness – sort of like hitting it out of the park on your first at-bat. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t the last we’d see of them. Normally alpha male lions are stunning creatures but this guy had obviously seen better days. According to Isaac, he has been quite the stud for many years, and still holds his own, but his face looked almost frightening. I suppose someone will say that about me one day.

if that mouth could talk...

 The lioness on the other hand was beautiful. They’re such amazing animals.

We drove around the park enjoying the open-top safari vehicle, the cool-ish air and the scenery. The ground changed from swampy to very dry, the former with an abundance of bird life. Our attention often turned to Kilimanjaro. It’s hard not to. It’s the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 5,895 m (19,341 ft). We were told that it’s often obscured and that we should take advantage of the clear moments. In fact the mountain remained pretty clear most of the time that we were there. I suppose we were fortunate.

The girls were generally pretty enthusiastic about the game drives. Each time we do this they understand more and find it more fascinating. Certainly there are moments when they are a bit less into it so we made sure that we had some back-up activities. It’s exciting to see their enjoyment doing something that is so important to us. And they’re getting quite good at identifying and even discussing the animals they see.

After a couple hours we were back at the hotel. The weather by this time was quite warm, particularly in the sun, and, after a rather yummy buffet lunch, we made our way to the pool. I’m not used to swimming pools on safari. Most times it’s tented camps, basic meals and nothing fancy. This time was hotel room, elaborate buffet meals and a pool. No complaints.

The setting of the pool was rather stunning. The water was clean and the temperature was quite nice. We all decided that we could live there.

By 4pm we headed out on our second game drive. The pattern for most of the safaris seemed to be early morning and late afternoon outings to catch the animals at sunrise and just before sunset. The middle of the day was normally less interesting as a lot of the animals, particularly the cats, would be lounging in the shade rather than walking around and/or killing things.

The afternoon drive produced a nice little scene of a group of hyenas munching on a fairly recently killed hippo. Hyenas normally don’t do the killing themselves. So likely something else did deed and then they came and took it over. There’s a lot to eat on a hippo. We came back the next day and sure enough, they were still there gorging away. They apparently will keep eating until they vomit. And repeat until there’s nothing but bones. If it’s a smaller animal and they’re still hungry, their powerful jaws will allow them to eat the bones as well. They’re pretty gross.

before...

...and after

Then we saw a hippo chase. Apparently it was an alpha chasing down a challenger. Given that a fight of this nature often goes to the death, the unfortunate challenger was in high gear to get away. He eventually did. Quite amazing to see how fast they can move, particularly given that they don’t work out much.

surprisingly fast

By the time we were back the pool was closed so we had some tea and then headed to dinner. The hotel makes a big fire in the evening for the guests. We didn’t have the chance to enjoy it much since it was sort of dinner and then get the kids to bed. We were pretty exhausted so we hit the pillow soon afterwards.

Day 2

The next morning Isaac almost topped his previous effort of seeing a lion in 5-10 minutes. This time it was probably about 15 minutes. I don’t know if it’s always like this but it was impressive.

The rising sun was beautiful. Fantastic to see the first light hitting the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The low light of morning and evening is always beautiful and being in a place like this, all the more.

Later we saw that ugly lion from the day before, this time with the whole family. I think we counted nine in the pride altogether.

not exactly handsome but still seems to do well with the ladies

The day followed the pattern of the previous day except that our first outing started earlier and ended earlier. This gave us a chance to have a swim before lunch. In fact the extra time was quite relaxing. They key with kids is to limit the game drives to a couple hours and mix it up with other activities. Worked for me too.

lounging baboon

The afternoon game drive was low key with a bit fewer animals. Just nice driving around and taking it all in. As we were nearing the end, we saw a collection of safari vehicles. We would join them and see that they had gathered to watch a pride of lions off in the distance, the same pride from earlier in the day. Only this time, instead of two or three vehicles, the highest count I made was twenty-nine! I hadn’t seen anything like this since the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, and even then I don’t think it was this bad. Vehicles were blocking the road (as local Maasai residents wanted to pass, including a pick-up of school children and other vehicles of workers). To make matters worse, the lions were attempting to cross the road we were on. Vehicles were so packed that no one could move out of their way even if they had the courtesy to do so. Most of the pride were able to make it through the barrage but about three of the young ones seemed a bit too intimidated by the by the circus on the road, understandably so.

Eventually they did make it and we were able to dislodge our vehicle from the traffic jam and start heading back. Not a pleasant way to end day 2 but fortunately it only happened this one time. Mostly we were either alone or with one or two other vehicles.

the family waiting for the cubs

We were soon back at the hotel. We’d asked for an earlier dinner so we basically went straight to the restaurant. Then a nice hot shower and bed.

sunset on the drive back to the lodge

Day 3

The last morning we were not in a hurry since there was no game drive. We were able to sit and have some coffee watching the sun rise over Kili. SO nice. We had the entire morning to ourselves so we spent it eating, swimming and relaxing. We would leave for the airport after lunch.

watching the sunrise

sunrise

Interesting side note, the driver/guide that took us to the airstrip was rather famous. He was featured in full-page newspaper article that was posted near the entrance to the hotel. He’s half Maasai and half Indian (Sikh). That’s rare enough but he’s also noted for having summited Mt. Kilimanjaro something like 47 times! I think he’s retired from guiding people up Kili now but he still works in the park. Super interesting guy. Would have loved to hang out with him a bit more.

lolly while sleeping? poor parenting...

Alas, the fun was over. Soon we were flying back to Nairobi. The flight was so low that I was getting cell reception in the plane, exchanging Whatsapp messages with my supervisor. Sadly, the topic of conversation was the Ethiopian flight, also bound for Nairobi, which had gone down earlier in the morning and whether or not we had staff on the plane. Sobering end to a wonderful weekend.