Kenya Day 45 - To Chogoria and beyond

It was perishing cold overnight, even with the fire - I was glad to get up and get moving again, even though it was only 05:00. Charles made breakfast while Elijah and I packed our gear, and we were fed and away by 06:30. It was very cold with frost on the grass. In Africa? Yes, it's certainly not hot everywhere here!

Moon over mountain

Sunrise on the peaks

Frosty grass

Not an easy road

 We followed the rough, muddy vehicle track for about 10km - it's barely fit for 4x4 and has massive craters full of mud. There were lots of animal tracks, including a group of elephants with a young one, which got us hurrying, as mother elephants can be dangerous.

Hyena tracks

Leopard tracks

Zebra tracks

Buffalo tracks

Jackson's Francolin

Bushbuck tracks

Elephant tracks

 We came across a man walking down the road carrying a briefcase and a large axe. It seemed a bit strange until he explained that he was taking the axe to be repaired...

Briefcase and axe?

Bracken

 Eventually we were picked up by a small green and white Suzuki 4x4 and treated to a white-knuckle ride down the rest of the steep, muddy trail, sliding sideways, careening through mud-holes and almost tipping over. As we neared Chogoria Town, the road was still steep but polished rather than muddy! We passed tea and coffee plantations and eventually reached the town centre, where we reorganised the kit and Elijah organised a matatu to take us to Embu. We got out at the Izaak Walton Hotel, and Elijah and Charles passed me on to Gilbert who is the organiser for Moving Mountains in Embu.

Tea pickers

The 4x4 in Chogoria

Some of the kids have left school; the Centre has helped some of them to set up a market stall, others run a car wash, and another group has a food stall. Moving Mountains provides the kit to start their enterprises, but as equipment, not cash.

The car wash team

After a shower and some lunch, Gilbert took me to visit the Rescue Centre. Each day they give a nutritious hot meal, consisting of maize, beans, onion and avocado, to about 50 youngsters from the town's slums. For many of these kids, this is their only meal, and some share even this with relatives at home.

The children have a daily football practice after school and their team, the Black Cats, are doing well in the national competitions.

I met the volunteers (British or UK based) who are helping Moving Mountains. They work in the primary school and the Rescue Centre and stay at Gilbert's house.

Still birding in Embu...

The Black Cats football team trophies and photos

 This is one of the best hotels in Kenya - the grounds are magnificent, my room is charming, the food is very good too and the service is excellent and friendly.

Izaak Walton Hotel garden

Gilbert took me back to the hotel to have dinner, which was a really good vegetable curry and rice, but took a while to appear, so instead of meeting up with Gilbert and Simon who had brought my big bag, I repacked ready for going home tomorrow. This is my last night in a mozzie net for a while, I guess...