Kenya with Langley Park Girls - Final Post

Our project phase involved working alongside a UK charity called African Promise. The work was to build a new school block for the primary school in a village called Bungule in southern Kenya. It was very labour intensive and the girls (and me) worked hard moving bricks, sand and stones and breaking up stones to make gravel.

The community were very welcoming and we stayed in a lovely thatched cottage belonging to another charity, ABE. While there we also learned to make Chapati and Mandazi, a useful skill for all to take home!

We stayed in Bungule for six nights in a lovely cottage owned by another charity ABE. Abraham was our fantastic host and everyone was sad to leave, especially having to say goodbye to Boots the kitten! The villagers threw a celebration for us on the final day and performed traditional African song and dance and cooked us some local food. It was a fabulous send off and really appreciated by the group.









We are now at Tiwi beach, just south of Mombasa, where we will be until Sunday. Hmmmm.... rest and relaxation, my least favourity part of expedition. Yes it's nice to be by the sea. Yes it's nice not to have to get up early. Yes it's nice not to have to drive anywhere. However, when are things most likely to go wrong? Now. When do the group drop their guard? Now. When is it most boring? Now. When do I have the most to do? Now. Need I continue?

Anyway, moving on... On Sunday we are getting the overnight train to Nairobi. First Class! Really looking forward to this - it is meant to be Africa's great train journey. And with silver service!! And then maybe I can relax :)

As a footnote to this blog... Actually, the beach wasn't all that bad. And nothing did go wrong, apart from a room key that nearly went missing on the beach in the dark. The weather was great, most of the time, and the food was good. As was the beer :) The train, on the other hand, was a little less first class than I had hoped. Still, it was an experience and an enjoyable one on my part. The final dinner at the Thorn Tree restaurant in Nairobi was fantastic. The food was absolutely amazing - as it should have been at the price we paid! All in all, a fantastic expedition. Thank you girls.

Kenya with Langley Park Girls Part 2

Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged. It has certainly been a rollercoaster ride! I left you all in the town of Nukuru following our exciting game drive to see Rhino. From there, we did a trip to the Menengai Crater, a 90km square cauldron with black lava flow winding through like a massive tongue. The walk down into the crater was fun. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the ascent. I think I managed to break half the group! However, once at the top, after many tears and requests to be flown home, the group settled back to normality and some local jewellery was purchased. There’s nothing like a bit of retail therapy ;)

So, all preparations done, it off to face The Mountain. Mt. Kenya’s highest peak, Batian, stands at 5199m but can only be reached by technical climbers, as can it’s second highest peak, Nelion, at 5188m. Our goal was Point Lenana, the third highest peak, standing at 4985m.

The jaunt (ha ha ha) up to nearly 5000m (I’ll get there someday!) took us five days. First day we headed from the Naro Moru Gate at 2500m, to the Met Station at 3050m where we had an interesting encounter with some sleeping bag liner stealing cheeky monkeys. The next day was a long day, taking us all the way to Mackinder’s Camp at 4200m. We stayed here for a couple of nights, taking in an acclimatisation trek to Two Tarns on the 3rd day. We also met our summit leader, Al, at Mackinder’s.

Day 4 saw us attacking the scree slope for five hours, arriving at the Austrian Hut, 4790m, just after lunch. Everyone was tired and emotional, we had one suspected case of HACE (thankfully only suspected!) and it was bloody freezing!! The sunset was amazing – I think the girls were too busy playing cards to notice so I took some quiet time to watch it and take a couple of snaps.

Summit day we were up at 3.54am, having tea by 4.30am and away by 4.55am. Our path was illuminated by the moon and the stars (and our headtorches) and the peaks of Batian and Nelion looked majestic in the night sky. It was a steep climb up, once having to use the rope for assistance, but we arrived at the summit triumphant and in plenty of time to see the sun poke his head above the cloud inversion. What a spectacular 360 degree view. It actually brought a tear to my eye. There are times, usually when I’m dragging a group of petulant teenagers around Snowdonia in the pissing rain, that I question my career choice. Being there, however, at the top of the world, there was no doubt in my mind. I am a very lucky and privileged person and I love my job :)

Kenya with Langley Park Girls Part 1

So, with an overnight flight from Heathrow to Nairobi, and my inability to be able to sleep on planes, I was pretty tired when we rocked up in Kenya. And I don't think I was the only one! Still, I did finally manage to see Slumdog Millionaire - what an excellent film. We certainly hit the ground running, travelling directly to Lake Navaisha with a mega quick stop-off to change money and buy lunch on the way. Then it was tents up, cook dinner, fall asleep, get up and go walking up a mountain!! Not a bad way to start expedition...

Mount Longonot is a dormant volcano and stands 1,000m from the floor of the Rift Valley. We were a little late getting started (understandable on our first full day having had not much sleep) and therefore were walking in the heat of the day. It was a hot, dusty and steep ascent and we made it up to the crater in about 2 hours. It was a lunch rest there and then off around the 2km wide crater reaching the 2,776m summit about 2 hours later. The scenery was stunning and a great introduction to Kenya with zebra, buffalo and giraffe wandering wild. Unfortunately it was also quite a tough first day leaving everyone pretty exhausted.

Day 3 in country and we were off again, leaving at 7am for Hell's Gate National Park. Why it has such a severe name when it is one of the most beautiful places I have been I do not know! I met my first Rock Hyrax and he seemed very happy to pose for me. There was also a plethera of zebra, buffalo, baboons, warthogs, dik diks and gazelle. And on top of all that, we were able to trek through the magical lower gorge and experience boiling hot water seeping from rock.


Day 4 and we all had a well deserved lie-in. Well, 8am is a lie-in for me!! So after I sneaked off to the restaurant for a cooked breakfast (shhhh, don't tell the students) it was time to pack up, take a few shots of the lake, lie about in the sun for a while and then head to the restaurant for lunch. There's a restaurant?? :) After a delicious and highly filling buffet lunch (and yes, I did go back for seconds on dessert) we got into the minibuses and travelled the 1 1/2 hour journey to Nakuru, where I am now.

Today we went on a game drive in Nakuru National Park. Unfortunately, after only having had 3 hours sleep last night - the hotel bar was a little noisy until about 2.30am!!! - I was not in the best mood as we set off at 7am. Still, the sight of pink flamingos in their thousands over the lake soon changed that. No big cats for us today, but I saw my first white rhino which I am very pleased about, along with buffalo (there are a lot of them about!), zebra (and them!), impala, gazelle, waterbuck, giraffe, warthogs, baboons, vervet monkeys, hyena, hippo and dik dik. That's along with the flamingos, pelicans and storks and many other birds. It was quite a morning.


Now it's raining. Good time to be on the internet then ;) We're off to the Menengai Crater tomorrow which is supposed to be spectacular so no doubt I will be ranting about that soon enough. From there it is on to the big guns of Mount Kenya!!