A red rock in the sky startles me. It’s unblinking and huge compared to the rest of the constellations littered in the Milk Way. It’s Mars, the Red Planet at its brightest since 2003 and close to reaching directly opposite the sun in the Earth’s sky, giving us the closest view of Mars in 15 years.
It’s raining in Lamu Stone Town that has continuously been lived in for seven centuries and hence boasts of being the oldest urban town in East Africa. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, Lamu Stone Town is imbued with a richness of it past. Continue reading “On a Shopping Spree in Lamu”
Published 7 July 2018
Sun-burnished mangrove leaves float like skeins of gold thread on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. We’re sailing from Lamu Stone Town on Lamu Island to Manda Island that lies across the channel. Our boatman points to the village settled by the Luo from the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. The men quarry for coral on the island and chisel the hard rock into building blocks for construction. They are hardy men carrying up to five blocks on a shoulder to load the boats that carry them away. A statue of a quarry man with the bricks on his shoulder stands on the edge of the village that is called Jaluo after the people, so tells our Swahili boatman. Continue reading “A Trip to Takwa”
Published: Saturday Magazine Nation newspaper 7 July 2018
Sun-burnished mangrove leaves float like skeins of gold thread on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. We’re sailing from Lamu Stone Town on Lamu Island to Manda Island that lies across the channel. Our boatman points to the village settled by the Luo from the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. The men quarry for coral on the island and chisel the hard rock into building blocks for construction. They are hardy men carrying up to five blocks on a shoulder to load the boats that carry them away. A statue of a quarry man with the bricks on his shoulder stands on the edge of the village that is called Jaluo after the people, so tells our Swahili boatman. Continue reading “A Trip to Takwa”
Published: Saturday Nation newspaper magazine 28 June 2018
It was the coldest of days in Nairobi. A June Sunday with a sky pasted in white cloud dropping a fine drizzle on the earthlings. But being the third Sunday of the month it could not be wasted because that’s the day when we, the Nature Kenya members, set out to discover all the intrigues of nature in and around Nairobi. For me personally, it’s also a work-out in the wild, fresh air.
So in the drizzle we stood brainstorming where to go, donned in layers of sweaters and jackets.
Moonlion Safaris 