Ngong Hills

Sunset over the Ngong Hills, Kenya

Erica in our tree house getaway

Yesterday afternoon, Erica and I headed for Karen, on the western side of Nairobi at the foot of the Ngong Hills. As our kids finish school this Friday, we took a night away to have some quiet time during our vacation. Friends from our church recommend Ngong House as the perfect getaway, and we were not disappointed! It was a "Swiss Family Robinson" experience as we stayed in the beautiful rustic tree house with thatched roof and stunning little details.

Enjoying the sunset from the tree house veranda

A long way down!

We are having a great rest together and appreciate

the chance to have a night away -- No matter how long

we live in Africa, there are some things that continually

give thanks for especially the wild spaces!

Erica and I also had a lot of fun playing with the

filters on our camera -- lov'n the vintage look!

Breakfast on the beautiful lawn of Ngong House

Skating with friends

Ice skating at the Solar Ice Rink

at the Panari Sky Hotel, Nairobi

Emma and Diana -- Cookie Elves!

After church today, we brought some friends with us for a picnic at the "Solar Ice Rink". Along with our sandwiches we enjoyed some super oatmeal cookies made by Emma and her friend Diana, who stayed up late together last night baking cookies.

Ava skating with the help of a penguin

Amanda and Emma

Our friend Amanda Lindhout also joined us for the picnic and skate. She is just back from a visit to Canada. Amanda and her organization, The Global Enrichment Foundation, is returning to Somalia this week for a second food convoy to the famine affected areas.

Tristan and Daddy on the ice

This was Aaron's first time back on skates after he cracked his ribs this past June. He was feeling very good, as he helped the kids around the rink.

Erica & Amanda

Michael Lower and Tristan

Diana Ojeda & Emma trying out their skates

Tristan, Ava and Michael on the ice

"Don't fall!"

Weekend Getaway!

Walking along the shores of the Indian Ocean

in front of the Bahari Beach Hotel, Mombasa

This past weekend, we enjoyed three nights away from Nairobi with our kids at the Bahari Beach Hotel, a small German resort on the coast of Kenya. With only a few weeks left in our kid's summer vacation, we were glad to get away and enjoy some fun in the sun.

Riding Tuk Tuks in Mombasa, Kenya

Along with riding Matatus, the local mini buses, we enjoy taking tuk tuks when getting around Mombasa. A tuk tuk is a little three-wheeled taxi motor bike. Given the way that people drive in Kenya, this style of public transport is a thrill!

Making castles in the sand at Nyali Beach, Mombasa

The high winds of this time of year can churn up the ocean, but our kids still had a great time digging in the sand and swimming in the hotel pool. It is wonderful to see how well Tristan, Emma and Ava look after each other. This was Ava's first time really swimming in the pool. She left her floaties behind and bravely swam with the big kids. We had lots of pool competitions and games, Emma still reigns as our family speed boat in the water!

Beach Babies!!!

North Coast (Kenya)

Enjoying some Fun in the Sun on March Break

This past week was our children's March break vacation from Rosslyn Academy. We enjoyed four days away at the Indian Ocean, just North of Mombassa town on Nyali Beach. The drive from Nairobi to the coast use to take as much as twelve hours with traffic jams and road construction, but (if you can get out of the city earlier enough) the trip can now be done in less than six hours.

Vervet Monkey

One of our favourite vacation spots in Kenya is the Bahari Beach Resort, a popular German vacation spot, built on a spectacular coral cliff side. The low slung Makuti roofed complex (banana/palm leaf coverings), form a relaxing atmosphere. We had a great few days swimming, building sandcastles, reading, chasing monkeys, and playing games.

Tristan burying Ava in the sand

Ava taking her turn at burying her big brother

Camels on the Beach

Unlike beaches in Atlantic Canada, one of the unique features of East African beaches are the camels. You can hire a camel for a short stroll or a day long beach safari. Our kids took a short walk about a km up the beach.

Tristan and Ava on a beach walk

Emma camel riding

Ava leading the way

One of countless fishing dhows

that are scattered along the coast

It was great getaway! This week our kids are back to school and we are back to work. Thank you so much for keeping our family in your prayers. We are hoping to have some new content edited and up on the Podbean and iTunes podcast list soon. We'll post a link on the blog once they are ready.

God bless!

The Five Kennys

Mt. Kenya Trek (Post Three)

Sunrise on Mt. Kenya

Below Lower Simba Tarn

Please forgive the jumbled order of our posts, we have lots of photos from the four days on Mount Kenya, and later today we'll be sharing even more pictures with our friends (So, who knows, there may be a fourth post yet to come?). We had an incredible trip and shared some great experiences with our friends. We leave tomorrow morning for the remainder of our March Break Vacation with our children on the coast -- we couldn't imagine a more dramatic change from our four days on the mountain.

Erica on the long trek back to Old Moses (Day Three)

Aaron on the day three descent from Shipton's Camp

Taking a breather in tussock grasses and heather of the moorland on day two. This photo was taken about a km past the Meteorological Station where the Sirimon Route forks left on the way to the Liki North hut and right, down into the MacKinder Valley, we took the later path (going an extra 4 hours beyond Liki Hut to Shipton's Camp). When we do this again, we would like to try tenting at Liki Hut to break the long slog to Shipton's and give ourselves more time to acclimatize to the elevation and enjoy the scenic views from the ridge.

Refilling our water bottles in the Ontulili Stream

(Surprisingly, the water purification tablets

we used didn't taste so bad!)

We enjoyed lots of breaks along the trail to rest and

let our bodies get use to the higher altitude.

Crossing the Liki North Stream

A bird taking a rest on a Lobelia

We were impressed by the variety of birds from cuckoo shrikes and incredible green Malachite Sunbirds, to Kenrick's Starlings with amber feathers under their wings and in the forrest a black bird with fire engine red under feathers, we are guessing it may be a type of Starling but we are not bird watchers ourselves. Just one of the many beauties of the mountain.

God is an amazing artist!

Atalie and Erica on the climb

As we ascended the terrain and vegetation

continued to change dramatically

Day one and two were wet, in truth, day one was a miserable climb to Old Moses as we trudged through torrential rains. We were all soaked and chilled when we arrived despite our rain gear and warm clothes. We are so glad that Tim Bannister recommended we pack a camp stove and cream soup for when we got off the trail. It was a life saver!

Mt. Kenya is a cold mountain with temperatures dropping to -10 Celsius at night. It was strange to walk on frozen ground, snow and ice in Africa. Although the higher elevations only support lichens, it was surprising to see the variety of plant life that stretched up the mountain including many flowers from the cream coloured Protea to the fiery red Gladiolus.

Mountain Cabbage

On the trail

Day two was a 12 km trek that climbed over 1000 meters up a steep shoulder and down into Mackinder's Valley and back up to base of the peaks. Along the way we saw many plump Rock Hyrax and Mountain Mice, as well as a small antelope (probably a klipspringer).

Mel, Melissa and Kerry stopping for a break

before our last push to Shipton's Camp

Approaching the peaks on the Sirimon Route

through Mackinders Valley

Looking up on the backside of Point Lenana (4895 meters)

(Yes that is snow on the equator!)

Finally arrived at Shipton's Camp at 4200 meters

Just below the Batian and Nelion peaks.

The camp is so close to two of Mt. Kenya's twelve

glaciers, that at times you can hear them cracking.

The lonely outhouse at Shipton's Camp

surrounded by giant groundsel Senecio plants

(fortunately there are more convenient facilities inside the hut)

Mt. Kenya Trek (Post Two)

Dawn on day four back at Old Moses Camp

View from our tent

Aaron packing up our tent on the last morning of our trek

These little birds were very interested in us and even dashed

into our tent a few times for a look around.

At the Old Moses Camp Hut

Victory breakfast -- sausages, omelettes, and banana fritters!

"The Girls" on our last day at Mt. Kenya National Park

Aaron with our guides Cyrus and John

from Twinnings Safari Company

Melissa Dunning, Erica, and Atalie Dougherty

Mel McKee and Kerry Jividen

On the way down...

Leaving Old Moses Camp at 3300 meters in elevation, we left of the moor lands, that had stretch up toward the mountain top, and descended back through the belt of bamboo thickets and down into the forest of Cedars and Podocarpus trees, a good 8 km hike back to our van at the park gate. This part of the hike is where hikers often see Elephant and Cape Buffalo, but we only encountered a few bush buck on our ascent. While it would have been amazing too meet an elephant on the trail, we were glad that we made it through without any trouble.

By the time we walked back to the main gate we were all ready for a quick lunch at Nanyuki, and getting home for a hot shower and our soft beds back in Nairobi. It was an incredible trip. we are so thankful to our guides and porters who made the trek so enjoyable.