Author: Yellow Duckie
•23:52
Climbing Mt Kenya, the second highest peak in Africa, is never in my "TO-DO" list but that doesn't mean I should miss the opportunity the view of this majestic mountain. Hence the road trip around Mt Kenya..literally around it.

Bracing through the messy traffic in Thika, we finally left the city heading towards the town called Embu. There are couple of major towns around Mt Kenya which serves as the base for experienced hikers that have made the decision to conquer the mountain and Embu happened to be one of them. I must admit that there is nothing particularly interesting here.

Before arriving at Embu, we pass through the region known as the Mwea National reserve. This is where I would call it the rice bowl of kenya as most of the Pishori rice (Basmati like) sold in the supermarkets are produced here. I paid 150 Kenya shillings (KSH) for 1 kg and later found out that you could get rice from this region in Nakumatt (local supermarket) in Nairobi for only 133 KSH! But supposed, the money goes directly into their pocket...

From Embu we head towards Meru , Nanyuki and completing the circle near Nyeri before heading back to Nairobi. The journey was not too disappointing although there were not many scenic point as have expected. I enjoyed the road from Meru to Nanyuki. Thus far, I believe that part has got the best scenic point of the mountain besides the breathe taking view of the sunflower fields and the fresh green wheat fields. For self catering guests, there is a huge Nakumatt in Meru, where you can get decent lunch and stock up for your stay in the Meru National park or even your hike up to Mt Kenya.


At the equator

Miraa is famous in this region. It is a leafy twig which is actually a mild stimulant.It is chewed and said to give you flow ideas while you are at it. These mild stimulants' potency diminishes after 48 hours thus the Miraa drivers has got excellent skills in driving from the Meru region to Nairobi Wilson airport and have it transported to Mogadishu (where Miraa is widely used in Somalia) ASAP.

Fields of Sunflower

The "Microsoft" screensaver scenery...

The Peak of Mt Kenya

This road trip took almost 12 hours with minimal stopovers and extended stay to wait for the cloud to shift away from the peak of the mountain so that we can get a good shot of it.
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1 comments:

On February 24, 2010 at 12:33:00 PM GMT+3 , Anonymous said...

(Thanks for sharing) Originally I found your kenyan blog because I am interested in finding out the best way or website to post classifieds in Kenya - for expatriates or foreigners living in Kenya - hope you can give me some direction, thanks (atllady@rocketmail.com)