Kenya

My tour to the coast was equally divided between work and pleassure.. had two days in a small beachhut at a totally lonely beach south of Mombassa and after that two days of visiting government officials with representatives from NEMA (miljødirektoratet). Billederne her er dog mest fra mine fridage ;-)

Early morning arriving to Mombassa by the nighttrain. Tre railroad is actually the main reason for Nairobi being where it is as it started out as a railroad depot when the brits where building the line that were to connect Lake Victoria to the coast. The Nighttrain starts out of Nairobi at 19.00 in the evening and is timed to arrive in Mombassa early in the morning, a really great way to travel! took the bus home, not as bad as one could expect, cheaper, but I will go for the train nxt time!

Kenyan taxmoney actually pays for this ferry and its sister ferry to work in pendulum between the main Mombassa island and its southern neighboring coast. fast, easy and reliable!

Words can hardly describe this little pach of paradise! we saw absolutely noone for two full days!

As descibed earlier I did a wonderfull hike up an old crater called Mt. Longenot. the hike took somthing like 6 hours all in all and here are some of the views!

This is actually a small vulcanic went on the side of the main crater, behind it is a small swamp and in the very background u can see Lake Naivasha

The fantastic view inside the main crater, the crater itself is perfectly circular, and the hike around it offers amazing views to all sides. It is possible but not advised to go into the crater, we saw one path going down, but was later told that it is a path made by a lokal cheeta and a lokal leopard who lives inside the crater but comes out to hunt on its outer sides at night. On the outer side buffalos roam freely and we were advised to be very carefull if we were to meet one. Luckily we saw only their remains..

At the peak! tired and quite proud :-D nxt to me is Bent also from Denmark.

(first attempt on foto blog! hope it looks goooood!)

Ok I think Ive found out hov to do the foto thing.. So heres what Ill do.. Ill post fotos of the past month (oh my time flies!) and comment on them, and from now on try to ad fotos to each blog comment..
Well since last time Ive been on safari in Sweetwaters and seen my first real wild animals! Ive hung out with Morani a tame rhino (see pics I hope) been on a night safari drive, wery nice!
I spend this monday, tuesday and wedensday visiting programs in the countryside with representatives from CDTF (comunity development trust fund) observing how YOUR tax money is being spend! And bekive me they do make a difference!
Well back to trying to show u pics..
OOh by the way Big congrats to My Bro Esben on his 24 birthday! And to Big bro Ulrik and his beautifull and now pregnant wife!
And a later congrats to Jane and Raz who are expecting twins!!
Take good care back there!!
Hugs Asger
(PS Im of to Masai Mara this weekend to hopefully catch the last of the wilderbeast migration!!)

Time flies...
Internet acces is still quite scetchy, the embassy has been without intranet and internet for some 5 days now, we are apparently waiting fot support from Cph. My personal workstation cant be set up untill we can connect to Cph. So Im still in limbo.
My emidiate superior is concentrating on her main field wich is agriculture and as the environmental programs mannager is not starting untill in 2 weeks I am mostlikely not going to be put to do anything serious untill then.. bummer...
I looked at cars this weekend, almost bought an old suzuki 4wd but my mechanic friend told me to back off and offered me an old landrover instead. 200.000 Ksh. = ca 18.000 Dkr. and he would be willing to buy it of me when I leave.. Have to talk to my netbank though..
Sunday was spend on Picnic with Maria and Mario + 20 of their friends and their kids, hicking in a cool and beutifull forest, stepping over elefant dung and looking for monkies in the trees, saw loads of beutifull birds, but no larger mammals, the walk ended by a beutifull little waterfall. Later we did a huge bbq, loads of Meat were consumed, after dinner I went on a small but nice bike ride in the forest. (pics will follow (i hope..))
gtg for now enjoy your Indian summer!!

I have finally managed to find my self a more permanent home!
From now on Ill reside on the abowe mentioned adress! I am to share a house with Claire and Matt a couple from England, Matt works for Save the children mainly with Somali refugees in the north of Kenya and Clarie works for some WWf like organisation (she is to spend the nxt 4 weeks counting animals in Masai Mara..)

The house (pics will follow I hope) is a lovely one storey bouilding set in a wonderfully old garden with all kinds of tropical plants. The actual household concist of Matt, Claire, Me being the Muzungus, Kipangi the Askari (guard) our house lady (whose name Ive forgot, 2 great dogs + some chicken. Kipangi is an elderly but watchfull fellow who stays on the premisses from 18.00 to 6.00 in the morning helping the dogs guard the premessis. Our houselady does all the cleaning, washing etc inside the house as well as managing our tiny kichengarden.
The area Loresho is reputed to be one of the safest in all of Nairobi, both muzungus and locals live here, but all the people are pretty well of.
Transport to and from the embassy might turn out to be a bit tricky, but just this very day Ive been looking at a car that I probably shouldnt but probably will buy..
(a suzuki LJ80 from 81..)

Well its weekend and i really havnt got any wild plans.. Ill probably have a sundowner later on, to morrow I might do some shopping to make my room a bit more "homey" and sunday the rich upperclass are hosting a carshow on the nairobi Racetrac..
Take care in DK!