Out of Africa - the Kenyan way of doing things

After a few days of acclimatising to life in Kenya I got to sort of liking (some of) it. Certainly the people are very friendly, always helpful. But the ways of getting things done (or not as the case may be) were alien to me. Here are some of my photos, and few stock photos at the end, to illustrate.

Typical Kenyan market - note no pavement!

Jon's car was and still is continually breaking down

A local repair shop

Heading into another repair shop in Kisumu

Plenty of effort, some good mechanics, all for a few $

To get to this workshop (hardly a shop - all the work was down outside) we travelled over unpaved roads and finally a steep and rutted track up to the work area itself. Soon after our successful arrival a matatu tried to drive in but the undercarriage kept grounding. I took a video but it is long and very repetitive and it was only after I grew tired of videoing that the driver finally made it. You'd think it would be worthwhile the car repair business doing something about their drive, but I guess they cannot afford it.

Meanwhile the women folk prepare food. 

These woman were preparing and cooking food for the army of car mechanics. Note there is not a single table, or sink, or anything we would call a cooking appliance. The women are therefore hunched over double doing their work, and various containers strewn around on the dirt. Women folk in Kenyan typically have the job of carrying water on their heads, maybe 20kg without hands! Where these particular women got their water from I know not but I didn't see any taps there.

The next two pictures are from the internet, but are typical of what I saw. The outhouse below is leaning over in an alarming fashion but is none the less doubtless still in use. Inside each cubicle will be a hole in the ground. There will be no lock or even catch on the door. The "hole" might be a couple of metres deep and, I suppose, when full they simply re-build the outhouse somewhere else. Meanwhile the sewage leaches out to who knows where?

An "outhouse" aka hole in the ground, most probably in use

Typical "shops" by the side of every road

When working those many years ago for the BBC there was one department of which it used to be said (half jokingly) that their motto was the following travesty "if a job's worth doing it's only just worth doing". It almost seems like that is the way with the building trade in Kenya, albeit in this case doubtless driven by poverty and lack of decent materials.

Church Mountain again

14.37 miles, 166m to 544m height

For whatever reason, but mainly because of the wonderful weather and because I could (although I am not so sure about the latter now I am aching afterwards), I started out on what must become the first climb of the year of Church Mountain. It is also a sort of precursor for Lobawn should I ever make it there and back in one piece.  See here for my first barefoot run across Church Mountain.

I discovered a new and improved descent route. It is new because I did not previously know of its existence even though doubtless it had existed, and improved because it is shorter and kinder to bare feet than the alternatives. Since few of my readers will find themselves at the top of Church Mountain wanting a better way of getting down, I present instead a description of how to ascend using this improved method.

Coming from Blessington along the N81 towards Baltinglass, take the first left after the Hollywood crossroads. Refer to my last image below which is an aerial view of this area. After a mile or so this road bears left and then, after the next bear right, enters Hollywood Glen. Immediately on your left is the entrance to a forestry track with the usual one-bar gate. It is possible for a couple of cars to park here without obstructing the gate. Walk up the track a little over 100m to the point where the main track does a hairpin bend to the right, and a lesser track branches off to the left. Just to the right of that lesser track you will see a small stream - which stream is the path you must take. Follow this path for about 200m where it enters a wooded area. The path you want branches to the right (straight on is more open country with gorse bushes).

You now simply continue on this path (crossing another forestry track after a quarter mile or so), going steadily up hill all the while, until you get near to the top of the mountain where you will need to bear left to reach the summit.

Gorse along Goat Man's lane

As with all my blog posts you can click on an image to view it in full resolution, and having done so (in Chrome at least) you can from there navigate through all the images in the post.

Possibly part of Noah's ark, along the way

At the gap, looking towards Donard

The ascent proper - I love this part of the route

Our lake framed - from near the top

From the triangulation pillar, snow on the slopes of Lugnaquilla

Our lake from the triangulation pillar

The church ruins and the way down

Me, on triangulation pillar

Part of the new and improved route down

Which weaves its way through this plantation

And meets another path

Before turning into a stream

Is it a path or is it a stream? Good thing I'm bare foot

Where the spring meets the forestry track

St Kevin's Way near Hollywood

Interesting sign along St Kevin's way!

Interesting because St Kevin's Way is a way-marked public foot-path, admittedly it goes across private land but the instruction "unauthorised entry is prohibited" is a bit rich.  Doubtless it is the usual Irish insurance deal - landowners scared stiff of being sued by stupid members of the public scraping their knee and demanding huge compensation, and the even more stupid members of the legal profession condoning such claims. Indeed, on my ascent I noticed a similar sign at a gate and various others declaring "Private Property: Keep Out" where last year there were none, other than polite requests to please shut the gate. I ignored such signs and prepared myself for confrontation, but all I met were a couple of fellow hikers (though shod) coming from the opposite direction.

Sheep near Hollywood

A big house near the end of my ordeal

Showing the lower reaches of the new improved route

First long run 2018

Ali is away in Kenya of all places, leading a seminar for teachers of all activities. Having no other call on my time I ran away (and back) yesterday and exercised my bike today.

Just over 13 miles

The route evolved as I went along and followed much that I have traversed in former years. The jiggle on the left, at Ballymore Eustace, is my checking up on the Old Woollen Mill the renovation of which is coming along although I do not what the objective is.

Shepherding somewhere near Broadleas

River Liffey crossing at Ballymore Eustace

The old woollen mill under renovation

The next off-road segment is on the way to Russborough where one climbs over a broken bit of wall. I feel sort of entitled to do this because Russborough is open to the public. And any way I like running across grassy meadows.

Russborough from behind

The final off road segment is my habitual use of the Blessington Greenway. One has to support any attempts to increase the number of public footpaths in Ireland, few as there are.

Misty trees along Blessington Greenway

The last 4 miles or so was hard work. The only way to survive it was to try not to think about one's legs, just keep going and going and going. Thinking about the goal - turning into our drive, undressing and a hot shower, a cup of tea - any detraction from the thud, thud of bare feet on tarmac.

Why do I do it? Really enjoyable runs are the long ones, but not without working up to them. Four or five miles (my default) just are not long enough to get past the initial hard work. And remember I had quite a few weeks "off" with the broken rib and then two weeks in Kenya.  So 13 miles is a precursor. I have a sort of goal of getting to Lobawn but it would be a long round trip.

And then today I didn't bother with tracking as the route was not in any way special. I cycled around the Lake Drive through Lacken to Manor Kilbride and then back home via Blessington. It was drizzling most of the time with very occasional sunny bits, and cold. But it was exercise, and one that I would prefer hands down to this activity called "working out" carried out in unnatural gyms.

Then fish and chips, home made, followed by choc brownie left over from last night, washed down with a can of cider.

I had this dream last night

So - I had this dream last night - actually it was part of a much larger episode which involved some intrigue the details of which have unfortunately escaped me even though when I awoke it all seemed so vivid. Such are dreams. The bit I do remember - we were driving, probably Ali and I, and shortly after entering what I knew would be a long and very dark tunnel climbing up inside a mountain, we saw light on the right and parked to investigate. It turned out to be a sort of natural viewing gallery part way up the mountain side which was almost vertical here. The ground dropped straight down below and to the left but to the right, curving away and on the same level, was what was probably a man-made canal running along a ledge. To the right of the viewing gallery there was a sort of natural cistern full to a good three feet of pure water which I figured somehow communicated with this canal. A family was approaching along the path to the left of the canal and thus between it and the sheer drop: I took a photograph zooming into them, and also some wide-angle of the general vista but realised that the camera could neither capture the beauty nor the wideness of the place. Sadly these photographs did not survive the dream. The family had a dog who was nosing about the undergrowth as dogs do, but it lost its footing and started sliding down towards the drop. It tried in vain to arrest its flight but then dropped over the edge, maybe 100m to the valley below. I say maybe because my eyes seemed to zoom in so that I saw the dog, seemingly dead, quite clearly. And then it tried to stand up but fell back, clearly badly injured. I wondered how the owner would descend to sort it out.

But the most stunning part of the dream was the incredible detail of the panorama. I found I was savouring every part as my eyes scanned the image. Just as you do in reality when suddenly faced with a stunning panorama, like when Kate and I reached that summit near Beckenried in Switzerland.

How do dreams do this? I have met with this sort of thing before. Whilst running this afternoon I paused to look up into the branches of a tree and thought again - such amazing detail. And yet of course the human eye only sees a relatively small solid-angle of clearness - everything outside this central vision is not well focused and therefore is not detailed. As the eye scans the image the brain does a good job in re-creating the detail or at least gives the impression of detail. Most of us would be unable to describe that detail either in words or drawing, because perhaps it exists only in our fancy.

And so perhaps I did not actually see, in my dream, the detail I thought I saw. Certainly all I can recall now is a valley of great proportions with hills or mountains rising in the distance, and of course the mountain side apparent on the right with its canal (where the canal went to in the mountain I cannot say, this detail was missing along with so many others). The vista was certainly in colour, bright colour, I can remember that much.