Kenya

Naro Moru, Kenya


Since we arrived in Kenya we've been busy.  Thanks to Tom and Du for helping us plan a very worthwhile trip here.  The first week we were treking around Mt. Kenya and since then we've been volunteering at a small school in a village near Naro Moru called Jupiter Junior School, which has about 115 kids pre-K through 5th grade.  Below are some pics and stories from our time in Kenya... 
  

Thanks for sharing your home with us Du!  Your family was so great.  We will miss Lucy (and little Lucy).

Most of the time we've been here the view of Mt. Kenya has been blocked by clouds, but this picture gives a partial look at the big white ghost. 

Imagine our terror when this baboon came sprinting out of the forest toward us... we didn't know that he just wanted to grad a bag of spinach that someone had left unattended. 

We had amazing luck with the weather as the pics will show.  We heard of some hikers who were hiking through rain and snow the whole time. 

Day three huffing and puffing to our summit.  Mt. Kenya is a 17er (17,000ft +) but we hiked to the Pt Leanna summit that does not require technical climbing and gear, which is under 17k. 

 

Right before this photo some massive boulders came crashing down the mountain and missed us by about 150 feet.  We were shocked by the splash when the boulder hit the lake sending water 50' into the air.  Always wanted to see rock fall, but always assumed we'd be on top looking down. 

This vehicle is the definition of TOUGH.  This old Land Rover brought us off the mountain through the most ridiculous 4x4 road we've ever seen.  Just as we thought there's no way we could possibly traverse the muddy craters ahead the driver would spit in his hands for grip on the steering wheel, stick his head out the window to check which way the tires were pointed, downshift, and hit the gas.  It was INSANE.

Yep, it took a crew of six to get us up and down the mountain.  These guys are awesome.  Amazing hikers, extremely knowledgeable about the mountain, incredible cooks and very gracious to us the whole time.  Thanks for everything fellas. 

Thanks to PCEA for giving us each a tree to plant at their church!

Cass helping with "baby class."

Rob teaching algebra to 4th and 5th graders.

School is hard :)

The school has a fully functioning farm where it gets about 95% of its food for the students and staff.

Thanks to Taby and Geoff for inviting us to their church! 

Line up for lunch time!

Our new friends Taby and Geoff

Going home from school we always had company

bye baaaye Kenya

Last of Egypt

LUXOR, EGYPT


After a grueling bus ride from Dahab we made it to Luxor, which turned out to be one of our favorite places in Egypt.  We were lucky to find a really good taxi driver, Hassan, who ended up being our guide around the City for a couple days.  We also found a great value hostel where we met some other travelers.  Here are a few pics from the last portion of our stay in Egypt.

Luxor Temple at night, much cooler and less crowded than during the day

 Hassan showed us around the West Bank of the Nile and Banana Island.  We had tea with his family after a donkey ride around his village.

Later, when he was tired, the donkey rode on Rob's back.  

The west bank of Luxor is lush farming community unlike the dry scorched land around the rest of the city.   

Cass with new hat just in time for the Valley of the Kings where it was like 40 (Celsius).

From Luxor took a train back to Cairo and then a flight to Kenya... next post will be soon from Kenya.

Egypt (so far)

It has been great to stay in one country for an extended period.  We've been in Egypt for just under two weeks and will be here until Tuesday night (10/11) when we fly to Kenya.  The Egyptian people have been great and generally glad to see tourists in their country.  Tourism has dropped off sharply since the revolution and last quarter they had a huge drop off in European tourism.  The highlights of our stay so far are below...

Giza Pyramids were tremendously impressive.  These pyramids have been beat down by the weather for 4000 years and still look amazing.  Can't imagine what the original worked looked like with fresh alabaster, granite and  limestone.  Even more impressive is that the stone was imported from Aswan about 700 kilometers south along the Nile River. 

 

Our camel's name was Moses.  We felt bad for him walking us around but really enjoyed our first camel ride.  It was sad to see some really skinny horses outside of the pyramids and the constant touts selling tours, rides, souvenirs, etc really take away from the experience, but it was still totally worthwhile.

 





Date palms!  We're lucky to be here when dates are in season.  We got to pick some right off the tree... delicious.


Bahariya (western Sahara desert)

The black desert is a hot and brutal place.  After a hot six hour bus ride and two hour jeep ride into the desert we were kicking ourselves for going through this punishment to see the BLACK DESERT!  We didn't know at this point how great this excursion would turn out to be.

Moving out of the black desert we stopped at "crystal mountain."  You can't tell from this picture, but it's mostly made up of quarts.  Still kicking ourselves at this point though...



Continuing into the white desert as the sun starting to go down (and cool off) things are looking up. 



Mohammed was a fun guide.  Although his desert off-road driving was a little scary.



After a nice sunset overlooking the white desert we briefly stopped to think about what came first... the chicken or the egg.



After a great dinner fixed by Mohammed we enjoyed his sheesha pipe (apple flavored tobacco only). This was our camp for the night.  We were under the impression when we left that we'd be in tents, but at this point we were just happy not to be on the road and have a place to lay our sleeping bags.

  

The desert foxes come out after dark.



Sunrise at our white desert camp

 

Brief stop at a desert spring to cool off



We enjoyed seeing the local sights in Bawiti village on our second day in the desert.



Sunset at English Mountain where British troops were stationed during WWII

 
After the desert we made our way back to Cairo to visit the museum and plan our next move.



Crazy streets of Cairo



Egyptian museum

DEHAB, EGYPT

We got "stuck in Dehab" as the locals say for five days...

The beaches of Dahab were a really nice break from the city.

A hike up Mt. Sinai for sunrise where Moses is said to have received the ten comandments. The hike was full of a lot of people and camels but very beautiful under the stars, it started at 2am.



Enjoying the sunrise and partially falling asleep :)





St. Katherine's monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai is the oldest monastery in the world and we were only allowed in select tourist locations.



Believed to be a descendant of the "burning bush" where God spoke to... someone, sorry Carroll maybe you can help us out with this one.



The snorkeling in the Red Sea was like Finding Nemo.  We rented snokels and explored the underwater "canyon and blue hole."



We will miss Dehab, but are off to Luxor to see more of Egypt and the Nile River!