In this series, I like to post the things I have enjoyed the most this week. It could be an item, a song, a playlist, could be anything.  I try to publish one every Monday.

Lets start today by apologising. I have been a little lax with the posting the last month, but with good reason! I have been preparing to go to, and travelling to, KENYA! I went with a charity called Timu Rafiki as part of my Queen Scout Award for scouts. Kenya was an amazing place but also very humbling. I will go into a lot more detail in a post later this week that I am preparing but today is a Kenya special focused on all of my favourite things for the trip!

1. Giraffe Centre – Nairobi

The Giraffe Centre was the first thing we visited as soon as we arrived in Nairobi. It is a promotion of Wildlife in Kenya as well as an educational centre for school children. We got the full informational tour of the centre and were given food pellets to feel the giraffes with. It was amazing learning about all the different types of Giraffe.

 

2. Hells Gate National Park

Another thing I enjoyed was bike riding through Hells Gate National Park. It was such a peaceful place with wild animals such as Zebra, Hyenas, Warthog, Impalas and countless monkeys. We went for a 7.2km bike ride from Elsa gate to a gorge. Then we hiked/climbed down into the gorge for around 2km. We had lunch next to some chapatti-stealing monkeys, before cycling back to Elsa gate to get our bus. It was amazing. I really enjoyed this and in comparison to some of the trip, it was reasonably cheap!

3. Mount Kenya

The main aim of me going on this trip was to complete my Queen Scout Award. This involves an expedition in wild country. My group and I chose to attempt to climb Mount Kenya. We started off with 5 of us and 2 Kenyan scouts. We all got to Old Moses camp at 3300m above sea level but sadly 2 of our group had to drop out. We then made it to Shiptons camp at 4200m the next day. Unfortunately, one member didn’t joint us for the summit attempt but we reached 4500m! The views all along the way were amazing and it was definitely an experience I will never forget!

 

4. Camping in Siaya

Another highlight of this trip was running a scout camp in Siaya. Siaya is based in western Kenya and is very hot! Even in winter, which is when we went. The area is quite poor and there are many scouts there that have no scout uniform and little resources. We ran a variety bases over the 2 night camp including first aid, water filtration, tie-dye scarves, sewing skills, plastic mat weaving and woggle making. Along with a few campfires and songs.

 

5. Amani Orphanage

Final stop on the Kenya highlights is the Amani Orphanage in a small village near Siaya. We stopped in to drop off some donations of t-shirts, sticker books, Slinky’s and toys. We were also given the tour of the orphanage and some of the stories of the kids. It was so sad to hear how badly treated some of them were or how they were abandoned. A very humbling experience.

 

And that’s it for this week 🙂