My first kenyan hike: NDALAT HILLS

The other day, my quarantine expired. So, I decided to treat myself to my favorite thing ever: HIKING.

Through the magic power of social media, I found a Fantastic group of people who organises trips in the area. So, as a student writing their essay when back from Easter Holidays, I am here sharing with you my fantastic trip to Ndalat Hills!

But, because I know you are bored of reading all the things I am writing, this is a visual story-telling, with lots of pictures and very few captions! Hope you enjoy the beautiful Kenyan panorama.

We leave from Eldoret early in the morning, escaping the chaos of a town that is waking up and starting its business. The road taking us to the countryside is peaceful. Few vehicles, just lots of bikes, picky-picky (local motorbikes), and kids at the margin of the streets, framed into a background of red soil and green trees.

We leave the main road to enter the rural area where our hike is going to start, crossing some villages and farms. 

Parked the car, we are ready to start the hike. Some local people come to greet us. I think that they are particularly curious to see me, a "mzungu" coming to their villages. In fact, I am the only "white" of the group. Villagers start talking with me in Kalenjin, one of the main local dialect, so I need to interact by saying the few words that my hike companions are providing.

Everyone wants a picture, and people start posing in the most bizarre, unnatural ways. Kids either come to see me or run away, presumably scared by my paleness!

The hike develop quite steeply up to the first hill. Today is a "5 Hills challenge", so we are going up and down from 5 different hills.

The panorama at the top of each hill is extraordinary. You can see that we are in one of the most curious geological area of the country, and possible of Africa: the rift valley. Hills are popping up from the ground at sight. Down into the valley: villages, countrysides, and meticulously organised farms. Crops patterns design an incredible puzzle of colors and textures. You can distinguish the fluffy top of sugar cane, the dazzling green of maize, the fine-grained shape of coffee plants.

We meet lots of animals, and also some strange creatures...

In the way back, we pass by lots of households. I am stunned by their humble simplicity, by their tidyness and neatness. These people live so simply, basically just from the products of the earth and of the few animals they own. They live in mud or straw houses, with no facilities at all - not even electricity. Although, they are so proud of their space, which is an extraordinary example of the beauty of simplicity.

and because this is a deeply anthropological blog, these houses made me think about the fantastic book of Andrea Staid, Abitare illegal, which you should really read if you are interested in thinking a bit more about how people live and why in that ways.

People are preparing the land for new crops. The rainy season is coming and they are plowing the soil to refresh the ground and plant new vegs, This man made me laugh! "Please, take a pic while I am pretending to work!"

It was such a nice day (this is the end of every school essay ever!). But yeah, it was a really nice day, a breath of normality after soo long time locked up in the house! Fresh air, panorama! FREEDOM! And so much beauty!

Especially, I loved so much the fact that it was such an authentic, uncontaminated place. So pure and natural, and out of the mainstream tourists circuits!