“Hazel do you want to come on a hike to Monkey Rock? It’s just a short stroll, maybe half an hour, and then we can have a picnic on the top.”
This was how it began…
It was lucky the weekend before we all cancelled due to lack
of sleep and too much alcohol consumption the night before.
The 11am pick up to start the hike turned into a 12.30pm
pick up, in true African style. There
were 7 of us in total. Soon it became
clear than in fact a half hour walk was going to be more like a 5 hour walk and
was actually the tallest mountain surrounding Kisumu that I see beautiful sun
rises from my bedroom window.
We arrived at a sugar plantation farm and it was decided
that we needed a guide.
So we set off in
midday sun thinking, “it’s not that far, it won’t be too hard a hike.” After the first half an hour walk through
high sugar cane fields, it was clear it was going to be a long walk. My poor friend Jay having only had 4 hours
sleep and a few drinks the night before was already looking like he had just
had a shower. “No you guys go ahead;
I’ll just wait for you here.” We did not
let this happen.
It was hot but the climb was good, not just a boring path to
follow but clambering over rocks and plenty of lush vegetation to push past,
not to mention the evil thorn bushes.
Even from near the bottom of the hill the views over the sugar
plantations and back towards Kisumu and Lake Victoria were impressive. It was one of those days where the haze never
lifted and gave the feeling of a serene aura.
As we walked into the first valley we started to see the
rural communities and the traditional housing.
Small groups of cattle were grazing and chickens running around followed
by their noisy chicks, which are the necessary for these small farming communities
to survive. The rocks covered in
colourful clothes and bedding, drying in the afternoon sun.
Our guide was quite an old man and I am unsure as to how
well he knew the way. As we carefully
crossed a field of corn it became clear he was in fact being directed by the
small children from the local communities.
Naturally these children began to follow us.
At the bottom of the Monkey Rock there was a cave, where it
was said cow sacrifice happened. However
we all discussed that it would be hard to get a cow inside in the first
place. African guides do like to make up
creative stories.
Finally after a 3 hour climb we had reached the top of
Monkey Rock. There was a local family
relaxing, enjoying the Sunday afternoon.
As usual we were a source of entertainment for them and they thought all
of us came from London, even though none of us did! We squeezed through the rock out onto a
ledge. The view was unbelievable, the
best from the hills around Kisumu I have seen yet. I had no idea just how flat the land was and
how much sugar cane was being farmed in the area surrounding Kisumu. The plantations seemed to go on forever.
The drop from the ledge was pretty big, so we laid down to
look over the edge. Luckily we did spot
one monkey, way way below. So the name of
the rock was not in vain.
The climb back down definitely made us realise how tired our
legs were. Naturally I was the one to
fall over and take a chunk out of the palm of my hand and replace it with the
cow dung I had landed on. There was a
small sense of urgency to get back to the car, as the sun was setting. On the equator the sun sets very fast, you
have about half an hour at most from light to dark. I did not want to be on that mountain in dark
and none of us had brought more clothes or more water. The colours on the mountain and the sugar
cane fields were brilliant for my photography as the sun went down. We all managed to arrive back to the car at
7pm just as the sun disappeared.
Half an hour hike was in fact 6 hours……
Advice for other hikers about Monkey Rock…
1.
Set of early, maybe 8am.
2.
Take at least 1.5L water per person.
3.
Wear long trousers to avoid thorns.
4.
Definitely get a guide.
5.
Most importantly take a camera for the
spectacular views.
