For the past year and a half, I have been enjoying a 10 Kilometers walk in Ngong Forest Sanctuary’s nature trail almost every weekend having quality time with the flora, fauna, streams and trees. That translates to almost 720Km covered so far; which is the distance by road from Mombasa via Nairobi to Kisumu City in Kisumu County.
The Sanctuary is under 24 hour guard by foresters and is open to the public from 6am. to 6pm. It is accessed from Ngong Road and is next to the War Memorial Cemetery and Ngong Racecourse.
Nairobi’s two forests
Ngong Forest (1,224 hectares) is the biggest followed by Karura (1,150 hectares) on the East of the city off Kiambu Road. They are all managed by Kenya Forest Services with the support of Friends of Ngong Forest and Friends of Karura Forest, respectively.
Every trip to Ngong Forest has been a new discovery amidst the myriad indigenous and exotic trees and serene environment only occasionally interrupted by light aircrafts and helicopters over flying; blaring music from Ngong Racecourse pubs, social events and entertainment venues; and some sounds of gunshots in a secluded area in the forest used for target practice.
Other noise pollution are from speeding motorcycles and motor cross vehicles in the neighbouring reserved area for that spot; and speeding motorist vehicles along the Southern bypass.
My maiden visit was in April, last year, at the height of Coronavirus pandemic, in the company of six friends; namely: Raul Gebre, Eric Mugendi, Alfred Otieno, Odhiambo Obiero and my nephew, Kevin Odhiambo Okello. We started off with a breakfast meeting at my residence at Jamhuri Estate, off Ngong Road, some 5 Km-drive to the park, before driving to the forest.
Our nature walk came in handy at the height of the outbreak of the pandemic which had caused panic, fear and frustrations following the stringent health and government restrictions imposed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Minister for Health, Mutahi Kagwe.
The restrictions included dusk to dawn curfew, cessation of movement some of the 47 counties, work-at-home policy, mandatory wearing of face masks, temporary closure of all educational institutions and entertainment places among others.
So the decision to go for recreation was informed by the frustration of feeling claustrophobic and needing an open place where we could “breath freely” without the face masks and walk freely and enjoy mother nature’s creation uninhibited.
Beehive of activities
One of our teammates, Raul, from Ethiopia, led us in a warm up session on Posta Grounds, opposite the Sanctuary, for about 10 minutes, as we enjoyed the refreshing dawn breeze breathtaking view of the rising sun together with other early birds who were jogging, brisk walking, riding motorbikes, cycling and/or holding prayer meetings.
Others used the open ground as an informal driving school.
We then moved to the Ngong Forest Sanctuary and parked the car ready for the 10 Km walk as one of the KFS guards welcomed us and gave us a brief history and geography of the facility that is popular with couples, diplomats, athletes and family members out for a deserved recreation.
Picnic site
Others use the facility to take their dogs for a walk while others book the picnic site for private functions in the woods. Four months later, we held my father's 85th birthday at the facility.
On the maiden visit, we arrived at 9am. and paid Shs100 per person to the guard using my Mpesa. It is an electronic platform in line with the Government directive to keep the pandemic at bay. The guard told us we had an option of taking the 5Km. family nature trail or for adults and athletes, he recommended the 10Km, 15Km and/or 21 Km. But in my excitement to enter and start the walk, I paid Shs1,960 instead of the recommended Shs600 when I used my password instead of the amount required to pay up!
By the time I had realized the mistake, it was too late to reverse the payment. The guard advised me to use the extra funds in future by visiting the facility with other friends and a relative within one month until it was exhausted. Wow! I felt trapped, but looked forward to my passion of walking in the woods.
We then started our walk, most of us for the first time, except Raul and for the next 2.5 hours we were spoilt for choice taking photos of some of the most unique trees, butterflies, wild mushrooms we had ever seen by then.
Along the way, we met a number of athletes including the former long distance runner, who won the gold at the at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome, Italy, in 1987, Douglas Wakiihuri, training some athletes as they jogged along in the forest which stretches from East to West from Kibera slums to Karen/Southern by pass junction.
Some of the attractions were seeing the different species of trees, shrubs and wild flowers covering the entire area with some streams crisscrossing them. One of the most unique trees was one that is a climber; it is a parasite and uses regular trees’ trunks to loop around it as it seeks to reach the top to get some sunlight. It comes in two versions, one with a smooth trunk and one with a rugged one with thorns, looks like something from the famous Tarzan TV series and movie, and blockbuster Jurassic Park.
Once in a while, we would bump into a team of horse riders from the nearby Jockey Club, taking them for a long ride. At the mid-point stood a huge mature tree that resembled a baobab with half of its roots exposed to the world and looking eerily.
Silent like a cemetery
The nature walk is like one in a cemetery, very quiet and solitary; the only sounds one hears is of birds singing, insects buzzing and monkeys swinging from one tree to another as butterflies and dragon flies of different colours and sizes enjoy the serene environment.
There were very few animals in the forest with exception of baboons, monkeys and Dik diks. The irony is that I have seen more monkeys straying in our Jamhuri Estate Phase I and II, than I have spotted in their natural home!
The park has two huge dams on its extreme west side that are next to the Ngong Racecourse and the exclusive The Waterfront, used for social gatherings like weddings, birthday parties and corporate events.
Indeed, the 10Km walk is not for the feint hearted; the canopy of the trees and the fresh air cools the body, like a deep freeze, so the full impact is not felt until after completing the circuit and getting back to one’s residence.
My next trip the following week was with Musyoka sisters, Anita and Winnie, who are our neighbours, who said they enjoyed and loved the experience but lamented that the 10 Km. had taken its toll on them.
The nature trails are well marked, from number one to number 15, and are maintained by the forest guards who trim the wild bushes and trees along the way. Some of the highlights so far have included coming face to face with a troop of over 20 baboons that were crisscrossing the trail as I was taking a walk with my daughter, Terry, in the afternoon.
I ordered her to stop and remain still as the threatening mothers with their young ones watched us from a safe distance as the male ones kept guard.
Other memorable scenes were of safari ants crisscrossing our paths along the way with the soldiers moving on the side to ensure the others were safe and carried foodstuffs to the mother queen somewhere a head.
Bicycles for hire
Another incident was when I bumped into one of the forest guards on a bicycle in a discreet part of the forest and asked him why he was incognito. He surprised and impressed me by his candid answer.
“We are here to ensure all our clients like you are safe and sound, so we station ourselves in strategic locations,” said one of them, adding that so far they have not had any serious security threats, and were not taking anything for granted. Later, I bumped into an illegal logger who had been arrested and was ordered to use his panga (machete) to clear the bush near the entrance as a punishment.
Whoever said learning is a never ending exercise was right; the latest was last month when I saw a photograph of a German shepherd posted on a water dispenser at the entrance next to the forest guard’s booth.
When I asked him what it was all about, the guard informed me that an expatriate had requested him to advertise the loss of his dog earlier that morning while they were taking a walk with his wife in the morning. The dog had been released from the leash and while in the forest, it saw a Dik dik and gave chase never to return.
The frustrated owner had looked all over in vain and returned to announce the loss and also offered a reward to whoever would find and return it to him through the guards. Over a month later, on following up, they informed me that the missing dog had been spotted and returned to the happy owner who gave them a small reward.
Illusive reward
But on hearing the story, the Kenyaness in me came out, I was more motivated to walk and faster as I looked all over and whistled hoping against hope to identify the lost dog and get the unspecified reward. My normal two-hour walk was completed in 1.45 minutes this time around, but without my goal of getting the dog and a reward as pledged by the owner!
Another lesson learnt is that people are always scheming; the other week as I paid for my entry fee to start my walk, I saw some four teenagers talking to one of the guards. Later when I asked the guard why they did not enter and keep me company as I had anticipated, the guard disclosed that the four had requested to hire the mountain bikes at Kshs500 each for two hours, but could not produce a national identity card or passport as required by the Friends of Ngong Forest Sanctuary, who run it as a business.
Asked why, the guard said: “We have learnt from experience that you don’t hire out the bikes to anyone without an ID, each bike costs Kshs25,000 and we cannot risk losing them. Can you imagine losing Kshs100,000 worth of the bikes after receiving Shs2,000 for hiring them?”
Wow! I walked away shocked at the cost of the bikes and challenges the guards face every day at work.
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