Trees in my Garden 4

16. Nandi Flame (Spathodea). A truly local tree, named after Kenya’s Nandi Hills, and celebrated in ‘The Flame Trees of Thika’. Its greatest feature is its bright orange-red clusters of flowers, with petals edged with yellow, creating its spectacular flame effect. The bark is also good for curing liver complaints, and when boiled makes a great treatment for nappy rash! And hummingbirds love them. A flaming great tree!

17. African Wild Date Palm (Phoenix reclinata). A handsome maverick of a tree, 5 metres high with a regal crown of fronds. Even though this tree’s main purpose is to look impressive, you can, if you are hungry enough, eat its oval shaped fruit once they ripen from green to brown. Or you can try climbing up its old leaf scarred trunk, and sit opulently among its dioecious (either male or female) flowers!

18. Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina). When you need some shade, try sitting under this tree. It’s a big evergreen, with drooping foliage that keeps you cool all day long. Apparently it’s the official tree of Bangkok – well the sun’s pretty hot there, so they need all the natural air-conditioning they can get.

19. African Pencil Cedar (Juniperus procera). An evergreen highland forest tree. It has prickly leaves, and grows small yellow male cones and purple-blue female cones, which look a bit like berries. The timber is great for house-building, making poles, posts, furniture, pencils and as beehives. It’s also great for fuel. If you grind up the young twigs and buds and then soak them in water you will have a great cure for intestinal worms! Yum yum.

20. Indian Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica). Another tree familiar to British indoor plant aficionados. But this one is about 20m tall. It’s actually part of the banyan family of fig trees, and it lives in a co-evolved relationship with the fig wasp, that it relies on for pollination. In some parts of India these trees are used to form ‘living bridges’ by growing them over chasms, some of them over 500 years old! The ‘rubber’ name comes from the latex in the tree – at one time these trees were used to make rubber, but they are not the main commercial source of rubber – that is the pará rubber tree. In fact the latex can be fatal if swallowed – try eating liquid rubber and you will discover why.

Kitengela Glass, Kenya

On the outskirts of Nairobi, just around the far side of Nairobi National Park, lies a magical place called Kitengela Glass.

All of the glass objects are made from recycled glass.  Melted in the furnaces they are then blown or twisted into artworks or household items.

The growing gang of trained artisans work them into incredible objects.

This transforms the scene into a colourful outdoor palace.

But Kitengela is not just about glass.  They recycle anything they can get, into the whacky…

…to the surreal…

…and the symbolic.

The journey out from Kitengela even takes you past wildlife.

Strange beings stare at you from the landscape.

And the remains of previous travellers are scattered around.

If you ever go to Kitengela, take lots of cash, and take your time.

Trees in my Garden 3

11. Kentia Palm (Howea Forsteriana). A simple no nonsense old fashioned palm tree, that doesn’t really do anything except remind you of tropical beaches.

And here are its fruit.

12. Bombax (Chorisia Speciosa). The elderly king of trees in this garden. A mighty goliath from Brazil. Its long curvaceous trunk rises up into the sky, topped with a huge rounded crown way up in the canopy. It has big mauve-pink flowers with yellowish-white and pink into the middle. Its big oval woody capsuled fruit split open on the tree, revealing seeds embedded in fine white fibres, which yield cotton-like material, which is used for stuffing toys and cushions. An exciting tree!

13. Candelabra Euphorbia (Euphorbia Candelabrum). Posh name! A local tree, but from the savannah. It has a crown of big spiky succulent branches, kind of half tree half cactus. In traditional medicine part of it is given to women after childbirth to clear out the afterbirth. Ooowsh. This is done very carefully, because the soft branches also produce a sticky white latex that is extremely poisonous – a single drop in the eye can cause blindness, and will blister the skin of a cow. Its small yellow-green flowers attract bees, but the honey can’t be eaten as it irritates and burns the mouth. Beware this tree!

14: Green heart (Warburgia Ugandensis). A large evergreen, also called Pepper-bark tree. It’s got spicy leaves, which are sometimes used in curries as a chilli substitute. The resin can be used as glue, and the wood makes great timber for building things, but tends to get eaten by termites. As traditional medicine an infusion of bark and roots helps cure stomachache, toothache, fever, colds, malaria and general muscular pains. The bark, when powdered and taken in small quantities also helps deal with most of the above. The roots are also good for plugging diarrhoea (not literally), while another mix of the bark and leaves cures malaria (with the small side-effect of causing violent vomiting). It’s even got edible seeds – try some on your salad!

15. Avocado (Persia Americana). Tried to grow one of these in my bedroom as a kid – it never got bigger than about 50cm. There are a few in the garden and they can get up to 10m! They get lots of flowers but only 1 in 5000 turns into a fruit.

The fruit is full of protein and vitamins – we just had this one in our salad. Melted in the mouth.

Lalibela

Lalibela at Christmas. One of the world’s most mysterious and spiritual places.  Twelfth century Ethiopian rock hewn Christian churches. White clad pilgrims hanging out on the side of the cliffs.

Old priests meditating precariously – somewhere between life and death.

Inside the churches, the priests surround themselves with colourful icons, and smile for the tourists.

Early morning, and as the pilgrims keep arriving on their donkeys from across the mountains, they gather at the churches.

The head priests arrive with their entourage, staying high on the cliff overlooking the church, their flock down in the earth.

Later the priests go into the church, and speak of the Arc of the Covenant. Behind the curtain they guard the secret sacred magical relics.

No-one’s really sure how these structures were built. That’s part of the mystery. Perhaps only the priests know.

Homepage Picture

Some people have asked about my homepage picture.

It’s taken on Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania. Pemba is the smaller of the two islands that are the main part of the Zanzibar archipelago.

It’s taken by Swiss photographer Beat Presser. I was on Pemba doing some monitoring of voter registration for the General Election. Beat was there as part of his dhow project, about which more another time. Beat is a good friend of the family.

During some downtime we wandered off for a walk around Pemba. It was during this stroll that we came across an abandoned funfair, donated to Pemba by the people of Japan. All of the rides were like the one in the picture, rusting and full of holes. But someone told us that the funfair was still used once per year, to celebrate Independence!

It was one of the stranger funfair rides I have enjoyed!

My Bit for the Jubilee

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  Another 15 minutes of fame.

60 years ago Princess Elizabeth was at Treetops when her father, the King, died. So the obvious way to celebrate the Jubilee in Kenya was to go back to Treetops, and light a beacon.

We drove the two hours or so from Nairobi, via Outspan, the hotel owned by the same people, that also houses Baden Powell’s old house.

We found people setting up the beacon that we would light that evening, just next to a fence alongside a waterhole, that we quickly discovered was popular for elephant, rhino, and buffalo.

After a nice dinner with the owners we did a few speeches, to a small crowd of guests, journalists and even one old man who was working at the hotel back in 1952!

Then it was time to go down to the beacon. At 10pm Kenya time I joined someone from Kenya’s Ministry of Tourism to light the beacon.

Then I had a call from the BBC. They wanted to do an interview, so I obliged.

This was one of those days that was not quite all the others.

Trees in my Garden 2

6. Mexican Ash (Fraxinus Pennsylvanica) . Yes, another Mexican one. Well muchachos, this is a big one with dark cracked bark. It’s not an exciting tree – good for general timber, posts and fuel. But you can depend on it to break (the) wind.

7. Trichilia (Trichilia Spp). Ever heard of this? AKA Cape Mahogany. Sound more familiar? These babies get big, although my one is quite young. They are great for all sorts of things. You can make soap out of the oil from the seeds. The timber is good for light indoor furniture, as well as poles posts and fuel. If you are a human its seeds could poison you, however if you are a baboon or other monkey you will love them! Plus, the oil treats cuts and bruises, the roots and bark are good for fevers, the leaves and fruit help ease bruises, cuts and eczema, and the seed oil relieves rheumatism. Also, the bark, roots and leaves are traditionally used for intestinal problems, plus dysentery, kidney problems, and parasite infestation. This is a useful tree! And it’s local!!

8. Jacaranda (Jacaranda Mimosifolia). Got a couple of these. At the right time of year its mauve-blue bell-shaped flowers come out in spectacular style – I’ll post when it happens. From Brazil originally but they are all over Africa these days. I’ve been to at least two African cities that call themselves the ‘purple city’ because of these trees, and I bet there are lots more.

9. Bastard Myrobalan (Terminalia Bellirica). Not a very nice name, but quite a nice tree, full of mysticism. It’s used to line avenues all over South East Asia because of its size and grandeur. Apparently its oil also has potential as a source of bio-diesel. Some tribes in India get high by smoking the kernels, and other bits of it are good as a laxative or for sore throats. Hindus also claim that the nuts of this true were used as dice in the Mahabharata, but they won’t sit under the tree as they believe it is full of demons!

10. Peacock Flower (Albizia Gummifera). A local tree, known as Mcani Mbao in Swahili. The bark can ease malaria, the pods cure stomach-ache, the roots are crushed for skin disease, the powdered bark makes a snuff for headaches, and the bark can also be made into an infusion for inflamation of the eyes. And the flowers – yes, they look like peacock feathers!  When the season’s right, I’ll show you.

The Wonderful World of the Maasai Mara Migration

The news from the camps was that the wildebeest were beginning to appear. They start by crossing the great plains of the Serengeti from the Tanzania side into the Maasai Mara in Kenya. No river to cross if you do it that way. So why don’t they all take that route?

We set out by road from Nairobi. Six hours later we were on an escarpment, looking down onto the plain, with glimpses of the the great Mara river running through it, surrounded by banks of dark green trees.

We had heard that the wildebeest were gathering on the other bank of the river, closer to the border with Tanzania. Next morning we set out early from camp and headed in that direction, through the Mara plains. There was an abundance of wildlife; elephant, impala, tommies, buffalo, hippo, even lions. But we were here to see the wildebeest crossing. One of the wonders of the natural world, a must see, but hard to get the timing right.

Hours went by, and we saw some amazing creatures. In one place we saw wildebeest on the opposite riverbank. But they seemed quite far from the river and were just grazing. The point was, they needed to want to cross to get the best grass, where it had rained. So why cross if there was still grass on the other bank?

Many hours passed and we started to wonder if we were too early – would it be another week before they started crossing?

Then we saw a group, in another part of the river, on the opposite riverbank, but looking our way. Were they thinking of crossing? We drove through the bush and settled down with our lunch to wait.

We weren’t the only ones waiting.

They started coming to the riverbank edge, having a look, but then retreating again. This went on for maybe half an hour. Then other vehicles started arriving on the other bank, and before we knew it there was a herd of them. Everyone sensed the crossing was soon to begin.

But some idiots in vehicles were getting too close to the wildebeest, blocking the way. Some rangers came by, complaining about the tourists, but they were on the other side of the river and nothing could be done. The wildebeest were getting nervous. We also moved back and just watched. Then suddenly, someone said a few had moved to the river. We moved closer. And it started.

Incredible. ‘Can anyone see any crocs?’ someone shouted. We couldn’t. But this was the sight we had come to see.

The first crossing was over in five minutes. But suddenly more and more wildebeest started arriving from over the horizon. Within minutes there were thousands of them.

But the cars were scaring them. The newcomers didn’t want to cross. We decided to move on. And before long we found another group.

They were as neolithic as the last herd.

We watched them cross. And then we trundled back to camp, satisfied. It had been a ten hour Sunday safari. But fully worth it. We had come here to see what the cavemen had seen, and we saw it. OK, it was a little Hong Kong Disney for a while too, but I guess that’s the world we live in. That evening we found a cave and ground up rocks to make paint before producing, on the walls, with our fingers, crude interpretations of what we had seen earlier that day (the beest, not the Shanghainese tourists).

Experiments with a Critter Cam 1

Someone told me about these infrared wildlife cameras you can get. So I got one. My first picture was a little disappointing, in the sense that, if this was the best I could do then perhaps I had wasted my money.

But at least I knew it worked. So I tried again. This time I set it up in the garden overnight, to catch a glimpse of all the critters inhabiting the night just beyond the windows. I captured the following.

So it was time to head to the bush. Tsavo East surely offered a greater chance of recording the movements of wild creatures. I set the camera up on a known hippo trail, and left it to do its work. It was quite exciting to find the following the next morning.

At last, a truly wild critter caught on camera. And then my luck doubled.

OK, not bad, but on a scale with the tabby cat at one end and the sasquatch at the other, these were almost pussy cats. So the next attempt will be in one of the world’s great wildlife wonders of the world – the Maasai Mara, during the great migration. Rhino, lions, leopards, black mamba, jumbos, buffalo, hippo, cheetah, hyena, not to mention wildebeest dodging crocs. I can’t fail to catch something on the critter cam, outside our small tent, can I?

Lamu

Another car-less island in a warm ocean, just a short boat ride from a vast continent. A twin for Cheung Chau.

Transport is by foot or boat. Or donkey… The boats are speedboats or dhows or something in between. But while Cheung Chau is prospering in the orbit of China’s boom, Lamu is struggling to stay above the water line, literally.

Very few Kenyans holiday in Lamu, apart from when the prices drop, like when the foreign tourists stay away. But even then the charms of Watamu or Kilifi are more accessible. Somalia, just up the coast, creates a constant tension. So the Lamu economy struggles.

The visual signs of depression are obvious. Walking through the alleyways of the old World Heritage town are again reminiscence of the lanes and yards of Cheung Chau, but the faces of the youth tell another story.

Is that guy on khat or heroin or both? First impression is hustlers at every turn, offering zombified tourist services.

But then the contrast. Lamu’s history is long and diverse, and its signs are everywhere. Fantastic museums, historical mosques, and castles tell you that this just might be the origin of Swahili culture.

And like all good islands, there are characters. From Bush the raconteur restauranteur to the Shela Beach expats.

For them it’s all about the moon, as befits a place of Islam. Where it rises and its phase dictates the tide and the mood. After an extended period of waning the new moon is starting to wax again, rising in full view of the beach sundowners.