 |
| Python Rock, opposite Mt Kasigau |
 |
| The morning before the hike |
My family and I went to Kasigau to hike Mt. Kasigau.
Kasigau is a very small village in Tsavo; Tsavo is a game park where wild
African animals live. We left Friday afternoon and it took us 4 hours to get
there because there were long lines of monstrous trucks trying to pass each
other constantly. We decided to drive on the side of the road where there
wasn’t even a road! When we got there we drove up a short, bumpy steep road
that lead up to a small mud house. At first we all thought that was where we
were staying and I wasn’t so happy, but it turned out we had to walk up a small
path to where we stayed. It was a small bungalow with only 5 beds and we were 7
people! It was dark and the stars were beautiful especially when we were
sitting around a small campfire. We sat around listening to Everett do stand up
comedian shows and it was hilarious. When it was time to bed I realized that my
bed was very small and I had to share it with my brother, lets just say that it
wasn’t the best night.
 |
| Starting on the trail |
We woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning and it was cool and
breezy, perfect weather for hiking. We ate a small cold breakfast off pop tarts
and yogurt. Once we were all ready for the hike we set off.
 |
| Hiking through the steep forest |
The sun shone really bright and everyone was sweating when
we first started to hike. There were a lot of trees around us, but there was no
shade. There were rocks of all colors and shapes on the ground as we hiked up
the steep mountain. The trail was wide at the time but the higher we hiked the
steeper it got. We had two guides that told us about the mountain as we hiked.
They said that the Kasigou people used to live up on the mountain and she
showed us shallow stone bowls that the woman crushed maize in. Now that we were
higher on the mountain there wasn’t any sun we were all shaded by trees, which
was very nice. The trail started to get really steep, and many people started
to slip and fall. I had to hold on to small trees around me so I wouldn’t go
tumbling down the mountain. The long green trees had sun glistening through
through their branches and their bark was the color of the dark brown ground. We
came to a part of the hike where there wasn’t really even a path anymore it
just seemed like we were wondering through the jungle. The top of the mountain
was near and we were getting excited to see the so-called amazing view.
As we reached the top of the mountain our
eyes had to adjust to the bright sun as we looked off the mountaintop. The
foggy sky covered up the view off the mountain so it wasn’t very cool; all we wanted
to do was to get back to the shade. There were small green bushes around the
border of the mountaintop and the ground was not covered in piles of leafs any
more. We only hiked 3 miles up and it took us 2 hours, we were ready for lunch.
 |
| The rainforest |
 |
| Enjoying our lunch |
We scurried to the shade and sat down on the dirty floor
unpacking the backpack that we brought. We pulled out pringles, chicken
nuggets, apples, gummies and everything a small kid would love to have for
lunch. After we had enough satisfaction of eating we started down the mountain
again. Like I said the mountain was super steep and there was tons of leaves
that you could easily slip on. Well I had a great idea, squatted down on my
feet and slid down the mountain really fast. I thought I was going got be able
to stop, but I wasn’t. I slammed right into a tree and it really hurt. After I
started to do it we all started to do it, soon enough we were running, jumping,
swinging on trees and it was all really fun. My dad’s new intern, Colby, was
with us and we were running right by each other but he was a little in front of
me, I saw him trip and right when started to laugh. Boom! I was on the floor
right next to him; I was stupid enough to fall for the same trick. We both
tripped over a tall tree root and my hand started to bleed and it felt like my
big toe was split down the middle. My parents had a hard time traveling down
the steep mountainside and we were going so much faster them we lost sight of
them.
When we got back to where we were staying everyone was sore
and tired. We packed up our stuff and crammed into our big white car. It was a
long drive home but it was worth it. The hike was really fun and I can’t wait to
go back there.
 |
| View from the top, too bad we couldn't see Tanzania! |
After a lot of thinking and researching, we decided that homeschool would benefit us much more than any school in Kenya could. Any good school in Mombasa is most likely on a British system and we are not very familiar with the British system so the scores they gave us on tests really meant nothing because we couldn’t understand what was good or bad. In homeschool we can specialize and do things we love to do and we can trash the things that don’t really matter. We can also go at our own pace and complete things we know fast and spend more time on things we don’t understand. The best part of homeschool is that we are saving a lot of money, because school is expensive here. With all of the money we are saving we can travel the world and learn and experience new and amazing things.