Haller Park in Mombasa

December 22^nd, 2023 

After Fort Jesus, Haller Park ranks up there as another attraction to see while in Mombasa.  It was only about three kilometers east of where I was staying in Bamburi, near the Indian Ocean.  After a short stop in Capital City Mall to buy some “not usually easy to find” essentials like contact lens solution, I walked about 800 meters down the highway, under partial construction, to the park.  It was getting stupid hot out.

 

Haller Park was created by Rene Haller in 1959.  A nearby cement factory (which I passed on the way to the mall) had made a lot of the nearby land inhospitable to plants and animals and Haller decided to change that.  It took more than 10 years to rehabilitate the area but now there is a lovely park that is home to a variety of animals, essentially a big zoo in a forest.  Surprisingly, it was hundreds of millipedes that Haller introduced to the area that got the ball rolling to make the land fertile again.

 

At first, I balked a bit at the 1800 shilling entrance fee (I had read 1200 online, but those were probably old websites) as I didn’t think I’d spend too much time in the park and I had seen most of the animals already in my travels.  There were some feeding times mentioned to me by the lady at the entrance but they were in the mid to late afternoon.  Seeing the crocodiles being fed would be awesome, but I didn’t want to wait that long in this heat.  But I decided what the hell, I will very likely never be here again, and we’re only talking about $15-20.

It was a five-minute walk to get to the reception, a big grass hut.  Just after leaving, the first animal I saw was a giant tortoise, similar to the ones I saw on the Galapagos Islands a few years ago, but this guy was originally from the Seychelles.  It wasn’t until after I had visited the park that I found out about two odd buddies who formed their friendship in the park back in 2004.  It was between a tortoise named Mzee (meaning: old man in Swahili) and a baby hippo, Owen, who had been rescued from Sumatra after the tsunami there.  They were best buds until unfortunately Owen grew too large to be able to safely interact with Mzee, so they were separated.

On the walk to reception:

The reception building:

Not sure if this was Mzee or not as I saw another tortoise later.

The animal that I was most interested to see was the crocodile.  I saw a small one on the riverbank in Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda earlier in my trip, but it was relatively small and sleeping.  When I first reached the crocodile area, I didn’t see any sign of life.  It was 12:30 in the afternoon and hot out, so I figured the reptiles would be sleeping.  I did find a few in the pond, by a little island in the middle of the acre sized pen.  Their snouts were just poking out of the water, and they weren’t moving much but I watched for a little while, before continuing around the oblong shaped enclosure.  Some plastic flagging tape was blocking my way to circumnavigate the pen, so I ended up backtracking.  I was a bit disappointed to see that at least two of the crocodiles had exited the water in those 4-5 minutes and were basking in the heat on the shore of the island.  It would have been nice to see them exiting the water.

The two crocs on the shore.

However, it was also a blessing in disguise.  After continuing back to where I had started, I spotted another croc in the water, but close to the fence.  He had one eye open and one eye closed.  I was reminded of a conversation with German Julie in Rwanda who had talked about animals, in that case whales, who can shut off one half of their brain and then in turn fall asleep with the other half.

I continued my wandering around the park.  There were some fish farm pools, but it was hard to tell whether they were actually stocked or not.  I walked to a butterfly atrium, which was a bit of a let down, and I also couldn’t find any hippos in their big area.  I did see an oryx in the distance, the first one I’ve seen in Africa.

The fish farm:

A few monkeys were entertaining to watch as I worked my way over to the giraffe area.  It had only been 3-4 days since I was feeding giraffes in Nairobi, so it wasn’t a big disappointment when I found them far from the viewing deck, and not interested in being hand fed by humans (not that I knew where to get the food from).

A monkey chilling on a bench:

Lunchtime!

Is this really a warthog?

It is actually known as a lesser kudu:

The non-interested giraffes:

Must have been a tough day in the office for this monkey:

What a tree...

After the park, I walked towards the beach and found a restaurant for some lunch and some time to catch up on my writing.  This blogging does feel like a bit of a job sometimes…but well worth the effort.  In years to come, I’ll be able to remember things/places/people/adventures on these travels that I wouldn’t otherwise.

Tomorrow I will head about 50 kilometres north, to a beach called Kilifi, where I will stay at a place called Distant Relatives Eco-Resort.  It will be a nice place to relax and enjoy a quiet Christmas.

Fort Jesus in Mombasa

December 21^st, 2023 

One of the main historical sites to see in the port city of Mombasa, is Fort Jesus.  It was built between 1593 and 1596 by order of the King of Spain and Portugal to guard the Old Port of Mombasa.  The fort was lost and recaptured by the Portuguese nine times over the years.  In 1895, the British turned it into a prison and finally in 2011, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  It is considered one of the best preserved examples of a 16^th century Portuguese military fort.

 

I took an Uber to get from Bamburi to the fort which is located on Mombasa Island, the old part of the city.  Almost immediately, a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab approached me and asked if I wanted a guide.  I was a bit hesitant as I wasn’t sure if I wanted/needed a guide and whether she was legit.  She did have an ID badge that seemed valid, and she seemed nice, kind of reminded me a bit of my guide in Kampala at the Gaddafi Mosque (although she turned out to be not as funny or engaging as that guide).

The entrance to the fort:

I opted to use Samara’s services to tour the fort and perhaps to visit some of the old town afterwards.  Interestingly had I decided to go it alone, I would have had troubles just getting into the fort.  For some reason they only accepted M-Pesa, the method to pay for things with your phone, which I did not have.  So Samara paid for me and added that to my “bill”.

This is a model of the fort.  Supposedly, this is why it is called the "Jesus Fort"...because it so obviously looks like Jesus doesn't it?!?  Sorry, I couldn't get the photo to stay rotated upright on this site.  His head is on the left, his two arms, then the big rectangular body and the legs.  Yup, looks like the son of God to me!

The tour around the fort only took about 40 minutes.  There were a few nice views from the parapet, looking out to the Indian Ocean and the bay where ships used to enter to the Old Port.  Samara explained some of the Omani influence over the years and there were a few rooms with historic outfits from Oman, pictures of past sultans and the odd weapon, like a gun, spear and hand shield.

This used to be an entranceway down towards the ocean that they brought munitions and supplies through.

My guide Samara in front of a very old, non-functional, just fancy door:

Looking out to sea:

The Old Port is off to the left, not in sight from the fort.

There were Portuguese and British cannons in the fort:

Some old drawings that told some of the history:

This seemed out of place...a skeleton of a balleen whale.  Hey, why not?!?

A model of a dhow, a traditional sailing boat in Kenya.  Note the stitches on the hull to keep it together as they didn't have nails!

Leaving the fort, we walked for about 20 minutes around the nearby area with narrow streets and old buildings, some sporting fancily carved wooden doors or ornate balconies.  One point of interest she had previously mentioned was the Old Port, but it was hardly worth it.  First off, all you could see was a gate and secondly, you couldn’t even take any pictures in that area due to “security concerns”. 

We hopped in a tuk tuk (back in the land of tuk tuks!) and drove to the Mombasa Tusks, a monument that was built in the 1950s to commemorate the visit by Queen Elizabeth II.  Now it is just a tourist stop, a place to take a few pics with these two pairs of giant aluminum tusks which straddle over the median lined road to form a big “M” (not the McDonald’s kind) for Mombasa.  I got my photos, and we were back in the tuk tuk to head to the spice market.

Can you see me?

Tuk tukking to through the narrow market streets:

The Spice Market:

After a brief walk around the market, that was the end of the tour with Samara.  I felt it was a little overpriced for what we did, but I definitely got more out of the visit to Old Mombasa than if I had walked it alone.

The Train from Nairobi to Mombasa

December 20^th, 2023 

I took a matatu from Lake Naivasha back to Nairobi.  The trip wasn’t bad, apart from the last 3-4 kilometres with heavy traffic in downtown Nairobi.  I wished that I wasn’t sitting at the back of the van with my bag stuck underneath me as it would have been nice to get out and find a motorcycle taxi.  This was a strategy that German David used in Kampala - get out of the bus/matatu in the suburbs and then get a boda boda to avoid the traffic in the inner city.  It was early afternoon, and the sun was beating down.  Kenyans definitely have a different internal thermostat to me because I was in a t-shirt and sweating whereas they were wearing jackets and jeans.  One woman even had a knitted shawl.  And almost all of the windows were shut.  I didn’t have control of the nearest window to me, the guy in the row in front of me did and he was resting his head against it as he dozed off.  Shortly after he roused, I quickly reached forward and got a bit of respite with a bit of fresh air.

Plastic container anyone?!?

The traffic was nuts.  One thing that kept me entertained though, was checking out the colourfully painted buses.  From superheroes to sports teams to musical artists.  Just Google “the painted buses of Nairobi”…pretty cool stuff.

Not surprising to see Obama on a bus in Kenya (between the guys walking):

Busy, busy...

The Hulk.

Finally, out of the matatu, I grabbed a boda boda and headed back to the Mad Vervet Hostel, where I was staying before my two-day jaunt to Lake Naivasha.

There are many tall buildings in Nairobi.

The next morning, I was up early to catch the 8 am train to Mombasa.  I was glad that I had booked a ticket a few weeks prior as the trains were all sold out.  I had hoped to buy a first-class ticket as it wasn’t very expensive, but those were all gone by the time I made my reservation.  It was a bit challenging to book online as well as one needs to pay with Mpesa or by a Kenyan bank account.  As I mentioned in another post, Mpesa is a way to pay for many goods and services in Kenya with your phone.  I was still in Rwanda when I was looking at the train tickets so neither of those were an option for me.  I did find a website that would circumvent this problem, but of course, for a few.  It cost me about $27 USD instead of $10 if I could have bought the ticket directly, but at least I got a ticket.  It would be a 6-hour train ride versus a 10-11 hour bus ride to get to Mombasa.

 

My instructions from the website where I purchased the ticket were to show up an hour and a half before the departure time, which seemed a bit extreme.  We’re getting a train, not a plane right?!?  I did have to print the ticket out when I got there, but that took all of 3 minutes.  Security was pretty tight, similar to the airport in Kigali.  It started with a metal detector, sniffer dogs and x-ray machine before getting into the terminal.  And then one more set of a metal detector and x-ray machine after getting the ticket.  Really, I could have shown up 30-45 minutes before 8 am and I’m sure it would have been fine.

The Nairobi SGX Terminal:

That's my train:

Definitely a busy railyard.

The 10-year-old, Chinese made train was fairly nice, but the seats were rather upright and not super comfortable.  At first there was no one else sitting near me but one stop later and we were full.  The ride was uneventful but as least I did see one African elephant in the distance on the relatively green savannah dotted with the odd tree.

I got the aisle seat...so no table to put my laptop on.

Typical scenery for most of the trip:

This "Travel Notice" has one item that I found funny, it read:

  - The employees in the station or on the train are authorized to terminate the travel of passengers with highly contagious diseases, drunk passengers and passengers who pose potential safety risks to other passengers.  Such passengers can be handed over to the relevant sectors for disposal.

On the wall by the end of the train car was an electronic screen with scrolling text.  It displayed the time and date, the odd info message, the train’s speed and also the outside temperature.  I knew that Mombasa, even though it is on the coast, is much hotter and humid that Nairobi.  In the last hour of the trip, the sign was reporting 35 degrees outside!  Yikes.  It was definitely a bit of a shock getting off the train.

Getting off the train in Mombasa:

The Mombasa Terminal:

I grabbed an Uber and headed to the apartment that I had reserved in an area called Bamburi.  It wasn’t the one that I had booked online but during the train ride the owner told me she had another apartment that was available and although it didn’t have A/C, it was on the fifth floor at the corner of the building and I had read many reviews on AirBnB that it always had a nice breeze.  One drawback was that there was no elevator, so I was feeling toasty by the time I got up to the flat.

An elephant roundabout:

My place for the next 3 nights:

The view from my apartment:

Small fireworks were set off a number of times while I was here...this was the first one that caught me off guard.  They were exploding right by my windows!

Mombasa is the fourth of the big five cities that I would visit on this trip (Kampala, Kigali, Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam being the others).  Let’s see what it has to offer…got to admit, from first impressions, I wasn’t super stoked but I’m only here for three nights.