Hiking in Kilome

We stop at Mukaa to pick up Muoki Kioko, their colleague, who’s acting as the local guide. He doesn’t waste time. “The first inland mission was started at Mukaa in 1903,” he points to the motley buildings that comprise a school, hospital and church. “ The word mukaa is derived from the converts telling their friends and family that if they did not convert to Christianity, they would get lost.”
Pieces of mica glint on the ground and embedded in the hilly walls. Mica was mined here during WW1. It’s a mineral that’s been in use since antiquity, found in the cave paintings dating 40,000 years back and in industry today for cosmetics like mascara, blushers and nail varnish.

I know Salama because of the cheetahs.

Mary Wykstra, founder of Action for Cheetahs in Kenya, took me on my first tour of Salama, 100 kilometres southeast of Nairobi to track wild cheetah outside protected areas.

I found it inconceivable then that cheetah could survive in hilly terrain that’s densely populated with people and farms. Now, meeting more researchers, I’m realising there’s more to the cheetah than just being the fastest animal on land.

This time we’re exploring beyond Salama, the trucker’s town with its dukas and vegetable vendors. The landscape is surreal with plains and hills stretching beyond Kilimanjaro. On the opposite side, we turn towards Kilome to climb the terraced hills.

Peter Wairasho and Charles Mwangi of Onsight Expeditions have arranged the hike through Ukambani to promote domestic tourism.

We stop at Mukaa to pick up Muoki Kioko, their colleague, who’s acting as the local guide. He doesn’t waste time. “The first inland mission was started at Mukaa in 1903,” he points to the motley buildings that comprise a school, hospital and church. “ The word mukaa is derived from the converts telling their friends and family that if they did not convert to Christianity, they would get lost.”

Our next stop is a few minutes away on a country road that’s all uphill through fields of neatly arranged terraced farms.

LEISURELY STATE

Pieces of mica glint on the ground and embedded in the hilly walls. Mica was mined here during WW1. It’s a mineral that’s been in use since antiquity, found in the cave paintings dating 40,000 years back and in industry today for cosmetics like mascara, blushers and nail varnish.

It’s a leisurely start to the morning with a cloud-decked sky. We walk past local homes with walls of mazeras stone mined on site and stop at the local posho mill to buy freshly milled maize flour.

So far, so good. We chat amicably with the locals and the path uphill begins to get a little more strenuous. We file past more terraced farms with maize, beans, napier grass, cassava and sugar cane, and trees heaving with avocados and guavas and goats munching happily on the grass. Local women stop at the springs to fills their jerry cans through hollow reed pipes.

Suddenly there’s excitement. The African Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis is a beautiful bird. In its white morph, it’s like a fairy flying on white wings and a long tail. This one has both rufous and white morph. Its glossy black head and all white wings and long tail shows it’s a male. It’s a very rare sight.

Panting uphill, we’re at the next stop where Muoki wants to show us unusual frogs in the family called Plantana. The frogs have their eyes placed high on the head facing upwards – perhaps an adaptation to peeping out of the water without having to come out. The place aptly is called Kithangathani or ‘sandy place’. We’re still not quite at the waterfall but stop at a long slab of bedrock with pools of water where local women do their laundry.

Our picnic spot is higher along this bedrock. With no rains, the waterfall shows the clear bedrock – with huge boulders and slabs sprawled around. “The waterfall is called Ilovoto, meaning ‘drop’ - as is the river,” explains Muoki.

FINAL CLIMB

It’s our final climb up. Passing through Kamba homesteads we greet the kids waacha to which they reply aah. Finally after seven hours of hiking, we’re in the car for a final stop at Nunguni at the Catholic church built by Italians in 1903. I know Nunguni because of Mwalimu Andrew of Mwisho wa Lami writing in Sunday Nation who has his hands full with the new teacher called Nzomo in a tight mini skirt, high heels and an attitude as big as the water melons of Nunguni.

By the end of the day, the birders have recorded 40 species of birds and the big black metallic one shrouding the locals in dust as it leaves. “The unsettled plains near Konza are a migratory path and have the same animals as Nairobi National Park,” says Muoki. On the main road to Nairobi we spot giraffes and wildebeest on the plains – and I wonder for how much longer as signs of construction begin to show.