Lost and Found!!

I tend to be a bit of an intrepid traveller and not averse to a spot of adventure whenever I travel alone. I have been known to take a turning at a whim secure in the knowledge that my sense of direction is quite good and that with virtual maps and compasses at my finger tips thanks to Google Maps, Bing Maps and their brother Maplandia that even if I got lost on one of my adventures I would be able to find my way back to whence I commenced my journey.

Recently, it only took one wrong right turn and I almost disappeared into the mists of the Abedare Mountains. This was Mucharage on the slopes of this mountain range that stretches for 160 kilometers in Central Kenya a place of immense beauty, with verdant tea plantations, neat homesteads and incredible natural vistas as far as the eye can see. It started off as most such adventures do, rather innocently with a desire to pass through Othaya town the birthplace of the current president of Kenya Mwai Kibaki.

I was on the way back to Nairobi from an official engagement and decided to use the Nyeri-Othaya-Kiriaini-Kangema-Muranga route to connect with Thika Road where the dual carriage ways starts at Kenol. For those who may not have used this route from Nyeri, this is a spectacular route through lower Nyeri County and upper Muranga County where the fast flowing rivers whose origins are in Mount Kenya and the Abedares have cut deep valleys over thousands of years meaning that the road winds and darts in and out of tight corners, sheer drops, hair pin bends and steep inclines. In the early mornings the high peaks and valleys are shrouded in a thick mist increasing the driving challanges along this well maintained road all of 65 kilometers from Nyeri to Muranga.

Having used this route as a route of choice several times in the past since it has less traffic.....infact no traffic when compared with the main Nyeri-Nairobi highway.....I was looking forward to the challenges and tough drive and breathtaking beauty that it affords. I have passed on the road through Othaya many times but have never driven into the town which is surprisingly busy and clean and so decided why not, I may even get to see the president's rural residence. So there I was taking a route that passed outside Othaya stadium where a good crowd was watching a soccer match, past various shops and businesses and into the tea farms and kitchen gardens that dot rural Kenya. It was just a few kilometers past Othaya that I happened onto what must have been the president's rural home, behind an impressive stone wall covered in bouganvillea and therefore obscuring any view of the massive home that I assumed stood in there.......what an anti-climax!

Just past the president's rural home, you get to the Rurugiti/Mucharage Road junction and you are supposed to turn left to get back to the road linking Nyeri and Muranga but I instead turned right thinking that I was on the road to Muranga already. After about 5 minutes I realised that nothing on this road looked familiar, since it was not marked and was wider than the one that I was familiar with and in the distance I could see the great expanse of part of the Abedare mountain range and it was getting closer with every passing minute, onwards I ploughed past a market centre, several schools, a sign post to a tea factory onwards yet until the road took a steep incline of almost 35 degrees and the forest kept getting closer and closer until I saw it..........the fence that surrounds the Abedare forest thus reducing the human wildlife conflict that  had plagued the area.

So the fence is not a myth but a reality, I saw it with my own eyes. The road continued on into the forest but wise counsel took over, sanity prevailed and I stopped and reversed the car to go back the way that I had come back to civilisation but not before drinking in the vista of God's kingdom below me, peaceful in the afternoon sunlight a cool breeze filtering into the car through the open windows and me lapping it all up unsure whether I was safe up here king of the mountain and with no one to share this superb view with!!

I wondered whether the locals appreciated this vista, from way up here, seperated from heaven by a light cloud cover, I wondered if KWS has any accomodation facilities here because I must surely go back, if for nothing else to wallow in the sheer exhilaration of that view surrounded by mountains, stream and forests. The road appears to have been recently completed to bitumen standards, is in excellent shape and is a fun drive. I ma glad I got lost that day because I found the perfect retreat and the perfect view from God's own command post!