Sunday, January 22, 2012

Karura Forest

This year started with a trip to Karura Forest, a magical little gem in the suburbs of Nairobi. We learnt lots about the plant and animal life there as well as the brave conservationist, Wangari Mathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is thanks to her and other conservationists, that we have this beautiful urban forrest in Nairobi today. Today was definitely a day inspired by nature and the movie Avatar! The kids had so much fun running and swinging around the forrest.

We were joined today, by a Chinese friend from Washington DC, Danqing Zhu:
After a short walk in the forrest, you reach these beautiful waterfalls:
Gitau up on a tree above the waterfalls:
We stopped here for a picnic:
Melody swinging:
Also within the forrest are these big, beautiful caves, where the controversial Kenyan freedom fighters, the Mau Mau used to hide out:
Mungai on a vine swing:
Mungai and Gitau find a way to climb this one way up high:

Mungai swings from one end of the forrest to the other...
Eric swings from one end of the path to the other...

This isn't a great picture, but the kids in the valley below are surrounded by butterflies, that made them so happy!

Our big gang for the day - thank you Danqing for joining us, we had such a fun day and learnt so much from you about China and USA!