Stator, The GSR travelling mascot.

[gs58]

Thanks for the write up Tatu. Very interesting. I'm guessing that the main use for sisal is ropes. After your comments about Mombasa I had to take a look at a map to see where it is exactly. I don't think that I've ever taken a good look at a map of Kenya before. If I remember correctly Nairobi is the capital, but why then is the capital so far inland? Most capitals were based at a major port.

[tatu]

Thanks for the write up Tatu. Very interesting. I'm guessing that the main use for sisal is ropes. After your comments about Mombasa I had to take a look at a map to see where it is exactly. I don't think that I've ever taken a good look at a map of Kenya before. If I remember correctly Nairobi is the capital, but why then is the capital so far inland? Most capitals were based at a major port.

I believe that is the main use of Sisal is rope yes. I had never thought about why Nairobi or as we call it Niarobbery is the capital, I do know the name is from Maasai language meaning 'sweet waters' I think because when the whites came they liked the environment as it was similar to Europe, there and the Aberdares ideal farming country. Maybe because Nairobi is really founded on commerce, Mombasa is a far more important place as it is the only deep water on the whole of the coast, that and the place that is in the pictures and I understand there are plans for that. Mombasa is the main artery for freight route for most of the interior, trucks carry it all the way into Uganda, Zaire, Sudan, even Somalia and many other places. (From Mombasa to Nairobi it is an ordinary road one lane each way there are some horrible crashes the trucks are nose to tail all the way, and before Christmas there was a three day jam) Dar Es Salaam (Port Of Peace) is another very important port for the same reason. When these places were dominated and run by the Arabs Zanzibar (where Freddie Mercury came from) became the seat for the Sultan Of Oman because of trade, slaves, spices and Ivory, He passed a law that said it was illegal to cut down a Clove bush and if it had to be cut then four had to be planted elsewhere, a good law because it is still a main export for them (Also until a couple of years back he owned the strip of land from the beach to ten miles inland along the whole coast of Kenya). Anyway, back to Mombasa, Swahilli is the language most spoken, it is a marriage between Arabic and the coastal language spoken here it has spread over lots of Africa. Now we have the Chinese influencing everything and they are unfortunately not at all environmentally minded.

[sinkankan]

Yes Malaria is really bad, but medicine had moved on, the Chinese have a drug called 'Cotexin' it is powerful stuff but you must take the whole course if not, and this is now the case the parasite has become resilient to known antidotes, this is now the super malaria that is killing so many. I've had Malaria three times now and it can work really fast, one time after a hangover type head ache and being tested to driving back to my place thirty miles, making it back into the then apartment my then girlfriend came home for lunch found my pick up still running door open, front door open and me collapsed unconscious on the bed all in a couple'v hours, she got the medicine in me and twenty four hours was back to work. Now all that is changing with the new super strain parasite.

We had to be careful riding around the back blocks of south east asia, dusk was the worse time for mosquitoes. Just as you're cooling down after a ride and you didn't bother with insect spray because you were still hot & sweaty. You could literally see the swarms of bugs descending on you. Mind you our alcohol content sometimes was so high the mossies probably died from th fumes before they landed on us.
Malaria had a weird way of coming back to haunt at almost the same hour, same day the next week after, with something to do with the incubation period.
When I'm in Bali(on the Vespa scooter) always carry a bug deterrent when out and around, malaria is just creeping in there, dengue fever is the main worry.

[tatu]

We had to be careful riding around the back blocks of south east asia, dusk was the worse time for mosquitoes. Just as you're cooling down after a ride and you didn't bother with insect spray because you were still hot & sweaty. You could literally see the swarms of bugs descending on you. Mind you our alcohol content sometimes was so high the mossies probably died from th fumes before they landed on us.
Malaria had a weird way of coming back to haunt at almost the same hour, same day the next week after, with something to do with the incubation period.
When I'm in Bali(on the Vespa scooter) always carry a bug deterrent when out and around, malaria is just creeping in there, dengue fever is the main worry.

It's all bad, best trick is not to get bitten in the first place most of those repellents don't work, there is one called 'Jungle formula' that seems to do the trick well, most of us don't bother because we forget, the mozzies particularly like people with type A blood and sweaty also malaria strikes particularly when you're run down and the treatment is: Big dose of Doxycycline the full five day dose and at the same time the course of Cotexin or something similar, the parasite behaves much like a virus, the Doxycycline holds it back/slows it down till the Cotexin builds up and does its stuff, the killer is cerebal malaria and what happens there is that the sickle cells/parasites clog the artery where it narrows in the neck near the ear, the same that gives you a stroke then you're pretty much done, its a hospital job, drips the lot.

Its been a while since I was in Bali, I was there a couple of weeks before the bomb in the road outside between Paddy's and the Sari, I have a very good friend there who has a dive school that used to be up the road here long ago.

[tatu]

Hey, that is awesome Tatu, pretty part of the world you have a piece of there.
I have a feeling that Africa has stolen his heart, as it does everyone's who has set foot on her soil, he surely needs to make it down to Cape Town, I have a spare room and lots of beer for him, dead sure Andre would love to have him for a while too. A return trip would be on the cards methinks
, will arrange with Dale to organise him passage next year.... eh Doc?

You're right Stan, It's going to be a wrench leaving but everytime that plane takes off from 'civilisation' I feel a weight lift off my shoulders its a different world here.

So, I was asked by a friend who works in a safari camp up at Meru if I could go to Mombasa port to pick up an old wooden sailing boat that he'd bought on ebay, so my mate and I took the day and Stator came along for the ride, these are not exciting pictures but they are a glimpse of some of the life that goes on.
We had to wait a couple of hours for the truck that was parked in the way to super glue a couple of o'rings and bleed the fuel before the engine would start so we were sitting in my mates Land Rover slowly baking, Stator was watching these guys....




The guy closest is a hawker, he hawks around stuff to sell for small money in his case he has belts wallets and cheap crap but he is also a Maasai I've seen plenty around these days down at the coast but they are from Upcountry.



In that 5 litre can is blood more than likely its cow or goat's blood these guys drink it when they're home on the Savannah they drink it straight from the cows neck, they prick a vein and it squirts into their gourd or goatskin bag and they drink it like that or mix it with milk, I've seen it a lot up at Narok and places North but not much down here, he is also wearing some 'thousand miler' sandals made from car and truck tyres, not a good picture but I will try to get another later, pulling a camera out these days is inviting trouble and Stator is getting some odd looks from the locals....



Leaving Mombasa island towing the boat, there be sharks in the creek....

We have to go through another town to get home, its not a slum but pretty awful and here is a guy on the side of the road that makes these 'thousand miler' sandals My mate had an XT500 and used to wear just one to kick start the bike because starting an XT barefoot is an experience, sorry about the quality but they are snapped on the move...




You can buy most stuff here, cocanuts, pineapples, melons, mangos for fruit there is a wide choice .....



More to follow....

[tatu]

I took some friends out to the reef for snorkelling today and Stator spent the day on the Indian Ocean.... My small boat hasn't been out for about three years and before we took off outside the creek I took it for a buzz round inside just to check it all out, we saw these, its called an 'Ngalawa' and its design has not changed since before Christ was a lad...



They don't float so well when they're full of water, essentially hacked out of one huge log with outriggers to stabilize them they really can only sail before the wind with very few degrees if any of tack so they leave late at night/early in the morning depending on wind and tide sailing straight out to sea and come back later morning before the wind and before it starts to get choppy in the afternoon, they come to grief easily and the locals are not good swimmers, I've seen them easily twenty miles offshore and they catch some impressive size fish off hand lines towed off the back.



This one will be leaving soon to go fishing, the problem with changing direction with these is that they have to furl the sail shift the boom over to the other side of the mast and unfurl the sail.



We finally arrive at the better coral reef that I know, its taken me years to learn where all the good spots are, one of the problems is that there are a series of reefs here and being between ensures that the water always has sediment some days are better than others but even the worst day is better than a good day anywhere else. Again, sorry for the quality of pictures but I tend to just snap away at what ever catches my eye and pick out whatever is recognisable, the camera is a point and shoot Lumix that has done some miles and is a bit beaten up. Stator stayed on board and did anchor watch.

This pretty much straight under the boat...



The reef has been fished mercilessly but there are still some tiddly reef fish about and I did see something quite big hide into some rocks but was too quick to see what it was, A few years back it was teeming with all size fish. I am a bit choosy about who I show these places to because when an anchor is carelessly chucked over it causes untold damage.



I'm not sure if this fella is a clown fish I think so..



Anyway he doesn't scare easily and is very territorial.



This is a baby Lion fish, (Also known by many other names) there used to be many of them but not seen any for long, the first three spines on its back are hollow and at the bottom is a sac containing some nasty venom so if you step on him or something bites it the spine depresses and it injects the victim I cant remember how bad it is but I think its pretty nasty.




A Spanish Dancer.



Then off to the local bar for some Samosas and chips and the biggest fish Stator has seen the samosas and beer picture didn't come out too good, I'll treat him again.



Then back off up the creek home.

[cowboyup3371]

Great pictures, thank you. Has Stator made it down to Stan's way yet?

[tatu]

Great pictures, thank you. Has Stator made it down to Stan's way yet?

Thanks, I don't believe so, I worry a lot when he's out in case I lose him, it's really easy to lose stuff here if you know what I mean. I hand carried him in my cabin baggage and unless I can find some means of him being hand carried on to SA then he will be hand carried back to UK, post is absolutely not an option in these parts.

[tatu]

My wife has joined me here and I'm showing her and Stator about, yesterday we went to Fort Jesus http://www.colonialvoyage.com/fort-jesus-mombasa/# and the Old Town Mombasa a place I spent many hours as a small child in the Old Port playing around in the stored freight waiting coming and going in the big freighter Dhows.
Firstly I showed them these two Naval guns which have significance to the history of East Africa, One from the German Cruiser Konigsberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_K%C3%B6nigsberg_(1905) (Von Lettow was a bit of a lad back in the day and I read someplace that he and his guns gave the British the run around for another six months after the armistice was declared in Europe) and the other from the Pegasus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pegasus_(1897) sunk in Zanzibar. If these guns could talk the tales they could tell....

Pegasus 4" gun 1914 ish



Konigsberg's 105mm gun



Then we went into the fort, originally Portuguese and has some bloody history behind it..
sitting next to one of the seaward watch towers..



I like this picture because I have no idea how that Canon got to where it is sticking out of the sand there.




In the Museum a Stator sized boat..



Checking out the North side mainland...



A 400 year old Portuguese Long Drop..



Some olden day Portuguese drawing stuff, I reckon Stator got as bored as I did there...




And a bony old Portuguese dude who'd been here a while, they weren't very big in those days judging by the size of him and all the doorways, seats and such like...



As we were leaving we spotted the flag flying..



Then we went off for a stroll round the Old Town,

[tatu]

Some of these are random photos and after a while we had to cover Stator up because he was attracting too much attention, I had been warned a couple of times about holding tight to my camera by some locals but speaking swahilli helped ease off the tourist pressure, a tourist had been stabbed recently in these streets so we were being a bit careful, (to me though I remember it was a far more dodgy place than it is now) so Stator doesn't appear in all though he was there...

The main street leading into the Old Town, certainly looking far cleaner than I remember it with a decent road, the drains are open, typical of very old places, the next old place like this particular spot is Lamu town up North beyond Malindi an amazing Arab town that hasn't changed much since the Arabs ruled the place. Also a haunt of the very rich and famous these days because of its inaccessibility. I remember when the main form of transport here used to be by donkey, the streets get a lot narrower.











This is Leven House, you will never have heard of it but it has been a very important building through the years... mostly though the Royal Navy used it as an HQ to halt the slave trade, (which is still going strong but not from here anymore)

http://www.enchantedlandscapes.com/things-to-do/leven-house/

This is the entrance to the Old Port, as kids we used to play in amongst the freight coming and going on the big freighter Dhows catching the Northerly (Kaskazi) and Southerly (Kuzi) monsoons, it was an exciting and vibrant place, It used to be a vital port connecting not only the coastal region but far into the interior, slaves, ivory, sisal and stuff, I still have a pair of my Mum's Persian rugs that came through here. The Arab traders used to hawk them about in the town and would accept weekly payments.




Then on the way out of town we stopped by and snapped the iconic Mombasa Tusks that were erected as a temporary thing for the visit of Princess Margaret in '56, she's gone but they remain.



And because Stator is so small...



More to follow...

[gustovh]

Rock on, what a trip!

V

[Gramma Peppermint]

Thank you Tatu for taking us on this trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[azr]

Again, great story and pictures, amazing stuff.

[Charlie G]

Thanks for the great photos & background! I think someone pushed that canon out the window and into the water. What a history that fort has. Cheers!

[2BRacing]

Hey, that is awesome Tatu, pretty part of the world you have a piece of there.
I have a feeling that Africa has stolen his heart, as it does everyone's who has set foot on her soil, he surely needs to make it down to Cape Town, I have a spare room and lots of beer for him, dead sure Andre would love to have him for a while too. A return trip would be on the cards methinks, will arrange with Dale to organise him passage next year.... eh Doc?

When Stator does make his return to Africa and South Africa, I will gladly show him the sights of Cape Town and surrounding area and pass him on to Andre for a visit to the Garden Route, after which you can show him around Egoli ("the place of gold") Stan.