The Colours Of Kericho! #ThisIsMyKenya

Spontaneity is the best kind of adventure~ Anonymous.

 

Hello there beautiful people! 😀 I am thrilled to introduce a new series: #ThisIsMyKenya on Scrapbook Journeys! On this series we”ll celebrate and showcase our creativity, heritage diversity, culture… and everything absolutely Kenyan! 😀

 

The #ThisIsMyKenya movement started when Safaricom encouraged people to capture those little, ordinary moments that make us ‘Kenyan,’ on our cellphones. I am happy to invite you to join this movement along with me! 😀

 

 

I think we’ll enjoy the #ThisIsMyKenya series because it will not necessarily be targeted at any one activity or place!

Hopefully, as you read through this & future posts, you will identify with & feel that Kenyan spirit affirmed! That it will remind us what an amazing country we are blessed to live in! 🙂

To kick-start our #ThisIsMyKenya series, we went down to Kericho for the Team Tri-fit Triathlon. ( Look Out For That Blog Post Coming Soon. 😉 )

 

No Plans Are Always The Best Plans!

Initially, I wanted to plan everything out, for our visit to Kericho… Where we would go, what we would do….

But as fate would have it, none of these plans panned out. (Well, at least not each one.)

Looking back, this was the best thing that happened to us! It meant that we had more time to simply experience Kericho for what it is, not what we wanted it to be!

 

 

Flashback To My First Time In Kericho

But first, here’s a little backstory…. 🙂

My affair with Kericho began one night on a bus to Kampala… I could not sleep, amidst the soft snores of my friends around me, and the not-so-gentle hum of the bus…

If you’ve been on one of those night-trips to Kampala, then you know how the drivers take all kinds of liberties on the road. They gamble quite dangerously with our sleeping lives…

Should you happen to be awake, you can’t help ‘driving along with your eyes’, sighing sharply at narrow escapes, all the while, praying for safety.

Yet, the views I saw made me forget about collisions & dying….  There, in the dead of night, with a full-moon up, the most gorgeous sights confronted me…  😀

Green, tea farms spread out for miles and miles, like a dreamy king-size bed. It was hypnotizing, to say the least! You bet, I had to go back! 😀

 

 

Exploring The Colours of Kericho In The Day Time

I had no idea it would take me years, to venture back to the ‘green city’.

And even so, nothing could have prepared me for the magnificence of Kericho, with its characteristic shades of green tea fields… It is simply breath-taking! 🙂

 

Kericho is about 264 Km away from Nairobi, via the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. You may opt to use the Narok route, via Mai Mahiu, which adds about an extra 1.5 hours to the trip.

The nearest airport to Kericho, is the Kisumu International Airport, about a 90-minutes drive away.

In this part of the country, where tea is the main produce, everything seems to work in harmony for a green outcome.

For each day in Kericho, we experienced warm, sunny mornings, cool evenings and rainy nights.

 

Kericho air is crisp & clean. I recall feeling like I could smell tea, brewing in the open air, on our first day…

 

Wherever your eyes fall, you feel the hard work & determination of Kericho residents oozing through…

I felt content to see with my eyes, to leave some things to chance, and some mysteries unexplained. Best of all, I felt something well up in my heart, affirming- This Is My Kenya. 😀

 

The Tea That Never Was…

Being home to the largest tea plantations, I expected to find Tea Cafés everywhere… Vendors on street corners, tempting us with freshly brewed tea, shouting: ‘Chai Masala, Chai Asali… Chai Kahawa!’ Leaving us to wonder what ‘Coffee’d-tea’ is all about?  🙂

Oh, but how quickly dreams crash and burn! 🙁 I barely got to have that ‘real, Kericho tea.’ Back when I was a tea-head, I’d have tasted every single cup of mixed tea I could find….

Unfortunately, we Kenyans have not perfected the art of making black tea, so I had to contend with Kericho Gold tea bags & hot water… that still counts right? 😀

 

My Take Home #ThisIsMyKenya

I could not help wondering if the residents of Kericho realize how blessed they are to live here…  Surrounded by all this beauty, does it ever get old?

 

A conversation with two residents, later confirmed that though they appreciate it, with time one gets ‘used to it’… Sound familiar? 😀

It makes sense- when you live and operate from one place, that place tends to lose its magic over time…

This further convinced me why we ought to adopt Local Travel in Kenya… It doesn’t have to be expensive or luxurious. Sometimes, it is as simple as a road-trip to the next county or as far as the border…

 

Whatever way you choose to explore, we all have the chance to find out what #ThisIsMyKenya means to us…. 🙂

 

You don’t have to be rich, to travel well ~Eugene Fodor

 

Kericho Traveler Tips:

• Look out for a post on ‘Where to Stay In Kericho’, coming soon!
• You may want to consider having a personal car to better explore Kericho, as most residents either walk, run or take motorbikes
• It gets very cold with high chances of rain in the evenings. Be sure to pack warm clothing, an umbrella and a sturdy pair of boots
• Look out for the Team Tri Fit Triathlon blog post, showcasing the people of Kericho, coming soon!

 

On our way back, listening to the soulful sounds of Emelie Sande, bathed in the endless splashes of green, I left a piece of my heart behind…

I felt ready to explore the rest of #ThisIsMyKenya, content with the knowledge that I had just experienced something magical. 🙂

 

It was a reminder, that this is how you should travel… in no hurry, without fixed plans…allowing yourself to feel, see & inhale the places you come upon, on your journeys. 🙂 #ThisIsMyKenya

 

Photography Credits:

Wanjiku Thuo

& Marion Mithamo

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Cheers to you for reading! 😀 I hope you enjoyed this post my friends! I love hearing from you! What does #ThisIsMyKenya mean to you?

Write me on the Comments’ section below, with questions, comments, input and feedback! I’ll be sure to respond! 😀

 

Lots of love and warm thoughts your way.

xx,

Marion.

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