August Chronicles: Karura Walk.

Welcome to The August Chronicles: Karura Walk! Walking is my chosen mode of exercise. If you’ve been following me on Instagram for a while, you know that I go for morning walks at Karura Forest every other weekend with a couple of friends. I took a break for a while due to the weather but since the rainy season is behind us and we’re just approaching the end of the cold season here, the environment is back to being conducive for the walks.

A Little About Karura Forest.

The Karura Forest Reserve is forest located on the outskirts of Nairobi. It’s perfect for a gentle stroll, aggressive run and even biking as the terrain is neither rough nor strenuous. In addition, it is beautiful and scenic which makes it great to explore. And explore we did!!

How This Walk Came About.

If you’re new to my site, you should probably know that I’m an avid crocheter. In crochet we have this term Crojo (Crochet Mojo). The thing about it is once in a while, someone loses their crojo, for various reasons. Over the past couple of days before the walk, I could feel my crojo slowly slipping away. It’s the worst feeling, knowing that forever how long, you’ll be stuck in a limbo of zero to negative motivation to do anything creative! Before I could start to panic, my sister suggested we go for a walk to Karura. I know what you’re thinking at this point… if walking helps, why not just go outside and walk???

Good question. The reason is because walking in the forest and walking anywhere else is quite different. The environment is much better at the forest. Not a lot of people are there, it scenic, quiet and allows you to actually think and without the clutter of visual and  physical noise. And because of these reasons, by the end of it, you actually feel rejuvenated!

The Good Stuff!

As I mentioned before, I hadn’t been to Karura in a while so we decided instead of doing the usual 10 km, we’d do 5 km instead. We planned on walking from the gate the the fields (KFEET), which is a distance of 1 km, doing 2 km in the forest, and rounding back with a 3 km route that would take us back to the gate. Simple 5 km. Oh, how we fooled ourselves!!!

How 5 Turned To 15!!!

We started out as planned, walked the 1 km to KFEET and continued into the forest. It was a glorious feeling to be back. And since we were doing 5 km, we didn’t even bother stretching. we just got in.

Don’t know how it happened (could be all the talking we were doing) but we somehow missed our turn. But the thing about Karura is it has a couple of turns and markings at intervals so we decided to go on and just take the next one. But since we weren’t paying much attention to the markings, we had no idea how far we were from the next one!

About an hour into the walk, my thighs and legs are burning and are so itchy and an endless path in front of us. Let me just say we walked for a while… And what happens when we see the next turn?? It’s been marked 5 km to the gate!!! Never! At this point, we’ve become one with the pain and are really enjoying the walk. We decide to go further in and turn when we absolutely feel we can’t take it anymore (not the best of ideas but we we’re high on nature!)

After a while, (yes, we lost all sense of time) we started hearing it! The Waterfall!!! Of course we had to take another detour.

From here, we were swamped enough to make our way back. That’s when we realized we used all the green markers when walking, which meant we walked the 15 km route!

I really wish I could capture the sound, smell and feel of this place.

Anyway, 15 or 5, I really enjoyed our time there. After which I felt energized, though a bit tired. And it’s safe to say Crojo is still at peak levels.

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That’s it from my Karura Walk. A little taste of Karura Forest. Enjoy it, hate it, love it? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to sign up for the newsletter to receive good stuff in your inbox fortnightly and updates on future posts before anyone else.