27th KINABALU CLIMBATHON 2013

More than 500 runners from all over the world including locals participated in the 27th Mount Kinabalu Climbathon International event.Deemed “the World’s Toughest Mountain Race”, it is the ultimate challenge to take for those who are game enough to test their endurance by running up and down Mount Kinabalu for a total distance of more than 20 km. This year, the main challenge races were the the 33 km Elite and the 23 km Adventure race for both men and women.  

 

Kenya's Carolyne Jepkosgei Chepkwony won the Women's Open with a time of 3 hours and 13 minutes. Another Kenyan, Viola Jepchirchir Kimeli took the 2nd place in 3 hours and 21 minutes while Nigerian Genevive Uchechi Nkoju finished 3rd clocking 3 hours and 36 minutes.

 

For the Elite men's open race, David Simpat, a local took the 1st place, reaching the 4095 m summit in 2 hours,11 minutes and finished the race in 4 hours and 12 minutes. Dai Matsumo, a professional athlete from Japan who won the Mount Fuji race this year, took the 2nd place with  4 hours and 18 minutes. A Sabah Park Ranger, Safrey Sumping took the 3rd place finishing in 4 hours and 25 minutes.

Ruth Charlotte Croft, 24 from New Zealand won the Elite women's open in 5 hours, 24 minutes. The 2nd place went to a Sabahan, Kuilin Gongot, 47, who clocked 5 hours and 57 minutes while a Swiss runner, Nora Barbara Senn, 38, took the 3rd place with 6 hours and 11 minutes.

Guainus, retained his Men’s Veteran champion title while his wife Kona@Lydia Liau won  2nd  place in the Women's Veteran category. A very strong husband and wife team!

Three Kenyans, Enock Kipchirchir Kigen, 24, Stephen Daniel Kariithi Kuria, 32, and Nelson Kiptoo, 24, took the top three spots in the Men’s Open category . Kigen clocked in at 2 hour and 28 minutes followed by Kuria at 2 hours and 30 minutes and Nelson at 2 hours 33 minutes.

The 27th Mount Kinabalu Climbathon was a huge success. I hope more runners will participate in the 28th event in 2014.   

KENYA SAFARI TOUR - AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK.

It's 6 hours drive from from Lake Nakuru to Amboseli National Park. The landscape changed  from the green Nakuru to the dusty Amboseli. The last 45 kms was terrible. The road was so rough and dusty making the ride so uncomfortable with dust filing the cabin. I had to take a shower immediately on arrival at the lodge.

While waiting for our driver to register with the warden, a group of desperate locals, tried to sell their crafts to us.

During our game drive, we saw some small tornadoes like these...a common sight in Amboseli National park.  

The magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro, the Africa's highest mountain standing at 5,895 meters above sea level. There was very little snow on the peak. We were told that the snow which used to cover the summit had melted gradually over the recent years due to global warming.

Our first sighting was this spotted hyena also known as the laughing hyena.

 

A lone warthog.

This park has many elephants like this one grazing the grass in the swamp. 

Kori bustards are found in dry habitats such as savannas, grasslands and semi-deserts.

This "Kori bustards", the largest bird that fly in the savannas. 

 Returning to our accommodation at sunset.

 

  Comfortable, spacious and  well decorated.

The next morning, we were up early at dawn for our game drive.

These zebras were early too.

 

 Beautiful sunrise in the savannah grassland.

 

We passed a herd of elephants.

They were digging for roots.

2 spotted Hyenas returning to their den after a night outing.

We were lucky and spotted these two cheetahs.

They were very cautious and walked slowly near the bushes.

  It looked like this cheetah was going for the wildebeests.

 

We waited, but there was no action. Our guide told us that these two cheetahs were brothers and they were not hunting, but patrolling their territory.  

The sighting of the Cheetahs had attracted a long line of safari vehicles.

I did not really like the game drive in Amboseli as it was dry and dusty. The only consolation we got, was seeing the Cheetahs. During the 10 days Kenya Safari, we have seen most of the animals except the leopard. We were also unlucky for not being able to see any stand-off between the predators and the preys especially the lions and the cape buffaloes.   

Overall, the 10 days spent in Kenya was satisfactory. I hope to come back one day and catch the big migration. The safari tour was value for money and once in a life time experience.   

Kori bustards are found in dry habitats such as savannas, grasslands and semi-deserts.

Kori bustards are found in dry habitats such as savannas, grasslands and semi-deserts.

A GLIMPSE AT THE BACK STREETS OF NAIROBI CITY.

On our way from Lake Nakuru to Amboseli National park, we passed through some streets in Nairobi city. This gave me an opportunity to have a glimpse of the streets and the people. Our guide told us to keep our small bags especially our cameras out of sight and have all doors locked. There were many eyes staring at us as our vehicle moved through the streets. I managed to take some pictures with my small digital camera from the side window of our van.  

 It's amazing to see many people walking in the streets on a weekday.

 

 I did not see any foreigners but the "Kenyans".

The buses were old but brightly painted. There were also many mini vans

A bus with a full load.

According to our guide, Noirobi has a population of about 3 million. The area we passed through were considered the back streets of the city. We were told that Nairobi was one of the largest and most interesting city in Africa and a city that never "sleep". I just wonder if it was safe to go around the city on foot especially at night. 

KENYA SAFARI TOUR - LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK - GAME DRIVE

After breakfast, we headed for Nakuru National Park, about 25 minutes from Sunbird lodge. On arrival, we found many parts of the park were flooded and some of the roads were inaccessible. Luckily, our driver knew the area well and took an alternate route to explore the park. 

Flamingos were once the main attraction of Lake Nakuru National Park. They have migrated to Lake Simbi Nyaima and other lakes in Western Kenya according to our guide.  

 

There were only a few hundred left in the lake. We were told that most of the flamingos have left because of the reduction in their food supply. The high water levels had reduced the salinity of water in the lake thereby reducing algae, the main food for flamingos.  

 

 There was quite a number of of Cape buffaloes all over the park.

 A territorial male with the Impala herd.

 The territorial male.   

 Lake Nakuru was established as a national Rhino sanctuary in 1984.

   A solitary Rhino

A giraffe feeding in the bush.

Makalia waterfall.

It's muddy water!

An exciting moment when we saw the "King" for the first time.  

The "King" was partly hidden in the bush but I managed to snap these pictures when it turned to look our way..

Picnic lunch at Baboon cliff. This was our "Nissan" safari van.

Overlooking the Nakuru lake from from the cliff.

A male baboon was patiently waiting for food. Our guide warned us not to give any left over as it might become aggressive and dangerous.

A mother and her baby.

A colourful lizard.

We continued our drive to the lake area to take a closer look at the water birds and buffaloes!

This pair of lovely Yellow-billed storks

Flamingos at close range.

This one was trying to probe the muddy bottom for snails, worms, small fish.

A beautiful baby staying close to the mother.

We were lucky again! On our last leg of the drive, we spotted these lions taking shelter under a tree.

They did not even move as our vehicle moved nearer to them. I guess they have had a good meal. 

Lake Nakuru is a beautiful park. If not for the high levels of water with some roads which were not accessible, we could have seen more wildlife and perhaps, the leopard.