Sports Events in Kenya

Local kenyan teams play soccer around town, but the best place to see them is Nyayo Stadium off of Jogoo Rd. Nyayo is big and for around 200 Ksh you can get into a local match. The main teams that everyone here seems to rave about are the Mathare Stars and Mumia's Sugar Lions. Make sure you get there early (around 5pm) to get a good seat. The season usually starts in November and runs till January.

Equipment: It might be good to bring small binoculars and a camera if you are going. Nosebleed seats are not really high, but can make for poor viewing.

After I had chosen my camel, I looked in its eyes and tried to have a good conversation about the strategy of the upcoming race. I found out, that I was one of the few people with some experience in camelriding. So, that could be an advantage, I thought.

Before the race started, we got an explanation. We had to make three rounds, rounding trees and other signs in three different directions. Each time we came back to the entrance of the lodge we had to descend from our camel, take a drink, go up again and make the next round.

Maralal is internationally known because of its annual world famous camelrace. In the second weekend of August spectators from all over the world come to Maralal. The Yare Safaris Maralal Lodge is the lively central point, from where the races will start.

The camelrace is inaugurated in 1990 as a sporting event. All kind of visitors come to Maralal, like people from the neighbouring farming communities, ranchers, school groups, but also international press and television crews and adventureous people from all over the world.

There are races for professionals, semi-professionnals and amateurs. You can try it you self. Allready amateurs from about 30 countries participated in the races. I saw also some Dutch particpants.

When we were in Maralal in march 2004 we had a camelrace just for fun.

Equipment: It's possible to hire a camel in Maralal.

Between November and March you can nearly get a guarantee that you will see at least one whale shark when you dive, at least in the area around Mombasa. I stayed North of Mombasa, but South should be just the same.

As we stayed in one of the African Safari Club hotels on Shanzu Beach, we booked our dives in this base of baracudadiving and everything worked very well.

Equipment: It's not needed to take your own equipment with you, but I prefer to do it. So only the tank and the weight was rented and everything else I brought with me. With diving luggage you should ask your travel agent for a special overweight, we had 15 kg per person.

For a completely different perspective of the game, try a balloon safari. From your lofty viewpoint up in the sky (usually around 100m high), you have a fantastic view of the plains below, and the animals that inhabit it.

You leave your lodge around 5.30 am, setting out for the launch site. The basket we were in held 16 people in four different compartments, and the pilot turned the basket around several times during the flight so that you were not always at the back or the front.

You take off before the sun has risen, and watching the sunrise from the balloon is quite something.

The animals may still be asleep, as was the case of a large herd of buffalo we saw. Whilst still drifting, you make no noise whatsoever, but as soon as the pilot turns the burner on, the animals will wake up and make a run for it! It is great to see 200 buffalo stampeding across the savannah!

You are usually aloft for around an hour, depending on how strong the wind is. We headed towards the Tanzanian border and were lucky that the wind was only very slight, so we were able to stay up a little longer. You are not allowed to cross the border, and the pilot has to find a suitable place for landing.

Our balloon had a small seat to perch your bottom on during the landing (this is the first time I have seen that), as it can be quite bumpy and the basket may turn over on its side.

If you get the chance, take a guided nature walk, as there is so much to learn from the people who live in harmony with the land.

A nature walk is not so much a big game safari as an educational walk, where you will learn about the flora and fauna and how these are utilised by the people.

Maralal is internationally known because of its annual world famous camelrace. In the second weekend of August spectators from all over the world come to Maralal. The Yare Safaris Maralal Lodge is the lively central point, from where the races will start.

The camelrace is inaugurated in 1990 as a sporting event. Recently also cycle races are added. All kind of visitors come to Maralal, like people from the neighbouring farming communities, ranchers, school groups, but also international press and television crews and adventureous people from all over the world.

There are races for professionals, semi-professionnals and amateurs. You can try it you self. Allready amateurs from about 30 countries participated in the races. I saw also some Dutch particpants.

Equipment: It's possible to hire a camel in Maralal.

You can go to Central Island in the lake by boat. These boats are not like the boats you would expect, or want them to be.
Knowing that the biggest population of worlds largest crocodiles lives here, makes you feel slightly uneasy. And big they are, monsters !
A few tourists asked themselfes why the Turkana boatmen were scooping water so often. When they looked over the side of the boat they could see the dark, 6 to 7 meter, shadows of the crocs beneath their boat. then they decided to scoop as well.