Mt. Kenya is over 17,000 ft. high. It has three peaks: Batian, Nelian and Lenana - in order of descending height. The biggest challenge of getting to Lenana is altitude. Batian and Nelian require technical climbing. Mt. Kenya is a national park and a truly wild place - with roaming lion and elephant. The micro-climate created by the mountain makes the town of Nanyuki, nestled at its base, a wonderful place to live.
This past weekend, I led 8 women on a yoga retreat in this area and, as you can see from the above photo, the mountain presided over us quite clearly. (And I mean this literally for it is very normal for the peaks to peek out of cloud in the morning and then disappear for the whole day.) For three days, we did yoga, meditation, ate amazing food, chatted, swam and got massages with the mountain shining before us.
One wonders if this might be why the retreat was so fun and meaningful for us all. The mountain certainly played its role. So did Mukima, the gorgeous private house we were in. Mukima was built in the 1930s by an English brigadier who ran a big cattle ranch all around it. Leslie Duckworth has now restored the house to become the perfect blend of old elegance and perfect comfort: in other words, it has great energy!
The theme of the weekend was: "When the winds of change begin to blow, some people build walls, other people build windmills."
Our day went like this:
...Guided meditation at 7:30 followed by yoga on the veranda. Breakfast on the veranda, with home made jams, meusli and yogurt as well as virtually anything else one might fancy. The chunk of freee time after breakfast was spent by the pool and having massage and other treatments. We gathered under a beautiful Yellow Fever Tree to discuss some ideas around the theme and then returned to our shaded veranda for a delicious lunch: lots of different salads, home made pate' and freshly baked foccaccia. As the heat of the day cooled, we took a walk around Mukima's lake, home to some of Africa's best birds: Crowned Cranes, Spur-winged Geese, Sacred Ibis, Egrets, Yellow Billed Ducks and more. Afterwards, in a grove of trees with the dappled light of early evening, we did walking meditation followed by yoga class - and dance.... The last part of the day was spent on the upstairs deck facing The Mountain as the sun went down. We were all in great spirits for a great dinner and a cozy chat by the roaring fire.
It was Yoga on Safari and it was so much more.
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