Hiking with kids @ Karura Forest

Can you hike with kids? If what we did can be called hiking, yes you can! But let me tell you something, when we got into our car after somewhere around 15-20kms of hiking, our legs were shaking. And that's me saying, who runs and works-out 4-5 days a week! But hiking with kids not only physically drains you, it drains you emotionally as well!!!

At one point my husband said "Zeynep, do we have to see the waterfalls? I think I have seen enough already!" Ok, let me give him a credit, he came from Tanzania on a 5am flight the same day. And poor man, with only 2 hours of sleep, just to make me happy, he was there to hike tons of kilometres with two children!!! ) At some point carrying our 3 yrs. old through steep steps!! Since it was weeks a go I planned to see Karura Forest waterfall, I told him " we walked 2 hrs with two children, we gotta see it and I am not going back!" I sometimes wonder if I am too demanding!!!:)

Karura Forest is place to visit if you want to get a fresh air, and walk shoulder to shoulder with baboons! While we were entering the forest, there were couple baboons following us with just few steps back!
Karura Forest has few entrances, we used the entrance on Kiambu Road, so we started from "Family Trail". After few kms of walking we had two options, either going on left or right, since there were no signs, with much of our daughter's resistance we chose to go left side!!! Somewhere after an hour walk with so sign of waterfall, we came across of locals and asked them the way to waterfall, there they showed us where we came from! Well, sometimes you gotta listen your children's naive instinct!! So, we had to go back all the way back with 10 more kilometres hiking uphill! Right there, our son decided to run and walk by himself, something triggered him, probably felt bad for us who have been pushing his bugaboo for hours!  Our little man walked and run by himself until we finally reached waterfall sign! Have I mentioned our daughter was biking, lucky her! She was biking downhill, and we were the ones pushing her bike uphill!!!

After three hours of walking, running and pushing stroller and a bike, we arrived! Let me tell you, it was all worth it! Seriously. Waterfall is located close to Muthaiga entrance. To reach there, you have to walk down through the steps, first you reach the caves, if you follow the small trail that will take you waterfalls. The walk path is very serene surrounding by huge trees, may be hundred years old, and caves go so deep. I could have just sit there and listen water falls on the big rocks, away from the noisy and polluted streets and roads. There were many tourists, and locals or dog walkers around, all enjoying the lovely scenery. Our kids were so amazed, they loved it!

Karura Forest offers many options to visitors, hiking, biking (you can even rent), horse riding, bird watching, walking and jogging. You can safely walk with your children. We felt very safe. There are 5, 10 and 15 kms trails available. Make sure to follow the signs, otherwise you can get lost easily, nothing to be scared of, but if you do not want to walk around for hours hopelessly make sure to pay attention. There is a very little entrance fee, 200ksh for residents.

If you have time, make sure to visit this amazing forest, and enjoy a restful and quite day.
For more information, visit http://www.friendsofkarura.org