:: A visit to the Haller Park
28 March 2007

Owen and Mzee leave Haller park...

Haller Park is a place that used to be a Bamburi quarry but was converted into a nature trail for the public to enjoy. The place was officially opened in 1984 by some dude called H.E. Daniel Arap Moi if the stone not far from the reception is anything to go by. I took a matatu to Bamburi and got off at the Park which is just past Nakumatt Nyali. I paid my Kshs200 at the gate and checked in. It took a while to find the reception but the signs were pretty decent.

As soon as I was at the reception, I demanded to see Owen and Mzee. For those not in the know, Owen and Mzee are two of the strangest animals on the planet. They were a hippo (Owen) and a Tortoise (Mzee) who had this weird friendship. They would spend time together all the time. I was there to see this wonderful pair I had been seeing for the better part of last year as one NTV journalist after the other came and did a feature with Paula Kahumbu who works with Bamburi. This weird pair is so popular a book largely about them was on the New York best seller lists. Being in Mombasa, I took advantage to see this amazing couple. After all this has to the most dysfunctional couple since the lioness and the Oryx she kept adopting. Or Wambui Otieno and poor Mbugua. Or Ned and Stacy .

As I demanded to see the strange phenomenon, the dude there politely informed me that they had been separated. What the bleep? When did they do this heinous act? How could they separate such a great couple before I came to see it with my own eyes? Apparently, they were separated this past December. The grounds for this enforced divorce were that Owen had big teeth and might snap of Mzee's tiny head. And they needed to be integrated into their own species as well. I was bitterly disappointed I tell you. If you are going down to the Haller Park here some FYI; the Owen and Mzee tag team is no more. Maybe they will come back another day like D-Generation X came back in Wrestling. Or maybe not. With heavy heart I enquired what else was on offer at this place. I was surprised when I was informed that there were several animals to be viewed apart for the hippo tortoise tag team. I was told where to go (Miros aren't taken around I guess) and started running around the Haller park as you do.

The first thing I ran into was this humongous tortoise. As I was advised, I tickled him (or her) under the chin and the animal that was lying down stood up and poked out his/her head. What a rush that was. I was pretty confident seeing as I was dealing with a tortoise. If it was say a lion or buffalo, who knows what would have become of either my hand or whole neck god forbid. Around the tortoise were these monkeys that kept following me around with some very pitiful/harsh looks on their faces that reminded me of the chokoras of the old days.  They wanted me to feed them. Me who has problems feeding myself sometimes. Shindwe!

Next I ran into several crocodile pens. One had around thirty baby crocodiles. Another had albino crocs. And there was a place where I could see the real live to goodness grown crocs. Those are extremely huge dangerous creatures and I was comforted there were a fence and several feet between me and those scary looking animals. I walked around the pen and saw them sun themselves as they opened their mouths for air conditioning I could only assume.

From the croc haven, I used a very leafy shrub full route out toward the game sanctuary (yes there was more). This route was so peaceful and nature lovers amongst us would have been in cloud nine. Butterflies fluttered around the place, a lizard ran across my path. It was nature at its finest. Pretty and safe - nothing that would want to eat me - what more could one ask.

As I made my way to the game sanctuary, I passed by some huge tanks that had tilapia and some catfish in them. The game sanctuary was pretty cool. Its not a place for "The Game" (either wrestler or rapper ) to hang out as opposed to wild game to chill. And there were quite a few animals in that section of the park. There were several wild geese, the odd crested crane, hippos and more. Off course the most remarkable of these animals for me was the Eland. The Eland belongs to the antelope family and is the biggest one in it. They are huge! They are like the (Raila) hummer of the antelope family. It was a blessing to see such large creatures.

I took a short seat, lay down and watched these Gods creatures and thought about life and where we are heading. I wondered if Arsenal will ever will the UEFA champions league and what I will be doing when it happens. And why there was such a stampede in Kenyan media circles to work for citizen TV. And which man was funnier M or Arseblog. It was a nice time. I was lying down meditating when this marabou stork passed by my head looking at me and wondering what’s up with this human Miro. That time I realised that I had been there way too long. So I left passing by this reptile area where there were several snakes and lizard like animals.

It was a great couple of hours I spent at the Haller park and I highly recommend it if you are in Mombasa and have a few hours. They feed animals in the latter parts of the day apparently. I missed these as I had to head to the Kenyatta public beach and get a camel ride. And walk barefoot on the beach. Nothing beats walking barefoot on a nice sandy beach.

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