Conference Excursions
The Conference Organising Committee would like to inform participants that registration for the Conference Dinner and all Conference Excursions is now closed.
1. General Information
1.1. Introduction
The conference will offer two types of excursions: a one-day excursion as an official part of the conference; and a three days excursion after the conference has been concluded. Both offer the conference participants choices from a rich range of routes designed to respond to as many proposed conference themes as possible. The route information below provides only an overview of the itinerary. More information revealing the exact details, including the main stops and focus of discussions during the trip, etc., will be provided in due course.
1.2. Logistics and Registration
Participants will use pooled transport of different carrying capacities ranging between 7, 22, and 33. Whether or not the designed route will take place depends mainly on the number of participants registering for each route. The most economical bus capacity is the 33 seater, representing the threshold number of participants for a route to materialise. However, should a route have only 7 registering participants, we will consider using the 7 seater min-bus on condition that the 7 participants will agree to top up the shortfall, which will be communicated after the final analysis, shortly before the conference starts.
1.2. Payments
Each participant will meet the cost of their participation in the field excursion depending on the route they go for. The Conference will provide details of an online payment platform for all field excursion payments. The conference will refund any unused monies from pre- or post-excursion cancellations or savings. Participants shall be advised of the deadline for pre-excursion cancellation to qualify for a refund.
2. Excursion Plans
2.1 One-Day In-conference Excursions
The one-day excursions will be organised to make a complete loop as it comes to terminating at the day’s end. Four excursion loops emphasising different thematic orientations, in the context of the commons, around the city of Nairobi and its diverse hinterland, have been designed to offer exciting scenic landscapes through different conference themes with the aim of stimulating animated discussions among the participants.
Excursion loop 1
This loop takes participants through the Ngong hills Wind Power Project west of Nairobi. It proceeds to the northern plains of Kajiado County, the home of the pastoralist Masai community spreading further into neighbouring Tanzania. The excursion loop gets back to Nairobi through the Kitengela-Athi River Nairobi corridor.
Transport and water for both residents and non-residents will cost USD 30 per participant. Participants registering for this route will be expected to arrange for packed lunches from their respective hotels.
Excursion loop 2
This loop is within the Nairobi City (CBD/SLUMS) and Nairobi National Park – Nairobi. Known as the safari capital of Africa, Nairobi is an energetic, modern city that serves as a fascinating landscape of both wildlife and bustling human-life full of activity.
This loop is designed to expose the participants to this unique mix of urbanscape and wildlife by exploring routes that reveal the different urban settlement densities starting with the Kibera slums – almost at the edge of the neighbouring Nairobi National Park hosting a fascinating range of wildlife like the black rhinos and zebras among many others.
Transport, including water, lunch, and park entry fee for non-residents, will cost USD 65 per participant. For residents, it will be USD 55.
Excursion loop 3
This loop shall take participants through the recently completed Thika Superhighway linking Nairobi with the rapidly industrialising Thika town. The Nairobi – Thika Super Highway Corridor has witnessed dramatic landscape transformation in less than 20 years. The loop will proceed north to pass through the large-scale pineapple plantations by Delmont and the commercial forestry by Kakuzi before turning eastwards through the densely populated smallholder farming community of Muranga and Machakos Counties. The loop links back to Nairobi through the Thika – Garissa road.
Transport and water for residents and non-residents will cost USD 15 per participant. Participants registering for this route will be expected to arrange for packed lunches from their respective hotels.
Excursion loop 4
This loop will run along the Nairobi – Mombasa Super Highway through the sub-urban satellites of Mulolongo, Athi River and Chumvi, and turn at the Konza techno-city into Machakos before heading back to Nairobi through Mua Hills and Kangundo subcounty headquarters. Participants will appreciate the rapid and fascinating processes of urban sprawl and some of the most important changes arising from recent and ongoing mega infrastructure investments like the Standard Gauge Railway connecting Nairobi and Mombasa, and the techno-city at Konza.
Transport and water for residents and non-residents will cost USD 18 per participant. Participants registering for this route will be expected to arrange for packed lunches from their respective hotels.
2.2 Post Conference Excursions
The post-conference trips are organised to allow the participants to visit some of the historical commons spread across the country, some that still stand against all pressures and others that have been or are being transformed into other uses. Participants will also experience the rich diversity of Kenya’s tourist landscapes. Adequate time is allocated to allow extensive travel into the countryside: four trips will be organised: two routes will allocate two days each, and the other two will require three days.
Route 1 to the Great Rift Valley (2 days)
Departure date 25/06/2023 and return 26/06/2023 @7PM East African time
This route takes the participants to a tour to the Great Rift Valley and its breath taking features observed from the vantage viewpoints as you start the descent into the floor. Participants of this route will have the opportunity to visit some of the most spectacular of these features like the Mt Longonot, Lakes Naivasha, Nakuru and Baringo that are home to the famous flamingos. The entire Rift Valley, spreading from Lake Turkana to the north through to Kajiado to the south was once (over 100 years ago) a continuous grazing area for the pastoralist Masai. At the time the pastoralists moved from north to south (and back) following the rains, accessing dry season grazing areas as the seasons dictated. These movements have since been curtailed: the pastoralist communities are now confined in clusters of smaller drier zones to the south and north while the high potential central parts have over the years been transformed into large scale commercial ranches and farms.
The total cost for this route is USD 466 for non-residents and USD 295 for residents per participant and shall cover transport, Half Board accommodation, packed lunch for day 2, and entry fees for the two National Parks.
Route 2 to the Seven Folks (2 days)
Departure date 25/06/2023 and return 26/06/2023 @7PM East African time
This route takes two days and one night and shall start with a north-eastern orientation for about 40 km before turning northwards to cross the longest river in Kenya, the Tana River that feeds the seven folks dams downstream. Participants of this route will visit the Mwea Irrigation Scheme, one of the largest rice-growing areas in Kenya, and proceed to the Masinga, Kaburu, and Gitaru hydroelectricity dams downstream. The irrigation schemes and the dams largely depend on the waters from the Tana River catchment that drain the eastern slopes of Mt Kenya. The dams also regulate water flow to the drier arid and semi-arid lowlands in the counties of Machakos, Kitui, Garissa, and Tana River. Water (a common resource) use activities upstream have a direct impact on the livelihoods of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in these lowland countries.
The total cost for this route is USD 220 for non-residents and USD 100 for residents per participant and shall cover only transport and Bed & Breakfast accommodation. Participants registering for this route will be expected to meet the cost of dinner and packed lunch for day two.
Route 3 to the larger Mt Kenya region (3 days)
Departure date 25/06/2023 and return 27/06/2023 @7PM East African time
This route will have three days and two nights. It shall explore the Nairobi – Mt Kenya – Isiolo corridor, taking the participants to one of the most thrilling scenes found in Kenya: Mt Kenya, the highest mountain in the country, and the Ewaso Ngiro north basin with its spectacular Laikipia plateau and vast lowlands of Samburu and Isiolo – all home to a high mix of pastoral communities including the Masai, Borana, Turkana, Somali and the Rendille. The first night will be spent at the Aberdare Country Club and the second at the Sarova Shaba Game Lodge.
The highlands are part of the Kenya highlands predominantly under large-scale commercial ranching and farming with a belt of smallholder farmers predominantly the Kikuyu and Meru communities. The region is known for its long history of socioecological changes impacting heavily on the lifestyles of pastoralist communities due to declining natural resources base affecting the availability of water and pasture to sustain their basic source of livelihood, pastoralism. Major changes continue to manifest in this region through the most recent mega investments like the LAPSSET corridor and the introduction of new conservation models, the so-called community conservancies seen to hold the solution to sustainable management of pastoral rangelands.
The total cost for this route is USD 605 for non-residents and USD 330 for residents per participant and shall cover transport, Half Board accommodation, and packed lunch for days 2 & 3, as well as entry fees for the Buffalo Springs Game Reserve.
Route 4 to the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro (3 days)
Departure date 25/06/2023 and return 27/06/2023 @7PM East African time
This route will have 3 days and 2 nights and shall take a southern orientation through the Kajiado plains into the Amboseli National Park on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, another region hosting one of the historical commons shared between Kenya and Tanzania.
The total cost for this route is USD 585 for non-residents and USD 430 for residents per participant and shall cover transport, Half Board accommodation, and packed lunch for days 2 & 3, as well as entry fees for the National Parks.
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