At the height of the Covid pandemic a few years ago, when Kiki and I were dreaming of travel to Kenya, we became fixated with the Lets Drift Instagram account, which depicted the hiking adventures of young Kenyans in the gorgeous landscapes of their own country.
For me, the appeal of the Let’s Drift narratives wasn’t some exotic vision of a distant country: It was the utterly relatable vision of young people enjoying outdoor adventures in their own country’s wildernesses. It evoked the excitement I felt exploring places like Colorado and Vermont when I was myself in my twenties and thirties.
I began to follow the Let’s Drift Instagram not simply as a fellow traveler, but as a fan of what these young Africans were doing.
When Kiki and I finally got a chance to visit Kenya last summer, our first activity the day after landing in Nairobi was joining a Let’s Drift hike through the waterfall studded landscape of Kahunira.
In addition to enjoying a part of rural Kenya most outsiders never visit, we met an amazing cohort of Kenyans who’ve embraced hiking as a chance to escape the urban confines of Nairobi for the day, meet like-minded hikers, and get a peripatetic workout in a beautiful landscape.
Along the way, Kiki got her first-ever taste of ugali and nyama choma (as seen here with her hiking buddy Ruth Njeri Kuria); I talked global and Kenyan politics as I hiked the trail with lawyer @marcchirchir; and we enjoyed our hiking guide, @wangoalfred, so much that we took one of his Nairobi walking/art tours later that week.
Let’s Drift is the brainchild of @iamalexkamau, and interviewing him and his collaborator @drifting_philosopher near their workspace in central Nairobi helped me realize that the future of global travel is inseparable from the young visionaries who can appreciate how travel enhances our everyday lives, and find ways to create communities that embrace it, both close to home and beyond.
My long-form article about Let’s Drift is taking shape – keep an eye out for it down the line!
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.
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