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Taking a walk in a sacred forest
I have been to many forests before. A sacred forest though? This was my first experience. It was a great one and I hope you get to try it out too one day.
My Airbnb host at Diani Beach, Kenya, had included a guided walk in a sacred forest as one of the paid sightseeing options and I took it up. A tuk tuk driver picked me up and drove via the small roads with potholes to bring me to the sacred forest.
Sacred forest
Initially, I was struck by the young walking tour guide’s serious mannerism. I know it is a sacred forest but does it warrant such a solemn facial expression from him? On hindsight, he just needed time to warm up to the visitor. His motivation behind giving guided walks of Kaya Kinondo to tourists like me is to spread awareness of his community and culture.
The forest is considered sacred because the village elderly believe that it has supernatural connections. In a positive way spiritually and not in terms of scary ghosts or zombies. The guide highlighted that nobody should leave trash or take anything from the forest.
The tour started off with each person wrapping a piece of black cloth around the waist before stepping into the forest respectfully. I asked if the cloth must be black in color. Apparently, another color works too.
