The bridge (left) has become an integral part of the identity of Rolf’s Place. FILE
There can be few more dramatic ways of arriving at a hotel than by crossing a deep gorge on a suspended rope bridge, which would hold its own in any Indiana Jones movie.
In Nairobi, it’s a reality, thanks to the engineering project by one hotel to make its facilities easier to reach, by connecting it, across a gorge, to a local access road.
For visitors to Rolf’s Place, near Nairobi National Park, the long, swaying bridge now welcomes visitors to a hotel that sits fortress-like on the cliff edge.
The exhilarating and nerve-racking walk across the gorge sees children revelling in running across the rope bridge, making it sway, as less enthusiastic mothers slowly inch their way across, tightly gripping the sides, and ‘not looking down’.
The access route to the hotel has come to serve as an attraction in itself, but on a clear day, it also provides panoramic views of Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Kenya and the Ngong Hills.
Easy access Completed three years ago after a structural engineering company drilled into the rock on either side of the 60m gorge and used 10 cables to aid the three-month construction process, the bridge has negated the need to make a long journey on many kilometres of dirt track to reach the hotel, and made access to Rolf’s Place infinitely easier. Owner Rolf Schmid credits the bridge, which cost Sh4m, with bringing more people to the serene spot.
“It has a wondrous streak in it,” he said. “We’ve already had over 30,000 people walk over it.”
Schmid says that such bridges have become popular, especially in his area, due to their practicality and originality.
“Even my neighbour has got one.
People love it; we definitely have more people visiting now as a result of it.” Practical, but also brilliantly authentic, the bridge has quickly become a critical part of the identity of Rolf’s Place, talked about just as much as the accommodation or setting.
Local communities
Yet it is not just tourists that are feeling the benefit of rope bridges in improving access in remote areas.
An organisation called Bridging The Gap (BTG) has built over 50 pedestrian bridges for communities in marginalised parts of the country, making rivers and ravines passable and improving access to education and healthcare.
Funded through donations, the most-recently completed project was at Losiijo, where not long before three men had died trying to cross the busy river.
“Walking across a flooded, infested river is dangerous or impossible,” said BTG Board Member Kelley Rehm on her personal blog. “Bridges lead to health, education, opportunity.” A crucial bridge can be built for as little as $10,000 (Sh900,000), greatly helping local communities, she said.
Diani Beach
Rope bridges are also helping conservation efforts, as well as humanitarian causes. Drivers using the highway to Diani Beach on the south coast will notice 20 rope bridges swinging over the highway, often with a monkey looking down at passing vehicles.
Here, the bridges are being used in an attempt to save the rare Angolan black and white Colobus monkey.
Found in the Diani Forest, numbers of the endangered monkeys have been steadily falling for years, with hundreds lost to road accidents.
This has prompted teams of volunteers to build so-called colobridges made of cable, rubber and plastic between trees, sparing the monkeys potentially fatal dashes across busy roads.
This is similar to a technique adopted in the UK, where small rope bridges were erected across roads to allow red squirrels to cross particularly lethal stretches of road.
The idea has also been exported to Australia to help protect possums, squirrel gliders and other arboreal species.
The Colobus Trust, responsible for the project, reports that around 150,000 primates use the 28 bridges each year.
Unlike the bridge at Rolf’s Place, however, which is sturdy and in need of only occasional repairs, the smaller monkey bridges need repair and tightening on a weekly basis, meaning the volunteers’ job is never done.
The bridges cost $400 each (roughly Sh36,000) and straddle the highway to Diani Beach between popular trees for the monkeys on either side of the road.
The trust has also launched efforts to educate drivers in the area, putting up signs warning motorists to watch their speed.
“We do education programmes to educate people, especially those who own hotels around, on how to treat the monkeys,” said Andrew Hayes, Assistant Manager at the Colobus Trust.
It was not automatic for the monkeys to start using the bridges, however.
Naturally shy, they ignored them for a while, only venturing across them once the more inquisitive Sykes and Velvet monkeys had shown them the way.
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