Africa Series – Part 5
The Journey Begins!
We started our month-long adventure in Nairobi, having completed the 2-leg flight from the UK, via Dubai.
First impressions weren’t great as we stood in the immigration queue for 90 minutes. It was a warm, stuffy place and the queue was a battle! Other passengers didn’t seem to have the same ‘personal space’ values as we do!
When we finally made it through, we took a taxi from one of the stands inside the airport. Here our online research really paid off. We discovered that this was much cheaper than the any pre-arranged transfers offered by the hotel/G Adventures.
What an eye-opening taxi journey , especially having come from the super-clean Dubai! Nairobi is an extremely busy city! As you would imagine for a developing nation, it’s quite dirty and polluted! They don’t have the same stringent health and safety rules we see in the UK. The roads are best described as chaotic!
Our taxi driver was brilliant, keeping us safe, whilst also giving us a summary of the highlights as we passed through. There was plenty of time for this, as the traffic seems to be bad 24/7 in Nairobi!
We finally arrived at our hotel and checked in. After a long journey, we didn’t fancy venturing out into the unknown of Nairobi so we ate at the hotel restaurant. The food was reasonable, if a little over-priced at $35.50 (~£28) for both of us. Mr Way did have steak and a beer though, as it was also his Birthday!!
Day of Activities
We had already decided what we wanted to do the next day, based on TripAdvisor reviews!
We wanted to visit the Giraffe Centre, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and Bomas of Kenya! We knew this would require a driver so obtained a quote from the hotel reception. The price seemed reasonable so we made our arrangements.
Shortly after, we overheard another group booking on to the same trip minus the Bomas of Kenya stop. We got chatting and realised they would be on our G Adventures trip too! They had got a reasonable discount on our price by being quite firm with their negotiations. Tip: Always remember to barter!
Giraffe Centre – Entry Fee $15 (~£12) Each
The next morning we all set off for the Giraffe Centre. This was a fun experience of observing and feeding the giraffes. We also watched on amused as the staff tried to stop them copulating in front of visitors (many of which were young school children)!!
We were provided with bags of food. The giraffes were happy to eat from our hands – or mouths if you desired! However, we avoided this – they are very gentle creatures but quite slobbery!
The aim of this project is to revive the Rothschild Giraffe species. They bring up the young giraffes in the centre and eventually release them into the wild. We felt happy to support such a positive project. The animals seemed very happy, especially the dominant male, who had a very jolly time….
Having seen Giraffe Manor on the Amazing Hotels TV series, it was interesting to see the hotel in the background. Although, having looked at the prices to stay there, this photo is as close as we’ll be getting!!
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – Entry Fee $5 (~£4) Each
Next up was the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. This has a strict 1 hour opening per day, at 11am. It can get very busy, with the queue building from before 10am. Thankfully, our taxi driver was got us there at the right time, so when we made it inside we had front row views.
We were introduced to 11 orphaned/injured elephants. We watch them feed from giant milk bottles and lark around in the mud!
Throughout the visit, the staff informed us of the history of the elephants. They explained how they re-integrate them into national parks when they are old enough and/or healed.
Again, we were very happy to support this type of project. The work they do in helping orphaned elephants and rhinos is fantastic. Their activities extend far beyond the orphanage we visited and you can find out more on their website.
Lunch time! After this visit, our driver took us to a local restaurant for some food. As these activities are all in/near the up-market Karen area of Nairobi, it was a very nice meal if a little pricey at $20 (~£16) for two of us. Our driver then dropped us at Bomas of Kenya before taking the rest of the group back to the hotel.
Bomas of Kenya – Entry Fee $10 (~£8) Each
Arriving at Bomas of Kenya it quickly became clear that it was mainly attended by school children! The format is a series of mock African villages, showing the set-up of each tribe.
It was really interesting to see the different forms of construction between the various tribes and areas of Kenya. The most interesting part from a cultural point of view point was the naming of the huts. ‘First Wife’s Hut, Second Wife’s Hut, Third Wife’s Hut’ etc!!!!
In addition, it seemed that the schoolchildren in attendance were more interested in us than the Bomas! Every time we walked past a group, they would all shout “Hi!” and hi-fived us. There was also the occasional shouts of “Mzungu”! This translates as “white person”. It didn’t seem to be meant in a derogatory sense, but was more of an observation and way of getting our attention!
Can you imagine this happening in the UK?! We would be horrified if a group of students acted in the same way, but to us it just seemed to be out of natural curiosity. Most of these children had probably very rarely seen a white person before. They understandably wanted to interact with us, and stroke Miss Way’s hair!!
The Show
After viewing the Bomas outside, we went to see the show. This was a performance of acrobatics, music and dancing from various different tribes. We were crammed into a hall with ~1,000 school children. We were guided to seats near the only other white people in the hall!
As the show progressed, the school children got very excited and stood on their chairs. This made for a very chaotic but good-humoured atmosphere!
The show itself was really impressive and we enjoyed seeing the music and acrobatics in particular. The phallic dancing was also rather amusing – especially to the young children!!!
Taxi Journey With a Detour
After the show, our taxi driver drove us back through Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa. This is an area of extreme poverty and was really eye-opening for us so early in our trip. Nairobi had just had heavy rain and the sewage system in the slum (a ditch by the side of the road) had failed. Sewage was overflowing into people’s huts!
Our observations weren’t all negative though. Firstly, there seemed to be a very strong entrepreneurial spirit among the locals here. Every part of Kibera we passed through was bustling with activity, with all sort of different businesses.
Secondly, we observed how happy so many of the residents seemed. We’re in no doubt that there are many hard times in their lives, but the smiles on faces were a real positive for us. It just shows that unhappiness is relative and not necessarily related to money. In fact, the residents seemed much more open and friendly than many in London for example!! It’s important to keep some perspective and realise how easy we have things in the developed world.
Our full day of transport from our taxi driver, Sam, cost us $40 (~£32) each. As we mentioned above, we could probably have bartered but were very tired at the time of booking! Sam was very good and really helped us out at each location. We were happy with the value we got for this price.
G Adventures Welcome Meeting
After a long day, we attended the welcome meeting for our G Adventures trip. Having already met some of the others on the trip we were less nervous than we would have been. We’re both quite introverted in this kind of situation. The group were very nice and we all got to know each other with the usual ‘ice-breaker’ type activities! We then enjoyed a meal together in the hotel restaurant.
One regret was that we didn’t get out into the local community much whilst in Nairobi. If we were to return, we would be sure to try out local restaurants.
The following morning, we set off for the Maasai Mara! We were only taking overnight bags so left most of our luggage on the Lando. The real experience was about to start!!
Summary
Our stay in Nairobi was brief, but we managed to see a lot. It was definitely an interesting place to visit, but not somewhere we would rush back to. We felt as though we exhausted most of the things we wanted to do there within our short stay.
The only additional activity we would have done was a visit to Nairobi National Park. If we return, that would be the top of our list!
We would highly recommend the combination of 3 activities we did. In total we ended up spending £64 each, including the lunch. For a day packed full of really enjoyable activities, transport and food we were quite happy with this.
Africa Series
Part 2 – We’re Home! Africa Snaps