Safari: Kenya - Nairobi, Saturday 2022 October 29

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Thankfully, I slept until after 9:00 this morning, untroubled by waking in the night. Breakfast was a buffet of Kenyan, English and Indian cuisines; my choices were dates, papaya, a scone, strawberry jam, pork sausages, and sweet potato, with green tea. Fully satisfying.

Instructions last evening were to be in the lobby by noon for a couple of excursions. I was the only one there, provoking all imaginable questions about time and location. I pacified my panic by looking around the hotel. Now called the Sarova Stanley , it was built in 1902 as the New Stanley Hotel. Many historic photos testified to its fame as the place to meet for safaris, meals, and social occasions. The Thorn Tree restaurant, where I had breakfast, used to be open air, and the thorn tree was famous as a message board. The tree is now enclosed in a large glass extension – atmosphere without weather. The dark wood and design reminded me of my home, built twenty years later. The lobby was magnificent with its polished wood reception desk and elegant period furnishings. My room was the same – dark wood with mustard walls and heavy drapes. (Bathroom modern, thank goodness.) A wide carpeted staircase leads from the lobby to the rooms, although elevators are tucked around the corner.

After about twenty minutes, a ElderTreks-type couple hesitantly entered the lobby. We quickly made relieved contact with each other. After at least ten more minutes, Steve arrived and let us know a few others were coming. Three people met us only to decline; one never turned up and couldn’t be found. At 1:00 we left, shortening our excursion. The visit to the Karen Blixen Museum was postponed until tomorrow, when it was originally scheduled and when a fund-raising marathon will make traffic difficult.

Steve drove us on some large avenues and around the government buildings in the centre of the city, at my request. I felt we were in danger of not seeing Nairobi at all. To my regret, in the area with government buildings photos were prohibited . Some of the buildings were smaller, low-rise architecture, but also fabulous high-rises have been built in the last few years. One building of major importance was the Kenyatta Convention Centre with a tall circular tower (1973); its size and importance attracts major conventions and also houses government offices and senators.

Traffic seemed heavy for a Saturday, but Steve said it was lighter than on weekdays. Our route passed a lot of small businesses and shops, single-storey residential areas. Close to the Giraffe Centre, many lush garden nurseries were planted along the road-side; only these are allowed in the road allowance where built structures are not permitted, a valuable benefit to a warm climate.

We were fascinated by the Giraffe Centre . After paying the foreign tourist ticket price (about $17), we had to wash our hands with soap and water. We were given a half-coconut-shell partially filled with fibrous pellets. Information signs showed how to hold an individual pellet between our thumb and forefinger and place it on the tongue of the giraffe. Sure enough, a little farther on, expectant giraffes, two adults and one juvenile, were standing at the railing of a raised walkway. The giraffes stuck out their tongues with a fairly demanding gesture, and we placed pellets in the middle, one at a time. They were adept at capturing several pellets from several people before swallowing. What a curious interaction! Their long grey tongues felt like fabric sandpaper; one giraffe generously shared his thick saliva. I asked later - although they are bit habituated, they go back to their natural habit of nibbling of high leaves when the park is not open. This is a rehabilitation centre, and all the giraffes are eventually relocated to the wild. [youtube=

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Now well past lunch time, we stopped at a nearby restaurant, Maboneng . The menu on a Saturday was a three-course meal for two, with three choices for the main meal. As we were three guests, they agreed to give us all the same price. The starter was three chicken wings in a dark, thick, peppery coating. My main was BBQ’d goat chops (very tough) with lots of fried potatoes mixed with caramelized onions, and a small tomato and onion salad. Endless gin cocktail was included in the price, but I had juice – mango or mango mixed with papaya. Once the ordering was done, Steve left us to our own company.

The service was very relaxed, as relaxed as the cool veranda where we sat, surrounded by trees and bushes. About 4:00 Steve checked in with us again, a bit worried about the traffic back. Actually, the route was quite smooth, getting us to the hotel just after 5:00.

At 6:00 was the group meeting, with Lucas, a Tanzanian and our main guide. There are only seven people on the trip, a surprise since it showed as full (16) on the website. Apparently the other 9 got sick. Most of my ElderTreks trips have been around 10 people, so this seemed normal to me. Lucas’s briefing made good use of a detailed map to show the route and the animal ranges in the geography shared by Kenya and Tanzania. The National Parks and protected areas are relatively close together or contiguous. The elevation of the landscape surprised me, as it had in Southern Africa on my trip in 2016. I later learned that the African continent sits on two tectonic plates, and there are a number of rift valleys from Lebanon to Mozambique, where the plates are slowly pulling apart. This accounts for the many lakes I saw from the airplane. Two mountainous zones, much of which was volcanic, account for the elevation.

We adjourned to the hotel dining room for dinner and to get to know each other a bit. My meal choice was Tilapia (caught in the Nile River), rice (too much and too white), and bits of salad. Joining us was Lucas’s eldest daughter, who had just started studying at university in Nairobi. She was delightfully proud of her father and bubbling with new self-confidence from living on her own (in residence).

Our elevation: 1795 m

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Photos

Giraffe Centre
I fed giraffes!

Ecobank building
One of many well-designed high-rises

Giraffe Centre
Composite photo with wash station

Busy day at the Giraffe Centre
Excellent access for both tourists and giraffes

Maribou Storks in Jacaranda tree
Common birds, but not to newly arrived tourists!

Giraffe Centre rules
All seem necessary

Kibera slum and new housing
Largest urban slum in Africa, about 170,000 population

Comments

[Isabel Gibson]

<> LOL - I love the style of (what in Alberta count as) old houses, but I, too, appreciate modern plumbing. And what a great start to your safari - feeding rehabilitating giraffes. The rules are a hoot - many good safety tips!

[beentouring]

Giraffe Rules
So glad I took a photo of the rules for interacting with the giraffes. At first it seemed over-the-top, except I couldn't think of any to remove.