Something About Kenya :

For those who have never been to Africa, add it to your list of places to see. At least one country, particularly Kenya if you don’t know where to begin.

AN ANNUAL ADVENTURE
My yearly sojourn to Africa is almost always to Kenya. A recent trip was no different and, as usual, the country aroused a place in the mind that is of the present coupled with the past living side by side.  Quite English, Kenya also offers a wild sense of adventure vla author Karen Blixen’s “Out of Africa.” While I always enjoy a fair share of the safaris in the country, I have found that to really know and even nominally understand Kenya, it’s the villages that must be discovered. Of course, that is in between the animal viewing and the thousand acres of wilderness in the background. Starting in “Nairobi,” Kenya’s capital city even this is a place that brings up a certain sense of danger for me as well as imagination.

YOUR VISA
I flew into Nairobi late on my first night arriving and the one thing that you'll really be able to appreciate is the fact that you can get your Visa upon arrival in Nairobi costing anywhere from $50 to $100 depending on when you visit.  Be sure you have money that is dated no earlier than 2000 and have correct change.  It’s an easy process and the line for the Visa is usually shorter than the line for those who got their visa’s early. As I was driven from the airport to my first stop, which I have done more than a few times, it still never ceases to amaze me that sense of danger and adventure awaiting.

GIRAFFE MANOR
My first stop was a place called Giraffe Manor.  It has a long and storied past beginning when previous owners Betty and Jock Leslie Melville rescued, raised, bred and lived with the endangered Rothschild giraffe.  The first giraffe there was named Daisy Rothschild and she was rescued and brought to the manor and raised by Jock and Betty. She would often put her head through the manor windows and doors looking for treats and it’s here even today that the giraffes still do the same thing.

Acquired by new owners in 2009, the commitment is still to the giraffes who live there, but the manor has been turned into a quaint boutique hotel with a blending of old and new and very much that colonial Nairobi feel as if you’ve just arrived at some far flung destination at some very far flung date in time. Of course staying at Giraffe Manor for one or two nights is the real story, and there’s nothing better than a larger-than-life giraffe taking a few morsels from the palm of your hand.

THE MASAAI
After Giraffe Manor it was time to head into the bush.  By the way, never mind that there are actually lions and other manner of wild animals just moments outside of Nairobi, for me the bush is taking a small plane and heading far away from any form of civilization. On the way to the airport I also see the Masaai, one of a number of tribes living in Kenya, who still graze their cows through Nairobi amidst the honking cars and heavy pollution.  According to the Masaai who have been there much longer than the cars and big buildings, the land is still theirs to graze their cattle and they won’t let a little thing like progress stop them.

ON SAFARI
As I headed to the small Nairobi airport called Wilson Airport where all the planes leave heading out to the bush I chuckle to myself as I look around at the safari newbies with big suitcases and lots of trappings and the folks at the counter who only laugh and shake their heads. That was me my first time and I had to leave an entire suitcase behind, turns out you can live on less than you think you can if you have too.

On safari, as usual I get up before dawn and head out into the wilderness my guide telling me about the lion kills in the night and the other incidents that have happened while I slept. A first time watching a pride of lions eating a dead zebra will move you to many emotions, for me it is always a reminder of how hard living in the wild must be, forget about complaining about going to work every day when I get back home.  I can never help but stare beguilingly each time I have a lion experience too, but secretly I will tell you these are the most boring animals on safari.  When they aren’t ripping ....