Kenya via London- giraffes, monkeys and picnics
In February of 2023, I was very lucky to visit Nairobi, Kenya for 10 days. I was going to Tanzania to volunteer in March and wanted to visit another country beforehand. The reason that I chose Kenya is the same reason that I was very lucky. My childhood friend, Nadine, was living and working in Nairobi and had generously offered to host me.
But first, my journey from Toronto to Nairobi was a fantastic example of ‘everything that can go wrong will go wrong.’ It was also a excellent lesson in staying calm and being flexible. I was learning to find the ‘silver lining’ moments in the midst of stress and anxiety.
The journey started with my visa not being approved in time for my original flight. Sadly, I learned that even if you are travelling on a budget, sometimes travel insurance is a very good idea. Travel tip: If you are going to any country in Africa that requires a visa, I strongly suggest applying at least 8 to 10 weeks ahead of time. I also recommend paying for the flight change fee depending on visa requirements, your destination and cost of the original flight. I don’t pay the fee all of the time but sometimes it is worth the cost. Ironically the day after my original flight left without me, and losing much more money than I care to acknowledge, my Kenyan visa arrived in my inbox.
The second part of my journey involved Air Canada wrecking my beloved backpack, Betty. I also had an encounter with the rudest airline agent in my travels so far. (Air Canada – 2/10 in customer service).
The third part of my journey involved an airplane malfunction, an unpleasant emergency landing and 2 unexpected days in London. For me, that was the start of looking for silver linings, and even more, learning to lean into and appreciate the unexpected. Despite the emergency landing and all the chaos afterwards, my 2 days in London were delightful!
However, because of all the delays, I arrived in Nairobi 5 days later than I had planned and missed my trip to a Maasia village. Missing the village turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for a couple of reasons. The best reason is that instead of visiting the village, I was able to spend 10 wonderful days with my friend, Nadine. Nadine is both a wonderful human and an amazing tour guide.
Honestly, the 10 days in Nairobi before I left for Tanzania (and the 2 days afterwards) are some of my favorite memories of the last 18 months. One of the reasons that I consider myself lucky to have had Nadine as an unofficial tour guide is that she also loves animals. She not only took me to a couple of sanctuaries, but arranged everything for me. Nadine is a really ethical traveler (a role model for me) and researched 2 incredible places that do really important work and have incredibly high standards of care. She also loves to share food and we visited so many amazing restaurants. Is there anything better than sharing great food and deep conversations with an old friend? (No, the answer is usually no ;))
Our first excursion was the Rothchild Giraffe and Environmental Conservation Centre in Nairobi. It is part of a larger Kenyan non-profit organization. Their main purpose is is to educate Kenyan youth on their country’s wildlife, plus environmental and conservation efforts. The center was originally founded to protect the Rothchild Giraffe, whose numbers had dwindled to 130 in 1979. Thankfully, due to the Giraffe Centre, there are now over 300 Rothchild Giraffes, safe and breeding, in various Kenyan national parks. There are actually 3 species of giraffes in Kenya – the Rothchild, the Maasai and the Reticulated. I really loved learing about the giraffes – they are beautiful, elegant and playful animals. It was also so much fun, and I felt like a kid again, to be allowed to feed them.
The best part of the afternoon though was meeting and learning from Maurice. Maurice had visited the sanctuary as a child with his school, and one of the educational directors at the center noticed his passion for animals and learning. That director ended up sponsoring Maurice’s education all the way through university. Maurice now volunteers at the center to ‘pay tribute’ to the place that fueled his higher education journey. He was intelligent, passionate and really cared about the giraffes. He was also very good (and very open) about charming the tourists to get big tips. 😉
What was really remarkable to me was Maurice explaining to us that he goes back to his village once a month for 2 reasons. Every time he visits his village he gathers donations of period products for the young women in his village. Something that many people may not know is that period products are largely unavailable in rural villages in many parts of the world. The most distressing aspect is that many young women miss so much school due to not being able to attend while menstruating that they drop out shortly after starting their periods. Maurice has a younger sister and he was determined that she finish school as he had, and so he started this project to provide the young women in his village with period products.
His second purpose when returning to his village is to spend time educating the elders about the impacts of their traditional hunting and ceremonial sacrifices on the giraffe populations. It was so inspirational to hear this young man speak of finding a way to honor the traditional ways but not at the expense of the dwindling wildlife populations. I am not sure if Maurice is still volunteering at the center but if you ever get a chance to visit this incredible place, check to see if Maurice is there. If he is, ask for a ‘lesson’ – you will learn so much.
My second day in Kenya, Nadine introduced me to a couple of her friends and the 4 of us left Nairobi to do a hike. (Benefit of having a having a friend with a car – driving instead of taking a bus. Negative of having a friend with a car – driving. Traffic in Nairobi is crazy!!) We went to Mount Longonot National Park to do the 3 km trail to the crater rim. Mount Longonot is a stratovolcano located in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. It is believed to have last erupted in the 1860s. It was a challenging hike, due more to the very steep trail and intense heat than the distance. I had a very, very long break due to the heat. But I pushed myself to reach the top and I am so glad that I did. Now, I can say that I have done a mountain or volcano hike on 3 continents 🙂
After our hike, we went to beautiful Lake Naivasha for a relaxing afternoon and my introduction to Kenyan food and vervet monkeys. Lake Naivasha is a huge freshwater lake, on the edge of Hell’s Gate National Park. It is home to over 400 different species of birds, a pod of hippos, warthogs and vervet monkeys. We chose to eat outside and to my delight, a rather cheeky vervet monkey stole our mango. This led to over a dozen monkeys lurking around us for close to an hour. For Nadine’s Kenyan friends, this was simply annoying because it was a large, fresh mango and supposed to have been our dessert. But for this Canadian, it was one of the most delightful afternoons that I have spent, watching the monkeys tease and play with each other.
It was such a wonderful day, basking in nature outside of the city. And it was also so interesting (and cheap) to explore with locals. I really enjoyed experiencing both the hike and the lake from a different perspective. For anyone venturing to Nairobi, I highly recommend visiting Lake Naivasha. It is not on most of the tourist ‘must-do’ lists but it was a really beautiful and peaceful afternoon.
I love that in the past 18 months, I have been able to experience so many different types of travel. I have stayed in some beautiful homes while pet-sitting, with families in very basic homestays in a couple of countries, a lot of hostels, a few hotels, a couple of convents, one beautiful resort in Spain while volunteering, my family from time to time, and a few wonderful times I have stayed with friends that feel like family 🙂 Staying with Nadine in Kenya was wonderful for many reasons. One is that Africa is very, very different from Canada and while I always welcome the different, sometimes the different can be hard. And I can totally do hard things, but having a friend made it much less hard. I also loved meeting her friends and going to several places that were off the ‘tourist path.’
I highly recommend visiting the Giraffe Centre, which is something that many tourists do and for good reason. But I also recommend visiting one of the National Parks, and going for a hike, and definitely visit Lake Naivasha if you go to Nairobi. The lake itself is beautiful and also so many monkeys!! Both the hike and the lake were highly enjoyable, much less crowded and a cheap addition to your itinerary. And it is always so educational to travel like a local. But I think the best, cheapest and most fun experience in Kenya was our visit to the Nairobi National Park – I’ll tell you about that in the next blog.
Please let me know if you have any questions about visiting Kenya or questions about travel, in general. Honestly, I do not know a lot but I am happy to share what I do know. Also, I have made several mistakes in the past 18 months, so I can also share what not to do. 😉
https://www.kws.go.ke/content/mount-longonot-national-park
And if you like reading about Kenya, please check out my blog about elephants, old friends and zebra traffic jams.
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