Kenya Believe It?

 November 15^th-17^th, 2023

After an hour and a half flight on Rwandair from Kigali, I landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.  The airport is under renovation so the small bit I saw was very underwhelming.  Immigration was easy, the woman didn’t even ask me a question.  I grabbed my bags and hoped to find an ATM and a SIM card.  I found two ATMs, one wasn’t functioning and the other one only dispensed US currency.  Hmm.  There were 4-5 telecommunication booths, but only one of the had a person…so Safaricom it is.  Luckily my emergency US cash came in handy as it was accepted for purchasing the SIM card.  I had heard that Uber was the way to get around in Nairobi and it definitely was cheaper and simpler than using a taxi.

At the Kigali airport:

As I mentioned in my previous post, there was no food available at the Kigali airport.  I was excited when I heard the flight attendants mention that they would be serving sandwiches...here it is...  Yup, 3 pieces of processed chicken on a bun, nothing else.  Well, better than nothing.  I'm sure glad I had my pepper to add to it!

I love cumulus clouds (as free flying pilot, these indicate lift).  And being above them is something special to me.

The cumi must be about 20,000' tall!

On final approach to Nairobi:

After settling in at the Mad Vervet Hostel (a vervet is a type of monkey), I walked to a nearby mall, successfully got some cash and sat down for the best pizza I’ve had in Africa.  I had given up on pizza a few weeks ago, but this one was decent.

My first view of the Nairobi skyline:

Awaiting my pizza with my first White Cap beer:

The next morning, I headed to the Sheldrick’s Wildlife Trust Elephant Sanctuary.  It’s a place where they raise orphaned or injured baby elephants…how could you not want to go there!  I had emailed the place about a week before as they only let a certain number of people in per day, and in fact it you can only visit from 11 am – 12 pm.  The sanctuary is located in the Nairobi National Park, which is on the south side of the city.  Unfortunately, this meant that one has to buy a permit for entering the park as well as a ticket for the sanctuary.  An email from Sheldrick explained all of this and stressed that the park permit could and should be purchased online from a Kenyan government website prior to arriving in order to avoid any delays at the gate.  I’m glad I worked on this the day before as the website was not logical (hey, it’s a government website, what do you expect?!?) and I almost gave up but finally succeeded in obtaining my permit.

 

I took an Uber to the park and was dropped at the gate where some rangers told me to wait for a car to pick me up to take me to the sanctuary.  There was one other tourist, a British guy who has been living in California for the last 25 years, who was in the same boat…or same Land Rover I guess.  Well unfortunately he had not read his email thoroughly and didn’t have the park permit.  This was a bit frustrating as by the time he, along with the help of the woman checking the tickets, had figured out how to purchase his permit, we had lost almost 15 minutes of the 1 hour we had at the sanctuary.

 

We were directed past a bunch of buildings towards the show already in progress.  A crowd was gathered around a circular, fenced off area.  Luckily, we had arrived just in time to see a baby rhino named Chamboi, who left about a minute later.  One of the animal caretakers had a microphone and he was explaining what had happened to this rhinoceros before he ended up at the sanctuary just 3 months ago.  This poor little guy has gone through the ringer.  He was found by a watering hole, near death, with no mother in sight.  The rangers figured that since he was born during a very dry and challenging time, that he may have been intentionally abandoned by his mom because she knew it would be a struggle to provide him enough milk.  He may have been born premature too.  It is surprising that hyenas, jackals or other predators didn’t get him…but now he seems to be doing well in his new home and is a happy little rhino.

Little Chamboi:

Little Chamboi was ushered away towards a row of trees about 50 meters away and soon after the first of two groups of orphaned elephants came parading in.  The first group was the younger guys.  They were super cute.  They were obviously used to the schedule here as a few of them galloped in, knowing that some milk in 5 liter jugs were waiting for them. 

Here comes the first parade of baby elephants:

Yum...milk!

There was an elephant handler for each one of them who held up the first of two bottles the puny pachyderms would suck back.  During the drink-fest, the host with the microphone mentioned the name of each elephant and details about why they were rescued.  After their milk, there were some branches with leaves on the ground near the circular rope fence, which allowed tourists to take close up photos and even pet the elephants. 

After about 20 minutes, the first group left the same way that they came in and then arrived the slightly older, juvenile group and the same sequence of events occurred.  One difference with the older guys was that some of them could hold their big milk bottle with their trunk as they drank.

When their ears are pinned back like this, they are relaxed and happy.

And "Elephie-Selfie"!

The exit parade:

The excited juveniles arriving:

Somebody wants more milk!

This guy's got some skills:

Yummy milk.

Feeling the soft underside of an elephant's ear:

There was a question period and then the animals were herded away.  It was a quick but good visit at the sanctuary.  Back at the gate, I waited for a vehicle with the British guy who had delayed our entry, plus another couple.  The woman, Daphne, was Uganda and Kenyan and the guy Antoine was from Switzerland, but they said that they lived in the Seychelles.  They were heading to the Giraffe Center next like I was, so we shared as Uber.  Antoine seemed like an interesting guy, probably in his mid to late 30s and he was involved with gaming platforms.  Sounds like his company was about to take off as they had teamed up with some big companies in the automotive industry.

The Giraffe Center was about 10 minutes away, outside of the national park.  I had heard that it tends to be a short, but fun visit where you get to feed some giraffes.  I’ve always thought that giraffes are crazy looking animals and I really enjoyed seeing my first ones in the wild at Murchison Falls Park in Uganda.  This place, although essentially a big zoo for giraffes, did seem to treat their giraffes well.  In fact, perhaps these guys have it too easy.  

Every tourist is given a small half shell of a coconut with some pellets to feed the giraffes.  There were a few signs explaining that it was best to hold a pellet between your thumb and forefinger but it was pretty obvious that most tourists hadn’t read the sign and many were holding their palm out with multiple pellets.  The big purple tongue of a giraffe would slurp it off and it looked pretty messy as they got giraffe saliva all over their hand.  I tried the pinching technique, and it was definitely cleaner.  There were a few staff present to make sure that tourists didn’t get too close to the giraffes on the elevated walkway as a some of the giraffes were known to headbutt.

Yummy giraffe food:

Making new friends...well bribing them to be my friend.

Watch out for the giraffe headbutt!

Feeding a giraffe:

The feeding platform:

Well hello Mr. Giraffe.

Very cool experience, but after about twenty-thirty minutes, it was time to go.  I returned to the Mad Vervet hostel and later went out for dinner at the Crafty Chameleon Brewpub & Restaurant which was about a 15-minute walk away.  It was the best beer and some of the best food I’ve had while in Africa…so good that I returned to the place a few more times during my stay in Nairobi.

My first IPA in Africa.

The "Heart Attack Burger":

Nice patio area:

The place was huge.

The Crafty Chameleon:

The following day, I ended up having a chill day the day as it was a bit rainy and I thought that I might have pink eye (conjunctivitis), for the first time in my life.  My plan had been to go to the National Museum and walk around downtown but I was happy to relax.