After a two-year pandemic that put a major damper in travel plans for us and others, we decided that we wanted to have a big vacation this summer. After discussing several ideas, we decided that an African safari would be a memorable and enjoyable vacation for our whole family and we zeroed in on splitting our time between Kenya and Tanzania. After months of planning and coordinating with a tour operator in Nairobi, and several anxious moments as we worried about whether Snoopy would still be alive before it was time to leave, what the COVID situation would be when it was time to go, and any number of other concerns, it was finally time to leave for our 16-day African trip. We boarded our plane and flew on a red-eye flight to start our roughly 19 hour journey to Nairobi, Kenya (with a layover in London that divided the flight fairly evenly).
Air travel is not without its hiccups as the airlines continue to ramp back up after shutting much of their work down during COVID. The airline somehow gave away our seats on the flight to London before we could board, but they apologized by moving us up to Premium economy (with more leg room, more comfortable seats, and actual silverware to eat the meals), which was great. Of course, the British version of TSA put a damper in the trip when they refused to let a serving of yogurt through security and the agent just threw it away without comment instead of letting Derek eat it in line for his breakfast since he slept through breakfast on the plane. You win some, you lose some, I suppose.
We arrived in Nairobi late at night, met our tour operator, and since we had planned for a day to recover before leaving for the safari portion of our trip, arranged for a tour of some of Nairobi's attractions for the morning before crashing in our hotel room exhausted.
We had a delicious breakfast (and fortunately, the hotel had food our kids liked as well) and then our guide picked us up to take us around Nairobi. I was initially disoriented since as a former British colony, Kenya still drives on the left side of the road, so it was a little nerve wracking when I looked out the window and thought our driver was going to turn into oncoming traffic by going into the lanes on the left side. The traffic in the city was also chaotic (though there was likely underlying order in that chaos) - in many parts of major roads there seemed to be no lane lines and cars would just squeeze together. Defensive aggression is probably the best way to describe the attitudes among the drivers; push your way into where you want to go to signal your intentions, but do it carefully if that makes any sense. In any case, I was extremely glad that we had locals driving us everywhere we went on this trip, because I wouldn't have been comfortable driving there.
Our first stop of the morning was the Nairobi National Museum combined with a Snake Park. I anticipated moving quickly through the Snake Park looking at a bunch of reptiles in their cages before moving to the museum. I was mistaken. Our kids loved the Snake Park, mostly because it was very hands-on. We saw mambas, and cobras, and other venomous snakes there, and of course, they stayed in their terrariums. But workers actively encouraged guests to hold pythons and non-venomous creatures. If this were being done in the U.S., I imagine the worker would be holding the snake and would invite the kids to come up and brush the snake with two fingers. In Kenya, they let six-year-olds like Derek hold the snake alone for as long as he wants.
We also got to hold chameleons that they had roaming around the habitat. Derek was thrilled when this chameleon started climbing up his arm.
Lydia, our budding zoologist/herpetologist studying her chameleon.
This is a Jackson's chameleon I think with three horns and I think it's pretty cool looking, though I prefer to call it a triceratops chameleon.
Karina let them put the chameleon on her head - I was worried it would poop on her, but fortunately, it didn't.
If a triceratops chameleon sits on Karina's head, does that make her a triceratops Karina? Hmm...
Our next stop was a tour of the Kazuri Bead factory. This company is located in an upscale neighborhood of Nairobi called Karen (and we had a funny conversation with our guide explaining how the name Karen has recently taken on negative connotations in the U.S. as someone who is overbearing) that provides employment to hundreds of disadvantaged Kenyans, especially focusing on single mothers. They make beautiful ceramic bead jewelry, forming and painting each bead by hand. When we went, they explained they were in the process of moving their bead production, so we didn't get to see them making beads, though Derek and Lydia went on a treasure hunt throughout the grounds finding discarded bead pieces that had broken, but were still in many different colors. Instead of watching them make beads, we learned about how they made purses, bags, backpacks, wallets, and other items from fabric and leather. It was impressive to watch the level of detail as they made each item individually.
Here's a lizard we found crawling around some of the necklaces they had for sale in their store. Tanja and the girls each got a few necklaces, including Lydia getting a cheetah necklace that served as a good luck charm for our safari when we saw lots of cheetahs being interesting. Derek was disappointed that he didn't get a wallet or something since his sisters got something, but he did leave with a bag of his treasure of discarded bead fragments and other items he found on the ground.
Our last stop in our day of sight seeing in Nairobi was the Giraffe Manor. They have a completely over-the-top small hotel here where giraffes will famously peek their heads into your room through your window which we had contemplated staying in but decided it was too expensive (at $3000 per night). Instead, people can come and get a bowl of food to hand feed the giraffes and learn about them. These are Rothschild giraffes (other species we learned about were Masai and Reticulated), they have long tongues, and they are not afraid to head butt you by swinging their neck at you if they think you have food and aren't giving it to them. You can see a baby (or at least younger) giraffe coming up to Karina in the background of this picture. The babies would sneak under the railing to try and get closer to people feeding them whereas the adults just stretched their long necks over the railing.
When they lick the food from your fingers, it kind of tickles as Lydia learned.
We never did get a perfect shot with the giraffes, but we had a lot of fun feeding them. Again, in the U.S. at the Miami Zoo, people can feed the giraffes there, but you pay a lot for a couple leaves of lettuce and you are rushed through it by the workers. In Kenya, we each got our bowl of food, and we spent as long as we wanted there just slowly feeding the giraffes a pellet or two at a time, so it was very enjoyable.
I noticed how skinny the giraffe's neck is, it's somewhat surprising it is able to hold its rather large head up with such a scrawny neck.
It's also a little anxious having to turn your back to the giraffe for a picture and then having it peek over your shoulder.
Check out the long tongue as it stretches for Karina's hand.
We finished our day in Nairobi eating at a Pizza Hut that our guide dropped us off at (our kids are not adventurous eaters). The pizza was a little different there, but it was something they were familiar with and ate, and the best part was they had a foosball table that the kids loved playing with since they are all involved with soccer at home.
Then it was time to rest and sleep at the hotel so we could start on our safari in the morning.
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