Making the Most of Your Time in Nairobi, Kenya

On September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Kenya4 Comments

We spent a couple of days in Nairobi in order to relax before heading home after our safari and we really enjoyed our time there. If you have a day or two in Nairobi, there are several places that are definitely worth visiting during your time there. Our hotel was located in the heart of the city and getting out to see the attractions was certainly a time consuming proposition due to the traffic in Nairobi, even with trying to avoid the heavier traffic times. We scheduled a Nairobi City Tour with our guides, but obviously these places could be visited on you own without needing to use a guide, but it helps to have a driver who knows how to get around the city.

Karen Blixen Museum and Gardens – It is hard to explain the impact that Karen Blixen had on the city of Nairobi and Kenya in general. The Baroness is best known around the world for her autobiographical story of her time in Africa titled Out of Africa as well as the movie with the same name. To the people of Kenya, she is known for providing healthcare to the people and providing inspiration to the women of Kenya. Although the book and movie romanticize her time in East Africa, the story and her life were rather tragic. The museum, which is the house she lived in and the gardens that surround it, is the location of their failed coffee plantation and features some of the farm equipment as well as photographs of the people in Karen’s life. There is also some memorabilia from the movie as it was filmed on location in Africa.

Just Like a Kid Pushing a Friend into the Pool

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and Elephant Orphanage – One might have thought that we had seen enough elephants during our safari considering that we saw hundreds of them, but we were actually excited to visit the elephant orphanage in Nairobi. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is dedicated to rescuing orphaned elephants and rhinos, raising them and possibly rehabilitating them, and then returning them to the wild. The baby elephants come from all of the various national parks and animal reserves where, unfortunately, poaching still sometimes occur leaving the elephants orphaned or sometimes they become orphaned for other reasons. Pretty much every baby animal is cute and adorable, but baby elephants are especially cute and precocious.

Kazuri Bead Factory – Although it is referred to as the Kazuri Bead Factory, it is really an artisan workshop where the beads for necklaces and bracelets as well as other pottery are created. Everything created by the artisans for Kazuri are handmade and hand-painted based on a preset pattern that each of the workers follow. In addition to creating beautiful jewelry and pottery, Kazuri provides work for mostly single mothers and provides free medical care for their employees and their immediate family. Buying items from Kazuri, which are sold worldwide, is really an opportunity to get some something beautiful and help the people as well.

Giraffe Centre (The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife) – During our city tour of Nairobi, we visited the Giraffe Centre, whose official name is the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife. Obviously the proceeds from people visiting the center go to the preservation of endangered animals in Africa such as the cheetahs, rhinos, and other animals. Having spent the previous eleven days on safari where we saw giraffes in the wild every day, we weren’t sure at first about visiting the Giraffe Centre. It is currently going under some renovations in order to improve the experience of the visitors and to make the center even more green. The highlight of visiting the Giraffe Centre is getting up close to the giraffes and feeding them.

A Maasai Market – Although we had visited an actual Maasai Village during our safari, we still took time to go to one of the Maasai markets that are in the city of Nairobi. Be forewarned that as you enter the market, there will be men offering to guide you through the market, but you should ignore them and tour the market on your own. They just want to get part of the money that you might spend and they are really pushy about trying to get you to buy something. We had something fairly specific in mind since we had already bought souvenirs, which we couldn’t find, so we didn’t end up buying anything, but enjoyed seeing the local artwork on display.

Nairobi National Park – We did not visit the Nairobi National Park since we had already spent twelve days going through the national parks that are part of the great migration route, but if you are only visiting Nairobi and not doing a safari, it would be worth visiting. The park has many of the same animals that you will find when going on safari without having to travel more than a few minutes from the city.

Thorn Tree Cafe with the Message Tree Where People (like Hemingway) Received Messages in Nairobi

In addition to visiting these locations in Nairobi, we also spent time eating at several different restaurants in the city. Obviously, due to the time of visit and travel restrictions because of COVID, there were not many other tourists in the city when we were there. We found the city of Nairobi to be quite interesting and enjoyed seeing it as much as we enjoyed our time on safari.

Seeing Baby Animals During Our East African Safari

On September 21, 2021September 21, 2021 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Africa, Kenya, Tanzania4 Comments

Although not all baby animals are cute and adorable, the majority of them are and we saw plenty of them during our time in Kenya and Tanzania. Knowing that the number of people going on safari during these times of COVID restrictions, it must be even more fascinating to these baby animals when they come across humans for the first time. Sometimes they were curious about our presence, but for the most part, they didn’t even seem to notice that we were there. We enjoyed not only seeing the baby animals, but also watching their interactions with the rest of their families.

Mother and Baby Elephant in the Grassy Water

One of our first encounters with a young animal was during our time in Amboseli National Park where we came across a baby elephant who approached our Land Cruiser and raised his trunk to check out our scent. We saw many different baby elephants in the park and they were never very far from their caring mothers. Despite their size, the baby elephants are quite playful and are more agile than people might think. Watching the baby elephants as they played in the shallow lake was certainly quite fascinating. Every time that we saw baby animals, we couldn’t help but take lots of photographs, so we have many more than what we are sharing here.

Elephant Herd Crossing the Road in Front of Us

We saw several lion prides with adorable cubs who were quite the handful for their parents. Just like typical children, they would be affectionate one moment and then playfully pounce on a sibling the next. It is all part of learning the skills necessary to survive in such a harsh environment. We spent quite a bit of time just watching the interactions between the various members of the pride and it is certainly one of our fondest memories of the trip. Even as young lions, they are strikingly beautiful and have such expressive faces. Although they look like kittens that you might want to take home with you, they will grow up to be fierce predators.

Lioness and Cub Snuggling – One of Our Favorite Photographs

Similar to the elephants, baby hippos are much more sprite than what you might imagine. In fact, hippos in general are very agile and we lucked into to opportunity to see a whole herd of them charge down a riverbed to the pool below, which was truly amazing to see. Even a baby hippo is quite large, so they quickly grow to be pretty massive in their own right. Seeing them out of the water is the only way to get a true sense of their size as it can be deceiving when only seeing their nose and eyes protruding from the water.

Mother and Baby Hippo on the Shore of the Pond

Young White Rhino Still Growing into It’s Horn

We saw many different baby giraffes as we drove through and between all of the national parks. They are usually as graceful as the adults, but with their long legs, sometimes they were still getting used to walking on them. They were as equally fascinated with us as we were with them and we enjoyed watching them as they moved amongst the trees and bushes. As the giraffes get older, their coloring becomes more intense, but it is easy to distinguish a young giraffe as opposed to its adult counterpart who towers over them.

We saw many other baby animals during our trip, including rhinos, water buffaloes, baboons, birds, and many different antelope. Whenever we came across a baby animal, it was always a treat to watch them as they explored their world. In a place where survival can be difficult for a variety of reasons, those early years are so important for them to learn what to do and how to protect themselves. But clearly, when not in danger, they were just enjoying their youth and having fun.

Mingling with Giraffes at Sunset Near Amboseli National Park in Kenya

On September 10, 2021September 10, 2021 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Africa, Kenya5 Comments

We saw giraffes all throughout our time in Kenya and Tanzania, but our first encounters with them was in Amboseli National Park. Many of the giraffes that we saw weren’t actually in the parks themselves but outside of the parks where there were often more trees. Due to delays in our flight to Nairobi, we ended up getting to Amboseli at dusk and we ended up seeing our first giraffe with the sun setting behind the acacia trees. We were completely exhausted from being up for 48 hours, so we didn’t pull out our camera and capture the image. We did, however, have our guide, David, take us back out to the trees that surrounded our camp at sunset the following night in order to try and recreate the experience. We were lucky enough to see a family of giraffes amongst the trees as we watched an incredible sunset, one of many that we would end up seeing.

Many Giraffes Amongst Other Animals During the Day

One of the Young Giraffes with the Sunset in the Background

We’re sure that we drove our guide crazy as we had him move our Land Cruiser to different spots around the many giraffes that were enjoying a late dinner in order to catch them in different lighting and angles. At this point of our trip, we had no idea how many giraffes we would ultimately end up seeing, but the experience of watching the young giraffes with the sun setting in the background was certainly a highlight. We even got a photograph of a giraffe at sunrise on the following morning, which only added to our memories of Amboseli. Wherever we saw giraffes, it was clear that they kept a watchful eye on us to make sure that we didn’t move towards them, but that just gave us the opportunity to make eye-contact with them. It certainly made us wonder what they were thinking about us as we stood in our vehicle taking pictures of them.