Karibu Kenya!

[ by Stian ]

It's time for Africa! Finally we had arrived. This would be the very very first time for me to visit this, to be discovered, amazing continent. In Africa we would be doing a G-Adventure tour departing from Nairobi and ending up in Cape Town 40 days later. I did not know much at all about Africa before our trip through the southern part of the African region. Of the places we were to visit I only knew about Nairobi, Serengeti, Zanzibar, Victoria Falls and Cape Town really – everything else was all to be a huge surprise and a brand new experience for me. It would though turn out that I did not know much about these places either, haha. During this trip we would be traveling through the countries of Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South-Africa. Most of the days, at least 29 we would be camping, and there would be many an hour spent on the truck as it was all to become an overland adventure. It was therefore all set to be an experience we would never forget:)

Haba Haba from Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya, with a population of a little more than 3,1 million in 2009 (and will have just below 4 million inhabitants in 2015). The city was founded in 1899 by the British. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyrobi, which translates to "cold water". The phrase is also the Maasai name of the Nairobi river, which in turn lent it's name to the city. However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun." It became the capital of British East Africa in 1907 after having grown rapidly since the founding of the city. In 1963 the city also became the capital of the free republic of Kenya as well.

The city is located at 1,795 meters above sea level, and therefore Nairobi enjoys a moderate climate, classified as a subtropical highland climate. The highest average temperature of the year is below 26 degrees Celsius. The temperature though stays about the same all through the year, and the difference between the seasons are minimal as Nairobi is located close to the equator.

Arriving Nairobi

Arriving Kenya was with ease. We had no problems getting through customs and people where friendly. The airport is though probably one of the least attractive I have ever experienced though – and very crowded as well.

One night in Nairobi

We got a taxi to our hotel the Boulevard Hotel, from which our Africa-tour would be departing from the following day. We had not booked a room in advance as we had checked on-line for availability and they had many rooms available. Though when we checked in they charged us way more for the room than the cost stated on their webpage. Actually, a single room turned out to be even more expensive than a double room compared to the on-line price. Kenneth paid for the room, therefore I did not pay attention to the cost until he made me aware of it as we entered our room. I became furious and went down to the reception and told them that we would not accept this price as their webpage obviously operated with other prices, and we thought we would get this price. I actually demanded the same price, or for them to refund all of it for us so that we could find cheaper accommodation, as we could not afford the room otherwise.  

Right next to me was to representatives from the G-Adventure company, who reacted on what I told. They agreed with me and told the receptionists that this was very bad advertisement for the hotel, and also for them as a company as they always use this hotel for their departures. They told me that they would try to work something out. So after a few minutes we got a call and was told that they could not give us the price from the webpage, but they would refund us 50 US dollars, if that helped, which it of course did. The rooms were not even that special, and the location of the hotel was in a pretty bad area of Nairobi. The cost for WiFi connection was hilarious as well. The only thing that was great about the hotel was the breakfast buffet the next morning. Thankfully we were only staying one night... I really dislike hotels as they are mostly always overpriced.  

Sightseeing in Nairobi

Nairobi is the one of the few cities in the world with a national park within its boundaries, the Nairobi National Park, making it a prime tourist destination. The national park is unique in being the only game-reserve of this nature to border a capital city, or any major city. The park contains many animals including lions, giraffes, and black rhinos. Often when one sees photos from Nairobi it is from this national park, of animals, with the skyline of Nairobi in the background. Unfortunately we did not have time to drop by this park as we only had one day to do sightseeing in Nairobi.

The two representatives from the G-Adventure company offered us to do touring with them this day (to an expensive cost of course) and we had many options to choose from. As I really wanted to do at least something while in Nairobi I managed to convince Kenneth to join and we chose to go to the Giraffe Center and also the cultural village Bomas of Kenya. We also had the option of going to a very nice restaurant in the evening which offers an amazing buffet of African food, but we were so tired that we opted to just go back to the hotel early in the evening and get some rest.

Tour of the Day

The first place we dropped by was the Giraffe Center, where they take care and raise orphan giraffes. This center was a very nice place where we could learn a lot about the life of the giraffes, and we even got to feed them. There was also other animals on the area, but only a few ones.

The next stop of our tour was at a souvenir market. The tour guides obviously wanted us to by stuff – which really was not an option for me as I did not want to spend more money this day, nor to end up carry fragile souvenirs through the whole of my Africa journey, so I was mostly annoyed that they took us to this place as we actually had told them that we did not want it. At least I got to take a photo (for pay of course) of myself together with a Maasai.

Third stop would be at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Orphans Project, which is an amazing project where they take care of orphan Elephants. We were introduced to the both the youngest group and then the elder group of elephants in the habitat. It was really cute watching the baby elephants play around in the mud indeed, so it was interesting. We then headed on for lunch somewhere, where I had a typical African meal, called African chicken pot – haha. It was very tasty at least:)

The last stop of the day, before departing back to the hotel was at the cultural village of Bomas of Kenya. Bomas is the Swahili term for village and we had the option of walking through many different types of villages of Kenya to see how the different ethnic groups of Kenya live like. Of course these villages have been constructed for this particular purpose. Afterwards we got the chance to see a cultural performance show, with African dance and entertainment. I have to say that the show was ok, though the last part, where there were acrobats performing, was very amazing.  

So all in all it was a very good day (though expensive). Considering that we had traveled all the night and arrived pretty early, and almost not had any sleep at all, we did get to do and see a lot this one day in Nairobi. The rest of the evening we spent relaxing at the hotel, though we did go to the supermarket once as well (which really did not feel safe at all, as the hotel was located in a shabby area). We also ended up chatting with Ingrid from the Netherlands in the computer-area, whose name really is Gertrudes, but she preferred Ingrid herself though;)

G-Adventures Tour – Day 1.

The very next morning, before departing Nairobi, we got to meet our fantastic tour group which we were to hang out with for the next 40 days. Well at least most of them at least. The tour group leader Julian seemed like a very sympathetic man right away, and our driver TJ seemed like a funny guy for sure. Then it was the group itself which consisted of 17 of the coolest people in this world. It was me, Kenneth and the crazycool Silje, all from Norway + Ann Sofie and Katrine from Denmark + Johan and Angelika from Sweden + Lucas, the Polish dude who have turned more British than the British themselves by living in London for the last few years + Grandpa Raymond with his granddaughter Mercedes (Sadie) from Canada + Gavin from Scotland + Natasha, Matthew and Naomi all from Australia, though Naomi have lived most of her life in the UK though + Muneira from Malaysia, Partha from Singapore and last but not least the wonderful Ingrid from the Netherlands.

This would be our very first big tour of the year and we were very excited about what kind of group we had ended up in – as spending 40 days with the same people is a pretty long time. We just crossed our fingers that it all would turn out to be an amazing trip where everyone would get along all the way, but that is maybe a bit to much to ask for, or? Life indeed had once again turned out to be pretty beautiful :)