Kickin' It in Kenya!

Words cannot begin to describe the experience I have had in Kenya… and I’ve only been here 3 days!!! My arrival was not the greatest – late flight from Entebbe into Friday night traffic and throw in a heavy rainstorm for a bit more fun! What should have taken about 30 minutes of driving took almost 2 hours!! That is where the ‘not so much fun’ stopped!

I spent two nights and one day in Nairobi and man did I shove a lot of stuff in! I arrived late on the 10^th of June at the Wildebeest Camp – a green oasis in the middle of a modern (i.e., congested and smog filled) city of Nairobi, Kenya. I was quickly shown to my ‘tent’!

About the size of a canvas wall tent (like dad’s hunting tent or the ones I slept in during JFR’s so many years ago. The primary difference is that this tent is made of heavy rubberized material (perhaps canvas) and includes a solid floor. These are built up on wooden platforms and mine was equipped with solar lighting and a queen-sized bed!!! Oh yeah – camping luxury style!! The site is completely walled in so you have a (false?) sense of security despite what the guidebooks say!

The camp comes equipped with an amazing kitchen – the buffet dinner had so many veggies that I almost cried in delight! There is also a TV viewing area, a pond (complete with fish), two resident dogs and a tortoise. The wifi is pretty fast (good enough to up load pics) and the gift shop helps support local artisans and charities… too good to be true? They also higher locals (owners are Aussies) and have a number of cabbies/guides to take you safely to the local sights!! Overall I would give the place a huge endorsement and I can tell you that I’ll stay there whenever I’m in Nairobi (like I’ll be there a lot J). These guys aren’t in the Lonely Planet yet but I can’t figure out why and they have multiple housing options (from tenting to self-contained tents…I shared a toilet and shower) and are really socially conscious and eco-friendly!

My one-day in Nairobi was totally action packed but I didn’t really feel like I was doing too much! The day started off on a tour with Alyson, Runa, and Andrew (Mom & two kids from the UK who are currently living in the Sudan where Alyson works) with Challe (a great cabbie/tour guide). We headed out to the Kazuri Beads shop a great employment/social enterprise for men and women in Nairobi. The beads are handmade and painted at the shop using Kenyan clay. The finished products are then sent all over the world including Canada (Ten Thousand Villiages).

After Kazuri Beads it was off to the Giraffe Breeding Centre where a Giraffe will kiss you for the right bribe (food)! A very interesting place and it serves a good purpose but the habituation of animals is not something I’m really into! I was more interested in the Giraffes that were walking around the fairly large compound eating the trees. The location is interesting as you can see the skyline of the city in the background! The Giraffes there were the Rothschild subspecies that are distinct from the Maasai Giraffes (you can tell from the regular pattern of the Rothschild and the irregular pattern of the Maasai).

After the Giraffes it was a quick ride into the Nairobi National Park to visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – a rescue and rehab centre for orphaned elephants! This is one of the most amazing places that I have ever visited! The elephants are only available for viewing one hour a day – the purpose of this place is to be able to release the Elephants into the wild and as such they don’t want them to be habituated to humans. The handlers are like surrogate mothers and they live with and train the elephants how to be good members of a herd! They stay from between 2 and 3 years and then are released back into the wild. BBC did a documentary on this centre called the “Elephant Diaries” – it also showed on CBC and if you can watch it you should!!

After this we visited a ‘village’ which was in fact a develop picnic area complete with a lake, games/activities for kids, a good restaurant and the African equivalent of a petting zoo (number of crocodile ponds and a fenced area with Ostriches and a giraffe)! It was a weird place but we had fun with the kids and watching a GIANT wedding party show up for pictures! I think there were at least 12 attendants for the bride… made me happy not to be paying for that one!!

You are probably thinking that after that adventure I headed back to Wildebeest and collapsed for the night! Well you are almost right! J I headed back for a short rest and then headed out for what can only be considered a Forbes’ family dream (or at least Weighill’s & Biro’s)! I went to a restaurant named Carnivore for dinner! Some of you may have seen the TV footage of the Canadian Tenors eating at a place in Nairobi known for serving meat – well this is the place!

I was really hoping that Carnivore would be serving meats from game that roams the plains of Africa but sadly they are no longer allowed to do that! In stead I had a meal that included: Ostrich meatballs, roast lamb, lamb cops, beef sausage, pork sausage, beef short ribs, chicken gizzard (nasty), kidneys of something (didn’t actually eat that), chicken wing, roasted turkey, roast beef, and OX BALLS! Yup, I tried fried Ox balls!! Can’t say that they were really all that impressive but they were not as nasty as the chicken gizzard!

The concept of the place is quite interesting. There is a set menu and you get no choices except to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the meat as it passes by. The meat is all cooked on large skewers or swords (depending on the size of the meat) in a central (and open) cooking area near the main entrance of the restaurant. When you arrive you are escorted to your table and quickly provided a steaming hot towel to wash your hands (common in Kenya!) Then your appies and sauce tray arrives.

The appies (small piece of roasted corn and quiche, and a local drink to doadoa (vodka, lime, soda?) are provided to stimulate appetite. You are also provided with a small bowl of soup (it was great). They also bring out your sauce tray with about 8 different sauces from masala to mint to add to the meat – it also contains a few types of salads but I wasn’t there for the veggies!!

Once you are done the appies – or at least when you look like you might be done – they bring you a hot cast iron plate and the parade of meat beings! Sitting on top of your sauce tray (about 12 inches high) there is a small wooden block that holds your Carnivore flag. When the flag and stand are upright it mean “bring on the meat”, when the whole unit is on its side it means “I need a breather”, and when you pull the flag from the stand and lay it down it means “I surrender to the meat!!” After being fairly meatless for so long I am sad to say that I surrendered quite quickly!! J The waiter then brought me some lime sherbet that was so tart that I couldn’t eat it with a straight face and some German drink that is said to cure hangovers and indigestion… I can understand that hangover, as it was 40% alcohol!!!

All in all my day in Nairobi was a memorable one! When I reached the Wildebeest Camp the power was out (another storm rolled through) which gave me the perfect opportunity to hit the sack as the next morning I was heading out for 4 days on the Maasai Mara with William and James (who I met at the conference in Kampala, Uganda).