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Kenya Holiday Safaris Nairobi Province Kenya
NAIROBI PROVINCE STRETCHES way beyond city suburbs, taking an area of 690 square kilometers (270 square miles) and ranging from agricultural land to savanna and mountain forest.For visitors, most of the interest lies in the southwest, in the predominantly Maasai land that begins with Nairobi National Park, and includes the water shed ridge of the Ngong Hills.
It’s a striking landscape.North of the city, the land is also distinctive, with narrow valleys twisting into the Kinangop plateau, some still filled with jungle and it’s said Leopards.To the west lies Kikuyu farmland, densely cultivated with corn, bananas and the cash crop insecticide plant, pyrethrum. Southeast, beyond the shanty suburb of Dandora, are the wide Athi plains, which are traditionally mostly ranching country but nowadays increasingly invaded by the spread of Nairobi’s industrial satellites.
Nairobi Forests
Nairobi’s two remaining forests_Ngong forest in the West and Karura
in the North_have been fierce battlegrounds between environmentalists and private developers who have moved onto these public lands amid a morass of corruption.Unless in the company of someone who knows the place very well, a visit to Karura is not advisable, as illegal activities including hunting and gathering as well as building_ persists there.
The 6-square kilometer Ngong Hills is now officially the Ngong Road Forest Sunctuary, and thanks to the increased ranger patrols, you can walk, jog, cycle or ride a horse safely here.You can go on a guided forest walk on the first and third Saturday of the month from 9am, or do your own thing anytime if you make prior arrangements.
Nairobi National Park and Around
Despite the hype, it really is remarkable that the 117-square-kilometer patch of plains and woodland making up Nairobi National Parkshould exist almost uncorrupted within earshot of Nairobi’s downtown traffic, complete with more than 80 species of mammals and the second-largest herbivore migration after that of the Mara/Serengeti.The park is a good place to spend time during a flight layover, or before an afternoon or evening flight and you have the chance to see species like the black rhino, which might elude you in the
big Kenyan reserves.Although it’s fenced along its northern perimeter, the park is open to the south allowing migrating herds and the predators that follow them to come and go freely.For all the low-lying planes, you’ll witness a kill here than in any other park.
Access
Without your own transport, the cheapest and most adventurous way into the park is to hitch a ride at the Main Gate.This is probably easiest on a weekend morning, when Kenyans are most likely to visit.The weekends are also by far the busiest; during the week you’ll find it very quiet. You can catch buses #125 or #126 from the bus station to the Main Gate or any bus and matatu that go down Langata Road.
Alternatively, you should be able to swing a good deal on car rental for the day you won’t need any thing more than a saloon car, and kilometer charges wont amount to much.If you charter a taxi for a few hours, which may be less expensive, check that fuel cost is included in the price.
The Park
The first few hours of the day are always best for game-watching.Ask any ranger at the gate and you’ll find the day’s result:” no.13 for a cheetah; two rhinos at 6; lions at no.4…”, the numbers referring to the road junctions marked on every map of the park.If you’re driving around independently, go to the western end , near the main entrance, where most of the woodland is concentrated.This is where you are most likely to see a giraffe, and just after dawn, if you are lucky, a leopard_back perhaps from a nocturnal foray into Langata, hunting for guard dogs(apparently quite a problem). The highest point here, known as Impala Hill, is also a picnic site (with toilets) and a good spot from which you can scan the park with binoculars.
Lions, usually found in open country, are best located by checking with the rangers at the gate.There are small families of cheetahs in the park, although seasonal long grass can make seeing tem quite difficult.It’s less tricky however, to see some of the parks fifty –odd black rhinos, which are often found in the forest glade in the west. The park has one of the largest populations anywhere in Kenya, attesting in part to the perseverance of the David Sheldrick Trust.
The Mbagathi or Athi River forms the southern boundary of the park and is its only permanent river.It’s fringed with yellow acacias that early explorers and settlers dubbed “fever trees” because they seemed to grow in the areas where malaria was most common. Several of the parks seasonal streams are dammed to regulate the water supply; in dry season, these dams_all located in the northern side of the park where streams come down off the Embakasi plain_draw the heaviest concentration of animals.Many of the herds cross the Mbagathi every year and disperse across the Athi plain as the rains improve the pasture, returning to the park during the drought.
Birdlife in Nairobi is staggering_a count of more than four hundred species. Enthusiasts won’t need priming, and will see varieties from European Latitudes as well as the exotics.If you’re looking for a spot to picnic, go a little further in from the main gate, to the first folk.There’s a shady site on the west, beside a raised mound of elephant-tusk ash, publicly burned in 1998 by president Moi to mark the start of a major (and remarkably successful) offensive on ivory smuggling and poaching, led by the then-director of the KWS, Dr. Richard Leakey.
There is a road out to the Mombasa road to the east, East Gate, so you don’t have to retrace your routes from the parks western end.Cheetah Gate in the far southeast of the park, is permanently closed but it’s worth driving down here to the lovely Mokoyeti picnic site at junction 14B, near the “Leopards Cliffs” where the Mokoyeti stream flows into Mbagathi, just below Mbagathi gorge.This route gives you a chance to drive through an open savanna country favored by zebra and antelope.There are large herds of buffalo, which you can see out here and almost everywhere in the park.
Hippos can usually be viewed at a pool at the confluence of the Mbagathi and Athi rivers(junction 12), beyond the leopard cliffs, which has an added advantage of a nature trail and a picnic site where you can leave your vehicle and disappear into the thickets for a closer communion with nature(there’s usually an armed ranger on guard).As you are wondering, look out for crocodiles in the river’ which look little different from submerged logs to an untrained eye, and monkeys in the bushes.
Nairobi Education center and Animal Orphanage
Mainly intended for children, the Animal orphanage opens from 8am-6pm daily and is by the parks main gate. It’s moderately interesting if you’re fed up with watching animals only from a distance. Here motley and shifting collection of waifs and strays, protected from nature, have been for some years allowed to regain strength before being released.
Nairobi Safari Walk
More inspiring than the orphanage, is the Nairobi safari walk is open daily as from 8am-6.30pm; it’s to the right of the main gate.Showcasing Kenya’s great ecological diversity, the walk stimulates the country’s wetlands, savanna and forest in a captivating semi-natural environment. This is the closest you can come to seeing captive animals behaving as they would in their natural habitats. The boardwalks to the open-air pens, observation points and platforms are clearly signposted and full of useful information about the animals.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Off the Magadi road, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant and rhino orphanage is open daily from 11-noon.It offers opportunity to see baby elephants or baby rhinos, who have been orphaned by poachers, lost or abandoned for natural reasons, being cared for. It’s run by Daphne sheldrick in memory of her husband, the founding warden of Tsavo National Park, and, during the hour-long open house, the elephant keepers bring their juvenile up to an informal rope barrier where you can easily touch them and take photo.
Without the love of surrogate families and lots of stimulation, orphaned baby elephants fail to thrive: the can succumb to fatal infections when teething, and, even if they survive, they can grow up disturbed, unhappy and badly prepared to be introduced into the wild. Rehabilitation is one of Sheldrick Trust’s major preoccupations.For rhino’s which mature at twice the speed of elephants, this involves a year or more of walks with their keeper, introducing the orphans scent, via habitual dung middens and “urinal” bushes, to the wild population.
In the case of elephants which mature at about the same rate as humans, the process of introduction is more attuned to the individual: outgoing animals are encouraged to meet wild friends and potential adoptive mothers, again through walks with their keepers, most often in Tsavo National Park. More traumatized elephants take longer to find their feet. Matriarchs, who were Sheldricks orphans themselves, such as Eleanor at Tsavo East, have been responsible for adopting many returnees.
The Bomas of Kenya
The Bomas of Kenya, Forest Edge Road, 1km past the National Park Main Gate at the junction with the Langata and Magadi roads, were originally an attempt to create a living museum of Kenyan culture, with a display of eleven Kenyan homesteads (bomas) and an emphasis on regional dances.Unfortunately, the place has always had a touristy feel, not helped by the huge indoor amphitheatre where the dances are performed. In fact the vitality of the boas is channeled mainly into souvenir-selling and conferences.
The ethnic homesteads recreating Kenya’s vernacular architecture, a guided tour of which is included in the price are for most part sadly unkempt. Surprisingly, perhaps, the dances are not performed by the appropriate Kenyan tribes; instead the Harames dancers do fast costume change between acts and present the Nations traditional repertoire as professional performers rather than participants. As it is, you at least get a very comprehensive taste of Kenyan dance styles, from the mesmeric jumps and the sinuous movements of the Maa-speaking people, to the wild acrobatic of the Mijikenda dances.
AFEW Giraffe Center
Although promoted as a children’s outing, the AFEW Giraffe center on Koitobos Road, 3km off Langata Road (signposted), has serious intentions. Run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, it has successfully boosted the population of the rare Rothschild’s giraffe from an original nucleus of animals that came from a wild herd near Soy. There are various other animals around, including a number of tame warthogs, and a fine “Safari walk” boardwalk along which you can see what Nairobi looked like before the city existed_ a great bird-watching opportunity. If you really like it here and you have deep pockets, stay overnight at the wonderful Scotish-style Giraffe Manor.
Karen
Always associated with its famous resident, the author Karen Blixen, the suburb of Karen was actually named after her cousin, Karen Melchior, whose father the chairman of the Karen coffee company_the estate was sold for residential development and named Karen_though most people including Blixen herself were not aware of the coincidence.
If you’re driving, the most direct route to Karen from the city center, along Ngong Road, you pass Jamhuri Park (the Agricultural society of Kenya showground), the racecourse and the Nairobi War Cemetery.Buses to Karen include #111 from the bus station and the interminably slow bus/matatu #24.
Karen Blixen Museum
Bus #24 can drop you on Karen Road at the Karen Blixen Museum daily from 9.30am-6pm, the house where much action of Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa took place. The epitome of colonial Africa, the house was presented to Kenya by the Danish government as an Uhuru gift at the time of independence, along with the Agricultural College built on the grounds. It’s a beautiful well-proportioned home, with square wood-paneled rooms. The restorations of its original appearance and furnishings have been evidently thorough and the gardens, laid out as in former times, are delightful. A guided tour is possible though somewhat rushed.
Swedo House (Karen Blixen Coffee Garden)
Just up the road towards Karen shopping center, at 336 Karen road is Swedo House, an old Swedish coffee plantation manager’s residence, built in 1912. It’s stuffed with archetypal colonial memorabilia and fittings but the house itself is not always fully open. Still, the grounds are delightful and there’s a bar and restaurant, the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden, with tables in the gardens under the trees. The food is variable and the pricey accommodation in cottages around the grounds is very comfortable.
The Ngong Hills
The town of NGONG, the jumping-off point for the Ngong Hills, is 8km past Karen shopping center; turn right after the police station at Ngong. If you have the chance, stop on the way at Bulbul and take a look at the pretty mosque in this largely Muslim village. As often happened in Kenya, Islam spread here through the settlement of discharged troops from other british-ruled territories, in this case from Nubia in South Sudan. Ngong itself is basically just a small junction with few shops and services and the rough D523 road trailing out to the west towards Maasai Mara.
The hills are revered by the Maasai, who have several different explanations of how they were formed. The best known says that a giant, stumbling north with his head in the clouds tripped on Kilimanjaro. Thundering to the ground, his hand squeezed the earth into the Ngongs’ familiar, knuckled outline. An even momentous story explains the Ngongs as the bits of earth left under God’s fingernails after he’d finished creating.
The walk along the sharp spine of the Ngong Hills was once a popular weekend hike and picnic outing, easily feasible in a day.The views of Nairobi on one side and the Rift Valley on the other, are magnificent, and the forested slopes are still inhabited by buffalos and antelopes. Unfortunately, the slopes acquired a reputation for muggings in the 1980s curtailing independent expeditions, and the KWS usually provide an escort for a negotiable fee.
With a car, and it has to be a 4WD if it’s been raining, you can get to the Summit, Point Lamwia (2458m), which offers a 360-degree view. If you want to walk and you are reasonably fit, then allow a minimum of three hours to get to the summit and back to your car. Or you could organize transport to meet you west of Kiserian, on the C58 Magadi road, and spend four to five hours traversing the lengths of the peaks. On the ridges below the summit, on privately owned land, almost due east of the highest point, is the Finch Memorial, Karen Blixen’s tribute to the man who took her flying.
About the Author
Anthony Mmeri is the Editor and Tours Director at Wings Over Africa Safaris Limited.
This is a Kenyan Safari Company that specializes on Safari Tours Kenya,Hotel Accomodation Nairobi ,City Tour Nairobi, Discounted Prices & Rates For Scenic Safaris,Sight Seeing,Tour To National Museum,Tour Nairobi National Park,Tour Bomas Of Knya & Filming Safaris Nairobi Kenya. The website has guided thousands of travelers to achieve their dream holiday. For more information and guidance, visit the site at http:// / www.wingsoverafrica-aviation.com/index.php/services/scenic-flights.html