November 2023 - In To Africa: Touring Around Nairobi

 On November 17, 2023, our hero and his treasured companion, began a day of touring around Nairobi. It had been two full days since they arrived in Kenya and it seemed that they were adjusting to the time change. Forty eight hours seems to be the right amount of time for Gym and Mrs Gym to fully shake the jet lag on a trip to the other side of the world.  

After breakfast, there was a meet and greet with Micato staff and Jane Pinto in the Norfolk Hotel. Jane is the 88 year old co-founder of Micato. She looks younger than her age but has knee problems and has lost some mobility. Her husband Felix could not make it, he is 95 and has retired from the day-to-day business of the company. Felix and Jane live about 30 minutes away from the hotel. Also present at the meeting was Bree, a young, IT professional from New England. Gym and Mrs. Gym would be touring Kenya and Tanzania for the next 11 days with Bree, Kintai, their Safari Director various drivers, bush-pilots, guides and trackers employed by the company. Exciting times surely lay ahead,

November 17th was a day to see some of the sights around Nairobi and Kintai and Daniel the local driver, were there in the Micato van shortly after the meet and greet ended. The first stop was the Nairobi National Museum. 

Micato had arranged  for our hero,  his dear wife and their new friend Bree to have a private tour of two of the main halls of the museum. Sharon a young and enthusiastic curator from the museum led the small group. Their brief time at the museum was spent looking at exhibits related to the history of Kenya and demographics of the country. They also looked at how the country has progressed since since pre-colonial times, through to the times when Britain ruled the country and how things have gone since independence in 1962. It was a good place to start the formal part of the trip. 

The next stop was the Karen Blixen Museum. Karen Blixen was the Danish author of book Out of Africa. The house was the home she lived in from 1917 to 1931 when she returned to Denmark. They unfortunately do not allow photography in the museum but our hero assures you that touring the home is worth it. The rooms are furnished with either props from the 1985 film or else items that were there when Karen Blixen lived there.  Gym etal got a good feel for how the author lived and it became very apparent how much respect Kenyans still have for her. While the author ran her vast agricultural holdingse she treated all the African people and especially the children with sincere respect and compassion. Today, a nearby subdivision is named ‘Karen’ in her honour.

Front of house

Photo of Karen on the veranda 

Reproduction of a painting by Karen

The beautiful backyard

Next the van made a stop at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to visit some orphans. The tour-goers were able to get close and personal with a baby black rhino and about 25 baby elephants. All of these poor animals had lost their mothers due to poachers, accidents or natural causes such as drought. They are rescued by the Trust and brought here to raise until they are old enough to return to the wild. The baby rhino has imprinted on his trainer who leads him by the visitors for a photoshoot. The baby elephants are drawn in by huge bottles of milk and when those are polished off, they drift over near the public where their favourite foods have been left on the ground. You can actually reach out and touch these playful pachyderms. 

The final stop was at the Nairobi Giraffe Center where one can get up close and personal with a few of these amazing mammals. The pictures speak for themselves.

Real beautiful lashes

The day included a wonderful three course lunch with some nice local merlot.

This would be the last day in Nairobi because early the next day Gym, Mrs. Gym, Bree and Kintai would be jumping on a bush plane and flying to the Tanzania bush, where the real safari would begin.