Touring Nairobi & heading for home

This morning I finally was able to sleep in & not wake up to an alarm!! My driver came at noon to pick me up, so I had a leisurely start to this rainy Monday. My hotel has an amazing array of choices for breakfast, which I so appreciated, since I had a protein bar & piece of Mama Hellen’s cake in the car as my dinner last night 🙂

My driver picked me up shortly after noon & we headed to the Giraffe Center, which is located in a small section of the Nairobi National Park. There were 2 giraffes available to be fed the pellets that tourists are given upon entering the center. It’s quite an experience to place these little pellets on that large tongue! The 1st giraffe I fed was the younger one, who was quite feisty!! I wasn’t providing the pellets fast enough & she began swinging her head. It’s good I can still move quickly or I would have been knocked over! After that experience, I gave the rest of my pellets to the older female who was much more easygoing 😊. The giraffes here are the Rothschild species, which are found a bit north & west of Nairobi. This species are in need of building up their numbers, so they bring a few to the giraffe center for breeding. There are 3 species of giraffes in Kenya. I saw the Masai species when I was in Masai Mara.

Following the Giraffe Center my driver took me to a couple of shops in hopes that I could find some fabric to bring back for a quilt. There were many great gifts, but unfortunately no small amounts of fabric.

We then proceeded to the Karen Blixen museum. That was an interesting tour of the home she lived in most of the time she was in Kenya. Her Swedish husband was a big game hunter & she managed their coffee plantation. They owned 6000 acres of land, which she sold when she returned to Denmark in 1931. Her house was sold to a British colonel in 1931 & his family sold it to the Danish government in 1959. The Danes gifted the house & grounds to the Kenyan government in 1963 after their independence. It was opened as a museum in 1985 to mark the 100th anniversary of Karen’s birth.

The highlight of my day was my visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which is in a section of the Nairobi National Park. It was so much fun to see these young elephants “up close & personal”!! We were able to see the elephants that are younger than 4 yrs, since they are the only ones that are brought back into pens for the night. The older elephants that are still at the orphanage stay out in the bush in the park until they are ready to be moved into the wild at another national park in Kenya. The orphanage also cares for a young black rhino and a 3 yr old giraffe that will be returned to the wild soon.

Following my time with the elephants and my dinner, I headed to the airport for my midnight flight to Paris and then on to Chicago. I’m so sad to leave Kenya after my amazing time in this country. I am hopeful to return again someday soon!!