Tourist time

My last week in Africa: vacation time!

Weekend in Nairobi
Saturday and Sunday were spent in Nairobi. We have been in Kenya before, but had seen Nairobi only at night when we arrived and in the early morning when we drove to the first national park. So this time, the planning for Saturday included the Giraffe Center, Karen Blixen Museum, restaurant Tamambo near the museum for lunch, and a quick stop at the IBM Lab just to take a picture.

Dinner was at the Abyssinia restaurant in Westland with Andrea and Jeroen, resp. journalist and photographer from the Netherlands traveling across Africa for the last 3 years. Very nice to see them here in Nairobi and to talk about the country, the continent, their experiences, and all. Food was excellent as well and very affordable!

The next day we went to the Masai Market at Yaya shopping centre. We were the only potential customers and this drove us nuts. All the sellers were asking us to check their products and to buy stuff. Normally the sellers can approach other customers as well, but now all arrows were pointed at us. Lunch was at the Yaya centre: pizza at the Italian.

After lunch we went home. Time to start packing. I would leave my big suitcase at the Riverside Pearl apartment and thus having to sort my "safari" cloths & necessities. No more business suites needed in the next few days. 

On advice of Andrea and Jeroen, we decided to go first to the Junction Mall which has one of the largest supermarkets Nakumatt. Besides browsing the supermarket, we also visited the Kazuri bead shop and bought necklaces for our mothers. 

We wanted to have diner at the Brew Bistro, which is close to the Junction Mall. But Google maps told us it would be more than 3 kilometers... which was strange. But anyway, we called a taxi and waited for half an hour. When the taxi arrived and dropped us within 3 minutes at the Brew Bistro (because it was about 600 meters!), I was very glad to see that our taxi driver found it funny as well.

Safari in the Masai Mara
Below you can see our plane with the red nose. We were the only passengers both ways, so it was like having a private plan. I can get used to that!

Some of the highlights of our stay in the Mara. First of all to see the rhinos while standing next to them. Of course the picture does not show the 10 security guys standing between us and the two rhinos. These are the only ones living in this part of the Mara and they are well guarded.

No exactly the view from our tent number 20 but if we went to tents 16 and 17 (unoccupied), this is the view of the hippos. They woke us up each morning around 4 when they return from the grazing in the Mara and start making a lot of noises.

No picture of the leopard (it was getting dark, so my iPhone was not able to take a decent picture). But we saw it! And also this pair of cheetah brothers. One day in the late afternoon, they were walking towards wildebeests but unfortunately they were not making a move and just kept walking. Would have been great to see them run.