Nairobi National Park’s Surprising Opportunities

Our final day in Kenya was not what we expected at all. Our guide Rafael expressed concern about a nation-wide demonstration planned for Thursday. The demonstration was over the police killing of some demonstrators a few years ago. He believed demonstrators or police would close roads. His concern was we would not be able to get to the airport in time for our flight out of Kenya. His recommendation was that we forgo our second day at Lake Nakuru and head to Nairobi early in the morning and visit Nairobi National Park instead.

He wanted us to leave at 5:00 in the morning to avoid any issues with demonstrations that might occur in late morning. While we were not happy about such an early departure, we agreed to his plan as we didn’t want to miss our flight. So we were up by 4:30 getting ready to leave for Nairobi.

The drive to Nairobi took about three and a half hours. Part of the drive was through very thick fog so Rafael drove slower through that section of the road and didn’t pass anyone. We also couldn’t see much in the dark so this was a no photo drive. As we approached Nairobi, he commented that traffic was very light for a Thursday morning indicating that people were staying home from work that day because of the planned demonstrations.

The lodge had provided us with a sack breakfast which we ate in the Land Rover. Rafael stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken place for us to buy a box lunch. The odd thing was the store hours indicated they were not open, but the door was open, and they took our order. However, it took at least a half hour before they had finished it.

With our lunch in hand, we headed to Nairobi National Park which is the largest national park within the city limits of any capital city in the world. As we pulled into the park we noticed a sign for a Safari Walk. We told Rafael we wanted to do that. We had been sitting in the Land Rover for three days, and we really wanted to get out and move around. He agreed, but our itinerary did not include this so we paid for this part ourselves.

The Safari Walk was more of an educational tour, perhaps focusing on children, but we learned a lot as well. We had a guide, Michael. I was very impressed with his knowledge. He was well prepared to answer all our questions.

We started out with some fish in a pond, but I couldn’t really see them. Then we came to a pygmy hippo. There is quite the story to that. The hippo’s name is Bob. His mother was a gift to Kenya, but no more have been received recently, and the government doesn’t want non-native species. The pygmies are native to Liberia in Western Africa where I taught last year. When Bob dies, likely in the next five years, there will be no more pygmy hippos in Kenya.

After hearing the story of Bob, we continued on to see some of the other animals. This was more of a zoo like atmosphere as the animals were in pens. Some of the other animals had also been gifts to the country and as a result were put in this area. Others I think were orphans. Michael also told us about some of the plants in the area which was a different aspect from most of our safari experiences which focused on the animals.

One thing Michael focused on was the difference between white and black rhinos. It has to do with their feeding practices. You will note the curved horn on the white rhino below. It curves out of the way as these rhinos eat grass and grub in the ground thus the horn’s curve. The horns of black rhinos are straight. Seeing the rhino this close made the explanation easier to understand than Rafael’s explanation the day before.

During our conversations Silvette indicated that the giraffe was her favorite African animal. Somehow this information got relayed around, and she was asked if she wanted to feed a giraffe. She said no, but we turned a corner, and there was a baby giraffe. The staff said we could feed it. Its name is Wajir. So we all took a turn feeding the giraffe and petting it. We feed it grain pellets, and it was quite eager to eat licking the pellets off our hands with its tongue.

This is not a normal option for visitors, but because of the demonstrations, we were the only people visiting that day so apparently they decided we could do this. Of course they commented that they would appreciate a tip. They also told us not to tell anyone about this so you now need to keep this a secret as well, and don’t expect to be able to do this if you visit the Safari Walk.

After our giraffe moment we saw a lion pair in a separate cage. They seemed rather sad compared to the lions we had seen in the wild. We then saw a number of animals together in a savanna type area. This included ostriches, zebras, and gazelles among other animals.

Our tour continued over a fairly new looking walkway that went out near a river. A number of wild baboons had taken over much of the walkway. We walked past them, and they didn’t bother us or seem bothered by our presence. There were a number of young baboons who were very active and busy playing. The older baboons seemed more interested in grooming each other.

We saw a cheetah in one pen and a different zebra in another pen. The zebra is unique as its belly is white unlike the majority of zebras in Kenya.

With that our Safari Walk ended. We said our thanks to Michael and headed back to the Land Rover. We decided this was a good time to eat our lunch before we started our regular safari in the park.

After eating we began our exploration of Nairobi National Park. The park is actually much larger than I expected. What makes it so unique is you see these wild animals against the background of the city skyline. It makes for an interesting juxtaposition.

We first headed over to a small lake where we saw a number of birds. I can’t remember the names of all the birds. One bird I do remember is the heron as we have those where we live. What surprised me was we saw them all over the park, not just near the water. Among the birds we also saw crocodiles. The birds seemed unbothered by them. We also saw the eyeballs of a few hippos in the water.

Another bird we saw throughout the park was the guinea fowl. We saw a couple of groups of them. They are really a pretty bird with their turquoise heads and spotted feathers.

The first big animals we saw besides some zebras were giraffes. Although we had seen a number of them over the course of the week, we never tire of watching them as they are such elegant creatures in their movements.

Farther down the road we saw a monkey sitting alone in a bush. We saw more birds and later some even bigger birds, ostriches.

While we saw only a few vehicles in the park, one did help us find our next big moment. The car was not moving so we drove over to see what they were watching. It was a lioness. What was unusual was the lioness was lying on a small mound of dirt. She was not hidden in any way. We watched her for some time. She changed positions a few times and even took a stance like the lion in Lion King. She didn’t seem bothered by our presence so we ended up with lots of pictures.

One unique feature of the park is the train line that the country recently built through the park. Rafael indicated that the animals are not bothered by the trains that pass through as they make very little sound. However, I have to wonder what they experienced when the line was being constructed. That had to have been noisy at times.

Rafael drove up and under the train line to the other side. We saw some female gazelles without their male protector. We also saw more ostriches as well as an unusual bird with the odd name of secretary bird. It had long thin legs, and we watched it for a while.

Rafael wanted to show us more rhinos, but the area he expected to see them in proved fruitless. We were heading back to the entrance when he saw some lying in the tall grass. They were lying down so it was difficult to see them. We continued on and came to another group of rhinos. While these were moving around, they were still hidden by the tall grass such that we couldn’t see their faces. They did have a cattle egret sitting on their backs.

By this time we felt very tired after our early morning departure. We decided to see if we could check into a hotel for a few hours as we didn’t want to sit in the airport until our flight left at 11:00 pm. Rafael drove us to a hotel which did have a room so we then said good-bye to Rafael. We really appreciated him as our guide.

We had the room for about four hours. The hotel had a washer and dryer so we actually did our laundry. We ate dinner there, and later they drove us to the airport. The hotel room turned out to be a good move. At about 11:00 pm we began our flight out of Kenya and Africa headed for Europe. Next week discover what our first days in Norway were like.

Credit: The video of us and the giraffe was taken by our guide, Michael.