5th - 7th October 2013
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So here we are again (yes we should have been more forward thinking in naming the blog but no changing it now!). A full year since we got home from our honeymoon and our first holiday since. Although this trip is a paltry 3 weeks in comparison to last year. I wasn't sure whether I was going to do the blog again until a friend mentioned it and then I didn't think about it again. I've been a bit busy ya know, with the moving into our new house a week before we left and starting a new job a month ago. However as soon as the first leg of our journey was complete I found the blog was writing itself in my head so here we are! I must confess that I am one of these people who seems to constantly narrate on their lives in their heads...anyone else do this or just me then?!
Anyways we left Ireland on Saturday 6th Oct at 9pm to fly to Nairobi via Abu Dhabi. We were flying with Etihad and it was refreshing to saunter straight up to the check-in desk and get boarding passes and bags put through for the full journey. No queuing, no hassle. The anti-Ryanair.
We didn't have much time to kill in the airport at all and by the time we got food and had a drink it was time to go to the gate. Huge improvements made in Terminal 2 since we were last there and a bit more shopping time wouldn't have gone astray! Despite the late hour of the flight, we got the obligatory dinner within an hour of being airborne. The difference here being that we were provided with a full menu and choice for dinner and drinks! And got a free vanity bag with an eye-mask, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste etc. It all felt very luxurious. I don't know how Ronan managed it, but he ate his second dinner in 3 hours! It was really tasty for airplane food but i couldn't manage it! We also got 3 seats between the two of us for the whole journey so we both got a bit of sleep. It was only 7 hours between Dublin and Abu Dhabi so the flight passed quickly enough and it was one of the least turbulent plane journeys I've ever done so thumbs up all round.
Things took a bit of a nose dive from Abu Dhabi on, nothing too bad but just Abu Dhabi airport was a complete cattle mart. There wasn't a nice vibe around the airport and it just didn't feel comfortable. Dreading spending 6 hours there on the way back as even finding somewhere to sit is an experience! The plane from Abu Dhabi was smaller, squashed and I had a really tall guy sitting beside me so I had even less room than normal. However it was only 4 hours so could be worse. I was hungry by this stage and had been anticipating breakfast as it was early morning so the 7am fish and potatoes was hard to stomach. The flight was pretty uneventful bar one moment where we dropped out of the sky a bit!
We arrived to Kenya International airport expecting high security in light of recent events but it wasn't the most secure looking airport I have ever been in! The immigration desk was basically a line of desks in a row. A bloke beside me was sent into the arrivals lounge to the ATM to get money for his visa and then returned to the immigration desk to pay so in effect he could have just left once he went to the arrivals lounge! There were a few blokes with guns alright that looked pretty menacing but that just about covered it.
Ronan got his bag fairly quickly and we had to wait about 20mins for mine. Considering shopping wasn't top of our agenda for our time in Nairobi this was causing me some worry but it eventually arrived! I can't understand how it's always mine that we are waiting for though. Ronan reckons it would be better for mine to get lost as I can wear his clothes but he can't wear mine?! Go figure!
As we were leaving the airport the lady at security asked us for a form, which we didn't have as we had given our all our forms into the immigration desk. So she asked a couple of times for some form that we didn't have so she just said 'ok' and let us through! Glad they have heightened the security anyways as it must have been terribly lax before!
We had organised an airport transfer through our camp as we heard Nairobi airport is notorious for scams for tourists on arrival so said better be safe than sorry. We arrived to the Wildebeest Eco Camp in late afternoon and we were pleasantly surprised to be shown to our lovely, luxurious tent with a bed, electricity and even bedside lockers which we don't have in our own bedroom at home yet! We had booked this camp as an average 3 star hotel in Nairobi was about €200 a night whereas this camp was only €39 for a tent with shared bathroom. It was akin to glamping in Teapot Lane. Fabulous! The location was out of the city centre but in one of the more affluent suburbs that tourists are recommended to stay in.
We had a some food, a short snooze and a shower and just chilled around the camp for the rest of the evening. We had dinner there and a couple of drinks. We had said that we weren't going to do much in Nairobi with the security risks and we would just chill at the camp on the Monday and relax but in our typical style we couldn't just sit around doing nothing. We didn't set an alarm but woke early after about 11 hours sleep. After breakfast we decided to get a taxi to the elephant sanctuary (the David Sheldrick Trust) where they rear young elephants who have been orphaned. They are orphaned for a variety of reasons but usually because of humans poaching the female elephants for their tusks. The elephants stay in the sanctuary for up to 3 years after which they are released to a national park and observed for a further 7 years before finally been properly released to the wild at age 10. They live to about 70 years old so still substantial time as wild animals. There were 3 groups of elephants brought out to the viewing public. The babies were only about 4-5 weeks old and very nervous so they were only out for about 5 mins. The next group were aged between 6 and 18 months and were more playful. The final group were between 18 months and 3 years. These were the most boisterous group and constantly playing or fighting. During part of their games they ended up spraying mud all over the crowd so our clothes/faces/cameras got covered. Should have taken a photo but didn't!
Then we went to the Giraffe centre. This place is a novelty as it is one of the few places you can hand feed giraffes. You are on a raised platform so are at eye level with the giraffe. They headbutt you for food if you don't feed them fast enough. It's cool for the first couple of minutes but there are only a few times you can give a giraffe pellets before looking for something else to do! But there was nothing else there!
Then it was back to camp to change as we were covered in mud from the elephants before heading out to the Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens where we wiled away the afternoon with dinner, cocktails and coffee! Pure bliss. If anyone has seen the movie Out of Africa they will know who Karen Blixen is and the Kenyans are obsessed with her naming restaurants, coffee shops, gardens, museums, parts of the city (basically you name it) after her. There ends our two nights in Nairobi without actually seeing the city!
Next step - safari, what Kenya is all about!
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So here we are again (yes we should have been more forward thinking in naming the blog but no changing it now!). A full year since we got home from our honeymoon and our first holiday since. Although this trip is a paltry 3 weeks in comparison to last year. I wasn't sure whether I was going to do the blog again until a friend mentioned it and then I didn't think about it again. I've been a bit busy ya know, with the moving into our new house a week before we left and starting a new job a month ago. However as soon as the first leg of our journey was complete I found the blog was writing itself in my head so here we are! I must confess that I am one of these people who seems to constantly narrate on their lives in their heads...anyone else do this or just me then?!
Anyways we left Ireland on Saturday 6th Oct at 9pm to fly to Nairobi via Abu Dhabi. We were flying with Etihad and it was refreshing to saunter straight up to the check-in desk and get boarding passes and bags put through for the full journey. No queuing, no hassle. The anti-Ryanair.
We didn't have much time to kill in the airport at all and by the time we got food and had a drink it was time to go to the gate. Huge improvements made in Terminal 2 since we were last there and a bit more shopping time wouldn't have gone astray! Despite the late hour of the flight, we got the obligatory dinner within an hour of being airborne. The difference here being that we were provided with a full menu and choice for dinner and drinks! And got a free vanity bag with an eye-mask, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste etc. It all felt very luxurious. I don't know how Ronan managed it, but he ate his second dinner in 3 hours! It was really tasty for airplane food but i couldn't manage it! We also got 3 seats between the two of us for the whole journey so we both got a bit of sleep. It was only 7 hours between Dublin and Abu Dhabi so the flight passed quickly enough and it was one of the least turbulent plane journeys I've ever done so thumbs up all round.
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| So much room to snooze! |
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| Dinner menu and vanity case |
We arrived to Kenya International airport expecting high security in light of recent events but it wasn't the most secure looking airport I have ever been in! The immigration desk was basically a line of desks in a row. A bloke beside me was sent into the arrivals lounge to the ATM to get money for his visa and then returned to the immigration desk to pay so in effect he could have just left once he went to the arrivals lounge! There were a few blokes with guns alright that looked pretty menacing but that just about covered it.
Ronan got his bag fairly quickly and we had to wait about 20mins for mine. Considering shopping wasn't top of our agenda for our time in Nairobi this was causing me some worry but it eventually arrived! I can't understand how it's always mine that we are waiting for though. Ronan reckons it would be better for mine to get lost as I can wear his clothes but he can't wear mine?! Go figure!
As we were leaving the airport the lady at security asked us for a form, which we didn't have as we had given our all our forms into the immigration desk. So she asked a couple of times for some form that we didn't have so she just said 'ok' and let us through! Glad they have heightened the security anyways as it must have been terribly lax before!
We had organised an airport transfer through our camp as we heard Nairobi airport is notorious for scams for tourists on arrival so said better be safe than sorry. We arrived to the Wildebeest Eco Camp in late afternoon and we were pleasantly surprised to be shown to our lovely, luxurious tent with a bed, electricity and even bedside lockers which we don't have in our own bedroom at home yet! We had booked this camp as an average 3 star hotel in Nairobi was about €200 a night whereas this camp was only €39 for a tent with shared bathroom. It was akin to glamping in Teapot Lane. Fabulous! The location was out of the city centre but in one of the more affluent suburbs that tourists are recommended to stay in.
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| Roughing it in Kenya! |
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| Inside our tent! |
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| View from the breakfast table |
We had a some food, a short snooze and a shower and just chilled around the camp for the rest of the evening. We had dinner there and a couple of drinks. We had said that we weren't going to do much in Nairobi with the security risks and we would just chill at the camp on the Monday and relax but in our typical style we couldn't just sit around doing nothing. We didn't set an alarm but woke early after about 11 hours sleep. After breakfast we decided to get a taxi to the elephant sanctuary (the David Sheldrick Trust) where they rear young elephants who have been orphaned. They are orphaned for a variety of reasons but usually because of humans poaching the female elephants for their tusks. The elephants stay in the sanctuary for up to 3 years after which they are released to a national park and observed for a further 7 years before finally been properly released to the wild at age 10. They live to about 70 years old so still substantial time as wild animals. There were 3 groups of elephants brought out to the viewing public. The babies were only about 4-5 weeks old and very nervous so they were only out for about 5 mins. The next group were aged between 6 and 18 months and were more playful. The final group were between 18 months and 3 years. These were the most boisterous group and constantly playing or fighting. During part of their games they ended up spraying mud all over the crowd so our clothes/faces/cameras got covered. Should have taken a photo but didn't!
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| Four weeks old |
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| Feeding a seven month old |
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| 18 months old |
Then we went to the Giraffe centre. This place is a novelty as it is one of the few places you can hand feed giraffes. You are on a raised platform so are at eye level with the giraffe. They headbutt you for food if you don't feed them fast enough. It's cool for the first couple of minutes but there are only a few times you can give a giraffe pellets before looking for something else to do! But there was nothing else there!
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| Watching for a headbutt! |
Then it was back to camp to change as we were covered in mud from the elephants before heading out to the Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens where we wiled away the afternoon with dinner, cocktails and coffee! Pure bliss. If anyone has seen the movie Out of Africa they will know who Karen Blixen is and the Kenyans are obsessed with her naming restaurants, coffee shops, gardens, museums, parts of the city (basically you name it) after her. There ends our two nights in Nairobi without actually seeing the city!
Next step - safari, what Kenya is all about!
Great to see you back blogging again Nicole! What an amazing trip. And yes I constantly narrate in my head too! Can't wait to read about the safari.
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