The smoked salmon was great...the doughnut was a one-biter not worth it...dry and tasteless. The beef sausage was ok....the odd thing you can't identify is Passion Fruit...I'm sure an acquired taste...very bitter....but we tried.
After breakfast it was time to move to The Boma...we had been told you could walk there, but we thought probably not...so for $7 they would take us...much better idea. It was close, and a very walkable distance, but not for 4 folks pulling luggage that scream "we're tourist".....
So long Eka Hotel, thanks for the R and R...we won't miss the banging....
Nice hotel and the people were very accomodating...
The Boma is owned by The Red Cross and is on Red Cross Road...we felt safe but still had to stop at a gate where the guard ran a bomb searcher under the van....wow....just wow...
We'll be safe behind this tonight.....
It's a very nice hotel....cool glass decor hanging outside the front door.
Lovely place to sit and eat outside....
Big hotel...many rooms...no renovations, no banging...it's cloudy and a bit cool....can you say..nap time!!!
Inside the lobby....
We saw this little plane flying over...that may be us tomorrow. Our quick flight out to camp is only 45min...
Denny and I didn't sleep well last night...still adjusting I suppose, and as tempting as a another slow nap day might have been..."go and see" kept tugging at me. So, I checked out the "things to do " book in our room and found 2 things that sounded really cool. ...The Karen Blixen museum/home and The Giraffe Center.
It was hard to leave these but I did...
I didn't want to wake up Mom and Shea and I didn't want to leave them out, so once I knew pricing and timing I rang their doorbell....yes, these rooms have doorbells. It was very dark inside when Mom answered but she wanted to go....didn't know about Shea but we'd meet downstairs in 15min....cool. We all 4 went at $60 per person, which included both entrances. Off we went....through some rough areas.
We were told these folks did not live in this area but were always here selling things. Talk about rough....most of what we drove through was rough.
I almost missed the doors to that daycare with Winnie-the-Pooh...too cute...my fav....
We saw cows everywhere....didn't seem to matter where they roamed....
This is the area known as Karen....and this is the Karen Hospital. Karen Blixen did so much for the people of Africa they have named many things after her....schools, town. hospitals....etc.
So does this house look familiar??? It was the house used in the movie Out of Africa that tells the story by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish author Karen Blixen), which was published in 1937,
It's a true story and is most fascinating.....
The story begins in 1913 in Denmark, when Karen Dinesen (a wealthy but unmarried woman) asks her friend Baron Bror Blixen(Klaus Maria Brandauer) to enter into a marriage of convenience with her. Although Bror is a member of the aristocracy, he is no longer financially secure; therefore, he agrees to the marriage, and the two of them plan to move to Africa to begin a dairy farm. That Dairy Farm changes to a coffee plantation and their romance has many twists and turns....I plan to re-watch the movie soon.
We met up with a guide...it was a slow day so we 4 had a guide to oursleves....he took us to the lawn to give us some background. I'm sure I missed somethings, the accent is hard to understand sometimes.
And the only way you will see the inside of this house is if you watch the movie(or come see for yourself)...no pictures allowed and it was amazing for having been built in 1913...the floors were gorgeous... It was built with much thought in mind. This was her 2nd home, the first was on another part of her property that has been divided off and sold.
Some of the tools she used to use in farming....
What this land became really famous for for was coffee....
Coffee Beans....
The gardens and side and backyards were so relaxing with an amazing view of the Ngong Hills...just beuatiful
Karen loved her plants and some of what is still there, she planted...
This is a Monkey Pod tree....
This was an odd and huge palm tree...
This is the biggest and oldest palm on the plantation..over 100yrs..
We took a path through the woods to where the coffee making had happened...this equipment is all replica from the original...but still very cool.
heading back to the house from the coffee making tour...
Karen and Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke
Karen after a lion hunt....she did well....
This is said to be one of the best pictures ever made of her...
The hills of Ngong...can you see all the windmills on top.....Ii bet they weren't there when Karen lived here.
Just beuatiful stone work.....
We all really enjoyed our time here...it was overcast and a little cool, but beats sweating to death...a light jacket is fine...unlike the native's they have on 3 to 4 layers and gloves...so funny what the body gets used to.
A short ride down the road was the Giraffe center....now many folks might think this is crazy because we are about to go on 3 safaris...but who wouldn't want to pet and feed a giraffe...we won't be doing that on safari. We didn't get a chance to walk the nature trail, maybe next time...
This is a non-profit organization started in 1979 to help save the Rothschild Giraffe...at that time there were only 130 left in the world....this organization has done a fine job. There are 9 giraffes here, 7 female and 2 male...one male is only 1 mth old...we only saw him from a distance and one female, Betty, will give birth this month...she is 16. We were told gestation is about 15mths, but if the female feels the area is unsafe, she can force her body to wait another 3mths...wow, that's cool. God created some pretty cool things.
These warthogs also shared this preserve area, they were funny to watch.
The shaking of the "food pan" you hear is an attempt to "call" the giraffes in...
Notice how they get on their knees to eat...maybe animals do say a blessing!!!
This center has an Inn, see it through the trees, attached to it...you can stay there and we were told in the mornings during breakfast the giraffes just stick their heads right into the windows and help themselves. We wanted to go have a snack there just to see...but it's for guests only.
The giraffes were out in the field and alas 2 guys had to go herd some our way....
Here I come...hope you guys have some food.......
They have a rough black tongue...we were told they can get up to 17 inches long and are black so they don't get sunburnt while they eat all day in the sun....what a great idea!!
Yo...Lady.....you got any food or you just gonna look at me????
Now we're talking....keep it coming......
Give it to me....give it to me...give it to me.......
This was very pregnant Betty.....wish we could see her baby...
This is a lower leg bone of the giraffe...from the knee to the ankle, it weighed about 20-25lbs....
This a giraffe jawbone....she has her hand/arm sticking through like the tongue would be...
Warthog skull....
Eddie was a sweetie....
YO....Shorty...you got anymore food....takes a lot to fill me up!!!????
As you can se we had a blast.....
Eddie was so friendly....
Anybody got anymore snacks???
It had been a great way to spend some time in Nairobi...we headed back to the Boma. We got some education along the way...this is the worst and biggest slum in Nairobi...goes back to WWII...the government has tried to clean it up but nothing sems to help..it's really bad looking.
Our driver stopped at a store on the way back and we bought a few things we needed then we headed home...we were tired and hungry and tomrrow starts early....a short plane ride to the bush....can't wat.
We ate before going upstairs..this was the coolest thing for tonite...a cucmber salad Mom and Shea got...the "bowl" is 2 cucumber slices in a circle...pretty cool. Otherwise we ate fairly normal, pork chops and chicken and spaghetti....
Good night Betty, we hope you and your new baby giraffe are doing ok....thanks for coming to "play" with us today....
Next stop.....the bush...tent camp.........
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