Nairobi, Kenya

We traveled to Nairobi several days before our big overland tour started with not much planned. I honestly was not expecting to like Nairobi all that much since big cities are not always my cup of tea but we had some really lovely experiences there. Our first full day in town we did some running around buying supplies for our upcoming overland adventure, which will involve some camping. Uber is widely available and really affordable in Nairobi making it easy to get around. After our shopping was done we saw on Google maps that the Nairobi Arboretum was near our hotel so we decided to check it out. Admission was only 50 cents USD. The Arboretum is a beautiful green space with signs inside that say the gardens are “the lungs of Nairobi.” The trails in the park were beautiful and well maintained. There are some 300 species of trees and many of them are labeled. The icing on the cake was seeing around a dozen or so wild monkeys that live in the park. They did not seem fazed by our presence and they continued eating and playing as we slowly walked by.

The highlight of our time in Nairobi for me was visiting the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. They operate an orphaned baby elephant rescue and rehabilitation program and nursery. The nursery takes in orphaned elephants from all over Kenya, many are victims of poaching or human-wildlife conflict, and raises them until they are no longer milk dependent. The ultimate goal is to give them a second chance (orphaned baby elephants can’t survive without milk) and release them into the wild when they are ready, which can take years. You can read more about their work in this National Geographic article.

For the visit, a group of baby elephants came out into a roped off area inside the Nairobi National Forest to be fed from large milk bottles by their David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust caretakers. They then shared the history of each elephant and how they came to be there. They also shared information about their work caring for the elephants and some of the education and anti-poaching efforts they support. The elephants are adorable beyond words and I could have watched and photographed them all day long.

We also took an Uber to the Giraffe Centre, which happens to be directly next door to the posh Giraffe Manor. You see the same giraffes as you would at the Manor but for a much smaller price tag. The Giraffe Centre is a nature education centre, educating thousands of Kenyan school children about giraffes every year. There you have a chance to observe about a dozen Rothschild Giraffes, including several babies. They also provide food pellets so you can feed them if you want to see them up really close. Most of the giraffes will eat pellets right out of your hand or even your mouth if you want a giraffe kiss.  

We did briefly venture into central downtown Nairobi and that was not the best experience. Once we reached a certain block several people descended on us trying to sell us things in a rather aggressive manner. We ducked into a store to try and lose them and they just waited outside for us to come back out and did not go away even after saying no thank you over and over. We called an Uber and got the heck out of there. There are surely areas of downtown that are pleasant to visit but we did not stick around long enough to find them. Overall Nairobi is a nice modern city and other than our brief trip downtown everyone we have met here has been quite welcoming. The neighborhood where our hotel was located is lovely and walkable.              

We heard the Nairobi National Park is an excellent place to visit and see wildlife just a stone’s throw from downtown. We decided not to go there only because we are going to be doing many game drives to see similar wildlife in the near future with our tour.

The variety and quality of food in Nairobi has been excellent and we have loved being able to eat veggies at every meal. We have enjoyed the traditional Kenyan dish ugali na sukuma wiki (stewed greens with maize). It is so simple and inexpensive but so delicious. We also enjoyed a lovely lunch at Boho Eatery, which has a whole food focused menu with many plant-based options. The restaurant in our hotel had a good many healthy vegan options on the menu as well. We appreciated having so many appealing options available. After our time in Nairobi we are refreshed and recharged for the next leg of the trip.