Trip to Nairobi – Kenya
I had to go to Nairobi in Kenya for a business meeting. It was only for 2 days, but luckily I was free for one day 🙂 During that day I did a mini safari in the Nairobi National Park. This is a national park just 15 minutes from Nairobi center with wild life. I saw a wild giraffe, lots of zebras, ostrich and some other. There are also wild lions, tigers, elephants … but I didn’t see them this time. Some pictures of the safari:
(Note: all pictures are copyrighted by me, Marc Gregoire. Please contact me if you want to use one.)
At the entrance of the national park there is also a small zoo. Some pictures of that zoo:
After the mini safari, I went to a giraffe center in Nairobi. This center was started in 1979 to try to save the endangered Rothschild Giraffe. In the center you can get close to the giraffe and even feed them as I’m doing in the first picture 🙂
I also went to an elephant orphanage. This is a place where they help young elephants that have been abandoned by their parents or that have been injured. The orphanage tries to raise them as wild as possible because all these elephants will be released into the wild again after a few years of raising them.
Traffic in Nairobi is crazy and that’s an understatement. Bigger roads just have some tarmac in each direction without any lines for the lanes on them. People just drive where they want on that piece of tarmac. On some places the roads are more holes than anything else. And you have to be careful, since sometimes it might happen that there is a huge hole in the middle of the road. If you would drive with normal speed over it, your car will most likely be seriously damaged.
At one point I was stuck in a taxi in a traffic jam. The road we were on had one lane in each direction. However, since our lane had the traffic jam, people just started passing us on the other lane. After just a few minutes there was also a jam on that lane since cars were also coming from the other direction on it. So, cars started to pass us driving next to the tarmac. Soon there were even two jamed lanes next to the road…
Maja said,
Wrote on November 8, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
Sounds like you enjoyed the traffic the most! 🙂
Anyho’ very nice pictures! Too bad you couldn’t stay any longer and meet the culture as well!
Maja said,
Wrote on November 8, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
Btw. it looks as if you’re taller than the giraffe you fed! :))
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on November 8, 2008 @ 5:45 pm
I forgot to mention that in the city, cars often ignore traffic lights and just drive through lights whether it’s green or red. I even saw a driving school car passing through red, although a bit slower than most other cars. Pedestrians crossing a crosswalk when it’s green for them have to keep an eye on cars coming from all directions, because cars will drive through from anywhere 😉
JohanG said,
Wrote on November 9, 2008 @ 9:30 am
Seems like you had fun over there 🙂
Great pics!
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on November 9, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Yep it was fun, a few more days there would have been nice 😉
Bernard said,
Wrote on November 9, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
Btw, Nairobi is known more for its wildlife than its city traffic…Maybe National Geographic channel should do a Top Ten documentary on vehicle traffic for all cities…I wonder which rank Nairobi would take?
Marc Gregoire said,
Wrote on November 9, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
LOL, Nairobi would probably make it into the top ten, but I think some city from India will probably be at the first place 😉
Its wildlife is great 🙂 And I really like it that I could do a mini safari just 15 minutes from the city center, which was perfect since I only had 1 day to visit things 🙂