Kenyan Travel Blog:

I first published this article early in 2024 but at that time, I was only posting on Medium. Now that I have acquired a wider audience on other platforms, it bears repeating. It’s also an updated version. I recently told my partner a funny story about the trip to Kenya and she said I should have included it in the blog. So I will this time but you’ll have to read to the end to find it. J

Before I visited Kenya, I was told to beware that there would always be people around me who were willing to help in any situation. The good news is that it’s true and it’s wonderful. Also, in my experience, it was never overbearing or in any way aggressive. People expected to be paid for their help of course but it was always a miniscule amount; more about that later.

The other thing about Kenya was that, although I had visited Africa a number of times previously, I had never gone on safari, nor had I wished to. Having visited the Masai Mara/Serengeti wildlife reserves, I have to say that I have been fully converted. Arguably there’s not much else to do in Kenya apart from nature parks — there are an awful lot of them apart from the Masai Mara. I visited six parks in total and while there was a certain sameness about them, each had their own unique distinguishing feature. For instance, while buffalo, lions, giraffe, impala, zebra and wildebeest were common to all, the only place I saw a rhino was in Ol Pecheta and the largest, most majestic herds of elephant were in Amboseli. Mount Kenya was memorable also, with the majestic peak in the background. Of course, Amboseli is situated directly underneath Mount Kilimanjaro, across the border in Tanzania. Sadly, it was shrouded in cloud when I was there. I did get to visit Tanzania for a day though and I found it very similar to Kenya.

Apart from the classic elephants, giraffes, buffalo, zebra and lions, there were numerous other animals and birds in the reserves, far too many to list. The wonderful way in which the animals are protected is great to see. While in the past, many of these were hunted almost to extinction, there are now severe penalties for anyone caught in this practice and the numbers of animals are growing again. Almost the entire tourist industry in Kenya is based on safaris so it is in their best interests to protect the fabulous nature they possess. Standing in the vastness of the Masai Mara or the Serengeti, one can appreciate the absolute quiet and peacefulness of nature, the only sound the occasional rustle caused by the light breeze. Of course many animals are hunters or predators so there is violence here but animals only kill to eat, not for pleasure, so it’s the natural order of things. One can imagine how it was like when the entire country, indeed the entire continent of Africa was like this — when all animals and indeed the native peoples roamed free and there were no boundaries or borders.

In the Masai Mara, Lions resting after eating their fill of a buffalo, which they hunted down in front of us.

I commenced my visit in Nairobi and effectively based myself there. I hired a car at the airport but garaged it and went on a three day guided tour in the Masai Mara; there was a group of eight of us with a guide. The tour cost $300, but that included collection from my hotel in Nairobi, all transfers, good camp accommodation, all meals, and the constant presence of our guide, which I thought was excellent value. While you can drive through the park yourself, it is very big and I would recommend a guided tour. For a start, the guides have a fair idea where the animals will be and they all communicate with each other by radio and help each other out. Secondly, they all have four-wheel drive vehicles, so they can go off-road if they need to, and they do frequently in order to see the animals. Many of the inhabitants of the park, including lions, are nocturnal animals so in order to see them during the day, you usually need a guide. Our man, Richie, was excellent, with an encyclopedic knowledge of every living creature we encountered. He was a wonderful character who entertained us with stories about the parks and about Kenya in general. He helped the group to knit together and was humourous and witty. He was also highly intelligent and very hard working and spoke four languages. That was something I noticed on many occasions in Kenya; people get up very early in the morning and go to bed early at night. Nairobi is already a seething mass of people at 05.30am.

But back to nature — I did drive through all the other parks by myself and I encountered a huge amount of wildlife, although for the larger parks, I would recommend a guided tour. If you are visiting any of the parks solo, it’s best to book in advance on line as none of the parks take cash and many don’t take credit cards. They have their own system of payment called Mpesa, which appears to be linked to the phone system. Apparently you pay money into a bank account and you then use it through your phone, similar to how we use our credit cards on our phones in the west. I didn’t use Mpesa but I met other tourists who did and they found it excellent.

One of the fascinating things about viewing animals in the wild is their almost complete disinterest in us humans. Of course we adhered to the instructions to stay in our cars and not to venture too close but while some of the animals took a look at us, it was usually a cursory glance and they then departed to continue to live in their natural state; the herbivores to eat grass and the carnivores to either rest or suss out their next hunt. As safaris are so popular, I guess they are used to seeing humans so it is nothing unusual. We did as we were advised and didn’t make any loud noise; apparently all animals like a quiet and relatively peaceful existence. Us humans could take a leaf out of their book.

Returning to the cooperation between the guides, I found this refreshing as well as inspiring. It appeared to me that this spirit of cooperation seems to pervade all aspects of Kenyan society. Like many places in Africa, there is never any rush and if there is any way you can help your neighbour you will, rather than competing with him, as is often the case in other societies. The view seemed to be — there is enough for everyone so let’s not fight with each other in the rush for more. Personally, I encountered help at every turn. On my first day, I got a puncture in the street in Nairobi. Given the state of many of the roads, it was not surprising. Immediately I was offered help by a passer-by and the man wouldn’t hear of me assisting him in removing the wheel. He very quickly uncoupled it, disappeared round a corner and returned within five minutes with the tyre fully repaired. On top of that, the amount of money he asked me for was miniscule. In Amboseli Park, I damaged the underside of my car in a large pothole and before I had even left the park, I was approached by a teenage boy who offered to repair it. He did so in double quick time and again asked for a tiny amount in payment. I insisted he take a lot more than he had asked for.

These were just two of many incidents but I found the same willingness to help in all places — shops, restaurants, hotels and just generally, but particularly in terms of giving directions. Whenever I arrived in the camps where I had booked accommodation within the parks, I was treated as an honoured guest; greeted initially with a coffee or a beer and looked after royally throughout my stay. In Amboseli, my host even brought me deep into the park at dusk to view some of the animals close up. I was initially somewhat cautious and even a bit scared but Henry reassured me there were no animals around that were interested in eating us. :) We did however get very close to some giraffes and a very large male elephant.

A small warning here to travelers; if you are driving, be sure to buy a local SIM card and use an app like Google maps or Waze. Directional signs are almost completely absent in Kenya. You will find the odd one on main roads but you won’t be able to navigate by them. That said, the main road infrastructure is very good and you can travel between the main cities and towns easily. It is when you want to visit the smaller towns or villages and get close to the parks that the roads become very poor and almost seem to disappear entirely at times. Many are just dirt tracks and if you visit during the rainy season, as I did, they very quickly become quagmires. Similarly, the main tracks in the nature parks are not bad but the smaller tracks would need a four-wheel drive vehicle. In the cities, traffic is nominally regulated but really appears to be a free-for-all. In Nairobi, I encountered very few sets of traffic lights but everything seems to work and the traffic keeps moving. Don’t do it if you’re a nervous driver though. J

The two main cities of Kenya are Nairobi and Mombasa. Both are worth visiting but be very careful if you are driving from one to the other. Mombasa is a huge port and it seems that all imports come through it; not just for Kenya but also Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and even the enormous Congo. These are land-locked countries so all imports must travel though Kenya. What this means is that the main road from Mombasa is choked with trucks twenty four hours a day. I found it treacherous, particularly at night.

The food was generally good and often delicious. Kenya was ruled by Britain until the early 1960’s and you can still see the influence in some of their dishes, but there’s a wide variety of cuisine on offer and fresh food seems to be the focus. They do a lot of stews and goulashes with the main emphasis on beef and chicken. I didn’t see one American chain fast-food outlet although I’m sure they are there somewhere. It was a refreshing change though to travel through the country and visit small locally run cafes and restaurants serving local foods. One small regret on this point; Kenya produces, in my opinion, some of the finest coffee in the world, but it was almost impossible to find. The overriding offer almost everywhere, was imported instant coffee. Kenyans told me that they are at the stage now perhaps that Ireland was in the 1970’s, in terms of coffee consumption anyway.

There are very few negatives about this wonderful country but I would say they should do something about their main airport in Nairobi — Jomo Kenyatta. It is without question the most complicated piece of airport infrastructure that I have ever driven in. The problem seems to be that it occupies numerous square miles of territory and that there are two separate security checks to get into it. The difficulty in finding the terminals (even using sat nav) is again the complete absence of signage. Having driven around for over forty minutes and totally bewildered, I stopped and asked a policeman at a checkpoint where the terminals were. But this was where the Kenyan habit of helpfulness came into its own — he agreed with me that it was extremely difficult to find the terminals so he insisted on sitting into the car and coming with me. He got a colleague to cover his post and assured me he would get a lift back, what was a considerable distance. Within ten minutes, he had directed me to where I needed to return my hire car. So, while the infrastructure might be complicated, the people compensate; therefore, no negatives from me on this point.

In Masai Mara, the border with Tanzania. Technically, the other side is the Serengeti and you need a visa to cross but the animals take no heed :)

So, to summarize, a very warm, friendly, helpful, laid-back people; not quite there yet in terms of development but definitely on the way; there are fifty three million Kenyans and their standard-of-living is in many instances, very basic. But they are very good humoured about it, easy to talk to, laid back and they enjoy life. The country is very user-friendly for tourists; you will feel and be safe and you will always find someone willing to give a helping hand, and always with a beaming smile on their face.

So to my amusing story — when I was moving between nature reserves, I stayed at a place called the Rafiki House, on the Meru-Nanyuki highway. Now, the place was difficult to find; again, absence of signs, but when I did locate it, I was treated royally. The host, a young man, greeted me and insisted I have coffee and cake. He then showed me my ‘room,’ which was effectively an entire house, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a fully equipped kitchen and an enormous living room, complete with giant TV. And for this, I paid the outrageous sum of $17.06. This will give you an idea of the value you can get in Kenya, particularly in more remote areas. In the morning, he delivered an enormous breakfast directly to the room which of course was included in the price.

I needed to find dinner somewhere and my host apologised because he didn’t do dinner but recommended an excellent restaurant which was very close by. Most of Kenya is at a significant height above sea level so while the days are warm, the evenings can get chilly; I mention this because it’s relevant to the story. After a late dinner, I came back to my room and retired for the night but as I was just settling down to sleep, I brushed off something warm and firm in my bed. To say I was close to a heart attack is probably an exaggeration but I’m sure I leaped about six feet into the air with fright and exited the bed in record time. Now remember, this was a remote place in Africa and there are all sorts of wildlife throughout the continent, some benign but some highly dangerous. I had already had an encounter with a huge cobra in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and I had also ‘met’ a hippopotamus in a car park in Richards Bay. So I was taking no chances.

When I eventually found the light switch and went to investigate, all was well — my host, presumably because the night was chilly had put one of those old fashioned ceramic hot water bottles into my bed. Thankfully, I settled down and had a great night’s sleep. When I told the guy the next morning, he laughed uproariously and assured me that nothing wild could gain access to my room. I would have loved to stay another night but I had more nature parks to visit and it was only a transit stop. If anyone is ever in the vicinity though, I can’t recommend the place more highly. It was true Kenyan hospitality at a ridiculously low price.