Judi Schulz

This was a very special family Christmas for us. I had wanted to go to Kenya since I was a girl reading about Elsa and her cubs. I became even more determined to visit after taking an Anthropology course at University and then reading about Jane Goodall and her amazing work with chimpanzees.

We flew British Airways from Toronto to London Heathrow and bought an upgrade for the nine hour London to Nairobi leg so we could get some sleep and hit the ground running. The service and the lie flat beds make the price much more palatable. We saw the most amazing sunset as we flew over Africa. Arriving in Nairobi was quite surreal - you definitely realise you are in a foreign place.

We arrived in the evening and were met by our representative and driver who briefed us on our stay as we drove to our lovely small hotel - the House of Waine. The hotel staff was very nice, the rooms were large and comfortable with lots of African character, the grounds were lovely with lots of flowers and a lovely pool and the food was excellent. The property is in the Karen district of Nairobi which is easy to get to from the airport with good access to the excursions we were planning.
On our first full day in Africa we went to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and had a wonderful time watching the babies interact with their keepers and each other. We adopted two babies and on our return to Nairobi, we were invited for another visit with them at feeding/bedtime. We continue to support them and get monthly updates on their progress.

Next we went over to see the giraffes residents who live on the grounds of Giraffe House. You can climb a platform where an attendant will give you pellets to feed them and where you come eye to eye with these beautiful animals. After lunch we went to the original farmstead and home of Karen Blixen who lived here from 1917 – 1931 - it is now a museum. We finished the day with a tour of Kazuri, a co-operative bead-making workshop established to provide employment for single mothers. There is a gift shop next door which sells their wares.

That evening we went for dinner and the show at Carnivore restaurant. It is exactly what the name suggests – a place that serves (on spears direct to your table) all kinds, and great quantities, of meat. It was an experience!

The next morning we had a visit to Safari Walk – the only place we actually saw a leopard in Africa (they like to hide) – prior to going to the airport and our 45 minute flight to Nanyuki and on to Sweetwater’s Tented Camp.

Sweetwater’s is a large enclosed game concession with a separate chimpanzee sanctuary . We had lunch and settled into our tents before our afternoon game drive. We saw lots of wildlife on the drive and then went to the sanctuary and spent a nice time quietly viewing the chimp orphans and reading each of their stories – each one is heartbreaking. We then went to visit Morani – the tame black rhino who came here as an orphaned baby – he was 32 years old when we saw him! We fed him sugar cane – his favourite treat.

With excellent views of Mt Kenya from our tent, we spent the evening watching and photographing the animals as they filed past our tent for their nightly visit to the watering hole. We did a number of game drives here – day and night – and this made for a comfortable and informative introduction to the varied and abundant wildlife and the safari experience. Please see my other Africa journals for the rest of our journey.