Having returned to Nairobi from Mt. Kenya on the evening of the 17th and since I wasn't to go back to Olonana till 19th I found myself with a day to spare in Nairobi which I intended to take full advantage of. The A&K office in Nairobi very kindly lent me one of their drivers for the day, a very happy man named Patrick who has been a driver for A&K for the past 6 years and knows Nairobi like the back of his hand. The day began with a tour of the various districts in central Nairobi: The financial districts, Uhuru park, the U.S. embassy memorial ground and various Government ministry buildings including the Presidents residence which, needless to say, looked very pleasant. Areas that were avoided were downtown Nairobi and Kibera, the 2nd largest slum in the world. After the tour we proceeded to an area called Karen to visit the reptile sanctuary. Inside were pens full of various Nile crocodiles of categorized according to their age. I was even allowed to hold a baby 2 year old crocodile. However due to a certain amount of cockiness on my part the crocodile played dead for a long time while I pretended to kiss it. Suddenly the crocodile left to live and nearly removed the lower part of my lip... I won't be doing that again any time soon. In amongst the crocodiles were large Leopard tortoises of the kind we had seen in the Mara except that these were at least 20kg heavier and so with an effort I was able to carry that one as well.
After the crocs came the giraffe sanctuary where this time you can kiss the animals without them attempting to deface you... I and everyone around me had a great time petting and feeding the giraffes, and the giraffes looked very happy to be pampered. A light lunch and it was then off to the snake sanctuary and Nairobi museum. At the snake sanctuary I came face-to-face again with the Mt. Kenya viper that greeted me during my hike. In addition one of the curators also allowed me to handle a Royal Python that soon wrapped itself around my neck. In the Nairobi museum I saw the oldest complete human skeleton ever discovered. Called the 'Turkana Boy' this skeleton dates back 1.5 million years. In the evening I was greeted with a complimentary dinner at the famous 'Carnivore' Restaurant where the only thing on offer is meat... and lots of it. Although game meat has been banned by the Kenyan government the restaurant still had on offer crocodile meat, camel meat, and deer meat. In addition I even tried some Bull testicles... it was quite chewy and I don't think I'll be trying it again in a hurry. Very happy with the day's activities I went to my hotel realizing that I couldn't wait to return to everyone at Olonana to tell them of my short excursion.
Xav
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