Crowne Plaza Hotel Nairobi

... scummy hotel we stayed in on the first night of our tour. The property also has two large turtles &#8211; one male and one female - which are funny to watch as they race around the property. They actually do cover an amazing amount of ground given how slow they move. There also some kites (a type of hawk or small eagle) which sit in the trees but if you throw food up in the air they will swoop down and pluck it out of the air, quite amazing to watch.<br><br>In the afternoon we ...

First day in Africa! We arrived in Nairobi at 9pm after good flight with BA and were met by Steve and Daniel from the On The Go. Right next to the air port is Nairobi National Park and although we were not expecting to see much given it was dark, we were very excited when out of the gloom appeared a Zebra standing right beside the road. Not even ...

... from safaris operators we benchmark and demand to know how the are contribution the the efforts of saving the world from further effects of climate change by practicing Eco-friendly lifestyles, use of natural renewable energy and saving and planting trees in the local forests .<br>.<br>Senseless human (Kenyan) wanton destruction of natural ecological systems and recless ...

On Tuesday morning many people on the truck left early to go white water rafting on the Nile or visit a Chimpanzee sanctuary. A few of us were doing neither so we had a bit of a lie in, packed up camp and left for Jinja where the rest would meet us that evening. We stopped at a supermarket and then some fruit and veg stalls on the way to Jinja. For the two weeks from Nairobi into Uganda and back I had taken responsibility of buying ice for our esky out of the kitty I'd collected from ...

... got our nails down, which was quite a luxury after two weeks in the bush. Between the dry air, the sandals, the stuff we walked in, my heels had felt like the rawest grade of sandpaper.<br><br>· We had dinner (again, an elegant buffet that included lobster) and bid our new friends farewell. Most folks were leaving on a KLM flight to Amsterdam which Tauck had booked them on which left ...

... put her chair so far back I could use here forhead as a tray,&#8230;oh the joys&#8230;&#8230; so I spent most of the flight chatting with the air tour ladies&#8230;poor souls&#8230;and then in the last half hour got chatting to a dentist from Worcester and a kiwi, who was doing my trip but with a different tour company&#8230;I clung on to them to get the visas sorted and all that mumbo jumbo the other end&#8230;<br><br>after all the lectures to be ...

... say the roads were atrocious. Potholes were seen in some abundance on some stretches of the tarmac, but Patrick deftly avoided them. And to boot, a portion of the way was even a dirt road! Wow, it&#8217;s quite hard to imagine this being &#8220;the way&#8221; to anything, but I half suspect Patrick was trying to josh with us a bit.<br><br>Upon arrival at the Mara, we checked into our game lodge, which was just lovely. Staffed entirely by locals, I heard ...

... The best part is- everyone actually liked it! I also made No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, which are one of my favorites. Ruth, our host mother, is a great cook, so I was a little nervous to make dinner, but it turned out well. I will have to get some of her recipes before I head home; especially how to make chapati- a delicious flatbread that we have with lentils. Yum!

... met and Pauline nodded in agreement. I better understood all the fuss, and I hoped I had represented well. I was not at all hungry , but the dinner proved delicious, despite the Mzungu cooks. While we were eating, Patrick invited us to wash after dinner. I thanked him, but told him we could wait until the hotel. &#8220;But you are sleeping here,&#8221; he told me, &#8220;you and Jackie are our guests.&#8221; As I completely trust Patrick , I did not feel any apprehension ...

... br><br>Anyway, so I&#8217;m learning more and more each day, both happy and sad.   One thing that kind of upsets me is that one of the drivers for HEART, William, lives in the Kibera slum with his wife Gladys, a nurse at Kenyatta hospital and the manager of our WEEP program.  This is not because he is not fairly compensated for his work, but because he has chosen to spend all of his money to put all four of his kids through university, an opportunity he never ...