Nairobi Game Park

After leaving the orphanage we need to find something else to fill our time.  It was noon and our flight didn't leave until 11:30 pm.  Our driver in Nairobi had already taken us on a driving tour of the city and so we made the choice to eat lunch and then go to the Nairobi game park.  We asked the driver where he suggest we eat.  He asked what we wanted.  We said something cheap.  So he actually took us to the cafe right at the beginning of the game park.  Dr. J and I were a little hesitant. Our experience has been that things that are set up for tourist are not cheap, but after watching a few baboons running around we walked over.  We got a menu and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was filled with local favorites at local price.  A bowl of beans and a plate of rice and veggies was 150 shilling, less than two dollars.  We ordered four bowls and four chocolate covered donuts.  It honestly was one of my favorite meals that I ate while in Nairobi.  Then we headed to the game park.  Here are the highlights...we got to see Ostriches, we saw some animals really close up, we even got really, really close to a lion.  My kids were sitting on the top of the car as was my husband and she was maybe 25 yards away, grunting and calling out to the rest of her pride.  You had better believe I was yelling, "Get back in the car, get back in the car."  Here are the lowlights...we were in a car and the grass was high so it was hard to see things.  Our driver hardly spoke at all.  It made me really miss Koach and all his animal facts and expertise.  It wasn't as great as Nakuru or Hell's Gate.  It cost us more than any of our other Safari experiences.  First off the park was more expensive $50 per adult, $25 per child and we didn't get any breaks.  The other parks gave Dr. J the resident rate because he was there as a student for two months.  Nairobi said he'd have to be in country for six months before they'd consider it.  So we paid out the nose for our least favorite safari.  If you were just doing a layover and this was the only safari you could go on, well then considering that and the fact that it is in a big town, it's pretty darn amazing.  If you have the opportunity to go on any other safaris, well then it probably isn't worth it.  If I had to do it all over again I would just head to the giraffe manor and then over to Carnivores for dinner.  But we had time to waste so waste we did.  After spending the day there we headed to the airport.  I think we were there by 7.  Let me tell you the outbound airport is actually quite nice.  It took us a bit to get through ticketing because there was only one lady running the British Airway counter but once we passed immigration it was pretty nice.  They even had a nice children's room that we holed up in for the majority of the time.  There were lots of comfy leather recliners and it just seemed nicer than hanging out in the lounge next to our plane.  Finally when our flight was 45 minutes to go time we headed to our gate.  After going through two sets of security we were in the lounge and just walked onto the plane since most of the other passengers had already boarded.  It was 11:30 and we were exhausted.  We still ended up eating dinner and the kids played a few games but then we all passed out until we got to London.  

She was so close it was scary!