CITY TOUR

CZ 01- NAIROBI CITY TOUR/ NATIONAL MUSEUM
Daily / 2 hrs / 1000hrs & 1400hrs

NAIROBI CITY TOUR
Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya and is 160 Kms (100 miles) from the equator.

• Drive down Uhuru Highway passing one of the oldest cemeteries of the city. Adjacent to this is the oldest golf course in the country, the Railway Golf Course. Drive on pst the Uhuru Park, one of the major recreation centres of the city.



• The Nairobi Provincial Commissioners offices are situated on the right of the roundabout in a listed 1913 building. Off the Uhuru Highway turn right and to the left you have the Faculty of Engineering Department of our biggest Campus, the Nairobi University. The latter has part of its administration block to the right of Harry Thuku Road.



• Further down Harry Thuku Road is the Norfolk Hotel. Historically, the Norfolk was "The Place" for starting safaris as way back in 1904. Opposite the Norfolk is the Kenya Conservatoire of Music and the National Theatre. Ahead is what was until very recently the only broadcasting stations in the country i.e. The Voice of Kenya (V.O.K). Branch on to Kijabe Street where many book shops and publishers are situated. Drive round the biggest roundabout in Africa, which is also bisected by the Nairobi River.



• Enter Moi Avenue past the Old Salvation Army Building. Turn into Muindi Mbingu Street past Jivanjee Gardens on the left, and the City Market to the right. The City Market is housed in what was originally meant to be an aircraft hanger, but it was never used for this purpose. Instead, curios, crafts and farm produce are sold here. Drive down Banda Street past the largest Mosque in the country - the Jamia Mosque, and the McMillan Library built in pre-independent Kenya is our largest library. This is run by our City Council.



• Join Kimathi Street pass the New Stanley hotel. This was at one time the centre for travelers during the earlier part of the century.



• The Kenya National Archives which is on the left of the Hilton is a "goldmine" of cultural artifacts and paintings. Join City Hall Way drifting past the City Hall, the Law Courts and facade of Kenyatta International Conference Centre. The latter holds all major conferences in the country. Move on to Parliament way, at the beginning of which is the Mausoleum. The resting place for Kenya's first president is within the grounds of parliament.



• Turn onto Harambee Avenue, the location of some of the more high profile government offices. The offices of the President, Vice President, the Treasury and Police Headquarters are found here.



• The FORMER American Embassy is situated on the corner of Moi Avenue. Which was now turned to a memorial park after the 1998 bomb blast that shook the whole of Naiorbi. To the right on Haile Selasie Avenue is the Railway Station, the Railway Museum and the Kenya Railways Headquarters.



• Drive directly to Nairobi hill viewpoint from where you have a panoramic view of the city. Continue on to "Gods corner", significant for the number of different churches situated in this area. Rejoin Uhuru Highway on your way to the National Museum, a major International Centre for natural history and especially the study of human evolution. Visit also the Snake Park.

CZ 02-KAREN BLIXEN / GIRAFFE CENTRE
Daily / 3 hrs / 1000hrs & 1400hrs

• We invite you to relive a small part of Kenya's colourful history. Karen Blixen's home, "Mbogani House", made famous by the film 'Out of Africa' has been restored by the Danish Community of Kenya, and comes under the umbrella of the National Museums. Karen Blixen lived in the house from 1917 to 1931 when her farm had to be sold and she left Kenya never to return.
• Inside the house you can see the books and cuckoo clock which were presented to the museum from the sets of the film. There is also a picture in the lounge and a china turkey which were Karen's own possessions. On the bookcases you will see the brass plaque on which 'DHF' (Dennis Finch Hatton) are engraved.
• From the garden you can enjoy the magnificent views of the Ngong Hills and at the front of the house look out for the original millstone tables from which she conducted so much of her farm business.
• Leaving the Museum, we continue to Giraffe Centre, Headquarters for the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife made famous by 'Daisy Rothschild', a giraffe calf rescued from Soi, on the Western Kenya border, Daisy and her family form only a small part of a herd of these gentle giants, living in a semi wild state at Giraffe Manor. These animals will come to a protecting wall to be fed when you can come eye to knee with the tallest animal in the world.

CZ 03 - NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK
Daily / 4 hrs / 0630hrs & 1400hrs

• Nairobi National Park lies 10 kms (6 miles) from the heart of the capital. It was established in 1946, 114 kms (44 sq miles) of pristine savanna with a large stock of migratory game and lies between the Nairobi-Mombasa railway and the garden suburb of Langata. It is open on its south-east perimeter and here the Kitengela Conservation Area allows a corridor for the natural migration of the game which takes place with the seasonal rains.
• Well-laid out, with exceptionally well-maintained roads, the park is a model for all others, both geophysically and administratively. Of the most popular species, only the elephant is an absentee. But the rest of the Big Five - leopard, lion, buffalo and rhino, as well as a multitude of other creatures - are well represented here.
• The Athi River at the Park's far end forms a delightful natural demarcation for the park, and provides walks along a riverine forest heavily populated with many species of monkey and a wide variety of birds - and in the river pools, hippo and an occasional crocodile.

• Entertainment by various cultural dancers and later and an orientation of various tribes of Kenya at the grounds of the Bomas of Kenya.
• Catch an insight into a permanent exhibition of African dancing and culture, including a number of tribal villages (or boma) building styles,.
• Dressed in full regalia of beads and feathers, various tribal groups display their traditions, many of which are no longer seen elsewhere.

• Enjoy a variety of Kenya's birdlife on the beautiful lakes of the Rift Valley, where animals graze on the shoreline. Flamingo concentrations vary according to season.
• Lake Nakuru a shallow and alkaline lake on the bed of the Great Rift Valley, has earned its fame as the home of the greatest bird spectacle in the world - a myriad of often more than a million pink flamingos which seasonally use its waters to feed on the abundant algae which thrives in its shallow warm waters. It lies 160 kms (100 miles) from Nairobi by road.
• Sporadically, Lake Nakuru is subject to fluctuations in depth and water-line and perhaps once in every two to three decades dries up completely. Then the vast flocks of flamingo which colour its waters a delicate pink, and the pelicans which swim and fish with them, use the rising morning thermals of the Rift Valley to gain lift to fly over Menengai crater, the high rim of a large volcanic crater 89 kms in extent, and on down the Rift Valley to the more remote waters of lake Bogoria.
• Although the flamingo are the most obvious, other inhabitants of the alklaline lake include Black-winged stilts, avocets and in the European winter a mass of ruffs. Lake Nakuru National Park has a great deal to offer beside its magnificent bird life it is also a rhino sanctuary and one of the best places i the country to see these rare animal. Besides rhino the park is home to lions leopards, buffalo and other plains and forest game which have made it their permanent and protected habitat. The acacia savannah which surrounds the lake is itself beautiful and proves an area which is particularly good for game viewing.

CZ 07 - Nairobi National Park / Carnivore / Bomas Of Kenya
Daily / 0730hrs / Full day

• Situated at 7,200 ft in a truly magnificent garden with views to the Ngong Hills and Kilimanjaro, Kiambethu farm is the home of Mr & Mrs L. Mitchell.
• Built in 1910, the farmhouse is home to four generations of the family. Mrs. Mitchell's father Mr. McDonell was the first person to plant and make tea in Kenya.

ITINERARY:
• Depart after lunch to Limuru. On arrival at the farm you will be served tea/coffee and biscuits. Thereafter Mrs. Mitchell will give you a talk on the history of the family and of growing and making tea. The tour around the farm will be escorted by Mrs. Mitchell. Colobus monkeys are to be found in the virgin forest on the farm. Later return to the farm house to see the Wakamba carvers before returning to Nairobi.

• Dinner or lunch at the Carnivore Restaurant. Famous for it's succulent steaks, Barbecue dishes and huge variety of game meat.
• The Carnivore has almost now become one of Nairobi's "musts" and as much a tourist attraction as the National Museum! A 20-minute taxi ride from Nairobi's city centre, the Carnivore Based on the Brazilian concept of an open coal fire, the focal point of the main restaurant, an enormous variety of meat, is roasted on huge metal spears and then carved at the tables on to piping hot plates. Fresh salads, unusual side dishes and assorted tasty sauces accompany beef, pork, lamb, goat, sausages, quail, chicken, gazelle, hartebeeste, zebra, wildebeeste, and occasionally crocodile . If you have any room left after all these unlimited servings, a variety of puddings are on offer before mugfuls of Kenya coffee herald the end of the meal.

CZ 51 - Karen Blixen / African Butterfly Museum / Giraffe centre
Daily / 0900hrs / Half day:

• Karen Blixen famous for the film out of Africa, African butterfly museum (the educational centre and flying house set up by the leading lepidopterist in Kenya) and Giraffe home of the endangered Rothshcild Giraffe.

Daphne Sheldricks Orphanage:
Daily / 1000hrs / 3 Hours:

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