Farewell to Kenya

Our flight home was to depart at 1:35am Saturday morning, so we were effectively leaving Friday night.  Our day was spent mostly in transit from our camp back to Nairobi, allowing me to catch up on my blogging while on the road.  We made a couple stops along the way to use restrooms and grab coffee.  Coincidentally at both our first and second stop we ended up seeing the same large group from California that we saw on our way out to the Maasai Mara.  We talked a bit again with some of them at each of the stops. 

Blogging on the Road

Our 6 hour drive back to Nairobi went without major issue, with the exception that the main highway

Scenery in Small Towns we Drove Through

was blocked off for a period of time.  We had gotten advanced warning so Stephen found a detour on a very rough, narrow cliff-side dirt road.  For 45 minutes we bounced about with many other detoured vehicles driving alongside a steep drop to our right with only some bushes and tree-tops to keep us from plummeting if Stephen missed a turn.  Oncoming traffic (which was probably the heaviest this road has seen in years) was a challenge too, as oncoming vehicles could barely fit past us. 

After 45 minutes, the road ended at a gate to the Rift Valley Academy, which we had to enter to proceed.  This appeared to be a very large and upscale boarding academy that served elementary through high school children of both locals as well as expatriates.  We got an unplanned driving tour of the campus as we continued our long detour to the main highway.  Past the academy and on the other side of Kijabe, the

Small Town Scenery

name of the town we were in, we had to pass through a narrow carved out channel in the mountain, this was only wide enough for one car to pass through at a time, and even one car took tremendous skill to not hit the sides.  Stephen navigated it expertly, and we continued down the final stretch back to Nairobi, arriving at about 2:30.  We had booked a room at the Hilton Garden Inn by the Nairobi airport for the afternoon, even though we would need to head to the airport at 10:30pm, as we knew we would need a place to shower, re-pack/consolidate our bags, and maybe nap. 

Small Town Scenery

As we unpacked the van, we thanked Stephen deeply for the great safari and for everything he showed and taught us over the past 6 days.  As with everyone else that shared Kenya with us, we shared our little piece of Nashville with him and gave him a large box of Goo Goo Clusters to share with his family.  Each time I handed these out, it felt like an insignificant gift compared to what we had been provided, but it was our small way of giving them a piece of our home, Nashville.

Checking in at the Hilton Garden Inn

We quickly unloaded our bags at the hotel, and reached out to Thomas who planned on meeting up with us again for dinner. We asked for recommendations on restaurants and narrowed it down to two.  Carnivore Restaurant which had a very epic “all you can eat’ deal where various meats, some exotic, were roasted in the center of the restaurant on Maasai swords, and they continue providing you meat until you put your white flag down, or Ashaki which was a large and lively local hang out with a bar and Nyama Choma, the ubiquitous barbecued meat sold at markets, cooked at home, or ordered at a bar during a guys’ night out. While both sounded intriguing, Carnivore sounded much more touristy, and Ashaki felt much more like the Kenya experience we were looking for. 

Thomas drove us to the restaurant and got us a table, where we sat and ordered a few drinks.  Thomas doesn’t drink, which did work well with him as our designated driver, but I enjoyed several beers. He coordinated with the chef to get chicken nyama choma for Aimee, and lamb for he and I.  The meat is barbecued, and then brought table-side to be carved up by the chef onto a large plate, that is then shared.  As a side, a cornmeal and potato dish is provided (somewhat similar to ugali), but with some spinach as well giving it a green color.  As is typical with Kenyan food, it is all eaten with your hands, so before digging in, we went to one of the many sinks around the restaurant to wash up, and then stuffed ourselves with meet.

Nyama Choma Carved Tableside

We spent quite a bit of time here just talking with Thomas about everything we saw and how much we enjoyed Kenya.  The conversation meandered through Kenyan politics, international politics, American politics, and all sorts of other topics. Both Thomas and Aimee and I expressed how glad we were for the new friendship and said we would keep in touch. 

Final Dinner with our New Friend Thomas

Unfortunately all vacations come to an end. Thomas brought us back to our hotel and said he would return at 10:30 to take us to the airport. When we pulled into the airport, it was a heartfelt goodbye as he was truly a huge part of our Kenyan experience that we’ll never forget. 

As we walked away from his car with tons of luggage, we prepared ourselves for our upcoming three flights (for a combined 21 hours in the air) and approximate 8 hours of airport time to get back home to Nashville, where we would be adding two more pins to the travel map.