Baby bottles for elephants hold lots more milk than those for human babies! Sheldrick Wildlife Trust helpers care for the babies through the day and night. Photo credit: Christine Tibbetts
Kenya’s a long way from my Atlanta home. I made some smart choices prepping for my first-ever safari, and learned a bunch more in this vast, beautiful, welcoming country.
Each tip can open space for deeper experiences and more relationships within communities.
Go Early
This fanciful map is a mural on a building in the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo credit: Christine Tibbetts
Jet lag’s real and it’s a shame to let it crowd out the awe and wonder of first sights in new places.
The price of an early, extra hotel night – especially in Kenya where U.S. dollars and euros go far – is so worth it. I measured that in my own energy levels, but also comparing to travel companions who arrived just in time to head out again.
They struggled the first two days just to be acclimated to a new time zone, and to cope with disrupted sleep.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Book a hotel near the airport that offers free shuttle service to and fro. But if you’re flying out of JFK as we did, skip the Hampton Inn. Opt for one of the newer, nicer Marriott properties.
Go Smart
I thought I was clever, taking a short flight from Atlanta to New York, spending the night in an airport hotel and easing into the 14-hour Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, departing JFK at 1:30 in the afternoon.
Think again. . . quite possible the body adjusts better with an eight-hour flight to, say Amsterdam, stretch a while and then another leg into Nairobi.
While considering those two options, think about returning home. For no discernible good reason, Kenya Airways demanded three security checks to get to the gate.
No water, no rest, shoes off and laptops out every time. And those were in addition to check-in and passport control.
Everybody getting on the plane for the midnight flight was dehydrated, peaked and grumpy. For some, including one pregnant woman who had gone without water in the overheated waiting area, it was downright dangerous.
Guest rooms in the Tamarind Tree Hotel in Nairobi can accommodate three travelers easily with twin beds. Conventional double and queen beds available too. Photo credit: Christine Tibbetts
Tamarind is 15 minutes from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and six kilometers from Nairobi National Park if you want to jumpstart viewing wild animals.
The incredibly kind and attentive staff were my first experience with Kenyan hospitality and generosity. Notice the welcome from every single soul; this will continue everywhere, every day.
My room had three twin beds, each with access to plug-ins for charging devices (although one took some sleuthing to find since it was behind the stack of pillows.
SheBuysTravel Tip: This whole story is “tips” but notice the Tamarind gift shop. Art in Kenya tends to repeat itself, so introduce yourself to intricate beaded earrings, necklaces and bracelets, to carvings of many animals, to soft fabrics with iconic African scenes and to ubiquitous T-shirts with images of the Big Five animals. Memorize them: lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, rhino.
Grab Dinner
The Tamarind Tree Hotel in Nairobi features colorful lobby art suggestive of the animals to be seen on game drives throughout Kenya. Photo credit: Christine Tibbetts
Food’s lovely at the Tamarind – lavish breakfast buffet with tamarind juice to try! Patio seating by the pool and flowering trees and shrubs suited me best. Portions seemed enormous from lunch and dinner menus so consider sharing.
Get started on beetroot salad here; it’ll be on every menu the rest of the trip, always in a new design or shape.
Get a Massage
Gentle hands-on healing or deep tissue massage: affordable and available in Kenya hotels.
There were three of us traveling together – one who likes a deep tissue massage; one who likes a gentle massage and me, who falls somewhere in the middle. All three of us agreed: Our massages at the Tamarind Tree Hotel with Evelyn (who also likes being called Eve) can be called the best ever.
Proof? My arthritis-swollen left knee returned to near normal size and my stiff neck and tight hips from that long flight eased considerably.
Given the exchange rate with US dollars, I spent $65 for 60 minutes of healing, and pure bliss.
Get Ready for the Elephants
Rescued baby elephants learn to eat the leaves of tender branches as part of preparing to return to the wild. Photo credit: Christine Tibbetts
Visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi definitely opens deeper feelings when encountering elephants on the game drives. Spend a few hours here before heading into Kenya’s vast national parks.
Baby elephants whose mamas have died are brought to Sheldrick and, with near-constant attention, they can successfully return to the wild in an astonishing five years! Tsavo is the name of Kenya’s national park where returns take place, if that’s something to consider experiencing.
Poaching is a subject much discussed in Africa, and so is the relationship with wild animals and village families trying to raise cows, goats and sheep—and gardens.
Conversations at Sheldrick with elephant protectors and nurturers gave me perspective to then take to the game drives and indigenous communities. Like “elephants know when someone has mistreated an animal in the past” or “elephants speak to one another in a frequency humans don’t hear.’
Without that teaching, I would have wondered about the deep silence on game drives watching families of elephants walking and munching.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Sheldrick offers adoption opportunities–$50 annually to support a baby elephant, complete with monthly newsletter updates. Rhinoceros adoptions also become available as safaris unfold. So do tuition payments and uniforms for children to go to school!
Feed a Giraffe
She Buys Travel Editor-in-Chief Cindy Richards feeds tiny pellets to a giraffe in Nairobi’s Giraffe Centre, an education facility emphasizing the endangered Rothschild species. Photo credit: Christine Tibbetts
Game drive giraffe encounters may be close enough to see their eyeballs, but mostly they’re about admiring those long lanky legs and graceful stride off in the distance.
Get close in Nairobi’s Giraffe Centre. Feel the long gentle tongue by feeding little pellets to the giraffe who wander close to the fenced boardwalk.
And learn a bit about the Rothschild, Maasai and Reticulated giraffe species found in Kenya.
AFEW is the organization behind this learning center—the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife.
Christine Tibbetts believes family travel is shared discovery — almost like having a secret among generations who travel together. The matriarch of a big blended clan with many adventuresome traveling members, she is a classically-trained journalist. Christine handled PR and marketing accounts for four decades, specializing in tourism, the arts, education, politics and community development. She builds travel features with depth interviews and abundant musing to uncover the soul of each place.
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