Animal Stuff (this time for real!)

Last time I promised animals, this time there shall be animals!

So far we experienced animals in three different settings:

1. Zoos in Nairobi

2. National Parks, in our case Lake Nakuru and Mount Longonot

3. The Maasai Mara National Reserve

In this post I'll focus on the zoos in Nairobi.

In the Animal Orphanage is a treatment and rehabilitation center for savanna wildlife. The animals are held in good condition, but still too small fenced areas compared to their situation in the wilderness.

The animals we saw were: gazelles, antelopes, cheetahs, a leopard, lions, hyenas, monkeys and water-buffalos.

Most impressive was that we could feed the leopard and the lions – for a little tip to the game wardens of course.

Some schools from all over the country also visited the Orphanage.

Sven even used the time to tie up some business deals.

As in all tourist places, the army was on guard duty.

After that we moved on the Mamba Village. Mamba means crocodile in kiswahili – so not to be confused with the quite venomous snakes. In the Village they had loads of crocodiles, some turtles and (female) ostriches. It turned out the crocs were all fed the previous day and therefore were quite lazy – not much going on except some hissing.

Exiting the Village, we noticed that we were followed by the same school busses from the Orphanage before.

Last stop was the Giraffe Center. There we could feed all three types of giraffes resident in Kenya (already forgot the types, of course) with little cereal pallets. No worries if the giraffe threw some pallets of your hand with its huge tongue – the warthogs on the ground were only happy about that!

That was a fun activity, until a group of rabid nuns showed up that claimed the feeding place for themselves and instagrammed the shit out of everything as if there were no afterlife #InstaNuns

There would also have been an Elephant Orphanage, where one could feed the baby elephants, but that one was booked out until August.

Lastly about prices: these zoos are quite expensive for tourists, e.g. the entrance fee only for the Animal Orphanage cost about €30 per person. Additionally to that there game wardens employed there expect tips for showing you around. So not too shabby, a zoo day.

Having seen so many animals and personally attended with great care to their physical wellbeing by feeding them, we decided to reward ourselves by visiting the Carnivore restaurant which serves a very one-sided but delicious diet. It's probably the most touristy (and quite expensive!) restaurant in town, but the meat all-you-can-eat grilled on skewers on the mega-BBQ is really good and – needless to say – quite filling.