Matt needed to fly out of Nairobi early Easter Sunday morning, so instead of sending him off alone we decided it might be a fun way to spend the weekend. We were lucky enough to be joined by Tierney’s friend Udine’s family who then also invited us to stay with them at their friend’s house. What a treat! I don’t know what I was expecting when Tine invited us to stay there, but it certainly wasn’t staying in the middle of a game ranch. We got to watch giraffe graze over our morning coffee. Perfect blend of city (shopping/eating) and bush (animals) experience.
Day one we went to Giraffe Manor and the Animal Orphanage. Giraffe Manor was super fun to be able to feed and touch the giraffes. Matt even got a head butt that the signs warned us about. Funny stuff. I have mixed feelings on the animal orphanage; it was really sad to see the giant animals (lions, cheetah, leopard) in such small enclosures, but we did get to see feeding time, so that was exciting.
After such a busy morning it was time to head to The Carnivore restaurant for a late lunch. The Carnivore is an all you can eat meat experience (“Beast of a Feast”). Anderson was excited about trying crocodile and ostrich. Even our typically non-meat eating child (Tierney) had a good meal. The only item that most of the table skipped were the ox balls (Harald was braver).
The next day Tine and I went into Nairobi for some shopping and sushi. The kids stayed back with the dads and enjoyed a quiet day on the ranch. I did get a report that they went fishing, but all they caught was a turtle, so we all decided to head back to the water again for sundowners and try to catch some actual fish. Tine, Erwin (our host), and I decided to walk and it was one of the nicest walks I’ve been on. In 2 km we saw warthogs, duiker, vervet monkeys, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, impala, and eland. It was gorgeous. We got to the fishing spot in time to see Anderson and Tierney catch small catfish. Once the sun set we went to one of Erwin’s favorite spots where he often spots porcupine and hyenas after dark. The sun had just set and we found the dens. We still don’t know if they are porcupine or hyena dens because we found several quills, but there were also lots of bones around. We did see bats darting in and out of the holes, so maybe they are now abandoned.
Erwin loves birds. He has a great bird feeder that he generously fills with a special mix of food to attract a wide range of birds. The problem is that he also seems to have attracted the pesky vervet monkeys. To try and keep them away from the bird food, he sets a mouse-trap when he sees the monkey approach. This was our morning entertainment.
Sometime after Matt’s early morning departure and when the kids woke up on Sunday morning the Easter Bunny came and hid a huge amount of candy. An unforeseen benefit of traveling with Belgians is that the Belgian Easter Bunny has much better chocolate than the American Easter Bunny.
The kids and I had a pretty easy trip back by ourselves. I was nervous about driving and doing the border crossing all by myself, but Easter Sunday was a good time to do it. Very little traffic and an uneventful border crossing got us home in just over 3 hours. We got home in time for Easter dinner at the Banks’ with a bunch of friends. It was fun to catch up with everyone and hear about their travels (families at dinner had been to Oman, England, Thailand, and Cambodia over break) and to play with our real Easter bunnies.
Happy Easter!!
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