Way back in December 2023, I was looking ahead and booked a flight to Kenya for Tiger's two week half term in October 2024 - talk about forward planning! Little did I know that at the last minute due to my job being made redundant, the trip was in jeopardy due to a massive fall in income. Luckily, I reached out to my friend and former King Edward's Witley colleague, Caroline Mannion, who saved the day offering me to camp in her garden at St Andrews School in Turi, Kenya, where she is Head of Art. So we were back on - but this time with a budget trip. Well, I always travel on a budget but this trip would definitely be with an extremely close eye on the budget!
With my new job accepted and starting after the Half Term holiday, on 18th October I dropped my car off at my parents' house in Uxbridge and headed to the Premier Inn in the Uxbridge bus station (London Uxbridge Town Centre) for the night (£55). We checked in and I had a wonderful Sitters babysitter for three hours so I could go out for a drink with my good friend Cuckoo in the Queens Head in Windsor Street.
The next morning we were up just after 3am and on the A10 bus (£1.75 for one adult) to take us to Heathrow Airport Central Bus Station at 04:09 - ouch! The buses start at 03.30 and run every 20 minutes (every 30 minutes on Sundays) and take 24 minutes so it is a brilliant option for getting to the airport. Thankfully, once we were up, we were up, and enjoyed sitting at the top of the double decker bus and getting to the airport in the dark!
Our Brussels Airlines flight was due to leave at 06.50 so we had plenty of time to wander around the shops before boarding and flying to Brussels. A quick note though that I usually "wrap" our bags to protect them from damage and theft, but with such an early flight the bag wrapping service wasn't even open so the backpack and tent went without the wrapping this time. I am pleased to report they arrived in one piece nevertheless. Our first flight was just a short flight, we changed in Brussels and met loads of families with kids who Tiger played with before the 10.20 flight to Nairobi.
During the second 8 hour flight Tiger crashed out for 1-2 hours and I tried to but mostly just watched movies rather than getting any real shuteye! We landed a little late at 21.30 but had a massive wait of over an hour getting through immigration due to the fact that two large airplanes had landed at almost the same time (Brussels Airlines and British Airways). During the long wait I changed up £100 in cash and the iPad and bluetooth headphones were worth their weight in gold. Actually getting through immigration whilst at the booth was quick (they take finger prints) but the queuing was challenging. After we were through there was then another long wait for everyone to go through a baggage x-ray machine. Luckily, after we got our bags (one big backpack and the tent) we met a kind porter who got us to the front of the queue.
Out of the other end, I went straight to the Airtel SIM lady, buying a SIM card with 3000 Kenyan Shilling (KSH, about £18) of data and then paid 1500 KSH (£9) for a taxi (vs Uber price was around 800 but I couldn't be bothered to argue). It is worth noting here, that we made a bit of an error getting the Airtel SIM really, as the best one is Safaricom (which then allows you to preload cash into an app called MPesa, but we nevertheless survived the trip ok with cash, credit card and ApplyPay. We finally arrived at almost midnight into our Airbnb apartments at Apple Tree Apartments (Block 7, 8th Floor, apartment 1) for which we had paid £112.38 for 3 nights. The apartment was really lovely, and we had a bedroom each (wow!) and a view of Nairobi National Park from our balcony.
On Sunday 20th October, we had no plans but basically woke up late, had lunch in the on site restaurant, Tommys, and took cars/Ubers to two supermarkets for food and drink shopping at various supermarkets called Naivas. A few things of note in supermarkets are that alcohol comes from a different supermarket / bottle shop, they do often have hot food to take away, baby supplies, and everything you would normally expect. The Apple Tree apartments are largely owned/occupied by Kenyan residents and the complex has a restaurant, a few simple shops, a children's playground and a small swimming pool (but this was closed whilst we were there). What was a rather funny coincidence is that my data didn't seem to reach the front gate of the compound and for our first venture out to the supermarkets, we ended up getting a lift with a chap and his granddaughter and we discovered that they were also in Block 7 on the 8th floor so we exchanged numbers!
On Monday 21st October, we had breakfast in our apartment and took an Uber to the Prestige Plaza Shopping Mall (1,260 KSH, £7.50) which took about 30 minutes, had breakfast in the Java House (full English for both of us, £15.92) and met our lovely Airbnb guide, Erick. I had booked a tour of the Kibera Slum (the largest slum in Africa, and third largest in the world) with Airbnb for £42.15 (adult £22.99, child age 6+ £19.16) with Erick's company. This is actually free for children up to the age of 2, and is supposed to be suitable for kids from age 6. As Tiger will be 6 in January, I could probably have got away with a free ticket, but wanted to pay for her as this is a social enterprise. Well, it was really fantastic! We were guided around by Erick and his colleague Jack, met loads of kids so wonderful for Tiger to play with them, she saw puppies and kittens, held a chick, had her first taste of sugar cane, and helped paint a door! We also went to a craft centre where they were making jewellery from animal bones and padlocks - I bought a necklace and a keyring for 1500 KSH (£9), visited a tiny slum house, and had lunch/drinks with our guides.
After the tour, we headed in the Uber at Uber prices (but paid cash) to the Giraffe Centre. This was a pretty nice visit, although not too long, and tickets were 1500 KSH (£9) for a non resident adult, and 750 KSH (£4.50) for a non resident child (3-12). Here, we walked on an elevated platform and hand fed the giraffes who had long, purple, leathery tongues! We then had a simple lunch of chicken burgers and chips (£9.46) and bought Tiger a small, leather, Giraffe-themed purse (£13) in the gift shop.
By the time we finished at the Giraffe Centre, we were pretty tired but had a rest at the Airbnb before being invited to dinner by our lovely neighbour Davis and his family. Tiger loved playing with the daughter, Loxi, who was the same age as her and it was just amazing to experience such wonderful hospitality!
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