On 22nd October, we were ready to leave Nairobi and took a driver to Naivasha for 10,000 KSH (£60). We actually had a driver called John but this was booked via Joseph Kimano, a trusted driver of my friend Caroline, who is on whatsapp +254 720 817 639. The journey is a little over 90km and took about 2 hours. We stopped at a viewpoint halfway, full of gift shops with no prices on them, so with pester power being impossible to ignore, we ended up with the most expensive toilet break of the trip which cost me 3000 KSH (£18!) for a tiny ornament! Ouch.
After all the hustle and bustle of Nairobi, it was absolutely delightful to arrive at Sanctuary Farm on the edge of Lake Naivasha. I had simply booked via recommendation but it turns out they have a whole website, see here! We stayed in one of the many Airbnbs owned by Sanctuary Farm, which was essentially a sweet little cottage called Hippo Corner (so named because the hippos come into the garden after dark!) beside Guy and Amina's main house, costing £111 for 2 nights. We had a little tussle over who got the double bed and who got the single, with Tiger creating lots of notes and signs staking her claim on the double. Needless to say, I won in the end!
Sanctuary Farm and Naivasha itself is a spectacular place; I could only imagine what it must have been like to grow up there and call it home. We had zebras in the garden, along with a menagerie of cats and dogs which kept Tiger entertained! Guy pointed out where his restaurant (called Kijiko) was - about a ten to fifteen minute walk where we met lots of impalas, antelope, zebras and wildebeest roaming around. The restaurant had a delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner offer, along with a pizza oven which was operational on weekends and by special request at other times, plenty of Tusker beer, a wine list, swings and a "climbing frame" aka fallen tree to keep the kids entertained. Tiger really enjoyed meeting some of the other families (some who were camping), despite being a little reluctant as they were speaking French! You do need to be back by dark as the hippos come out of the lake and can trample you. Our first night we left it just a little too long and did a fast march back; on the second night I was determined not to make the same mistake twice and it was a bit lighter but I still got a bit of a telling off from Guy to make sure we were extra careful.
Next to the restaurant, there were the stables which we visited on the first day and Tiger did a horse ride (being led) for half an hour on the second day. The cost for this was 3,000 KSH (£18) and she loved it. The last time she rode was in Namibia where she was a little nervous but this time she pretty much just jumped on!
On 23rd October, our second day in Naivasha, after Tiger's horse ride we took a boat out to Crescent Island (boat cost: 3,000 KSH, £18, return). The boat can either just take you to see the many hippos in the water or take you to the island and pick you up. Upon arrival we paid the entry fees which were $33 per adults and $16 per child, but cheaper if you are a Kenya resident or citizen. On the island we ended up walking with another French family with two kids, and particularly enjoyed seeing the ostriches and giraffe, although according to the 2024 animal census, there were 1,663 wild animals from zebras, Thomson gazelles, impalas, giant gazelles, wildebeest, waterbuck, guinea fowl, dik dik (which look like a cute impala), jackal, hyena, vervet monkeys, bat eared foxes, bush hares, buffalo, pythons, white tailed mongoose, slender mongoose, zorillas (striped polecat), bush babies, spring hares, genet cats, coypu as well as, of course, the hippos. You walk from one end of the island to another for the full experience, but we only managed half of it with the children's little legs which was quite sufficient! I have to say that by the time we got back, we were pretty worn out from all the walking. One thing that is not immediately apparent is that the altitude at Naivasha is actually 2,000m which also can make you a little out of breath.
On our second and final night, Guy and his wife Amina, very kindly took us out on a drive in the dark where we saw sleepy impalas, giraffe and bat eared foxes and Guy even gave us a (free!) lift to our meeting point at the Safari Centre about 25 minutes away where we met up with our friend Caroline, and continued onwards for another 2 hours or so to her school, St Andrew's Turi. The Safari Centre is a rather fantastic catch-all mall, with a great kids play area (you do have to pay for this, around 2-3,000 KSH, but you do not seem to be constricted by how long you stay.)
Once at Caroline's school, we pitched our tent for the night, using Tiger's Readybed and a blow up mattress for me. I was quite surprised that despite owning this tent for over a decade, it was actually brand new (!). I actually remembered camping in this tent all over with Robin in the UK, including at the Glastonbury Festival, but I had somehow managed to lose it, had bought an exact replacement, but then clearly never taken it out of the bag since! We had a bit of light rain in the afternoon, but the weather was very mild otherwise and Tiger loved the whole camping adventure!
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