Excursions:

Nairobi National Museum

Nairobi National Museum is located at the Museum Hill,approximately 10 minutes drive from the Nairobi city centre accessible both by public and private means. Built in 1929, this is the flagship museum for the National Museums of Kenya, housing celebrated collections of Kenya's History, Nature, Culture and Contemporary Art. The Museum aims to interpret Kenya's rich heritage and offers a one stop for visitors to sample the country's rich heritage both for education and leisure.

After an extensive modernization and expansion project from October 2005 to June 2008 the museum reopened as an impresive and magnificient piece of architecture that puts it in competition with other world- class museums, drawing visitors from all walks of life in appreciation of Kenya's rich heritage. One of the many highlights in Nairobi National Museum is the single most important collection of early human fossiles in the world, all of which have been discovered in Kenya. Other attractions within the grounds include the Nairobi Snake Park (with an enormous number of different types of african snakes, further monitor lizzards, crocodiles and turtles) as well as the Botanical Garden.

Karen Blixen Museum, Nairobi

'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills' is the beginning of Karen Blixen's world famous autobiography 'Out of Africa'. The Museum was once the centre piece of this farm owned by Danish Author Karen and her Swedish Husband, Baron Bror von Blixen Fincke. Located 10km from the city centre of Nairobi, the Museum belongs to a different time period in the history of Kenya.

The farm house gained international fame with the release of the movie ‘Out of Africa’ an Oscar winning film based on Karen’s autobiography. Karen came to Africa in 1914 to marry her half cousin and carry out dairy farming in the then British Colony of Kenya. Her husband had however changed his mind and wanted to farm coffee. The coffee farm did not do well, suffering various tragedies including factory fire and continuous bad harvest. After 8 years they got divorced and Karen was left to run the financially troubled farm on her own, a daunting task for a woman of that generation.

She fell in love with an English gentleman, Denis Finch Hatton, and his death in Tsavo in 1930 coupled with the failed farming left Karen little choice but to return to Denmark. She turned to writing as a career following her departure from Africa and published to increasing acclaim such works as Seven Gothic Tales (1934), Out of Africa (1937) and Babettes Feast (1950). She died on her family estate, Rungstedlund, in 1962 at the age of 77.

The Karen Blixen house meets three of the customary criteria for historical significance. First, it is associated with the broad historical pattern of European settlement and cultivation of East Africa. Second, it is associated with the life of a person significant to our past as the home of Baroness Karen Blixen from 1917 -1931. As such, it served as the setting and basis of her well known book Out of Africa as a gathering place for other well known personalities of the period. Third, the building embodies the distinctive characteristics of its type, period and method of construction. The house's architecture is typical of late 19th century bungalow architecture,including the spacious rooms, horizontal layout verandas, tile roof and stone construction typical of scores of residences built throughout European suburbs of Nairobi in early decades.

By1985, with renewed interest in Karen Blixen occasioned by the film production of Out of Africa, an agreement was reached with the collage for the house to become part of the National Museums of Kenya. Many pieces of furniture that Karen Blixen sold to Lady McMillan on her departure were acquired back and constitute part of the exhibition in the Museum. The Museum house remains a serene environment that seems to belong to the past, surrounded by a tranquil garden and indigenous forest, with a splendid view of Karen’s beloved Ngong Hills.

Narok Museum (to insert into every drive from Nairobi to Maasai Mara or vice versa)

The National Museums of Kenya has setup a Museum in Narok with exhibitions of pictures and artifacts to preserve the beauty and strength of the rich traditional culture of the Maasai and other speakers of the Maa language. The Maa speakers in Kenya comprise the Maasai (Narok and Kajiado district), Samburu (Samburu, Laikipia district), Njemps (Baringo district) and groups of Ndorobo neighboring the Maasai.

The Maasai are believed to have originated from North Africa and entered Kenya near Lake Turkana, spreading south through the Rift Valley, which provided extensive grazing grounds for their cattle. Today they occupy parts of Kenya and Tanzania. The Maasai are noble, aristocratic people with an impressive physical appearance and a technology appropriate to the harsh environmental conditions of tropical savannah.

The traditional life of Maasai is a cycle constituted by a chain of ceremonies that involve the community as a whole. After childhood (inkera), initiation into adulthood (emorata), and adulthood. Girls marry and boys become warriors (ilmoran). Elders look forward to an age of responsibility and continuous involvement.

Gallery exhibitions include 24 reproductions of Joy Adamson's paintings, depicting the traditional lifestyle of Maa speakers. This collection is selected from vibrant ethnographical portraits, taken from her legacy of over 6,000 painted between 1949 and 1955. Further 8 black and white photographs taken by Joy Adamson in 1951 in Maasailand (Narok, Loita and Amboseli) add to the historical value of the exhibits. A collection of colour photos taken and commented by Maasai women gives an unadorned insight on daily life in Maasai world.

The collection of cultural artifacts forms the heart of the exhibition. The Museum of Maa culture will also be a living museum, a place where contemporary issues receive as much attention as well. Where todays art is exhibited alongside yesterdays artifacts, where the education of young Maasai students is as important as the state-of-the art research and conservation.

Thomson's Falls (to insert into every drive from Lake Nakuru to Aberdares, Samburu or Meru (or vice versa)

East of Nyahuru, just outside the town lies Thomson's Falls, a majestic waterfall on the Ewaso Narok River, falling 72 meters into a ravine. It is placed at 2.360 meters (7.750 feet) above sea level and only a short distance north of the equator, draining from the Aberdare Mountain Range. The waterfall creates a mist that feeds a dense forest below in the ravine. You can either check out the falls and their beautiful surroundings from the multitude of viewing areas along the rim of the gorge or also follow a trail down to the bottom of the ravine.

Lake Naivasha (either daytrip from Nairobi or to insert into every drive from or to Lake Nakuru)

to be continued ...