Lions, twenty minutes from the airport. A city behind them, on the skyline.
I
Planning
A few days either side of the Mara — Nairobi at the start, Nakuru at the end.
✦ Kenya · July 2025 ✦
Kenya
Beyond the Mara
4 daysNairobi · Rift ValleySolo
Begin
✦ Quick facts ✦
The country before and after the savannah.
- Country
- Kenya
- Region
- Nairobi · Rift Valley
- Dates
- July 2025
- Duration
- 4 days
- Companion
- Solo
- Weather
- 12 – 25 °C
- Best season
- June – October
- Cost
- $220 / day
- Pace
- City and edge-of-park
- Best memory
- Flamingos lifting from Lake Nakuru in unison.
✦ Chapter zero ✦
Before the journey
The plans, the assumptions, and the small preparations that travel never quite asks you to keep.
II
Expectations
A capital with more on offer than its reputation suggests.
III
Research
A long conversation with a friend who grew up in Karen.
IV
Preparation
A jacket. Nairobi is colder than you think.
Charting the route…
Chapter by chapter
Day by day
The trip as it happened, in order — chapters of field notes, with photographs, pull quotes and a ledger at the end of each day.
Chapter One · A city with lions
Day 01
— 14 July 2025 —
Day 1
Nairobi National Park
~ ~ ~
Chapter Two · Karen
Day 02
— 15 July 2025 —
Day 2
Karen, Giraffe Centre, Sheldrick
A baby elephant nursery in the morning, a giraffe eating from my hand in the afternoon.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Three · The pink lake
Day 03
— 20 July 2025 —
Day 3
Lake Nakuru
Flamingos in their thousands. A rhino watching from the trees.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Four · Departure
Day 04
— 21 July 2025 —
Day 4
Back to Nairobi, then home
A quiet last day, a long flight, a louder home than the one I had left.
~ ~ ~
✦ Moments to remember ✦
Small things, remembered.
The funny incidents, the unexpected kindnesses, the things a trip keeps even after the photographs have been filed away.
01
A giraffe’s tongue
Forty-five centimetres long, surprisingly clean, oddly polite.
Photography
Photographs from Kenya
A selection from the road — captured slowly, edited even slower.
✦ Route map ✦
The trip, drawn out.
Charting the route…
✦ Highlights ✦
The bits that stayed.
01
Lake Nakuru
Flamingos in their thousands. A pink horizon.
02
The Giraffe Centre
A small fee, a long tongue, an unforgettable afternoon.
Final reflection
The country either side
Most travellers fly in and out of Nairobi without noticing it. They are missing something.
Kenya, even outside the Mara, has a way of staying with you.
~ ~ ~