We had a late and very full breakfast and then we spent the rest of the morning lazing around the chalet and pool area.
We had arranged to meet our guide Ali and driver Michael at 1 pm when we would decide the itinerary for the afternoon. He wanted to take us to the Karen Blixen museum and bead making institution both of which would be easy to get to from the hotel.
However Maggi and I wanted to see something of Nairobi. He came up with a couple of excuses of why this would be impractical. We insisted. Once he had accepted the tour we proposed he he showed us around with good humour.
We drove around town looking at the slums, from a distance, the Government buildings and shopping centre. We then stopped at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC)where we paid to take the elevator to the top.
From the summit we had a wonderful 360° view of Nairobi. The amount of green space in the city surprised me. The Independence Park, a golf course and a National Park all contributed. Once we had our fill of the KICC we headed to the cultural centre known as Bomas where they have a show each day to celebrate the music and dance of the diverse groups that make up Kenya.
We stayed for the first half which lasted an hour and within that hour there were four or five different tribes represented by the dancers in there various costumes.
When the half-time break appeared we left and Ali took us to another area of the grounds which showed the various huts the different tribes used. The first group of huts belonged to the Maru peoples from near Mombasa on the coast. Ali’s grandfather had been a medicine man in this tribe and therefore relatively rich. His father had 7 wives as this was common among the wealthy men of the group. Ali assured us he had only one wife.
After wandering around and looking at other tribal huts we returned to the car and headed back to the hotel.
For the evening we booked the Talisman Restaurant nearby. Here we enjoyed a very nice meal. I choose all vegetarian, samosa and a poke bowl. The clientele consisted of a 50/50 mixture of Africans and Europeans. Most of the whites seemed to be English and there was a large group hanging around the bar and television watching the 6 Nations Rugby.
We managed to see England scrape past a very weak Welsh team 16-14.
Fairly early to bed surrounded by mosquito nets, but no sign of the damned insects, for an early rise in the morning.