We're in Nairobi!

We arrived on Friday, 25 May 2007. After spending one night in a hotel, we moved into the apartment on Karuna Road, near Sarit Centre in the Westlands of Nairobi.

Some History on Nairobi for you...

Nairobi has the rare boast of owing its existence to a railway line. The city was conceived at the turn of the century when the Mombasa to Lake Victoria railway reached a swampy stretch of land known to the Maasai as Nyrobi or 'place of cool waters.' Here a scruffy shanty town rose up and today, a century later, Nairobi is the largest city between Cairo and Johannesburg with a population of 1.5million. Although it cannot be compared with the sprawl of the world's capitals (it will take you 20 minutes to walk across the central business district), Nairobi is a lively and cosmopolitan place.

Like many other African cities, Nairobi has its share of bustling markets, skyscrapers, alarming matatu (taxibus) drivers, dusty shanties and leafy suburbs with sweeping gardens. It's a good place to tap back into the world in between safaris and catch up on international news, get your films developed, wander through book shops and send off your post cards to envious neighbours. There are plenty of places to eat, but Nairobi's most famous restaurant is The Carnivore, where you can taste anything from zebra to crocodile. It may sound like a vegetarian's nightmare, but the vegetarian meals are apparently very good too. Pop in to the Thorn Tree Cafe at the Stanley Hotel. It is named after the huge thorn tree planted in 1961, whose trunk serves as a notice board for travellers.

More details later....