Giraffes and Elephants

[Friday, July 28, 2023]

Another early start to the day. If you have been following us through the journey, you may have noticed a common pattern thus far that does not include a lot of sleep. The travel days have been significant and the few events we have booked thus far have up relatively early each day thus far.  If this keeps up, we are going to need a vacation after this just to recover. 

Up at 6:30 AM so that we could shower and have breakfast before out 8:00 AM Pickup for the three events on the schedule today. Breakfast in the hotel was a typical hot buffet style which we scarfed down so that we would be ready at the appointed time. We went just outside the front entrance of the hotel to wait for our ride. The weather was overcast, and the temperature was 14°C with a very slight breeze. Most of the locals were wearing multiple layers, some had on down filled jackets with scarves. I’m sure they thought we were crazy in our shorts and light shirts.

 

While standing outside an Asian lady stepped out by us and started a conversation. It seems she was from China here on business with the company she worked for that makes powdered soap and baby diapers in the Nairobi area. Her ride showed up and she wished us a good journey. 

 

Shortly after that, at about 8:15 AM, our driver (Samuel) arrived, and we headed out for the Giraffe Center. Samuel described that the Giraffe Center didn’t open until 9:00 AM, so we could take our time getting there. He drove us in a fully electric Toyota vehicle and appeared to be doing so out of concern for the environment. Once the Giraffe Center gates opened, we made our way inside where our prepaid tickets got us through the next phase and into the Center itself. They also asked us to wash our hands, since they would be giving us some pellets for feeding the giraffe’s. 

This was really something. We got a chance to feed the newest baby giraffe as well as Daisy IV who, we were told, was 5 months pregnant. The average gestation for a baby elephant can be up to 15 months. It seems that mother giraffe’s have some say in their due date and naturally attempt to give birth around the rainy season. This increases the chance of survival of the baby giraffe. 

We also sat in on a short session with one of the center's employees who provided quite a bit of information about the different kinds of giraffe’s that exist (there are nine in total), a little about their physiology (their leg bones look small for their size, but they have no marrow like a human bone, they are solid and surprisingly heavy), and something about their friends (the wild boar – who benefits from the tall giraffe shaking the trees and fruit falling to the ground for the boar). 

It's hard to describe in words how majestic these animals are in person.

In the background you can vaguely see the Giraffe Manor Hotel. If you want to stay here they are booking 4 years out right now and it's minimum $1000 a night. You may have seen clips from this place on Instagram where people go and have breakfast and the giraffes can come buy and you can feed them.  A closer look at the Manor can be seen in the photo below.

Once finished with the Giraffe Center, we made our way to the Kobe Tough Beads & Leather manufacturer's location. There we saw how they take the clay from the riverbank and purify it to make the ceramic beads. 

Next they took us to where the beads are formed by impoverished women from the community. Producing the beads and the sale of the items helps provide employment where they would otherwise be without work. The make all different shapes and sizes of the beads from the refined clay.

Next they go through a painting process. Some of the designs are pre-described, others are painted through the creativity of the woman performing the task.

They also do leather work with very small beads that are imported from Czechoslovakia.

They took us back to the women who were making the beads from the raw ceramic clay and they performed a song for us.

A quick stop at their shop to purchase a few of their products and we were on our way to the Elephant Sanctuary where baby elephants are rescued and raised until they can be put back into the wild. They are orphaned as a result of human poaching of the mother or the mother dies from dehydration during the droughts. Baby elephants cannot survive on their own until they are 3 to 4 years old. After that, they can defend themselves from most of their predators. 

They are amazing animals and are extremely social. We were told that elephants really do never forget. They have had instances where their handlers meet them on a game drive (well after they have been released back into the wild) and the elephant recognizes the handler. 

The sanctuary is only open from 11:00 AM to Noon every day. The rest of the time, the animals are out in their natural habitat as part of the sanctuary property. This is so that they don't spend too much time around humans and they can later be released in the wild successfully. 

Next was a lunch stop for some local cuisine.  

Then back to the hotel where we did a bit of laundry, finished the two blogs (yes, they take a rather substantial portion of time to complete) and had a light dinner before heading off to sleep. We just might be able to get a bit more rest tonight, as tomorrow's activities don't start until 9:30 AM. 

G'night all.

Curt & Laureen 

Travel to Nairobi

[Thursday, July 27, 2023]

[NOTE: This was published a day after given the later night of travel and a bit of tech issues with the blog itself]

It was an early start today as our flight out of Heathrow is scheduled to depart at 7:30 AM. That means getting up at 4:30 AM (ish) so that we can be leaving the hotel at 5:30 AM (ish). We looked up the Uber ride the evening before and it is only an 8 minute drive to Terminal 2 which is where our Lufthansa plane is due to take us to Frankfurt and then a quick plane switch on to Nairobi, Kenya. 

Sleep came quickly the night before, and waking up early still seems way too easy. Maybe it's a good thing that the jet lag is taking its time to subside. We decided to head out a little earlier than planned given the volume of flights that come in and out of Heathrow. After checking out (and triple checking that we had our cash and passports 👀) I ordered an Uber, but somehow chose the wrong Radisson hotel. Apparently there are about three of them in the vicinity. The Uber app would not let me change the destination as I think the driver had already arrived at the previous one. So, I paid a quick cancelation fee and then ordered another Uber with the right pickup location this time. In no time the driver arrived and whisked us over to the terminal.

We had to queue up at the airport as when we tried to do our checkin online, there seemed to be a problem with entering the Kenyan visas. So, we waited in a rather lengthy queue. The process with the agent was quick and uneventful. Next, we were off to security where you scan your own boarding pass in a small gate that opens once it takes your photo and validates your boarding pass info. After that was the x-ray portion where we just had to pull out any larger electronics and the usual gels/liquids. My backpack got flagged and pulled over. I'm not used to travelling with a water bottle and there was a small amount of liquid left in it. The security agent just asked me to drink it and I was good to go. Sigh - I should have caught that.

We had just enough time to grab a quick egg-sandwich style breakfast before they started to board the flight for Frankfurt which was a short hour and a bit trek.

In the Frankfurt airport, we had a bit of a walk to get to our gate. As we walked through the facility, we both noted that it felt more like a shopping mall than an airport. The Nairobi gate was down at the tarmac level and did not have all the shopping-mall like amenities that we saw in the main portion of the airport. There were three gates in the vicinity of ours which were all separated by five-foot-high glass partitions. We sat in the boarding area for our flight until a Lufthansa representative came by to staff the gate and asked everyone who was sitting in the area to leave as this was considered a “secured” area. Once we all left, we were allowed to come back in but had to scan our boarding pass to be allowed back into the glassed-in area. What was strange about this is that we were never asked to show our passport for the flight.  Not at the gate or while getting onto the airplane. 

We waited only for a short while before we were marshalled to a transport bus (in the background of the picture above) that was to take us to our plane. It was probably about a mile from the gate and sitting out amongst several similar planes. Passengers boarded through stairs that were setup for both the front and the back of the aircraft. Our seats were about mid-plane (row 23), so we entered at the back and tried to take a quick picture with the tail of the plane. Not quite successful - but enough to capture the moment.

There was more leg room in these seats that any I think I have ever been in. Laureen noted that she booked us into this location for our flight back as well.

I’m not sure how this always happens, but we appear to be magnets for parents with unruly children. This time it was two young girls, I would estimate to be just pre-kindergarten. Maybe because we raised only boys, but I’ll never understand parents who allow their young girls to scream like that. I’m certain I would have taken steps to curb that kind of activity early on in their development. Pretty thankful for earbuds and music/entertainment.

For the most part, the flight was and uneventful 9 hours. It’s about the same length of time to fly from Canada to London, England, so we were practiced up a little. We were fed a couple of meals, one hot and one a sandwich and supplemented this with our own snacks; a few of those snacks were picked up in the Windsor area as we walked around. 

After landing at the main airport in Nairobi, we exited the plane down to the tarmac and onto a bus that took us to the immigration area. There we stood in lines for what seemed like longer that it really was. That might be partially to those same two little girls (and their parents) who were about 2 or 3 groups behind us. Nothing like a shrill screech to pique the senses. After we made it through immigration with no issues, we headed to the baggage area to pick up our luggage. We knew it had arrived with us after a quick check of the Airtags that we planted inside. 

A short stop at the rest room and we headed for the exit where we needed to have our carryon items x-rayed. Not exactly sure what was being looked for coming of an international flight with high security, but hey, if you want to x-ray our carryon – knock yourself out.

Outside of the airport was a crowd of people clearly waiting for those getting off the flight. A quick scan of the pieces of paper being held by the drivers and we found one that said, “Laura Blais”. Pretty sure that was us, so off we went with our driver to the parkade. It was about a 20 Km ride from the airport to the Tamarind Tree Hotel where our tour will begin in a few days. The ride was completely in the dark – so there is little to see. We were stopped at the property entrance by a security guard who validated our stay at the hotel before we were allowed to enter. The security is most certainly welcomed.

Check-in was quick and we were escorted to our room by the bellman. We required the use of our hotel room card to operate the elevator, open the fire doors in the hallway and, of course, to enter our room. Once settled, I started the blog only to have an issue with the text before I published it. It’s going to have to wait until tomorrow as it was just about 1 AM here and we needed to be up and ready to go for 8:00 AM for our day’s activities. 

G'night all.

Curt & Laureen

A Quiet Day in Windsor

[Wednesday, July 26, 2023]

The evenings at The Castle Hotel in Windsor are very quiet. The only noise that can be heard is from the squeaking of the old floors in our room.  Not only are they creaky, but they are uneven. So to get to the bed from the desk, you are traveling up hill. And, it's not a small amount of incline either, it's quite noticeable. As a matter of fact, there are a number of incline/declines in our room which means one has to be careful making one's way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Further, the bathroom is a full step up from room level. So, if you do not have your whit's about you when you come out from the loo, you could find yourself flat on you face on the floor, and then rolling to the middle of the room. 😐.

I woke up early again, and because I did not bring a watch of any kind (yes, my phone had the time but I had turned it off last night before going to bed), I'd be guessing when I say that it was probably about 3:30 AM local time when I woke up. Seems adapting to the time difference is taking more time that I had realized. It's a good thing the next leg of our journey is only two timezones ahead of where we are now, so it will be like flying from YEG to YYZ. Although it's quite a bit further south as the flight from Frankfurt to Nairobi is 9.5 hours. But, I'm getting  a little ahead of myself.

We had no concrete plans for today other than we had to check out of the hotel in Windsor and drive ourselves to the Heathrow area where we booked on night at the Radisson which is just a 10 minute Uber ride to our terminal. We had asked the front desk for some ideas on what we could do for the day, and they made a few suggestions that sounded appealing. With those items in mind, we first each grabbed a quick shower and then packed up our belongings so that we would be ready to leave. Breakfast was at the same place as the day before, Esquires Coffee. Good food and decent coffee. We both had cafe mocha's, mine was the decaffeinated version. Food is good here and the place has that cool-coffee-place vibe.

After breakfast, we went for a walk down one of the pedestrian roadways looking at things in the shops along the way. On our way back to the hotel to complete out checkout, we stopped at a Krispy Kreme that was open and shared one of their glazed doughnuts. Those things are deadly.

Back to the hotel for a bio break, and bring our luggage down to the front desk for checkout.  We took one last look around to make sure we didn't forget anything (or so we thought - more on that in a minute) and we exited the room. Since we had paid for parking at the hotel for the day, we could leave our car in their parking while we went and did a few more things. So, we took our suitcases/backpacks out to the car and loaded them in the boot. 

We were told that there were a couple Thames River cruises that would be worth our time to consider, so that is exactly what we decided to do. We walked down to the river's edge and arrived at the boat tour location about 20 minutes before the next cruise. We had stepped in line for a boat that was boarding passengers, but there was a lady with a clip board and she asked me if I was from GSK. I replied that I was not; to which she replied "Then you WILL NOT be joining us!"  Was it something I said?  Apparently this specific sailing was a group tour for the English GSK folks (big pharmaceutical company) so we would have to wait for another boat to arrive. One did arrive in just a matter of minutes, so we boarded and found a seat on the top deck, near the back of the boat. The trip lasted about 40 minutes (20 minutes each way) as it cruised up towards a set of locks at which point the ship's captain turned it around and headed back towards the pier where we were picked up. 

This would be like taking the River Queen in Edmonton up and then back on the North Saskatchewan river. Except this was in England and the Thames. As you can see in the photos there were a number of ducks, geese and swans around the docks as you can buy feed and provide it to the birds.  There were a few folks feeding the waterfowl, so they were congregating where the food was being provided.

One could also see a number of private residences along the river. I think it was the guy in the Krispy Kreme place who said, "Oh you are going to do a river cruise? You can see where the rich people live." We saw one river front property for sale and I overheard another passenger indicate that they looked up on line how much it was worth, and the number was just over 3 Million pound sterling. That would be about 5.1 million CAN. 👀.

While on the cruise, Laureen received a phone call from The Castle Hotel. It seems that some insane people left their passports, NEXUS Cards and the cash we brought for the entire trip in the safe in their room. 😟. They said they had the items at the front desk and we could just come and pick them up. We have NEVER done that before and are very thankful that we were not heading to the airport to leave. Imagine arriving at the airport and realizing that you had left all your ID travel items in the safe of the room you just checked out of? AHHHHHHHHH. So, when we were done with the boat tour, we went back to the hotel (where we were going to go back to anyway to pick up our car) and retrieved our stuff from the front desk. From now on, one of our shoes goes in the safe with our stuff!

We jumped in the car and were off to try and park near the middle of The Long Walk road where we were going to look to take a picture of the statue that is at the opposite end of it to Windsor Castle. There were two problems with this plan. First, the parking lot that we were told about was free - but also very popular - so we could not find a spot.  We drove around a little more and found some places where one might be able to park. This brings me to the second issue: It was over a 2KM walk from the parking spot to get to The Long Walk road. So, after a short deliberation, we changed our plan to head towards the Radisson, and stopped at a Costco which happened to be right along the way.

We walked around the store looking at all of the different items they had than what we have at our Costco's. If we were not limited for space in our luggage, I'm pretty sure we both would have picked up a few things. We had lunch at Costco sharing a piece of pizza and a strawberry sundae. Almost all their menu items are different than ours.

To round out the day, we decided to hit a nearby shopping mall called the Treaty Center and walk around and see what kinds of things were there. One store called "NEXT" had some pretty cute baby clothes (Oma had a hard time not stocking up). 

From here, we decided to head to the Radisson, check-in and drop off our luggage, and then return the rental. As we walked into the lobby, there was a whole bunch of people all sitting around waiting. It appears there was a flight that was cancelled and the folks were hanging around the hotel until other arrangements could be made. I think the same screaming child who sat in front of us from Calgary to London was in the lobby. 👀.

We checked in and proceeded to the room they provided only to find they had not given us the King bed we asked for.  Back to the lobby to sort things out, and move to a new room.

Once we dropped our bags in our room, it was back to the car to get it back to the rental place. A quick fill up with gas (the attendant was laughing at me when I came in to pay as he saw me looking for the option to pay at the pump). This specific gas station had an app that you could use - but nothing at the pump. 😐.

£20 to top it up. The Ford, Puma hybrid we were driving was getting just under 52 miles to the gallon. That was a fun car to drive (Stay left, Stay left, Stay left).

A short drive had us at the car rental place, dropping off our car earlier than we had scheduled with no issues. We ordered an Uber to take us back to the hotel where we shared a salad and a sandwich as our dinner.

Off to the room to get ready for sleep. We will need to leave here at about 5:30 AM tomorrow to get to Terminal 2 at Heathrow for our 1.5 hour flight to Frankfurt, where we change planes for our 9.5 hour flight to Nairobi. 

One more sleep before we touch down in Africa!

G'night all!

Curt & Laureen

Oxford or Bust

[Tuesday, July 25, 2023]

As suspected, sleep found us easily this night after a long day of flying and some walking around Windsor Castle. I woke up and thought, "Well, that was a refreshing sleep. I wonder what time it is?"  As it turns out, it was 3:30 AM local time. 😐. 

Apparently our body clocks are not as easily changed as our cell phone clocks. Laureen and I chatted a little and noted that it was just too early to get up. I checked my phone to see that I had received a rather important e-mail that I needed to deal with so I texted the person and we dealt with the matter at hand.  I mentioned that it was 3:30 AM and he asked if I was partying. If you call dealing with your circadian rhythms at 3:30 AM partying, then the answer is yes. Spent some time trying to go back to sleep and was somewhat successful. 

When I actually woke up for a second time, it was a more reasonable hour. We both had showers to start the day as I think we were getting a bit "gamey" from our lengthy travel the day before. It's surprising how a nice shower can make you feel so refreshed. Slight issue with the in-room coffee machine; it seems it has to be turned on to actually function. 😉.

Breakfast was at a quaint little place just a few doors down from the hotel. We both had a plate of poached eggs, ham, mushrooms, a tomato, brown beans, a hash brown and some toast. Washed it down with a cafe mocha for each of us. Ahhhh. Now back to the room to grab what we needed for the trek to Oxford.

Long before we left on this trip, Laureen had found a tour of Oxford University that is done by Oxford students so she booked us two tickets to the 11:00 AM tour. The drive from Windsor to Oxford is about an hour, so we decided to leave close to 9:30 AM to give us enough time to get there and find parking so that we could go on our walking tour of the University. 

Back into the right hand drive vehicle. There is one other item I should note that differs from driving at home on the right side of the road and that has to do with your position in the vehicle. When driving at home, and sitting on the left side of the vehicle, over time you learn to compensate for not sitting in the centre of the automobile. However, un the UK - you are sitting on the RIGHT side of the vehicle. It is a constant battle against your engrained driving skills to drive as though you are sitting over top of the right wheel track of the road, rather than the left. I naturally want to line myself up with the left wheel track on the road, so I'm constantly crowding the left side. If all the rest of the items did not make it hard enough, now I have to remember this, all while still chanting softly to myself, "Stay left. Stay left. Stay left." 🚘

The drive to Oxford was good, with only a couple minor navigational issues. One wrong exit out of a round-about (did I mention that they go the opposite way that we do?), and once in Oxford we ended up on what appeared to be a pedestrian road. Sorry - tourist. Parking is also a bit of a challenge here as there is not much of it. It took us a bit to find a spot and we had to walk a couple of blocks to where we needed to meet our tour guide. It all worked out in the end.

Oxford is a busy place as there was a plethora of pedestrians and numerous tour groups seemingly swarming everywhere. We found our meeting point and were given a green wristband to wear for the duration. Our tour guide was Thomas and he was studying at the Balliol College within the University of Oxford. I took a short clip of him at the beginning of the tour (seems to be a slight technical issue with the video. I'll see if I can get it working later):

There is certainly much history to the places around here. Evidence of instruction at the University of Oxford can be traced back to 1096, however the date that is most often used as the date it was "Established", is 1231. It had something to do with the recognition of the Masters. Regardless, it is what is on all the T-shirts around here - so that must be the date.

The other item of note is that the University of Oxford is not a single institution. In fact there are about 39 different “constituent colleges” that make up the University of Oxford proper. Each constituent college has a “founder” (who’s name is blended into the colleges name) that provided the foundation and funding for that college. They all teach a full offering of courses, which means that they compete with each other for students.  There is also some kind of ranking for each of the colleges, and the competition to be ranked high is fierce. The highest ranking college is Merton. There is a published list of rankings here. 

It was also interesting to note that the method of learning, called “tutorials”, is small cohorts from one to three students paired with a professor. I guess in this way they can pass on their knowledge in a more personal way than the large lecture halls that I have been used to back home. There are also specific dates when a larger body of students come together for lectures, but these are noted as “optional”.  

I would have had to take notes to remember all of the things that were conveyed, but instead of a history lesson, I'll just share a series of pictures I took from walking around the area.

The bridge of sigh's similar to the one in Venice

Radcliffe Camera building (1700's)

one of the first circular libraries in the country

This door is somehow linked to C.S. Lewis who taught at Oxford.
The Lion can be seen in the carving.

This lamppost is said to be the inspiration for 

the lamppost that the children see after they

go through the back of the wardrobe in

the Chronicles of Narnia

After the tour ended, I ran to the car to pay for another stint of parking (they only gave us a couple hours at the pay booth), so we could go wander around a little on our own. We stopped for lunch and had an amazing Mexican Chicken baguette sandwich and a couple of smoothie drinks that were enjoyed in the plaza. I really like this part of European culture. Then off to find a University of Oxford shirt as a souvenir before we jumped back into the car and headed back to Windsor.

Still dealing with a bit of jet lag, we decided to stop in at our room and take a short rest before continuing the rest of our day. 

Dinner this evening was at Sebastian's Italian restaurant, which was just a short walk from our hotel. Fantastic Margherita Pizza and a Capri Salad to share. Had a near incident with the balsamic vinegar (no details - just know that one needs to be 'gentle' with the balsamic). A nice glass of  Nero d' Avola Italian red wine topped off the meal. Dessert was a trifecta of gelato flavours from Amorino Gelato which is just around the corner from Sebastian's. 

Back to the hotel for an early bedtime.  We checkout tomorrow and move to a hotel that is close to Heathrow for our early departure on Thursday for Nairobi, Kenya thru Frankfurt, Germany. Not exactly sure what the day will hold for tomorrow; we'll just wait and see.

G'night all.

Curt & Laureen