Description: The Nairobi National Park is part of the Kenyan Park Service (KPS) and is just 7 KM (less than 5 miles) from the center of the capital city of Nairobi. During my stay in Nairobi, I wanted to experience this park first as a means of preparing for the photo opportunities I was anticipating for the safari that would begin the next day. I was surprised at how easy it was to forget that I was literally just minutes from the urban presence of the city.
I arranged for my morning game drive through my host at the Ngong House. Charging me $150 for the morning drive seemed reasonable given that was the going rate from most of the local safari and tour operators. We left the Ngong House after breakfast at 6:15am with plans of ending the game drive at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (also located at Nairobi Nat'l Park) at 11:00am. Timing worked out just about perfectly!
Arriving at the park entrance just about at sunrise presented some photographic challenges especially since within the first few minutes we had come upon a black rhino in some very thick brush. It was exciting to see something this early in our drive, especially given the endangered status of the rhinoceros.
From that point, we drove deeper into the park, my driver seemingly knowing where to go to find the various animals I had mentioned hoping to see . . . lions, giraffes and hippos. Unfortunately there were no hippos to be seen at "the dam" but lions and giraffes cooperated.
We were about 45 minutes into the drive, when we came upon a pair of lionesses with a couple of cubs. Unable to discern if there were two or three cubs, we enjoyed watching them hide in the tall grass while their mom(s) slept nearby. A few minutes later, we came upon to young male lions, also lounging in the grass, but much closer to the road. They didn't seem to have much to worry about us, and simply stayed put watching us as we watched them.
Throughout our drive in Nairobi National Park there were opportunities to see the skyline of the city off in the distance. The outlines of the acacia trees provided what is often considered the "photo op" of the savannah. We did see giraffes (a lot of them!) as well as water buffalo, wildebeest, zebra and gazelles. Because my driver was not an actual safari driver, she was not very well versed on the various species of animals we saw, but she was very good (and patient) at looking for them.
Near the end of our time in the park, we came upon the lionesses and cubs from earlier in the morning. We sat parked for a good long while hoping that they adults would bring their cubs across the road to the hillside where they were overlooking the opposite valley. After about 30 minutes, we gave up, however since I didn't want to miss the 11:00a public viewing at the DSWT.
The park is very nice and provides visitors to the city an opportunity to do a limited game drive with decent viewing and photo ops. I would not suggest it, however, as a "nice" picnic destination as the two spots where we stopped were terribly littered and the bathrooms very nasty. This was my only disappointment in the park.
For those entering the park on a "self-drive" the admission price is roughly $50. More information on hours and pricing may be found on the KPS website: http://www.kws.org/parks/parks_reserves/NANP.html .
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