Friday, February 24, 2012

Friday, Feb 24th, Nairobi Serena Hotel



Greetings!

Other than a very educational trip to the Karen Blixen Museum, outside of Nairobi, the day was spent driving from the Massai Mara Reserve to the Nairobi Serena Hotel. For those of you who did not read her book "Out of Africa" (or see the movie), Karen was a Denmark aristocrat who married her cousin, and came to Kenya to start a coffee plantation in the early 1900's. Abandoned by her playboy husband, she ran a 6,000 acre property until a fire in her factory led to her financial ruin. Along the way, she fell in love with a hunting guide/pilot who died in an air crash about the time of her bankruptcy. Selling the ranch, she returned to Denmark where he took up writing, publishing 17 books and stories under several pseudonyms. After her death in 1962, the Denmark government purchased her home in Kenya, bought back its furniture from her patrons, and gifted it all to Kenya in celebration of its independence.

We had lunch in a restaurant nearby, and bought several local craft items that will fit nicely into our collection of bowls, gourds, and baskets. Returning to Nairobi, we checked into the hotel and uploaded the last three days posts to this blog. Dinner was at the Tammerind in downtown Nairobi.

Tomorrow, we lose our friends Ian and Carol Fischer, and gain eight more travelers for the tour of Tanzania. There will be a series of one-night stays in game parks, and so we may not have wifi for a while. Our guides seem convinced we'll see a cheetah in Tanzania.




No additional photos were taken today.

Gregory

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