Lions go for a walk in suburbs of Nairobi

Well, if Wednesday in Nairobi was about cheerful chipmunks and a cheeky monkey, Thursday was about escaped lions and the world of mammals.

Nairobi National Park is the only national park in a capital city anywhere in the world and Vee and I visited it on our trip to the country in October. On Thursday, this city went on alert after several lions escaped from the park overnight and strayed into the suburbs. One lioness and her two cubs were recaptured, and two other animals are believed to have gone back into the park on their own accord. But it is not clear whether more lions remain on the loose. I have been hearing some funny noises outside my bedroom window early in the morning – a screaming cockerel, a raucous dawn chorus, and now ….

Meanwhile Catrin & I went to the Nairobi National Museum. Vee and I visited this place on our October trip but my granddaughter had not been before. I wondered how much a five year old would like it but we managed to spend three and half hours there.

The exhibits include a hall of the mammals with lots of full-size models, a hall explaining how humans evolved from apes, a massive collection of stuffed birds, and a snake park with venomous members and alligators and crocodiles. There is also a tropical park. In addition to all this, we had two visits to the museum cafe and three visits to the museum shop, where Catrin entertained foreign tourists and befriended the shop assistant, as well as persuading granddad to buy her another present.

Before and after the museum, our time was influenced by “Inside Out”, the animation movie we saw together in London before she moved to Kenya. Catrin – with some help from her mum – constructed a 100-piece jigsaw of the film’s characters that I brought over for her and we read the novelisation of the movie that was another present in my luggage.

It all makes a change from my usual activity on the regulation of utility sectors …


 




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