Private tour companies specialize in helping travelers turn a hassle into a highlight.
Nairobi National Park is close enough to the airport that you can visit during a long layover. | Goddard Photography/E+/Getty
By Jessica Kelly
Benson and I made our way past the line of stressed-out businessmen and honking taxis and hopped into our safari vehicle. I loaded my luggage in the back and got my camera equipment ready as Benson navigated out of the airport traffic towards the park. We’d been connected on WhatsApp for weeks, but this was my first time meeting the man in person.
To back up, Nairobi's airport isn’t great. The lounges are dated, things are spaced out, it’s hot. Sure, you can flash your Priority Pass and hang out in the lounge for a couple of hours, or maybe even have a glass of overpriced wine. I spent a seven-hour layover there back in 2022, which was mostly spent snacking on small fruit cups and swearing to myself that I'd never put myself in such a situation again. So when I found myself facing down the barrel of yet another long Kenyan layover, I decided to contact some safari companies to see if they’d be open to a half-day itinerary.
It turned out they were.
The author spotted a dazzle of Zebras on her layover safari. | Photo by Jessica Kelly
My mind was honestly blown. Game Whisperers Adventure had apparently been offering such an itinerary since 1995—and it was still only $120. I applied for a visa and prayed that it would be approved on time. Proprietor Wycliffe Odera then helped me create a custom itinerary that could be adapted if things were slightly delayed. He was the one who sent me guidance on what to bring, in part by including an impressively direct note on my itinerary that said “memories are worthless, a camera is a very important companion.” Anyway, he was also the one who put me in touch with Benson and had him waiting for me at the airport when I arrived, visa in hand. (To gain entry into Kenya, visitors from the US need to apply for an electronic travel authorization in advance, which they can do here.)
Our original plan was to take a city tour in Nairobi with a stop at a giraffe sanctuary before heading to the Nairobi National Park for the game drive. I had already lost a little time on my way there with a slight delay, so we adjusted and decided to just do the game drive since that was the most important thing to me. We drove out of the airport, making our way past street food carts, and arrived at the park about 45 minutes later. It cost $43 to go inside.
We immediately began our search for giraffes, hippos, and ostriches. But what I really wanted to see was a rhinoceros—the only so-called big five animal I’d yet to glimpse in the wild. As we began the game drive, I expressed this to Benson, who assured me that he would do his absolute best, though we both knew that no one can guarantee an animal encounter. We would need luck—in a limited window of time.
Some sightings came right away. As we pulled up quietly to a small watering hole, we saw a pod of hippos sunning themselves on the shore, with two in the water wiggling their ears and yawning, showing off their sharp, 20-inch canines. We moved on from watching the hippos but were soon stopped in our tracks by a dazzle of zebras right in the middle of the road. We quietly watched them interact, and not even five minutes later we got so close to an ostrich that we could see each little fuzzy hair on its head. Twenty minutes after that, we watched a giraffe spread its legs into a half-split to get a drink of water.
Decals at Jommo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi hint at what's on offer just 45 minutes away. | Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
By almost any reasonable measure, we had an incredible day in the park. But as we began making our way back to the exit—and the airport—I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of disappointment. And I think it was something Benson picked up on, too, because he started refreshing my memory about everything we saw. Suddenly he stopped mid-sentence and started pointing toward a series of boulders that looked unremarkable to me. He pulled our safari vehicle around so I could see from a different angle.
Benson continued pointing at the boulders, and suddenly a horn popped up behind one of them. It turned out that we were looking at a whole crash of rhinos, including a baby, which was cuddled up to its mother. It stood up, seemingly alarmed, but flopped on the ground for a nap after realizing we weren't coming any closer. Meanwhile, three adult rhinos huddled around an adolescent, seemingly protecting him. We were a mere 30 feet away.
I was in shock the entire trip back to the airport. Meanwhile, Benson seemed genuinely happy, smiling ear-to-ear and recapping the moment he noticed the rhinos behind the rock. As it turned out, I couldn’t have asked for a better guide—or a better way to spend seven hours. Not only had I seen rhinos in real life, I saw them on my layover.
Read the original article on Thrillist.
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