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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 46 countries including Madagascar, and 53 including all the island groups. |
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| Besides being a convenient place to take care of administrative matters and contact people back home, Nairobi has much to offer to travellers. If you want to hang out, there is a wide array of restaurants, clubs, pubs and discos to choose from. While in Nairobi, be sure to visit the City Market, the National Museum, the Arboretum (excellent collection of East African flora) and the superb Kenya Railway Museum. Exhibits about the period leading to independence can be seen at the Kenya National Archives. There are casinos at the Safari Park Hotel and the Inter-Continental Hotel and there’s also Sunday-afternoon horse racing.
For those who can’t wait to see animals (or who are only visiting Nairobi), the nearby Nairobi National Park has lions, giraffes, impalas and more wild animals in addition to an animal orphanage. Or you can take a rather pricey taxi ride to the Giraffe Center in the suburb of Langatta where the Rothschild giraffe was saved from extinction. At the facility, you can feed the giraffes and the gift shop has some of the best prices we found in Nairobi. However, the Giraffe Manor (the manor house turned into a hotel) elsewhere on the grounds has some of the steepest daily rates in the city—but then it’s the only place where giraffes may join you for meals.
This excursion to Langata is often combined with a visit to the former home of Karen Blixen (who wrote under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen), author of Out of Africa. Blixen’s farmhouse, which was presented to the Kenyan government by Denmark, is now a museum —it’s located nextdoor to the Karen College. Langatta also has The Bomas of Kenya which is a terrific cultural center that regularly hosts traditional song and dance performances.
A day trip (a two-hour drive each way) can be made to Lake Magadi to visit Olorgesailie in The Rift Valley for its prehistoric campsite. The scenic region inhabited by Masai farmers has a wide variety of birds.
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