Nairobi National Park

One of the attractions that I had heard about before coming to Kenya was the Nairobi National Park. It is a huge park that offers everything from a safari walk to game drives that offer views of some of the world’s most sought after animals against the skyline of Nairobi. Nikki and I decided that this was something that we had to see, so we took a day trip down past Bomas to check it out. When we arrived at the National Park, we realized that we couldn’t walk through the game park without being in danger of being eaten by animals and we didn’t bring money (or particularly want to cough up the money if we had it) to rent a car and drive through the park, so we settled on the safari walk. The safari walk was basically a glorified zoo with cages that stretched huge expanses so the animals had a chance to roam “free” (I’m going on safari, so stay tuned for what happens when animals actually roam free). There are cages though and to be honest I was kind of disappointed. But only for a few minutes. As we walked past the hyena and the rhino, the giraffe and the zebra I kept saying to Nikki, “I wish these animals didn’t have these fences between us and them!”. That was until we saw the lions. We walked over to the lion habitat and saw a few scattered around the pen and were told that there were a few lounging in a part of the pen that was too far away/obstructed so we couldn’t see them. There was one female lion who took a particular interest in us though. The viewing area was a bridge that was raised above the lion’s home, but there was a small hut with thick glass that was on the ground so you could view the lions from their level. Nikki and I were situated in the hut and the female lion came crawling over towards the glass right in front of us. She was clearly stalking us, moving silently but swiftly through the grass with her eyes fixed on Nikki and I.  We locked eyes and for a moment, I definitely forgot, and I think she forgot, that she wasn’t going to be able to eat me.Not until I realized that I was literally being hunted by a lion did I admit that I have never been so grateful for that glass enclosure around the lion’s house.

Having had enough of being hunted by the top of anyone’s food chain, Nikki and I decided to hurry along before the beast figured out a way around the glass and fence. We wandered around the huge park, onto the deck that overlooked the actual park, hoping to spot some animals hunting in the wild. We walked through the bird sanctuary and the buffalo habitat and only slowed when we saw the cheetah. We stopped to take pictures of these beautiful cats and a man, who looked like he worked at the park, but to at first you can never really be sure approached us. “Hey! Do you like the cheetahs?” Of course we like the cheetahs, were taking pictures of them and every step they take, we are in awe. We respond, instead, with a simple “yes”.

“Do you want to pet them?” This one gets more of a “Huh??” He tells us that he can get us into their cage and we can pet them. It will only cost us 1000 shilling ($12) for the both of us. This is one of the shadier propositions I’ve heard in a long time considering these are wild animals, not sedated and it’s not like you’re going to run away if something does go wrong. We politely decline, but this man is persistent. He walks into the cheetah area and yells to us. “See! It’s fine!”. What happened next, I have no explanation for. Possibly we were emboldened by this man stepping into the cheetahs’ territory or perhaps my inability to miss an opportunity for a good story got the best of me. Either way, I looked at Nikki, who had grabbed her camera, hell-bent on catching this man getting eaten by a cheetah on film, and convinced her that we should give it a try. As we entered the cheetah’s lair, news headlines kept popping into my mind. “One American and One Canadian eaten today at Nairobi National Park.” Followed by the sub-header “They entered the cage alone when park officials were not watching. It is believed that the pair was suicidal, because no one in their right mind would enter a cheetah pen without supervision”. But we did it anyway. The cheetahs came bounding over, covering about 6 yards in a single step while only jogging. When they reached us, one walked away while the other came and played with us! The security man said “quick! Give me your camera” and started snapping away while the cheetah licked us and we pet it! After a few minutes, the man said “aright lets go! Quick” and in the same back entrance that he had snuck us in, we were rushed out. We paid him and he told us not to show anyone the pictures until after we got out of the park. The park usually charges up to $400 for two people to pet the cheetahs, and they are normally sedated. He said that he doesn’t get any of the money so he figured he’d do the same thing (minus the sedatives) and pocket the money. As we walked away he also told us “don’t ever try this if I’m not around.”… Like we were planning on it.

            It wasn’t until we had left that we realized what we had just done. We had followed a stranger into a predators habitat, just because he told us it was okay. One word: reckless. This isn’t the Lincoln Park Zoo, or the San Diego Zoo. This was some random guy in Nairobi saying we could pay him to pet a cheetah. And we did. And I don’t regret it in the slightest. Just realllllly happy I’m typing the story with all my fingers intact. After a quiet lunch at a restaurant in the park, only interrupted by a warthog entering the restaurant with no one even batting an eye (besides Nikki and I) we were able to reflect on the day and laugh. Just another day in Kenya. Here’s a few pictures to prove that what I am saying is all fact….