Hemingways Nairobi enters the Kenyan capital's hotel scene

Published in Centurion Magazine (Online)

From the new Olare Mara Kempinski in the Masai Mara, to the buzz over Sir Richard Branson’s new Mahali Mzuri, luxury addresses are cropping up everywhere in Kenya this year, from the savannah to the city. The most exciting opening of late, however, came with the debut of Hemingways Nairobi in the lush residential suburb of Karen.

The boutique hotel held its soft opening in April, with most of the 45 suites ready for guests, and the full facilities – including a spa, an outdoor lap pool and two presidential suites – are slated to be up and running by June. The hotel’s rather plain stucco exterior conjures something vaguely Caribbean – where no expenses have apparently been spared, however, is inside. Italian marble gleams in the dual-vanity suite bathrooms and grand hotel lobby, with its twin sweeping staircases mirroring those at the Saxon in Johannesburg. All suites have on-call butler service and private balconies with plush lounge chairs overlooking the undulating landscape, and each is named for a famous writer, explorer or actor with African ties, their individual stories told through the decor within. 

Nairobi locals, dignitaries and expats are already frequenting the Brasserie restaurant on the ground floor, where executive chef Barry Tonks (the only Michelin-starred chef in East Africa) and his team work closely with local producers to source the finest corn-fed beef from Naivasha, along with stone-milled flour, eggs and local cheeses. The seafood is all hooked by Hemingways’ six-boat fleet at its coastal property in Watamu. A fine dining restaurant, Dining Room, will open by July, with contemporary European cuisine and a private chef’s table in the wine cellar, where you can watch Tonks put the finishing touches on your meal via a flatscreen embedded in the bottles.

The pleasures at Hemingways come in the sense of place and sumptuous touches at every turn, such as Chesterfield furniture in the lounge, a hidden flatscreen TV in your room that levitates from a steamer trunk with the touch of a remote, and a fresh bouquet of roses by your bedside. In the property’s gardens, fountains flows from the mouths of Big Five gargoyles lit with LEDs.

It’s as easy to picture pre- or post-safari honeymooners here as it is to envision an executive checking in to visit the many corporate headquarters in Karen. For all, the air is fresh, the surrounds lush and cool and the feeling utterly escapist.

Visit Hemingways Nairobi online

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Maasai Mara, Kenya

Kenya’s most famous game viewing zone, “the Mara” sprawls across the Great Rift Valley. Each year, 2.5 million wildebeest and zebras migrate through from July to October. But at any time of the year, visitors may encounter lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos and crocodiles, among others. Lift a glass to diversity under an acacia via Mara Leisure Camp or beside a bonfire at Elephant Pepper Camp, which styles its eco-lodge like Indian-Raj campaign headquarters. Or head to the more remote Shaba Reserve, home to springs, rocky river gorges and Joy’s Camp, which transforms a Land Cruiser into a bar atop a mountain.

30 Minutes With Alex Walker

Published in GearPatrol.com

Alex Walker grew up in a National Geographic photo spread. Instead of a lawn with a picket fence or a city playground, the fourth generation East African’s childhood stomping grounds were the tea fields of Mufindi, the bush of southern Tanzania and Kenya’s Mau forest. Today he makes his home in Masai Mara, Kenya, one of the most famous wildlife ecosystems in the world, operating several safari camps there and across the border in northern Tanzania. After staying at one of Walker’s camps on our adventure in Kenya, we were curious to hear more about what makes this safari guide tick.
As part of our Summer Preview, Alex told us about learning from wildlife, jumping out of a plane, his love of green tea ice cream, and — above all — learning to relax.

Q.What’s one thing every man should know?

A. Don’t try so hard. Things have a way of working out when you are at ease with yourself.

 

Q.What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?

A. I threw myself out of a perfectly good plane for no good reason. We made several passes and I was standing in the door waiting for a slap on the back. There’s lots of time to think and some very distinct images rushing through your mind whilst free falling and waiting for the chute to open. I did it — amazing experience and I loved it!

 

Q.What are you working on right now?

A.We are putting together an adventure toy box, a fly camp in the traditional mold that lets you access some of the more out-of-the-way and little-used wilderness out there. Mix it up with a few toys, camera traps, a night vision kit, quad bikes, buggies, GoPros, RC cars and quadrotor platforms for the cameras, then take a little time, throw in a chopper to get you out there — and you have the recipe for adventure.

Q.Name one thing you can’t live without.

A. A camera, in fact I have a few too many of them. I’m always looking for a new image, on that quest for the perfect image.

 

Q:Who or what influences you?

A: There are a great many influences in my life. Some are images of wildlife, people, news journo [journalism] stuff. I love art in many forms. I borrow from everywhere: design, buildings, wildlife, insects, landscapes. Probably the largest influences I live with are the people I work with day by day. They are quiet, unassuming and hard-working guys who create adventure. We work and live in natural surroundings, and their innate sense of understanding, their feeling for the simple rhythm of the wild always makes me feel that there is still so much to understand.

 

Q.What are you reading right now?

A. Richie McCaw’s The Real McCaw. I am a huge rugby fan and I voraciously devoured the book on a flight home the other day. A remarkable sportsman and leader, Richie McCaw’s road through life is a lesson in determination, as much as Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom is a lesson in humility and grace.

 

Q.Name one thing no one knows about you.

A. I am addicted to the food channel.

 

Q. It’s your last drink and meal on earth. What’ll it be?

A. Green tea ice cream and a vintage Japanese malt whisky at Kyoto Gardens in Cape Town.

 

Q. If you could go back and tell your 16 year old self something, what would you say?

A. Don’t try so hard, it will come to you.

 

Q. How do you want to be remembered?

A. My dad gave me a poem by Rudyard Kipling, If. If I can live up to that then I will be a man, my son.

If
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

Learn more about Alex and Serian camp at serian.net and on the camp’s blog.

Mysteries of Kenyan WIldlife

Published in FathomAway.com

We've followed James Sturz to India, where he pondered Bengali tigers. This time, he takes us on safari to Kenya, where the menagerie he encountered inspired a series of koans, the paradoxes that Zen Buddhist monks ponder to achieve enlightenment.