Author: Jan Fox
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A Review of the New Defender
I don’t envy the designers at Land Rover. Creating the new Defender must have been one of the most challenging jobs of the automotive world. The old models have been adored across the globe for decades, for their flaws as much as their off-road capabilities. Their designs were simple, rugged and instantly recognisable. The new […]
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A Night on the Sacred Mountain
‘Maape!’. ‘Let’s go!’. Our Samburu guide, Lemaiyan, urged us to continue our climb after a long water break. The mid-morning heat had been turned up a notch, and our progress was slow. We zigzagged up the eastern slope of Mount Ololokwe, along a path well trodden by elephants and cattle. Stumbling under the weight of […]
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Life and Death on the Mara River
Of the 1.5 million wildebeest that trek into the Masai Mara from the Serengeti each year, an average of 300,000 die, most while crossing the Mara River. While death at such a scale may seem senseless, it plays a vital role in the nourishment of the river ecosystem for years after the dust settles.
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Clean Eating at Boho
‘This is one of the best rhubarb crumbles I’ve ever had!’. That was high praise from my wife, Gabie, who is crazy for crumbles. We were at the Boho Eatery, along Ndovu Road in Karen, enjoying a late lunch on a Sunday afternoon. As she shovelled the crème Anglaise into her mouth with her teaspoon, […]
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Exploring the Ngong Road Forest
A few years ago, a good friend of mine told me a story that has stuck with me. He was driving around town with his buddies one evening, with a chocolate cake from Java on the backseat. They hit traffic on Ngong Road, and decided to take the loop behind Jamhuri Park. It was getting […]
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Sunday Lunch at the Talisman
One of my most memorable meals was on the terrace of Lamu’s Peponi Hotel. It was a creamy beef and mushroom pasta dish, paired perfectly with a cold beer and a cool sea breeze. The chef who prepared it was probably Ray Cournede, who in 2015 relocated to the kitchen at the Talisman Restaurant along […]
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A Guidebook to the People’s Forest
‘It seems nothing short of miraculous, looking back, that the Karura Forest Reserve still exists, given the pressures it faced during the latter half of the 20th Century.’ This is the opening to a chapter in the Karura visitors’ guide, published in October 2019. It goes on to describe these pressures in detail – destructive […]
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The Hub’s Homely Italian Restaurant
When I spoke to the developers of The Hub Karen before it opened in 2016, they were enthusiastic about the mall’s open-air architecture, and particularly about the large piazza. They said that the design was inspired by the squares of Europe, surrounded by pubs, cafés and Sunday markets. The piazza is still very much the […]
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A Sunday Stroll in the Ngong Hills
For years my wife has been urging me to hike the Ngong Hills with her. When she first came to Nairobi in 2013, she had read that it was one of the city’s top tourist attractions. But I was always reluctant to do it, convinced that it was unsafe by tales of hikers being ambushed […]
Going Places Africa 