By Tamara Britten
When I arrived in Kenya at the age of four, I never dreamt I’d later establish a personalized travel service in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Arriving at Four
It was such an adventure. Arriving with my father and mother and baby sister Sophie into Nairobi’s airport, being picked up by one of my father’s new colleagues and driven across Nairobi, exploring our sprawling house and lush garden, and trying to sleep with strange sounds all around.
Kenya was the land I fell in love with: the rich red soil, golden savannah, astonishing animals and colorful birds. It was the place I learned to swim. The warm waters of the Indian Ocean were perfect for that. And it gave me the first friends I truly knew beyond my family.
Early memories: playing hide-and-seek with Sophie in the coffee plantation beyond our garden; the acrid smell of exhaust as buses exhaled plumes of blue smoke; the laughter of the ladies in the kiosks as I tried my first words of Swahili.
Later, of course, it all became normal. We crossed the equator regularly driving between our house and our friends’ farm. We went on safari in the school holidays, sleeping in tents, lulled to sleep by the grunts of hippos in the river beyond. We celebrated Christmas in the hot dry season, decorating the tables with crackers beneath the Jacaranda tree.
A Lion in the School Playground
A few things still came as surprises. There was the day a lion got into the school playground, and we were kept in our classrooms for the whole day. There was the day we arrived at the airport to find it in blackout, were rushed onto the plane in secrecy, to discover later that we were on the last flight out of Kenya before the rescued hostages from the Entebbe raid landed.
Many Years, Many Stories
Fast forward through my life moving from country to country, first because of my father’s job, and later by choice having become an itinerant and curious traveler. I taught English in Bangkok, worked at an adult education center in Hong Kong, got a job as assistant manager in a safari camp in Namibia, built a beach-bar in Koh Pha Ngan. I hitchhiked across Zimbabwe, scuba-dived on the Great Barrier Reef and got a ride in a fishing boat from Cambodia to Thailand.
Many years, many stories.
The Kenya I Came Back To
Until finally I returned to the land I’d loved as a child to find that Kenya had grown up just as I had. I found a country booming with innovation. The people were inventive and sharp, the roads clogged with cars and the malls glistening with luxury. Kenya’s savvy young were inventing apps that did everything from money transfers to games, agriculture to music, home deliveries to health, conservation to translation. They even invented a language: Sheng, a constantly developing lingo of Swahili, Kikuyu and English known for trending terms and slick slang.
Three Years in the Masai Mara
Soon after my return to Kenya, I got a job managing a luxury safari camp in the Masai Mara. I worked all hours, getting up in the dark before the guests left for their balloon flight, hosting breakfasts, lunches and dinners listening to excited tales of spotting a leopard in a tree, and going to bed after the last guest left the campfire. While the guests were on their game drives or nature walks, I checked reservations and counted stock, made meal plans and prepared orders, allocated vehicles and planned staff rotas.
Those years were sleep-deprived but wonderful. I saw the plains turn black with wildebeest as the Great Migration swept in from the Serengeti; I assisted in the rescue of a sick endangered wild dog; I watched zebras grazing outside my office; I heard a leopard kill a dik dik beneath my bedroom window.
Writing Karibu Kenya
I then decided to write a guidebook to Kenya. It seemed logical as I had three years’ experience in Kenya’s tourism industry and an MA in Creative Writing. However, nothing is as simple as it sounds. With no financial backing and little money of my own, it took two years and multiple trips to different regions of the country to research and write the book. I got boats around the Lamu Archipelago checking out the lavish villas on the islands; drove through the tea plantations and marathon training centers of Western Kenya; explored the game-rich conservancies of Laikipia; and gazed at the vivid birds on the lakes of the Rift Valley.
I explored all Kenya’s animal-filled national parks, reserves and conservancies. I drove the full length of Kenya’s coast and visited every beach along it. I did site inspections at hundreds of safari camps, beachfront resorts and mountain lodges. Along the way, I saw conservation in action and was enormously impressed.
Kenya enforces the strictest plastic bag ban in the world. It rescues chimpanzees from war-torn countries, hand-rears orphaned baby elephants and runs expert anti-poaching units. In conservation, this country leads.
The result of my travels was Karibu Kenya, a guidebook endorsed by the Kenya Tourist Board, the Kenya Tourism Federation and the Kenya Professional Safari Guide Association.
How a Favor for Friends Became a Company
Friends started asking me where to go and where to stay and I fell into the role of travel advisor by accident. It was fun sharing the places I’d found that nobody had told them about, and seeing my friends come home delighted.
I went on to formalize this, starting a company, registering a business, trademarking my brand and getting a tourism license. Karibu Kenya was launched. As a registered tour operator, I was able not only to advise and assist, but to make bookings and handle logistics for holidays in Kenya. As the business grew, I found like-minded travel-lovers and formed a team of reservations assistants, finance specialists and social media marketers.
My early respect for conservation endured: I believe tourism should support the people, the wildlife and the ecosystem. Karibu Kenya partners with Wildlife Works to plant trees in Tsavo in the names of everyone who travels with us. We support Kenya Connect’s rural literacy campaigns, the Mathari Children’s Fund’s community health and employment projects, and are a proud member of Ecotourism Kenya. We offer integrative experiences to anyone who’s interested such as taking a guided walking tour of central Nairobi with ex-street children, visiting an orphanage, lion tracking with rangers, adopting a baby elephant or planting mangroves at the coast.
While the business kept me at my desk for longer than I was used to, I still made time for site inspections at new hotels, and I kept looking for the experiences that make a holiday worth remembering.
We put children into bush school for a day, where they learned what a lion’s footprint looks like, made bows and arrows with a Maasai warrior, and tracked rhinos with a ranger. For the big occasions we set up sundowners at viewpoints above game-filled plains, threw parties in secluded houses, ran dhow cruises as the sun went down over the ocean, and booked out private islands.
We coordinated weddings and designed romantic honeymoons; we created family holidays and made inspirational weekend getaways. We took a choir on safari and handled the logistics for their concert; we organized a painting holiday for a group of watercolor artists; we designed a trip for visiting dancers and connected them with local dance troupes. Our clients were solo travelers or groups of friends, adventure-seekers or luxury-lovers, newly-weds or multi-generational families. We spent time talking to each to fully understand their interests and budgets, and designed specific trips for each.
Ethiopia, and a Guide Called Mulugeta
On holiday in Ethiopia, I was fortunate to meet Mulugeta Ababu, one of Ethiopia’s most knowledgeable and experienced tour guides. After months of emails between Nairobi and Addis, I returned to Ethiopia and we set off around the country to see all the sites that might interest visitors.
Ethiopia is a different world from Kenya. It has 12 UNESCO World Heritage sites, among the most of any country in Africa. It was one of the first countries in the world to embrace Christianity. The churches cut into the tops of barely accessible cliffs in the Tigray region are thought to have been carved from the 4th century AD, and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela date from the 12th century. Add to this the castles of Gondar, each larger and grander than the last as if the emperors were vying for attention; the painted monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana; the towering stelae of Axum; and the ancient walled city of Harar, and you find a country like no other.
The geography does not settle. The Danakil Depression bubbles with vivid sulfur and the volcanos above it spit fire. Dallol has gleaming salt flats, Tigray has jagged cliffs, the Simien and Bale Mountains hold alpine national parks, and the Omo Valley lies hot and dusty below.
Ethiopia is home to over 80 tribes and ethnic groups, the most famous of which live in and around the Omo Valley and have retained their startling culture and traditions. Some tribes walk only on stilts, others insert plates into the women’s lower lips; some decorate themselves with feathers and piercings, others paint their skin with white stripes or coat themselves in ochre; some celebrate coming of age by running over the backs of bulls, others by lifting a ceremonial stone over their heads.
When we’d traveled around the whole country and seen extraordinary sites, Mulugeta and I launched Exclusive Ethiopia. We handle the bookings and the logistics and put clients with guides who know the ground, so they can relax and explore the country properly.
While Karibu Kenya and Exclusive Ethiopia were growing, I eked out the time to do my yoga teacher training and became a certified yoga teacher. As well as teaching yoga in Nairobi’s lovely Karura Forest every Sunday, I started offering yoga retreats at inspiring locations around the region, some led by me and others by professional wellbeing teachers and healers.
A Puppy, a Pickup Truck, and a Pandemic
When the pandemic brought the world to a standstill, tourism crashed. On a walk during this time, I found a puppy behind a kiosk and Lola bounced into my life. A troublesome, mischievous and adorable character, she stole my heart and turned my life upside-down.
When Kenya reopened but the rest of the world was still ricocheting between lockdown and restrictions, I put Lola and my laptop into my pickup truck and set off to refresh my knowledge of Kenya. We spent a month in the Masai Mara helping a friend establish her riding safari business (on one notable occasion Lola ran off with a herd of zebras and we spent a terrifying hour searching for her), then set off for the coast and spent the next few months visiting every tourist attraction, resort, restaurant, spa and experience on the ocean.
Kenya’s coast not only has swathes of white-sand beaches and a wealth of water sports, but also ancient towns established during the days of the Trade Routes. The Gede Ruins, Takwa Ruins and Jumba la Mtwana are abandoned sites that evoke ancient times, while the Old Towns of Lamu and Mombasa remain functioning ports to this day.
The Kilifi Wellness Festival
During the unsettling time of the pandemic, I talked to three friends about what we could do to help. We came up with the Kilifi Wellness Festival. The first festival, held on a beachfront while most of the world was still in lockdown, was led only by the four of us and attended by 40 participants.
It has now blossomed into an annual event of art, dance, music, yoga, breathwork, water sports and laughter. Sessions include yoga on a stand-up-paddleboard, circus arts, make-your-own mandala, compose a song, beach cleans, discussions on nutrition, pop-up jamming sessions, gong bath and more. Evening events include a moonrise dhow cruise, open mic, cacao ceremony, ecstatic dance and beach party. The Festival Fair is filled with coastal creations, colorful bags, hand-crafted jewelry, sustainable fashion, inspirational books and organic health drinks, and therapists are on hand to give private treatments including massage, bodywork and sound healing.
Ornella, who has come four years running, describes it better than I can:
The Kilifi Wellness Festival has cracked me open four years in a row. Through this festival I have met the most beautiful, powerful and inspiring people. I have taken my biggest, most world altering steps in my business, healing journey, and personal story.
Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania
Over the next few years, Karibu Kenya expanded into Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Before launching each destination, my team and I did intensive trips around each country, checked out the accommodation options, tried the activities, and created unique experiences for our clients.
We now offer gorilla trekking in Uganda and Rwanda, dhow cruises in Zanzibar, bungee jumping on Lake Victoria, scuba diving in Shimoni, historic tours in Stone Town, rhino conservation in Ziwa and coffee tasting in Sidama. Clients can jump with the Maasai or be blessed in the sacred coastal Kayas; participate in a festival in Lalibela or gaze at the thundering waters of Murchison Falls; camp with camels on Lake Elementaita or meet the chimpanzees of Kibale.
Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania are extraordinarily diverse countries and provide a wealth of different experiences. My team knows the sites intimately, and we love creating inspirational, thought-provoking and joyful holidays.
I sometimes wonder what four-year-old Tamara would think if she saw me today, back in the land she so loved, creating experiences that inspire love for this land in others.
