Karen Country Club

Karen Country Club is laid out on what was once Karen Blixen's estate on the edge of Nairobi. It is the round that opens East Africa by Air, and I like it for exactly that reason: a morning of golf under old trees before sixteen nights following the Migration. Once you are on the course the city disappears behind the trees, and wildlife is often visible from the fairways.

Nairobi sits high, well over 1,500 metres, and the ball carries further than you expect. Your caddie will help you adjust in the first few holes. After that you can enjoy the walk.

You stay at Giraffe Manor in Karen, twelve rooms in a manor where Rothschild giraffe wander the grounds. On the morning of your round, breakfast is interrupted by giraffe putting their heads through the upper-storey windows looking for pellets, which is a hard act for any first tee to follow. Non-golfers spend the morning with the giraffe and the gardens. The next day a Cessna Caravan flies you from Wilson Airport to the Maasai Mara in about forty-five minutes. The journey runs July to October, the Migration season, and the dry months are a good time for golf in Nairobi.

Country: Kenya