Nairobi is probably the least bicycle friendly city I have been to. The roads have often no sidewalk and certainly no bicycle lane. The carriageway consists of patchy bitumen and frequent potholes and is jammed by cars much of the day. But on the positive side; Nairobi is an amazingly green capital with many parks and forest areas and even a National Park full of wild animals just in the outskirts. Large parts of the town are parklands and forests where the villas and apartment blocks that are surrounded by plants and big trees.
I am in Nairobi for work, on a EU funded project for improving capacity within the road authorities. After 5 days of struggling with bureaucrats, the relief comes in the weekend when I can jump on my folding bike and feel the freedom between my legs. Although I have traversed central Nairobi a few times, I have found some routes in the sub-burbs and beyond which are good for cycling. One typical trip is along Ngong road to Karen (where Karen Blixen had her farm and which now is a museum). Some Sundays I make it far beyond Karen towards Magadi which is a salt lake with flamingos and it is the start of a nature reserve that expands towards Masai Mara and Serengeti.
Last week I was on a conference in Naivasha, a beautiful nature area in the Rift valley some 120 km north of Nairobi. I brought my folding bike in my our and on Saturday I took the opportunity to cycle in Hells Gate National Park. This was a great experience and it is supposed to be safe, since they say they do not have lions there. However, there were a lot of buffalos and they are animals you should not invite to trouble either.
Dag's travels 