Thursday, January 12, 2012

Come early before a flight, so you can relax comfortably

By Gareth Roberts


We spent three nights in Nanyuki, so as to write a good review of Barneys Restaurant Nanyuki in the Mount Kenya region of Kenya.

Barneys has a diverse menu offering all-day breakfasts, pancakes and toasties plus burgers, chicken and chips, soup and some specials. The food at Barneys is really good and the coffee is the best in this area and outdoes many Nairobi coffee-houses. Juices and smoothies are also served. Note the food portions are mega large! They also have a small play area for the kids, plus plenty of grass for them to run around on. Nanyuki Airstrip is where the planes appear and disappear to Nairobi, Laikipia, Meru and Samburu.

Barneys also has feta & coriander samosas which are fantastic, hot drinks (teas & coffee) and a pleasant atmosphere to observe the world go by. Get there early on a Sunday morning to beat the late morning influx and you will be compensated with a cool brunch.

Barneys Bistro would certainly be a handy place to arrive early to before a flight, so you can relax comfortably and not worry about missing your connection.

Whilst at Barney's Cafe the staff kindly told us about the new Lily Pond Arts Centre on the equator in Nanyuki.

The employees at Barney's were adamant that we paid a visit to the vast art gallery, as it displays reasonable contemporary art from East Africa's top latest artists, away from the hustle and bustle of town life.

You can decide to either soak up the atmosphere of this tranquil and special African arts place, or meet the "Artists in Residence". The Art Gallery houses art graduates from art schools in Nairobi, Kenya who are on full-time, long-term placements at the arts centre, making and showing new cost-effective art works.

This new art gallery in Nanyuki, intends to operate as a springboard for young artists to launch their art careers, whilst permitting safari visitors to buy original pieces of art.

We also enjoyed a good lunch on a deck, overlooking a large lily pool.

With the great Mount Kenya Mountain as a background, we also enjoyed watching the white egret, hunting the frogs in the pool!

What we found extraordinary is that the equator slices clean through the middle of this Arts Centre. This indicates that you can view electrifying African art in both the Southern Hemisphere and the Northern Hemisphere!

This new Arts Centre in Nanyuki, has just installed a new equator sculpture, the Wish Globe, which is installed exactly at 0000000. Everybody writes down their wishes and then hangs them onto the "Wish Globe".

The arts centre has a unique shop stocked with hand- crafted African gifts such as beaded sandals, recycled flip flop toys, African masks, Glass chimes, Kenyan metal geckos and plenty more unusual African gift ideas. That was most of our holiday money gone!




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