You don't need a visa to visit lush, green Tigoni

One cold June morning, I decided to wake up to do something I have not done in ages – have an adventure.

When I worked for a certain magazine, I was once sent to the middle of Limuru to do a story. As we drove there, we passed a weather-beaten sign that said "Kentmere Club".

I remember wondering about that place and what was inside it, what ancient secrets it had, holding fort against a background of greenery.

I looked it up. Kentmere was built in the 1920s, during which the main form of transportation was "horses and chariots", according to their website. That and the English place explain the name, I suppose. Then, I saw that it was only an hour away.

It was time to go see this place that had piqued my curiosity for years. And of course, I got a bit lost, and not just because of the classic Kenyan potholes.

Tigoni is so very beautiful. It reminds me of an ice queen, enthralling in her exquisiteness and startling you with her chill.

I mean, at some point the fog was so heavy we could barely see 20 metres ahead of the car – in the middle of the afternoon.

The matatus that passed us were going along happily enough, though, probably because they are much more used to the route. It is completely different from the city, as is expected.

When we stopped an old, smiling man to ask for directions, he actually gave them to us, still smiling. Nairobians can be obliging and cautious, or, like some tales I’ve heard, lead you in the wrong direction entirely and con you while they’re at it.

But it was well worth the journey because when we finally pulled into the gravel driveway, it was like I had gone to a heaven where the only sound you could hear was birds in its lush gardens.

You couldn’t even see the birds – there is so much green. The club goes all the way down a small hill, past quaint, moss-covered steps to a thick bamboo grove and a quietly bubbling brook into which I nearly fell, hoping for tadpoles. And I was back in Nairobi by 3pm, having left at about 10am.

I think Kenyans need to explore their own country more. Naturally we are always willing to go to all the places we see on television – Paris, Dubai, America, and the like, probably because the West has sold us the idea of the "American dream" so well that we think that it must be the place to be, even though it isn't.

Perhaps another problem is that we don’t talk about the places we do go to enough. There are other places to holiday, you know, aside from Mombasa.

How many places have you been aside from where you were born, in your own county? Do you even know how to get to the nearest major city?

In my humble opinion, that’s a problem. We easily identify the Eiffel Tower, or the Sydney Opera House, yet are stumped for the names of the handful of monuments in our own cities. Let’s not even get into how hard it is to go to those faraway places.

News flash: you don't need to queue, and you definitely won’t need to pay for a visa. Our country is glorious.

Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, we continue to thrive despite the decidedly inglorious ways of our leaders. Maybe it’s time you went on an adventure too.