Sandgrouse Curios & Art Gallery, Narok, Kenya

I've only been in Kenya twice; both times as part of a tour group where we're ferried around in sturdy Land Cruisers by expert local drivers. Both tours have followed the same itinerary – on the first day we depart from the capital Nairobi and head to the small Maasai village of Ololaimutiek, on the border of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. This is where we hope to see part of the annual wildebeest migration. The total distance is only 240 km, but it takes almost five hours.

- - Toast Coetzer

Along the way, we stop two or three times for a comfort break and to look at something cool, like the viewpoint over the African Rift Valley. We drive along the valley for many kilometres.

But my highlight is always when we pull in at Sandgrouse Curios & Art Gallery, where a “quick leg stretch” could become three quarters of an hour of shopping till you drop. It’s easily the best of the many curio ‘superstores’ along this tourist route.