Blogs from Kenya, Africa - page 247

It's best if I admit upfront that I adore cranky hotels, I can't abide the shiny 7 star palaces that are springing up anywhere you can plant a golf course. Well, I fell lucky on the north coast of Mombasa a couple of years ago. The hotel had an auto-reverse cassette deck, which provided piped music to every nook and cranny of the hotel. Unfortunately, a cassette was jammed in the machine, you have probably guessed already, but to spell it out, the cassette tape had a crinkle, or heaven knows, possibly a sellotaped join, and every 63 seconds (to be precise) the tape would switch and play the other side. So, while relaxing to the delights of Strauss' waltz 'The Blue Danube', Simon and Garfunkle would interrupt rudely with their rendition of 'Bridge over troubled ... read more

"I love the smell of Dettol in the morning." Paul the driver stares through his shades at another bunch of raw recruits, timid and trembling at their first African dawn. Ok, so it takes a few days to adjust. The first thing you have to get used to is hygiene. Lots of dettol and no tea towel, so lots of flapping to dry plates, dishes etc. Then you need to understand how the truck and the camp runs which takes a bit of getting used to. A typical day so far: Get up at 5.30am, about an hour before dawn. Check around the tent for Lions with my headtorch. The wind rips through the campsite as we are high up on an escarpment above a large platea. Get the charcoal on the chicos (round charcoal burners) ... read more

NAIROBI (Oct 19-20) No previous life experience could have prepared us for our arrival in Nairobi. As soon as we left the baggage claim area we were bombarded by touts trying to sell us every possible service including safari packages, accommodations, city guides, taxis, and meals. Once we found one another in the sea of touts, we fought our way through the crowd to the ‘Government Tourist Bureau’ in hopes of coordinating transportation from the airport and accommodations in the city. After a quick orientation to the highlights of Kenya and a basic language lesson, it became evident that the tourist bureau was in fact a private tour company trying to make a hard sell on a safari package, which of course was leaving early the following morning. An hour later, we managed to leave the ... read more

Kenya has a diverse climate, ranging from the rich and fertile great rift valley, the Masai Mara plains, and the desert like ranges of the north. Overall, the MUST do's in Kenya are a safari. You cannot come to this part of the world and NOT experience the Big five in their true wild habitat. Also, once you have experienced true Kenyan hospitality in resorts and hotels, you will never be able to compare their services to any other part of the world. ... read more

Hello all, Hope you all had a good Easter break, and those that are allowed, plenty of chocolate! We had two small marshmallow "eggs" each, eaten while on a game drive round Lake Nakuru NP. But back to the beginning, or the last place we wrote from. Jinja was our last stop in Uganda, the source of the mighty Nile. Colin spent a day rafting the "source" of the Nile, not really the actual source as theres a big dam that you cant raft over, but more like 6km from the source. There was a mixture of grades 3, 4 and 5 rapids, and they managed to get wet on all of the them except for the one I was stood right next to with my camera. So I have photos of them casually floating over ... read more