Page 4 of Travels with Tom and Alice Travel Blog Posts


Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Oudtshoorn July 18th 2008

July 16, 17, 2008 Cape Town - Oudtshoorn, S.A. Wednesday morning we began our exploring of the Cape area of South Africa. We met our guide, Carles, and drove today north and east to Oudtshoorn. This is a very nice drive through some beautiful mountains to an area of farms and past many small vineyards and fruit growing areas. The landscape changes to semi-desert ( very similar to Arizona ) and a few beautiful green valleys in the mountains. There are big sheep farms and as we approached Oudtshoorn many more farms. Our stay in Oudtshoorn was at a very, very nice place called Rosenhof Country House. Maybe the nicest place we have stayed at on our whole trip. Oudtshoorn is a small city of 100,000 or so and the Country House is on the outskirts ... read more
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Africa » Tanzania » North » Arusha July 16th 2008

July 13, 14, 15, 2008 Tanzania to Cape Town. Sunday morning we left our camp early to catch our small planes to Arusha, Kilimanjaro, ( with some great views of snow covered Mount Kilimanjaro ) and on to Nairobi, Kenya. We enjoyed a farewell dinner, courtesy of Kensington Tours, our hosts for this part of our trip, at the famous Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi. This is a MEAT place with some of the local specialties. We tried Crocodile and Ostrich along with too much other meat. Nice place similar to the “Brazilian BBQ” places we know from North America. Next morning was another very early start ( Enough already !! These early mornings have got to stop ) to catch a flight to Johannesburg and an afternoon connection to Cape Town. Too long a day traveling ... read more
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July 12, 2008 Ngorongoro Park, Tanzania We spent the night at the Kensington Camp near the Ngorongoro Crater. As this is at a fairly high altitude it was, to say the least, a little “fresh” in the tent and very cool in the morning. There are a lot of Masai that live here as they were moved from the Serengeti when the national Park was created 40 - 50 years ago. They seem to survive in their small mud huts and wearing only there traditional garb ( like a loin cloth with a blanket on top ). The switch-backs, fog and mist on the road down into the crater made for an interesting start to our day. This is really an amazing place. A lot bigger than it looks from the rim. There are most of ... read more
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Africa » Tanzania » North » Olduvai Gorge July 12th 2008

July 11, 2008 Serengeti Plains / Olduvai Gorge With another early morning start we headed out into the Serengeti plains on our way to Ngorongoro Park in the mountains. On the way we saw lots of the usual big animals and a very large herd of about 50 Elephants. Today we had a few problems with the fuel lines in our Land Cruiser and got stalled, after an hour or so, on the road from the camp. We’re not surprised with the beating the vehicles take with these roads. We eventually got a lift with an American couple and their guide in another vehicle and continued on with them while they fixed ours. We enjoyed the morning with them and finally got a look at a Leopard. A long ways off in a tree, but we ... read more
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Africa » Tanzania » North » Serengeti National Park July 11th 2008

July 9, 10, 2008 Serengeti, Tanzania This was a very long day in the car as we drove over 9 hours from Masai-Mara, south and through West Mara, and into Tanzania as we made our way to the Kensington Camp in the Serengeti ( Masai for “endless plain” ) for some more game viewing. It would be hard to explain the road conditions for most of the trip !!! You wouldn’t believe it if I was able to explain anyway. ( and this is a main road ). The Serengeti ecosystem includes the Masai Mara in Kenya and the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Park in Tanzania. Serengeti Park is a very large National Park in Tanzania that covers over 14,000 sq. KM. The main migration of Wildebeest and Zebra travel between Serengeti and Masai Mara every year ... read more
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Africa » Kenya » Rift Valley Province » Masai Mara NP July 9th 2008

July 7, 8, 2008 Masai Mara Our trip in Africa continued today with our drive from Nakuru Park to the Masai Mara, Kenya and some “ big game hunting” ( with cameras ). This is really a beautiful place but the poverty becomes more evident as you get away from the cities. The Masai Mara is a large area of Kenya that includes a large, 2000 squ. KM preserve that is home to a huge variety of wildlife and birds as well as numerous lodges and camps for the tourists that come to visit East Africa. Our accommodation for the next 6 nights is at tent facilities that are in 3 different parks ( Kensington Camps are operated by Kensington Travel who put together this part of our trip ). This is hardly roughing it as ... read more
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Africa » Kenya » Rift Valley Province » Lake Nakuru NP July 7th 2008

July 5, 6, 2008 Lake Nakuru, Kenya On Saturday we flew to Nairobi, Kenya and spent a quiet evening at our hotel as we have an early morning start to our trip to Lake Nakuru Park. Nairobi looks like a very busy place but generally very poor. Our accommodation was certainly not indicative of the way most Kenyans live. Sunday morning we met our Driver / Guide for the next 8 days, Raymond, a young man from Tanzania who will travel with us until we leave Tanzania on our way to Capetown. We had a 3 hour drive through the Kenyan countryside, and down into the Great Rift Valley to the park and took our picnic lunch on a large bluff overlooking the large lake and part of the 180 Sq. KM nature reserve. This is ... read more
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Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Johannesburg July 6th 2008

July 3,4,5, 2008 South and Eastern Africa We continued our adventure with a long flight across the equator and into South Africa. We had an overnight in Johannesburg before our noon flight to Nairobi, Kenya. In Johannesburg we get very different opinions on the safety and security in this big city. Our taxi driver from the airport suggested there were few problems and the government had things pretty much under control. We drove past the town of Alexandria that became famous as a sort of slum that has been rebuilt with primarily social housing ( units are about 300 - 400 Sq. Ft. ), all with water sewer and power. The next morning our hotel shuttle driver suggested that this is probably one of the worst places in the city as to security as the new ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid July 3rd 2008

July 1, 2, 2008 Madrid, Spain Our journey took us from Porto back across the mountains, through the forest and into the farmland around Madrid. Some of the passes are very high here and it makes for some very interesting scenery. We can’t say enough about the excellent roads and freeways here. We have been very impressed with our whole trip through Europe and this piece was no different. I think I’m going to organize a trip here for some of the highway engineers from North America to show them how it should be done. We do have some good roads but not to the extent that we have seen in Europe. Not much new to say about Madrid from our last stay here. Generally a nice city with lots to see and do. 2 quiet ... read more
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Europe » Portugal » Northern » Porto July 1st 2008

June 29, 30, 2008 PORTO, Portugal This was a bit of a long drive ( 5 hours ) from Santander through a couple of small mountain ranges to the north coast of Portugal. Our “GPS Lady” ( sometimes referred to as something not so polite ) took us a little off course with some new roads that have been opened that obviously were not on our GPS maps yet. We are getting spoiled and can’t even read a map anymore ! Made it to our destination safe and sound with a diversion through the city of Porto and back north to our resort hotel in Vermar. Porto is a very big city and obviously a major port. Our resort at Vermar is about 25 KM north of Porto and we were very impressed with this beach ... read more
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