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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

July 9, 10, 2008 SERENGETI, Tanzania This was a very long day in the car as we drove over 9 hours from Masi-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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

July 7, 8, 2008 Masai Mara Our trip to Africa continued today with our drive from Nakuru Park to the Masi 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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

July 5, 6, 2008 LAKE NAKURU, Kenya On Saturday we flew to Nairobi, Kenya and spent a quit 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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

July 3,4,5, 2008 South 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. [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

FRANCE We have now left France and would like to comment on some of our observations. France is a great country to visit. The people are very FRENCH, and very proud of there language, history and culture. We had very few language issues. ( there is always the odd idiot ). Accommodations are good and if you look around you can get some relatively reasonable rates. Parking costs are an issue in the big centers, with up to 30 Euros a night at some places, and worth considering when reserving a room. Also 13 - 16 Euros for a continental breakfast [View Full Entry]

---

---