Blogs from Mombasa, Coast Province, Kenya, Africa - page 2

Greetings from the coastal city of Mombasa! Yesterday was a long travel day to Mombasa. We had another delicious breakfast in the camp, said goodbye to the other group who are now going on to Egypt, and headed out about 7:30. We did a mini game drive on our way out of the Maasai Mara National Park, and we had an excellent giraffe sighting! We hadn’t seen too many Maasai giraffes, so that made me very happy to see several more. We also saw zebras, cape buffalo, eland, and Thompson’s gazelles. It was a very scenic drive back to Nairobi (on paved roads, once we were out of the park). We drove though the Rift Valley escarpment, and stopped at the viewpoint to admire the panoramic view (see pano above). We passed by tiny roadside stands ... read more

In quick answer to the question - Equitorial Guinea. Which is also where my luggage is currently sitting due to the check-in people at Heathrow putting the wrong tags on my bag. So i arrived in Mombasa to meet Alain after connecting at Addis Ababa (one of the lesser airport hubs it has to be said) to have a small argument with the baggage handlers over my bag. We hope the bag can be sent back to Nairobi where i can pick it up in a couple of days but there is a very real risk of me doing the first 3 weeks with the clothes i am wearing. I have popped out in Mombasa to buy a few essentials including "Senselove" pants, a rather tasteful Africa shirt and a pair of flip flops for £1. ... read more

The car arrived on the container ship on Monday, was offloaded onto the quayside on Tuesday and today it made its way to the holding yard. We hope tomorrow it will make it to the customs area. It is far from a speedy process but Alain is diligently visiting daily to trying and improve the speed of progress. We are hopeful the car will be ours by end of the week...... read more

Es ist eine Weile her, seitdem ich die Altstadt von Mombasa besucht habe. Aber es ist immer wieder ein Besuch wert. Da die Gegend als gefährlich eingestuft wird, müssen gewisse Vorkehrungen getroffen werden. Die Altstadt sollte nur in Begleitung eines Tourguides besucht werden. Somit starten wir bei Fort Jesus. Diese Festung wurde im Jahre 1593 von den Portugiesen gebaut. Die Kontrolle der Festung wechselte von den Portugiesen zu den Arabern und später zu den Briten. Die Festung selber gehört inzwischen zum Unesco Kulturerbe. Von Fort Jesus gehts durch die Altstadt. Die Altstadt befindet sich auf dem südöstlichen Teil der Insel und gehört ebenfalls zum Unesco Kulturerbe. Di Caprio hat hier sogar einen Teil des Films "Inception" aus dem Jahre 2010 gedreht. Mir gefällt es jedes Mal durch diese teilweise engen Strassen zu schlendern. Überall trifft man ... read more

I woke up this morning feeling refreshed, nothing like staying at a beach hotel for a little respite. I had hoped to walk along the beach this morning; however the tide was in and there was practically no beach. We all met for breakfast and then headed to a part of town that had a type of ”assembly line”. There was a finished products area with jewelry, sculptures and African handmade items, if one ventured outside of the shopping area, there was a village of shanties and within each structure was a laborer carving or staining or chopping an item - a manufacturing hub - African style. Once we did a little shopping, we stopped at a local restaurant for Teresa Gingles’ comfort food which equals cheeseburger! Seriously. The restaurant had great shakes, burgers and an ... read more