Blogs from Nairobi Province, Kenya, Africa

After a huge amount of effort on our parts (particularly Kathryn’s), we have since gotten most of our money back from the Visa credit card system. We weren’t certain who was at fault here, whether it was the tour company we’d booked the Africa trip with originally or the airline (KLM). We were angry at both until we discovered that another Canadian couple who were on the same safari that we didn’t make, had flown with British Airways having produced the exact same documentation that KLM had denied us. At this point, all of our anger was redirected to KLM. One KLM (also Air France) airport attendant at Pearson Airport in Toronto, was 100% to blame for our African Safari troubles. We will not fly again with KLM. Our new June 2024 African Safari which is ... read more

In July of 2023, we’d tried to acquire the required admittance visa for both Kenya and Tanzania, the two tour locations that this trip covers. The Tanzanian visa was straightforward, despite a variety of government photo requirements requiring additional editing, but those came through. The Kenyan visa (also required) was unavailable because the online system had been shut down due to a hack at some point in July 2023, presumably stealing guests personal financial information such as passport and credit card numbers. After contacting our tour company to discover what our next step should be, we were sent an official Kenyan government document stating that until October 24th 2023, the country would allow visitors to acquire the required visa upon landing at any Kenyan airport - for us, Jomo Kenyatta in Nairobi. With this information in ... read more

The time to depart Canada on our way to Africa gets closer and closer. Only three more days before we wend our way to Amsterdam with KLM for a seven hour layover. We've booked a lounge visit at Schiphol airport (Amsterdam, Netherlands) to try relaxing before our final flight to Nairobi. Our Amsterdam landing time will be += 6:00 am their time, but we will still be on Canada time, which will be about 12:00 am or midnight. Since past travel experience has proven that we always have difficulty sleeping on planes, some rest may be necessary. The additional cost of lounge access won't hurt either when food and drinks also will be available.... read more

So this ‘blog’ is an attempt at sharing Kathryn, Steve, Jan and Chris’ African travel tour experience of 2023. The pandemic shuttered our last African attempt (Kathryn and mine) and this time, our adventure will hopefully materialize. All the particulars are in place - flights are booked; restrictive sized luggage acquired; hotel vouchers received; dietary requirements acknowledged; our accommodations are registered and even local currencies have been procured. We’re ready and anxious to leave to Nairobi via Amsterdam from Pearson airport in Toronto, Ontario. There are four of us traveling together on this tour, so some strength in numbers to motivate fates positive direction, may assist the process.... read more

Fortunately, last night turned out to be more calm than anticipated. This was for two reasons. First: Raila the opposition leader spoke to the people in the slums and asked them not to continue the fighting. But, what might have had a bigger impact is that the police did not allow the burials to take place. There are still vows of revenge once they can burry their dead. Raila has committed to twice a week riots until the current government steps down. This is extremely unlikely to happen so the hope is that it ends peacefully. But, in the meantime I will share some positive parts of my time here. I spent an early morning driving over the Rift Valley to visit Hell's Gate National park with was the inspiration for the Lion King. It got ... read more