Blogs from Africa - page 12

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

I booked a walking tour through Tripadvisor yesterday, with a female guide, Faridausi and Glyn booked an Uber to meet her in town. She was almost 20 minutes late, but it seems in Uganda, that’s standard and not worth an apology. The first stop was a statue of Edward Mutesa, the first president of Uganda, (after independence from the UK in 1962). He was also the King and pushed out of power by Milton Obote and sent into exile, aided by Idi Amin. And then Obote was ousted by Idi Amin, who made himself popular by returning the body of Mutesa, so he could be buried in Uganda. Nearby stood a statue celebrating Uganda’s independence, a public place with a few homeless scattered around. A very old sign displayed photographs from 1962. A big hole had ... read more

After breakfast Avis brought our hire car to the hotel. David had been worrying our route out of town might take us through the inner city, but Google Maps guided us onto the highways and we reached Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in about 15 minutes. The gardens sit nestled at the foot of the rear of Table Mountain in what must be the most stunning setting for any gardens. They were inevitably a Victoria creation, initially managed and directed by a gentleman from Kew Gardens. The weather had finally picked up and it was warm and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. We wandered around for over two hours, taking in the huge variety of Cape and fynbos vegetation. There are six broad regions of flora in the world, and the Cape is by far ... read more

This travel blog is a necessary evil for me and is hopefully an entertaining arm chair experience for those interested in our journey to Africa. The Serenghetti, the Ngorongoro crater, Mount Kilimanjaro and the current quantities of wildlife that yet remain on the African plains, is and has been a draw for my wife and I. We travel with companions this trip who had proposed an invitation to come along on their anticipated journey. We gratefully accepted and started to formulate the trip particulars. We had all decided that a tour was best and researched several possible options. Some were far beyond our financial capabilities and others, though less expensive, were also less interesting. We finally chose a lower mid range tour that would fulfill most requirements and desires. Concept in November of 2022 and the ... read more

Uganda Day 10 Birds, traffic and getting lost in Kampala I was already awake when the alarm went off at 6 this morning so these lie-ins must be a bit too much. Breakfast was a buffet-style affair and quite Westernised but it was nice. The hotel houses conferences and weddings so it’s a bit posher than we’re used to and everyone is very formal but it’s clean and apparently in a nice part of town. Wehen we were booking in yesterday Zed was concerned that we might be a bit late setting off today as breakfast didn’t start until 7. So we were there just before 7 and ready for when he was due to pick us up at 7:30. He messaged to say that he was on his way, then that there was lots of ... read more