Attached is a video The Navigator did today. Pretty spectacular

Early start today, 6am the warrior arrived on our verandah for the escort up to the dining/bar area for breakfast. They have a nice GF spread for me, eggs over easy with bacon and good coffee. The African service with a genuine smile doesn’t hurt to help start the day.

I learned last night that the warrior guiding us knew my name, at least I thought he did, he said “Pauly Pauly… Slowly Slowly’, I slowed down. I thought he was being a bit liberal as we’d only just met, but as I found out at breakfast “Pauly Pauly” means Slowly Slowly.

I slept ok except for an early loo visit when I was a little disoriented, tried to find the toilet door in the tent, unsuccessfully, and The Navigator woke turned the light on and gave me a good scolding and the stink eye. A light helped orient me and I found the loo. There were a few odd noises during the night, probably hyenas we were advised, sounds like “huh…..huh huh….”. Cowboy and Dancer heard footsteps, they think it was the Ranger with the gun doing his rounds.

Dennis gets on the road, rally cross back to the Mara River and he takes the track up the northern side. The hot air balloons pass us on the way to the river crossings, looks like its a nice way to see the wildlife. A herd of elephant are wandering east on the southern ridge moving quickly. The wilderbeast are consolidating into a very large mob, they go right, they go left, none go down the river bank. Other little mobs are joining in, feints to the left and right then nothing. We sit tight, dozing, Dennis snorts and snores once, wakes himself up, shortly after he says ” It’s on!!!”

Helter skelter to the Mara River bank and we see one of the natural wonders of the world, wildebeast and zebra in a long line tearing through the water to the other side, hoping to dodge hippos and crocodiles. Its massive, the safari vehicles come from everywhere but we were nearly the first one there, pretty spectacular!

Then we see the same thing down river at another crossing, a wilderbeast leads, egging the others to follow, eventually they do follow, this time zebras bring up the rear.

Then we see another crossing further down again. Hard to describe how exciting it is. This is migration season but apparently there are days they don’t cross the river, we were very lucky.

A picnic lunch on the hill behind the river bank, Dennis advises ” bush bush” is the go, and don’t go far from the vehicle. Bush bush = bush wee.

We then drive to the Kenya – Tanzania border for an unofficial border crossing photo. Hyenas, lions, buffalo and the spectacular umbrella acacia trees are a stand out.

Its a long drive, but we’re back home at 4pm. Then the rain starts, its a very nice sound in our 5 star tent resting before drinks and dinner.

Tomorrow we move on to Tamu Tamu Serengeti, owned by Shadows of Africa,who we are travelling with.

Cheer ciao arrividerci

Pauolo

Finally a sleep in! Then the trip to the Serengeti in Tanzania by light aircraft.

Breakfast at 8am, almost nobody in the joint, I figure they’re either on safari or checked out and heading somewhere else.

The drive to the airstrip is relaxed, no roof up, we see a cheetah resting under a tree but no carcase nearby.

At Olkiombo Airstrip, a dirt Airstrip, in the Masai Mara Reserve there are a lot of planes, small and large dual prop aircraft, safari vehicles everywhere, people arriving and people leaving. Its hot, so we sit in the shade, rangers with guns walk around, and we wait and wait, the Navigator is restless, but eventually it arrives. Its a Safarilink single engine 12 seater with 2 pilots, seating a bit tight but I’ll survive. Navigator is looking a little pale and The Dancer is paler.

The first flight is 30 minutes to Isibania where we stamp out of Kenya, get our Tanzania Visa and stamp in, then a short ride to our dirt airstrip and a short flight over the Serengeti to Kogatende Airstrip where Our Shadows of Africa driver (Dennis) meets us.

A quick late picnic lunch at the airstrip and then we start the safari, we see lions, elephants, hounds of zebras and wilderbeast (part of the migration) its a different landscape to the Masai Mara, slopes and hills, granite boulders, tighter scrub but still little surprises around every corner. The drive to our camp is like rally cross, the corrugations are next level, but Dennis gets the troopy humming and we’re there at dusk.

Our accomodation is at Tamu Tamu Kogatende, 5 star glamping, only 2 months old, our room is spectacular. Security here isn’t a novelty, a young  Masai guy escorts to and from room  and another patrols with a serious rifle.

Dinner is very nice, early to bed

6am start tomorrow,hopefully to see the great migration at the Mara river crossings

Ciao

Pauolo

Today a picnic lunch somewhere in the reserve, hopefully no lions join us.

Breakfast is survived without Warwick the Whinging Wormeating Cowboy having his meal snavled before he finished. So, he’s in a good mood, or so it seems, as he sleeps a good portion of the day away in the back seat, snoring and sleep talking about finding a leopard before he leave Africa. 

We load up into the Troopy at 7.30am, its coolish, the rain last night has cooled things down, there’s no dust, yet, maybe later.

Its no time and we’re at a spot where a lioness has just killed a wildebeast, she’s protecting the kill from hyenas, jackals and vultures we think waiting for the rest of her pride to turn up. We call past at the end of the day and she’s still there, nobody else has turned up for the party.

Next its birds, all sorts, pretty yellow birds, Kingfishers, Secretary Birds, Lilac Crested Something or Others.

Next we find a cheetah that has just taken down a Thompson’s Gazelle  he/she is magnificent. Once again gruesome munching of a recently live animal is under way.

At another spot a huge male lion has just killed another wilderbeast. Warwick suggests its like the pub specials, only in the big cat world it’s ” Wilderbeast Monday”. When he’s finished eating the rear end and juicy bits, he’s exhausted and finds shade right beside Navigators window, she could reach out and touch him (but she doesn’t), Warwick whispers “shut the window! But she doesn’t, she doesn’t move, Ken starts the vehicle, he slowly and gracefully ambles past other safari vehicles ( as a proper King does. There are rules, these are wild animals running on half a million acres, no fences, no interference, Kenyan National Park rangers patrolling all the time with automatic weapons checking for poachers and safari operators doing things they shouldn’t.

Hippos next, at a spot on the Mara River, heaps of them, babies as well. Sunning, swimming, snorting, blowing spouts of water, waiting for an idiot to stumble near them so they can chomp them or it.

We have a beautiful picnic lunch under a tree looking over the well grassed (dry though) Masai Mara rolling hills and plains with the umbrella type trees dotted around. Its very peaceful and so scenic.

By 4pm, we’re done, so its back to Zebra Plains Camp and our 5 star tent in the bush where while it’s dark you need an Masai warrior escort back to your tent, for a 100 shilling tip. Simon, our smiling, efficient Masai waiter gets us sorted for dinner. He’s 35, married with 4 children, his wife is the boss he says “akoona mitada” (no worries in Swahili)

Tomorrow morning we fly in a light aircraft to the Serengeti in Tanzania.

I’ve loved Kenya, much more than I expected. The wildlife has been amazing, the landscapes are epic African and the people bright and pleasant. Our guide Ken has been brilliant, a gentle natured man, probably in his 40s, 3 daughters (16, 12 & 6), seems pretty respected by the other guides. Shadows of Africa have a good one with him. We’ll say goodbye to him tomorrow morning and hello to our Tanzanian guide.

Ciao from Zebra Plains Camp on the Masai Mara, Kenya for the last time

Pauolo

6.15am breakfast, not a pretty sight our crew, unlike the Dior and Armani safari clad young Columbians arriving at the sunrise breakfast. Short shorts, tight tops, in safari gear….. the men in Top Gear sunglasses and probably clad in cool Australian fine wool green tops cobbled together by an Italian bespoke tailor. Sorry Columbians but its time to pick on somebody else, The Wormeater feels I’ve singled him out bit. Possibly true but he does make it easy.

The drive out of the park takes about 2 hours, we see a male lion, lots of birds, and the ho hum old giraffes and zebras.

Great Rift Valley’s rich soil means they grow all sorts of crops. Its the food bowl of Kenya. It’s dry but green, apparently rainfall is regular, but this year has been an exception. They have small farms and larger farms as we head further south towards Tanzania.

Its Sunday as we drive down the valley, people selling things, people going to church in fine colourful clothes and hats, kids waving to us.

The landscape and vegetation change sugnificantly as we drop down to the plains (aka the Masai Mara, tribal Masai land. It’s dry, thousands of cattle, timber yards country again

The tar roads are rough, but the dirt roads are exponentially rougher roads.

Checkin to Zebra Plains Mara glamping facility is easy,  quick lunch gets us ready to unpack and rest a little.

The glamping tent is warm inside, the rain starts and Ken puts our planned safari back to  4.15 Safari postponed.

The roads are sticky but Ken decides we can go. He takes a Kenya Wildlife Ranger with us and we go straight to a lion resting place, there are heaps of lions, the one of them decides its hungry and goes after a giraffe, with no success, but it’s exciting. Then we see a cheetah. There are thousands of zebras and wilderbeast here, wide open slopes and Plains with reasonable grass. The Ranger has us tearing all over the place, fantastic having him with us.

The rain stops when we arrive back, a quick drink, dinner and bed, its been a long day.

Ciao

Pauolo

7.30 am start, the hotel is beautiful, its raining outside, as forecast.

Last night a classical guitarist was playing in the foyer, very stylish, nothing better than a bit of finger picking on gut strings to tap the feet to. Dinner was good but the Wormeater has a little moan, he ducked away to use the loo and came back to find the remains of his main course gone. It was the Dancers fault, I think, he’s putting on too much weight (at 60kg wringing wet) and she let them take the half empty plate. Then he orders a dessert, again not happy because it was “watery like porridge”, jeez, some people you can’t please. He’s in danger of another alias eg Whinger – but I’m waiting to see how he performs today. As they say ” past performance is a good indicator of future behaviour”, so we’ll see.

Kenya Facts

Religion – 86% Christian, 11% Islam. Lots of Christian schools , and first names like Blessed, Praise, and disciples names, and Mary.

Sport – main sport is soccer, followed by athletics, boxing, rugby and volleyball. Betting on sport is huge – 80-90% bet on sport.

Population – 56 million

We climb coming out of Nairobi heading north, tea plantations, market gardens abound and down to our left is the Great Rift Valley.

Height above sea level – Nairobi is about 1800m above sea level. The highland we cross over is 3,000 metres, Lake Navaisha in the valley is back at 1800-2000 metres.

The dirt road into Lake Nakuru Sopa Guest House is rough and dusty. Before we reach the reserve we see some  Rothschild Giraffe, they are endangered. We enter the park and they are everywhere, buffalo, a plethora of birds (including flamingo) on the lake, and a family of lions resting under trees after a kill. A good start and we haven’t even started our safari yet.

Sopa Lodge is high above the lake, spectacular views over the lake and the valley. The Navigator gets a bit twitchy when advised its Swahili night tonight, dress and scarf, she thinks it’s a religious thing and gets a bit huffy, she calms when she finds out it’s cultural, not religious. Be funny if she has to say a prayer or something, they’ll really get the “Navigator Stink Eye”

She calms further with lunch and eats a dessert that fills her “tasters” plate right to the edge.. The Dancer has misplaced an expensive Canon camera battery, bugger!

A few hours rest in our rooms which look over Lake Nakuru, a golf cart down a steep hill and a 100 shilling ($1) tip helps the staff to help us.

An afternoon safari at 4.00 and we see a rhino, lots of giraffe, buffalo and zebra. We also see a young hyena lying beside the road with an injured leg, poor bugger can’t walk. Ken said the park will have it taken to the park vet.

On dusk we arrive back. The Navigator is now in the mood for Swahili Night, whatever that looks like.

Ciao from Lake Nakuru in Kenya

Pauolo

6am = Safari Time

We find elepants everywhere, mobs of “families” mothers, aunties, babies, naughty boys off on their own, all walking slowly towards the water. There are hyenas tidying up a carcase of something, with a silverback jackal hanging around trying steal some of the scraps. We catch a giraffe ( much darker than those in SA) weirdly crouching down to get a drink. Lions were spotted but they disappeared before we got to the spot. Animals everywhere!

A quick breakfast then leave at 9.45am for Nairobi, another day on the road.

“Very bumps” says Ken on the road out, I should have replied ” very dusts”, but I didn’t, my brain is a little fried with the long days, lots of driving etc etc. We miss the company of the Sebatana crowd, and I reckon one of then would have suggested a cement sandwich to harden up!

As we leave the reserve a young Masai man with his dog is driving a mob of cattle, Ken tells us lions do get cattle occasionally. All the way back we see livestock everywhere, mostly with Masai men or women, some in traditional gear, shepherding them with their usual stick

Drinks  & toilet stop and the usual hard sell from locals to convince us to buy trinkets from them. I buy nothing, but The Navigator, world class shoppers that she is spends a little bit.

Trucks and safari landcruisers, lots of them, are on the Mombassa highway, roadside markets selling fruit and veggies from dusty stalls or standing in the middle of the road hawking them to the traffic.

On the edge of Nairobi about 2.30pm, the traffic is mad, the number of lanes is optional, trucks lane splitting, there are some rules, but it seems they are optional as well, they mostly drive left hand side, that’s about it.

Beads shopping was  Navigator request, I’m ambivalent but she’s happy, Wormeater buys another wrist bangle thingy. Then it’s another hour to the hotel.

The Tribe Hotel us next to the US Embassy, its in the ritzy part of town and it is really ritzy itself.

An easy evening before a 7.30am start for Lake Nakuru tomorrow, north west towards the Masai Mara.

Ciao from Nairobi

Pauolo

Arriving in Nairobi last night was described in Day 15 Part 2, this morning, I’ve recovered my composure. Angry face is gone, a good breakfast beckons, but, but……., The Navigator is still concerned that Kenya Airways will come looking for me to fix the broken arm rest. I see no officials lurking in reception waiting to arrest me, I believe her concerns are unfounded, this not the first time this has happened, her concerns that Is!

Breakfast done, we meet Ken and mount our fairly new Landcruiser Troopy fitted out with 6 safari seats, lift able roof, driver seat and passenger seat. Bit squeezy for my titanium knees in the back. A switch to the front passenger seat fixes that problem.

A small correction is needed, yesterday I referred to Egyptian Ducks, they were in fact Egyptian Geese. I apologise to all Egyptian Geese for this error on my part, I know how much it hurts to be called duck when you’re really a goose.

The drive out of Nairobi is interesting, similar to poor south east Asian cities just different coloured faces.

Ken’s mother is from Lake Nakuru, his father died a while ago. Ken was raised there and he calls her every day.

The country is more open grassland than what we saw in South Africa, the seasons are different here compared to SA. Most rain around Nairobi is April & May and then November & December, all up about 800mm per year.

A short stop to get some Kenyan Shillings ($1AUD = 100 shillings) out if an ATM, then anothe short toilet break at a place where the Masai are selling tourist stuff. We then  turn off the highway (which goes to Mombassa) heading south towards the border with Tanzania and Mt Kiliminjaro to Amboseli National Park and our accomodation at Old Tukai Lodge. I’m talking to Ken, the others are sleeping. We enter the park and while Ken is sorting out our entrance about 4 Masai try hard to sell us some trinkets.

The Masai with their sticks, colourful garb and herds of cattle, sheep and goats abound in this area. They are striking looking people.

As we enter Amboseli we see birds, giraffe, zebra and heaps of elephants, and over behind a thick cloud sits Mt Kilamanjaro (at 5800 metres it stands out pretty well)

The lodge is staffed by locals, bright smiles, very helpful, tge place is rustic, but quite nice, the view is out to the plains with zebra’s, elephants, warthogs, gazelle, wilderbeast all grazing. An electric fence keeps them out, but not the monkeys and baboons. Locking doors and windows is mandatory, these little buggers can get into almost anything.

Lunch, a rest, then a game drive. We see masses of birds and animals, then word comes that a cheetah is near a road. We find it and a bit later it hunts a small beautiful Thompson’s Gazelle, we think it got it but it’s not clear. Then hippos, flamingos…..and it goes on.

Dinner is a feast, but it’s early to bed for a 6am rise and a game drive.

A great day

Ciao

Pauolo

The airport at Victoria Falls has less cars than Dubbo airport, but is a bigger structure. The air con is just working, but it probably is working better than Kenya Airways, check in is a bit of a cluster f… then boarding is the same, all the overheads near us are chockers with huge carryons they take our reasonablw legal back packs down the back, an issue when we land and I get abused by a few wankers when I go to pick them up – luckily they’re smaller than me and I’ve got my angry face on so they get really angry when a woman in a hijab follows me back to my seat thinking I’m cheating the order. Its a “milk run” flight, Cape Town to Victoria Falls, some get off some get on, then Vic Falls to Nairobi.

The centre arm rest breaks as I stand up to exit, The Navigator suggests I should report it, I think differently (angry face still on!). Shitbox seats with shit box service does not deserve me wasting time informing them of a faulty arm rest.

However, the good thing is Nairobi immigration and customs is quick and easy. Outside we find a sign ” Warwick Alaban” for our shuttle to the Four Points Sheraton – good old Warwick the Wormeater has us sorted again.

8am tomorrow we start our safari from Nairobo.

Ciao from Nairobi,

Pauolo

Another day, another country. But first, sunrise on the Zambesi River.

But first again, the BOMA fortune teller last night advised the Dancer to expect 5 grandchildren. Pressure will be on back in the Hunter Valley! The Navigator was told a few things she thought she already knew, thats a surprise!

Also, Warwick  (aka Cowboy) has a new alias, from henceforth he will be known as Wormeater, he says he’s had no backlash from eating the Mopani Worm last night, but he appears a little tired and fidgety at 5.30am – worm or other issues????

Its just turning light when we board our boat, as always the greetings are with a warm smile, the boat is very new, can seat about 12, we have 8 so we’re spread out. As we leave the sun is rising, the boat driver apologises for a few clouds, but, they make the sunrise more impressive. There are hippos in the river, lots of them snorting, grunting and diving, Egyptian Geese, kingfishers, and other birds I can’t remember (our fellow boat travellers were clearly switchers- they knew their birds). We saw a small croc, usually there are elephants swimming but not today. It was a great way to start the day. Breakfast on the boat was  adequate but basic.

Eggs and bacon back at the hotel fill us up, no lunch is needed.

Back to Elephant Walk shopping centre for a bit of final retail therapy, then pack and leave at 3pm for the airport. The ride to the airport is a reminder of how poor this country is, people sitting roadside hoping to get a job, donkey carts, little stalls selling vegetables and drinks, most people walking, it feels more desperate than Laos, but on checking there are 36 countries in Africa that are poorer in GDP per capita.

Thoughts on Victoria Falls

The Zambesi River and its wildlife occupants are beautiful, the falls are stunning, the people are welcoming and generous in nature.

Things to see; The Falls, Zambesi River – sunrise or sunset on the river, the bridge into Zambia (easy) looks really nice Zambia side but we ran out of time, BOMA cultural night, you really need at least 3-4 days here.

We board at 5.15pm, arrive in Nairobi 10.20pm.

Ciao from Zimbabwe

Pauolo