Month: August 2011

Africa

On to Zanzibar

The name, Zanzibar, reeks of mystique and magic. It is one of those African names like Tashkent or Morocco that have a similar sound to their name. We are now here in a waterfront motel in Stone Town We returned to Nairobi from our last lodge at Kichwa Tembo, arriving for a late lunch. A […]

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Africa

Our Last Game Drive

We finished our time in Africa on Friday with a final game drive and it was a good way to finish this Safari part of our trip. We left in the late afternoon and travelled the plains and close to the Mara River. It was a warm day and quite dusty. On our morning game […]

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Africa

Kichwa Tembo Camp

We moved here last Wednesday – a little way west across the Maasi Mara – and from where we could see a little more of this vast area from a different perspective. This tented camp is very nice. It is situated in a grove of trees at the side of the plain and the swimming […]

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Africa

Maasai Mara

We are now at Fig Tree Camp, which is situated on the Mara River in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in south-western Kenya. This huge expanse of open plains is actually the northern continuation of the Serengeti National Park game reserve in Tanzania. It is named after the Maasai people (the traditional inhabitants of the […]

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Africa

Mirrored Zebras

Dual Zebras in a nature reserve

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Africa

Nakuru National Park.

We have just spent the last two nights at Nakuru Lodge where there is an enormous amount of bird life and all of the recognized animals except for elephant. The national park is relatively small, only about 180 square kilometers, of which about 25 square kms are taken up by the lake. Nakuru means “Dust […]

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Africa

Lion Success

It’s rather hard to type when sitting in the rear seat of a Landcruiser as we travel to our second destination at Lake Nakuru. We didn’t have any Internet connection at Samburu but now that we are back on main road I can get a connection through the sim card In bought in Nairobi. Our […]

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Africa

Game Drives

Each morning, we leave Samburu Lodge for a game drive. Our party splits between two four wheel drive vehicles that are driven by Charles and Joseph. They both have an outstanding knowledge of animals and birds, and there is not one bird, or animal for which they have not known the name. Yesterday afternoon, we […]

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Africa

Samburu Scenery

The area around Samburu is semi-arid it has a wet season, but just now we are at the end of the dry season. It is rather dusty except the lodge is a little oasis. It is surrounded by a high fence to keep the animals out, but there are dozens of monkeys around the buildings. […]

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Africa

Samburu Game Lodge

We are enjoying the comfort of the Samburu Game Lodge, 320 kilometers north of Nairobi. This is situated on the Ewaso Ng’iro  River and is an expansive area of unfenced national parkland. Leaving Nairobi at 7:00 am yesterday morning we first travelled north on the major road to the town of Thika. It was slow […]

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Africa

Nairobi

Here I am in Nairobi, one degree south of the equator. The elevation here is a little over 1600 metres so it is warm, rather than hot. I flew up today on a very full flight from Joburg, arriving a few minutes earlier than scheduled time of 2:40 pm. I had time at the airport, […]

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Africa

Travelling Hassles

Sometimes traveling does not go as smoothly as one would hope. I was enjoying a nice ‘create your own’ stir-fry for dinner last night at Chobe Game Lodge, and thinking through my travel plans for the four hour trip back to Victoria Falls and then my flight down to Johannesburg. One of the activities staff […]

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