Dec 25, 2012 - Northern Kenya

Once we crossed the border into Kenya, we had a bumpy full day drive through semi desert countryside to Marsabit, with very few people seen and little traffic all day. Our accommodation for the night provided a bucket shower with water heated over an open fire. The Chinese are in the process of building a road to link Ethiopia to Kenya, with port access at Lamu. Next day we continued from Marsabit to Samburu Reserve where we camped right inside a village. There was a thorn bush perimeter to keep out wild animals with 25 families within the...

Jan 1, 2009 - Our first safari: "Like scuba diving on land"

January 1 Really nice breakfast buffet, and then we met Magic and Aden in the front of the hotel. After straightening out the bill (we were charged for internet that didn’t work, and minibar that we never consumed...) we headed out for yet another long drive, to Samburu Preserve. It was interesting comparing Kenya to Uganda. Kenya is much more “developed”, for most of the drive, the roads were really good, however, they did get worse the further from Nairobi we drove. The landscape also changed several times. Acacia trees went from yellow...

Oct 14, 2008 - Hugging a Giraffe in Nairobi

10/14/08 Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is just what you’d expect from an African city, a sprawling dusty sea of humanity. However, its hints of civilization give it some much-needed charm after several weeks on the road. For example, we found a wonderful coffee shop with, ahhh, lovely expresso drinks. However, such luxuries come at a high price (as Gavin says, “first world prices for third world service”) so we dropped quite a bit of money there. We spent a week there trying to get visas; we were successful getting our Ethiopian visas but...

Nov 5, 2007 - Officially on Safari

Following a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel we were divided into 3 vans to carry the 13 tourists, introduced to our drivers and on the road by 8:15am. Al and I joined a couple from Holland, Maika and Jonathan, as well as Sue from New York. We departed Nairobi for the Samburu National Reserve. On the way we stopped for a few groceries, washroom breaks and the bank. The landscape varied from beautiful green lush bushes and trees with mountains in the background to sparse dry desert with basic huts for the locals as we traveled farther...

Oct 12, 2006 - Archers Post - 'Wheres my whip?'

Drove from Marsibit to Archers Post where we previously stayed with the Crocs. We arrived early afternoon after another blow out and now only two front brakes. Needed to top up the water as our one jerry can that we had, nearly put marsibit into a serious drought over that one, we felt was not enough. Ed, Sarah B (who is much better and back to her old self), Wilson and I went to the gate of the park where a tap is located. It had the pressure behind it of a tap that had no pressure so filled a couple and went to the water works up the...

Sep 14, 2006 - Samburu Game Reserve - 'Dads Birthday'

Happy Birthday Dad. Time to go see some animals. Drove for about 4hrs to Samburu Game Reserve. The road was pretty shocking but we made it with all tyres intact and three of the four brakes. On the way into the park wilson was driving and sadly killed a goat. The tribal men who owned him were quite happy as they got the equivelant of 20 quid for it. Sure I saw them chase it into our path. We had a little bit of a game drive on the way in and spotted a lioness with cubs, not bad for a first. Set up our tents at a free camp spot by the river....

Apr 28, 2006 - Sweetwaters & Samburu

So, we heard that Samburu National Park was the place to see leopards. We hadn't seen any in Kenya (we did see one in South Africa). So we decided on a trip. Rumors said it was a 6 hour drive, so it was definitely not an overnight trip. We planned to stay two nights in Samburu. Then I heard that since Sweetwaters is not a national park (it's a private game reserve)they have night game drives, which would be awesome. And it's on the way to Samburu, so we combined the two trips into one. Headed up on Friday after work. We arrived at...