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| The name Kenya comes from
the word Kere Nyaga, which means “mountain of light” (the throne of
earth, God of the Kikuyu). Little is known of the history of the area,
which now belongs to Kenya. The first settlers were hunters, like the
bush man, which still lives in South Africa. If you are interested in
the full history of Kenya you might want to check out the link below.
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The temperature is hot during the day in
the high season and can be cold during the night. There are 2 rain seasons during the year from March until the end of May and November trough out December. Make sure you go visit your doctor before you go to this country, you will need some vaccinations and malaria pills. You need to start taking these pills at least 2 weeks before you go. You better not drink the water from the tap, use bottled water. And don' t go swimming in lakes or rivers you might get sick. The people in Kenya are very friendly. They speak swahili, here are a few words: Jambo welcome/hello/good morning/good afternoon/good evening Kwaheri good bye Ahsante thank you Ndio yes Hapana no The currency of Kenya is the shilling. |
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| In the cities you can choose which hotel to stay in but on safari you are limited to what the tour operators offer. But not to worry because the hotels in the parks are excellent. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are usually included in the price. | |||
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Nairobi is
the capitol city. The name Nairobi means place of the cool waters. After spending 8 hours in an airplane we finally arrived in Nairobi. |
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We checked in at the New Stanley
Hotel. This hotel is famous for its restaurant The Thorn Tree. This was
the place where hunters came to read the messages left for them on the
tree. We took a tour through the city and visited the market, (Nairobi is famous for its market. You can buy fruit there and souvenirs), the National Museum and we went to the Nairobi snake park. At the end of our tour we drove up a mountain and had this beautiful view of Nairobi. |
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Other nice places to visit are the Kenyatta
conference center, where they have a restaurant on the top floor which rotates, so you will have a nice view over the city, and the Jamia mosque. |
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Nairobi --> Narok
--> Masai Mara. After breakfast we got into the safari bus and left for our trip to Masai Mara. On the way we saw a lot of Masai who don't want their picture taken. Which is there right and forbidden by law! |
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After driven 150 kilometers we arrived
in Narok. We stopped here to stretch our legs and got something to drink.
Our next stop would be Masai Mara. When we arrived at the gate of the park
we still had to drive 1 hour and 30 minutes before we got to our hotel.
We where at the hotel just in time for lunch. When we saw all that food
we wondered what dinner would look like. We went on our first safari in
the park. The roof of the bus went of, a ranger got into the bus and off
we went! We saw all kinds of animals. It's real impressive to see these animals in there own environment. |
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Masai Mara. Today we had an early start, we got up at 5.30 am. We watched the sun come up from the lodge, a real beautiful sight. The first stop was at a drinking place. In the morning all the animals gather at this water hole. After driving around in the park for an hour, we went back to the hotel to have breakfast. At 10, our second safari started. This time we went to the River Mara and watched crocodiles and hippo's. The ranger got out of the bus and when he got back he told us it was okay to come out and take a walk around. This was real exciting. We took a walk down the river and saw the animals real close. The ranger told us that it wasn't always possible to get out, usually there are a lot of buffalo's around. |
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We drove back to the hotel
for lunch and again the food was great and the service even better. The
hotel had a great pool overlooking the park. While you where swimming you
saw the elephants walking by. At 4 p.m. our last safari in Masai Mara started. This time we went looking for the cheetah. These animals are very shy, so most of the time you don't see them. We saw a lot of other animals but no cheetah. Too bad. |
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We went back to the hotel and
had dinner. After dinner we sat on the porch by the fireplace. It can get real cold in the evenings. |
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Masai Mara --> Lake Naivasha. We left the Mara Serena Lodge at 8 a.m. back to Narok. On the road to Narok we saw a lot of vultures. We visited a Masai village. Our guide had to go talk to the tribal chief first, to ask if it was okay to visit and if it was okay to photograph the people. After paying 100 shilling a person we where welcomed into there village. |
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I must say it was worth every shilling!
Those people are so beautiful. But when you walk through there village
at least you know why you took all those painful shots at your doctors.
After 15 minutes in the village we left because a lot of bugs began stinging us. In Narok the bus was fueled
up. There where a lot of people there.
One of them was David Birney an American actor. I walked up to him at we
talked for a while. He was very nice. We left Narok and went to Naivasha.
We arrived at the Lake Naivasha hotel at 1 p.m. After lunch we went for
a walk to the lake. The lake is very beautiful. We saw some pelicans and
an eagle. |
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Dinner again was great. We
are now starting to worry about our weight! The hotel is great. We have
our own little house in a big garden with a little porch. Above the bed
is a mosquito net! |
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Lake Naivasha --> Lake Bogoria
--> Lake Baringo. This morning we started early and went to the lake one more time. Because it was so early the birds where very close to shore and we could take beautiful pictures of them. |
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We went back at 7 a.m. to have breakfast. English breakfast this time. At 8 a.m. the bus left to go to
Island camp. Our first stop of the day was in Nakuru, the third biggest
city of Kenya. We walked through the city and bought our first souvenir,
a carved Masai warrior. We named it Jonathan after our guide. When we arrived
at Lake Bogoria we saw thousands or more flamingo's. The closer we got
to them, the further away they went. |
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In Bogoria we visited the hot
water springs. |
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We drove on to Lake Baringo
where our camp was for the night. We got into a small canoe and after 20
minutes we arrived at the camp. The owner told us that there was a pool
on the hill. We were happy about that, because it was really very hot.
We first went to our tent. In our tent lived several centipedes. |
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Bats were hanging from the
ceiling and frogs were jumping in and out the shower. Well that's what you can call "one with nature". |
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In the afternoon we took a
boot trip. We saw a lot of hippo's who where trying to run from the boot. They went real fast making a lot of waves. |
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When we got back to the camp
we went for a swim. When we got to the pool we saw that the pool was occupied
by frogs. No swimming for us. |
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Lake Baringo --> Samburu Park. The boat left at 7.30 a.m. Our guide Jonathan was waiting for us. He told us that he had problems getting gas and would drop us of at a snake farm while he would try to get some more gas. We went in looked around. All kind of snakes were kept there like green mamba's and black cobra's. I don't like snakes, so I was happy when our guide returned and we could leave. We went on our way to Samburu, this was a 300 kilometers drive. There was a lot to see on the way. There was no road so we drove through the sand and mud. Dust was coming in through the windows. We came to a mud pool and our guide decided to give a lot of gas and drive right through it. Well think again! Stuck in the mud. We all had to push to get out of there. After 30 minutes the car was free and on the road again. |
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At 2 p.m. we arrived at Samburu
Park. The first thing we saw were the Grevy Zebra's. |
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We lunched in The Buffalo Spring Lodge. Also our home for the
night. This again is a tent camp. At 4 we
had a tour through this beautiful park. We went to the Buffalo spring.
This is a spring with the clearest water you have ever seen. This spring
was caused by a bomb during World War II. Again we could get out of the
car and walk around. After a while the ranger called us back, we hadn't
seen the elephants approaching us. We went back to the camp and had dinner.
After dinner we sat at the bar, talking to our guide. He told us all about
the people in Kenya. When we walked to our tent I noticed that my legs
were itching like crazy. |
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Samburu --> Mountain Lodge. We left Samburu Park at 8 a.m. starting our last part of this great safari. We drove to Nanyki where we crossed the equator. If you wonder if you feel anything strange here, no you don't. Just a sign telling you that this is the place where you cross the equator. They had a stand here where you could buy souvenirs. The weather wasn't that good, it was raining and it was a little cold. We drove to The Outspan Hotel for lunch. This is a typical English Mansion rebuild into a hotel. After lunch they had dances performed by Kenyan dancers. |
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Well... were this real Kenyan
dancers or were these the guy's just serving me lunch? Whatever, it was fun, we had a great time. We left the hotel and went to the Mountain Lodge
our place for the night. We arrived there at 4.30 p.m. It's a great place,
you are real close to the animals. It's all made of wood and looks real old. |
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We had dinner there and while
we were eating, a waiter screamed: "Rhino Rhino!". Everybody got up from
there chairs and rushed outside to see this. We hadn't seen Rhino's on
our safari so we rushed out as well. It was so beautiful. They were so close. |
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After they left, we went to
our room and sat in front of the window looking at all those animals walking by. It was real cold here, the hotel provided hot water bottles to keep you warm. |
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Mountain Lodge --> Nairobi. We left the Mountain Lodge at 8.30 a.m. and drove through the homeland of the Kikuyu. We visit a coffee plantation and a waterfall. |
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We were back in Nairobi at
1 p.m. and said good bye to our guide and took the plane to Mombasa. Our
safari was over. We had a great time. Our plane was a Fokker Friendship
which flew very low, so we could see a lot of the country. The flight took
1 hour and 30 minutes. When we checked in at our hotel they told us they
where overbooked and we had to go to another hotel. They had already booked
it for us and the bus would take us there. Of course they were very sorry,
yeah yeah. The hotel was The Ocean view Hotel which was a great hotel,
very big, a lot of people. |
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Mombasa. The next morning I woke up at 6 a.m. my legs were itching again and they were full of lumps. In the hotel was a doctor so I went there. The doctor was a very nice guy he told me I had mosquito and flee bites. He gave me a shot and some pills and salve. We also did a bite count, a total of 109 bites. He charged me 300 shilling for the consult and out the door I went. We left the hotel at 10 and went to the hotel we had booked in the first place, The Serena beach hotel. This is a very friendly hotel. |
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More like a town with small houses. We got a house on the first
floor. Very nice and cosy. The first
thing we did was go for a swim. They had a very nice big pool overlooking
the ocean. A great place to spend your beach vacation. |
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Mombasa is located on the Indian
ocean so it's an ideal place to rest, swim, dive and enjoy the sun. |
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We went on a trip to the city
and visited a carpenter village and a lot of shops. We saw The Jain temple
and Fort Jesus and the old harbor. Mombasa is the second city of Kenya,
it's located on an island connected to the main land by two bridges. Coming in or out of town you will see the double arc across Moi Avenue formed by four huge sheet metal tusks, which symbolize the source of Mombasa' s fortune and misfortunes. |
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The Jain Temple is a fine symbol
of the prosperous Indian community. Fort Jesus, located on the
edge of a coral ridge overlooking the entrance to the Old Port of Mombasa,
was build by the Portuguese in 1593 to protect their trade route. |
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The last days of our vacation we spend
in and around the hotel. We went on a trip with a glass bottom boot and
saw all kinds of fish. We were very sorry that this vacation was over. We had a great time and one day we will go back!! |
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