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Overlanding Through Africa

May - September 2023
This is the big one - the trip we have been planning since before the pandemic! We will be overlanding from South Africa 🇿🇦 to Kenya 🇰🇪 passing through 9 other countries and taking four months. Read more
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  • 397footprints
  • 12countries
  • 125days
  • 5.3kphotos
  • 172videos
  • 21.9kmiles
  • 11.2kmiles
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  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 124

    Homeward bound!

    September 7, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After spending our final couple of days in Africa in and around the hotel, we left for the airport at 9pm last night. The first leg of our journey, a flight ✈️ from Nairobi to Jeddah, wasn't due to leave until 2.10 this morning, but we like to be early! It's a good job we do!

    The first Uber I booked didn't show up, so I had to book another one. Luckily, Herman proved to be more reliable. The traffic was terrible, however. A big international conference had just finished, and it seemed like the world and his wife were heading to the airport 🛫! Herman eventually found a car parking space in the drop-off area. We then had to queue for quite a while to get into the terminal building!

    After that, the journey pretty much went to plan. We flew from Nairobi to Jeddah, had a couple of hours layover, and then flew on to Gatwick. We landed at around 1.30pm and had to wait over an hour for our bags!

    We were heading to Guildford to stay with family over the weekend. We were very happy to get there after being awake for almost 36 hours! The warm welcome we received partly made up for the sadness we feel now thar our epic journey has come to an end!

    On Monday, we head home to find work to pay for our next big overlanding adventure - the Americas 2024!

    For now, after 11 countries, 6 capital cities, 24 national parks, and 1 natural wonder of the world, we say thank you, Africa 🌍 - you've been amazing!!    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 121

    More photos of Karen Blixen's place

    September 4, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    After visiting the house, we explored the grounds, including the machinery Karen used in her coffee factory. A pair of hyrax have made it their home. These two are probably the last wildlife we will see on this trip!

    Benson had waited for us, so when we’d spent a couple of hours at the museum, he drove us back to Nairobi and dropped us off at a restaurant near our hotel so that we could get a late lunch/early dinner.

    We spent the rest of the day posting and photo editing.    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 121

    The Karen Blixen Museum

    September 4, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    When we left the centre, Benson, our Uber driver, was still outside, so he took us to our next stop, the Karen Blixen Museum. We rewatched Out of Africa, the movie based on Karen’s book starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, just before this trip, so we were excited to see the actual farm she lived on. It was a really interesting visit. We were shown around by Annabel, an intern who has only been at the museum for three weeks. She certainly knew her stuff!

    Obviously, the farm and estate are considerably smaller than when Karen lived there, and there are neighbouring properties and tarmacked roads that wouldn’t have been there in her day, but the house itself and the garden remain unchanged. I loved the house! We could really get a sense of Karen and her life there.

    Benson had waited for us, so when we’d spent a couple of hours at the museum, he drove us back to Nairobi and dropped us off at a restaurant near our hotel so that we could get a late lunch/early dinner.

    We spent the rest of the day posting and photo editing.    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 121

    A visit to the giraffe centre

    September 4, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We were intending to go to the Masai Market yesterday. It is only open on Saturdays and Sundays. However, when we put our code into the safe to retrieve our wallets, we got an error message. We reported the problem and asked that it be dealt with as a priority as we wanted to go out. To cut a long story short, nobody in the hotel had an override key, so it took until 3.30pm to get the safe open! By that time, we’d resigned ourselves to the fact that we’d missed the market and settled down to watch the Grand Prix instead!

    When we went down to the restaurant for dinner, I asked about a late stay for Wednesday and suggested that I shouldn’t have to pay for it under the circumstances. The manager agreed that we could have our room until 2pm at no charge.

    After breakfast today, we called an Uber to take us to the Giraffe Centre. It was a 35-minute journey and cost less than £5!!

    The Giraffe Centre is an environmental conservation centre set up to protect Rothschild giraffes. It is run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W.), a Kenyan non-profit organisation. Its main purpose is to educate Kenyan school children on their country’s wildlife and environment, as well as give local and international visitors an opportunity to come into close contact with the world’s tallest species, the giraffe.

    A.F.E.W. Kenya was founded in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie-Melville, a Kenyan citizen of British descent, and his American-born wife, Betty Leslie-Melville. They began the centre after discovering the sad plight of the Rothschild giraffe, a subspecies only found in the grasslands of East Africa.

    At the time, the animals had lost their habitat in Western Kenya, with only 130 of them left on the 18,000-acre Soy Ranch that was being sub-divided to resettle squatters. Their first effort to save the subspecies was to bring two young giraffes, Daisy and Marlon, to their home in the Lang’ata suburb of Nairobi. Here, they raised the calves and started a programme of breeding giraffe in captivity. This is where the centre remains to date.

    Betty and Jock registered A.F.E.W. in the US. Funds were raised to move five other groups of giraffe to different safe areas. In 1983, funds raised helped build an educational centre and a 60-acre sanctuary. The Giraffe Centre opened its doors to the general public and students the same year. There are now over 300 Rothschild Giraffe safe and breeding well in various Kenyan national parks.

    It was a lovely place to visit. We were given pellets on arrival to feed the giraffes with. Mark appeared to be in his element while I took photos! 😂    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 119

    Return to Nairobi

    September 2, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    After a reasonable night’s sleep, breakfast this morning was toast, juice, sausages, eggs, and coffee. It was all OK and set us up for our return drive to Nairobi.

    It was a lovely sunny morning. We stopped for fuel and then again for Omondi to check out some plants for his home. They turned out to be too expensive. We stopped again, ostensibly for toilets, but we took advantage of the lovely food shops there to buy drinks and something for lunch later. We kept Omondi waiting for once!

    We retraced our route to Nairobi. It got cloudier as we approached the city. We saw a small march for action against climate change.

    We were happy to be back at the Best Western Hotel. We said a quick goodbye to Omondi. We tipped him, not because he had done a good job, but because we were concerned that we might need to contact him if our refund doesn’t come through!

    We spent the rest of the day sorting out laundry, doing posts, and editing photos. Mark watched the Spurs game live and was happy that they beat Burnley 5 – 2!! Later, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant.    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 118

    A visit to Lake Nakuru

    September 1, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We then visited the lake where we saw:

    • Thousands of flamingos
    • Hundreds of pelicans
    • Herons
    • Egyptian geese
    • Cormorants

    From the lake, we exited the park. On our way out, we saw the mum and baby white rhino from earlier drinking. Omondi wasn’t prepared for us to stop to photograph them. He was in a rush to leave! We actually went through the gate at 3.50pm – hardly the full-day game drive we were promised!

    We drove straight to the hotel, arriving just before 5. We checked in and went to our room to do some posts before dinner. Staff had to go out to get beers for Mark, as there were none in the hotel! When they brought them back, they were warm. TIA!!

    Dinner was underwhelming. It was the ubiquitous ‘tough as old boots’ beef stew with potatoes and spinach, and watermelon slices for dessert. The potatoes were sauteed with onions and were delicious. They were the only good thing about the meal, but there weren’t enough of them to go round!

    Omondi joined us after we’d eaten to tell us that breakfast is at 8 tomorrow. We’ll leave at 8.30am, and I should get my US$105 (US$125 minus charges!) refund on Monday or Tuesday. We will see!!    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 118

    A lunch stop without lunch!

    September 1, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We drove past the park’s airstrip where a private aircraft had just landed. Wealthy tourists spend a lot of money to see the wildlife this way.

    We stopped for a 30-minute lunch stop at a waterfall. The catch was that Omondi hadn’t arranged a packed lunch for us or told us that we would need to bring our own! Luckily, we had some fruit and snacks with us. We walked to the waterfall and had a chat to a busload of schoolchildren who were visiting.

    After our break, we continued with our game drive. We saw lots of giraffes, zebras, impalas, a pair of waterbuck, and baboons with their babies, all in the same place. Omondi was surprised that we wanted to stop and take photos. I think he thought we wouldn’t want to as we had seen them all before. We tried to explain that it was a different experience, and therefore a different photo, to see them all together. Throughout the drive, we missed some good shots because Omondi didn’t stop at all, or didn’t stop completely, or didn’t stop for long enough! It was really frustrating! It’s not a problem we’ve had with any other guide in any other park.    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 118

    Animal sightings in Nakaru National Park

    September 1, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Omondi had opted not to have a guide in the park and was using an app on his phone to find out where the animals were. He was also eating crisps as soon as we entered the park! He didn’t seem that keen to be there and had little knowledge about the wildlife. He soon realised that, after being to 23 other parks in southern Africa, we knew more than he did!

    Having said all this, we did see animals. We saw:

    • Warthogs
    • Antelopes
    • Waterbucks
    • A herd of impala
    • A white rhino mum and her two-year old baby who was suckling. There were oxpeckers on their backs.
    • Zebras
    • Black rhino – these were so far away that we had to take Omondi’s word that they were black rhino! Later, we stopped where several other vehicles were, and Omondi told us that lions had just killed a black rhino. Through the binoculars, we could see a carcass, but it looked more like a wildebeest than a black rhino. Also, it didn’t look like a recent kill!
    • Buffalos
    • A hyena pup sheltering from the sun under a tree
    • Tree climbing lions – this was a new species for us. We didn’t get a great view as they were sleeping under a tree quite a distance from our vehicle. We could, however, make out the markings on their backs, which distinguish them from ground lions, and make them look more like leopards.
    • Baboons    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 118

    Lake Nakaru National Park

    September 1, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ 🌩️ 23 °C

    We weren’t leaving so early this morning, so I spent the hour before breakfast editing photos. We both take so many every day that sorting them out is a full-time job! Breakfast was at 8am – sausages, eggs, fruit, coffee, juice, and toast. Omondi picked this time to tell us we would have to pay again for today’s visit to Nakaru National Park and then wait for a refund later for the money we had already paid to go to Amboseli! We hadn’t changed the itinerary! It was his suggestion!! We were not best pleased, but at this late hour, had little choice but to comply. So, I paid another US$125, and we set off.

    Omondi had told us it would only take an hour to reach the park and that we would have a whole-day game drive. Neither of these things proved to be true! We drove through Naivasha town and then stopped at an out-of-town shopping mall for Omondi to buy snacks for himself. His five minutes turned into 20!!

    We drove past Delamere Park and Farm, which Omondi told us belongs to HM Queen Elizabeth II, and that trespassers are shot dead on sight! He also said that planes take off twice a day to deliver fresh meat, dairy products, and vegetables to Her Majesty (or King Charles, as it would be now!). This all sounded very implausible! When I fact checked later, there was no mention of any royal connection with the farm! The British-born owner, 89-year-old Hugh George Cholmondeley, 5th Baron Delamere, is a British peer who was educated at Eton and Cambridge, but that is as far as it goes! I think Omondi’s idea of guiding is to take any grain of truth he has and then make the rest up!!

    Our next landmark was Lake Elementaita. Local legend has it that God dug it out in one day using a spade. He used the earth he removed to create a nearby mountain!

    We stopped for fuel in the town of Nakaru, where it seemed like every other building is a church! We then entered Lake Nakaru National Park through Nderit Gate. There were problems with Omondi’s paperwork, so we were delayed further. He told us that all the drivers were complaining about the entry system. We saw no evidence of this. Every other vehicle seemed to get through without issue!

    We eventually got into the park at around 11.40am. It was a very different landscape from other parks we have visited. There were huge swathes of forest. It was difficult to spot wildlife through such dense bush. There were millions of butterflies, though! There are tree-climbing lions in the park, as well as ground ones. This means that leopard numbers are low as they have to compete with the stronger lions.    Read more

  • Overlanding Through Africa
    Day 117

    Adorable giraffes!

    August 31, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Joseph explained that hefty fines and long prison sentences have reduced poaching in the park to almost zero.
    We spent a really interesting hour and a half with Joseph. He walked us back to the boat where we tipped him and rejoined Rastaman for the much quicker return trip to the mainland.

    We got there at 4.15pm. Omondi was nowhere to be seen! I messaged him but got no reply. We had no choice but to sit and wait. He turned up at 5pm to take us back to our hotel. There, we spent the time before dinner editing photos.

    Dinner was at 7pm. It was OK, but not as nice as lunch. We had French bean soup followed by beef stew, which was as tough as old boots, served with mashed potato. Dessert was the usual fresh fruit.

    We were in bed by 9.30pm.    Read more

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