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4 kids world tour year

August 2022 - July 2023
With mum and dad, we visit 36 countries on a world tour in 365 days. We visit schools, homes, and hospitals to experience the lives of other children Read more
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  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 8

    Masai Marra Safari Pure

    August 12, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    From 0630 to 6 p.m., we journeyed through Masai Marra, probably the best reserve in the world bar none. Famous for the wildebeest crossing the Mara River in millions and being attacked by crocodiles . We saw not millions but maybe 10k wildebeest, and the cross waiting. The day started with lots of Zebra, then lions who killed and ate a wildebeest. Then, the animals never stopped, elephants, hippos, giraffes, leopards,warthog, vultures, and a solitary secretary bird ( long-legged vulture). Amazing place. We also had breakfast and lunch in the reserve. Super! 👌Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 10

    Rest and Road to Nakuru

    August 14, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    The 2nd day in Masi Mara was dedicated to rest and home schooling. Part of the education was to take the children to the village of Talek, where they could see the typical houses and shops of the locals. A typical house is made of stone shaped like breeze blocks with a corrugated roof. It has two bedrooms no matter the size if the family and roughly 6 to 8m2 per room. No toilet, no running water. Thankfully, water in Talek is available in the town. Later, a driver told us he walked 15km per day to collect water after school, and then he had to milk the cows. Although our children see the grinding poverty, they have not yet significantly reduced their endless demands.

    Two other observations about Talek. It's maybe two or three thousand people who are farmers, hotel workers, guides, and park rangers. Park entrance costs $300-$600 per day with car and driver who is also a guide. Bush camp costs $150 to the sky is the limit. It is clear that practically none of the $millions generated by tourism goes to the people of Talek. You might think those with money would act in their own self interest, by ensuring there are good roads, but the last 30km to Talek has a road that despite being a national highway is unimaginably dreadful and dangerous . In many places you must drive alongside the road because it's just too fucked up. If you ever go to Talek, don't even think for a second of driving yourself.

    We took a car that in Europe would fit max 4 people to Nakuru. Why? It cost $140 for a 3.5 hour journey. A small bus would have cost $300.

    On the road I gave my first history lesson on the subject of colonialism. Kids were hugely interested. Later in our house I wrote a test, and they all got almost everything correct 😉. A subtle part of our home schooling is that all kids use surface laptops, that are a PC, tablet combi with touchscreen and pen. They are already far ahead of Kids at school, who of course still mostly use pencil and paper.

    In Nakuru we had a self catering place for $80 per night. The hotel that ran the place wanted $20 per person for breakfast, so we declined and bought bread cornflakes and yogurt at the supermarket. We also bought for a picnic next day, in place of going to Nakuru lodge in the park at a cost of $$$.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 11

    Lake Nakuru National Park

    August 15, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    On a previous trip to Kenya, this park was impressive due to the lake having literally millions of flamingos. Unfortunately, a change in climate and water flows have raised the level of the lake and reduced its salt levels. (It is an inland salt lake). These changes have led to a huge reduction in the food available for flamingos, and now there are only a few thousand left. It's still impressive but not magical. The changes have also killed many trees that were formerly on the waters edge because they are now in water and the soil had been washed away.

    That's the end of the sad part. The park remains a very interesting visit. It has 60 white rhinoceros. It also might have the largest number of Rothschild's giraffes. For my taste, they are somehow more elegant than their cousins, the Masai giraffe. It also has a fascinating selection of birds, monkeys, and other animals. The kids loved every minute, and after I got over my initial disappointment, I did too.

    The day ended with our first self-catering, pasta, and sauce out of a jar 😋🙃.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 12

    Road to Amboseli

    August 16, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After talking to a local taxi driver, we decided to travel from Nakuru to Nairobi in a Matatu. Matatu's are the main mode of transport in Kenya. They are all (as far as I observed) Toyota Hiace mini buses with 9 passenger seats. You find them at various places. They travel a defined route, and they go when they are full. For a tourist, the questions are: Where do I find the right one? Maybe the bus station, maybe not. Where do I get a ticket? ( Cost is not a serious question as the rides are far cheaper than anything else. Our cost for 6 Nakuru to Nairobi is $28. Tourist taxis quoted $150-$300 !). The questions were answered by the taxi driver who took us from our self-catering. The Nairobi bus does not leave from the bus station , but it is close by. Tickets at the ticket office, of course 😀.

    We have the back 6 seats. We wait 20 mins till the bus fills up with a young woman, a middle-aged woman, and a cool dude. A blast of music from the speakers tells us we are off . To our surprise, at least on this main route, the bus was in good shape, comfortable, and pleasant. Highly recommended, not joking!

    For the 2nd part, we had hired a "Noah", that us an 8 seater Toyota that I have not seen in Europe, but us ideal for 6 of us and 6 bags. This taxi was needed because Matatus didn't go near Amboseli Park or Madi Mari for that matter.

    En route, I gave the children a lesson to follow up on colonialism with the path to decolonisation. They loved it. Nora even said best history lesson ever. It's much better than school.

    After that they wanted more, so I gave them "10 types of corruption ". They were again super interested and demanded I define more types. In the days that followed, they were on the lookout for corruption, and it did not take long for them to find it.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 12

    Walking in the Bush b4 sunset

    August 16, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We stayed like most people outside Amboseli in Masai Simba Camp, which is the standard here. It's a rather charming bush camp run by local people. Well run by them! After you arrive in the early evening, a guide takes you for a walk in the bush. He shows various footprints and poo. That helped identify animals and when they were there ( poo freshness) . Giraffes 🦒 feet are distinctive, as is their poo, which is about the size, shape, and colour of maltesers.

    We saw using our tracking many Giraffes and many different types of birds, such as hornbill and weaver birds . There were loads of porcupine tracks and lost needles. The children were determined to collect every single one that we saw. We also saw a porcupine den, which is huge, maybe 5m across. The burrows are large enough for big dogs, and two days later, we saw one abafonded by porcupine, which is now home for spotted hyenas. We did not see porcupine itself as they only emerged at night.

    We ended the walk with a beautiful sunset, with the horizon broken by elegant Giraffes 🦒.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 13

    Amboseli National Park

    August 17, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    This is our 3rd Safari in Kenya, each one very different, even if some of the animals are the same. Masai Mara is long dry grass, acacia trees, and the Mara River. Lake Nakuru is obviously a lake, but also the surroundings are green and jungle. Amboseli is mostly semi dessert with a large wet area in the middle. Early morning and late afternoon when air is clear, it has the backdrop of kilimanjaro.

    The "fun" begins 25km before we even get to the park gate. The road is mega super awful. If you stay on it, you probably have to go at 10-15 kmh. Of course Tom our driver does not stay on the road. He drives in the V-shaped drainage at the side. There is no covering, just packed sand/earth. Tom drives this at 40-60 kmh. It's absolutely terrifying. Every 300m, he gets around obstacles by banking the car to the max left, then right. It seems to me he needs the forward momentum to stop the car landing on its side( see films in this post, which do not show the full horror).

    Then we reach the park, with roads a bit better, = so bad no one in Europe would use them. At first, the park is a bit underwhelming. We do see lots of elephants and various birds. However, as time goes on, the number of animals we see dramatically increases, till at lunchtime, there are animals everywhere. It's because they all go to drink in the time window 11am to 2pm. Normally, in parks, animals drink 1st thing in the morning, but here they know it can flood, so they stay away from the water and walk to it together to have safety in numbers.

    Enjoy the photos.

    Of course, the trip ended with a 2nd hair raising ride. It seemed Tom went even faster, maybe because he wanted to get home. I put on Google maps to nervously watch how much more of this hell was to come . I survived in one piece, which seems to be my 2022 theme    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 14

    Masai Simba to Tanzania

    August 18, 2022 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    In the morning, we went for an early morning walk to see the Giraffes and birds, and we visited a small Masai village. Flo has written about that, so I will skip it here except for the most memorable moment. In the tiny house that sleeps 6 in about 4m2, the children asked, "Where do you store your clothes?" The answer is that we wear the only clothes we have!
    Breakfast, then a drive to the Tanzanian border with Tom. Today, his driving on fairly normal tarmac roads is chilled, but this is Africa 😀, so after 10 minutes, Tom pulls off the road and says we need to stop to have the exhaust repaired . The service garage us truly basic, but they have welding equipment, and after 45 minutes, we are back on the road. Then we drive uneventful with views of Kilimanjaro to the border.

    The border would make the most bürokratic civil servant proud. That mixed with good old attempts to pocket money means crossing took nearly two hours, despite the fact that there was never any queue .

    To cut a long story short, it was a bit like this. Start at passport control Kenya side, but one step back to get health clearance. Health clearance, covid certificates, and yellow fever. We politely ask why yellow fever, since we are leaving Kenya. Well, they have it in Tanzania, and most people who cross come back. Ok, it makes some sense. Luckily, we all have our WHO yellow fever certification. I ask what happens if we don't have it. He says we can vaccinate here. Next back to passport control of Kenya. We have to sit one by one whilst visas are examined, photos, taken, etc. We are done with the Kenya side in 40 minutes. Then we are smart. we go do Tanzanian health check 1st. It's a repeat of the Kenya show. On to passport control. Sorry, we need your e-visa printed, and we can't do it here. You need to go to the cyber shop on the Kenya side. Flo and the kids wait, whilst I walk 200m back to Kenya . 15 minutes to print two pages. I walk back across the border setting off the metal detector, but nobody gives a shit. (Multiple previous checks never detected my army knife). Back to Tanzanian passport control. They then ask for the children's visas. I explain they are in mine. Turns out they aren't. This was true. Then the fun starts. Where will you exit Tanzania? This felt like a round about way of saying if you exit here we might be able to let the kids in for some chai (they don't ask for money, they ask for tea,usingvthe word chai). Well, we would leave at a different post, so that possibility wouldn't work. So we paid $200 for 4 visas. Tanzania wins the prize as the most expensive place for a family just to enter. Fun part 2: Flo asks for a receipt. The officials claim they gave us one. Flo shows she has none. They then bizarrely claim that a reciept takes a long time and has to be approved by telephone. Well, we just wait till they finally issue a receipt. It is important in case the visa is somehow wrong/ false/ double, and we get problems leaving.

    We say goodbye to Tom, who has been invaluable in helping us navigate the burocracy and potential traps, even if he did take life-threatening risks in Amboseli.

    Welcome to Tanzania 😉

    We now have a Tanzanian driver. What is noticeable with him and most others is that they speak very little or no English. Tanzanian is near the very bottom of most development tables, e.g., Human Development Index, its 163 out of 189 countries. Oddly, houses and infrastructure seem in our non representative sample far better than in Kenya, but educational levels and skills seem by comparison to be very poor. ( I base these comments on observations not impacted by language skills)

    After 2.5 hours, we reach Moshi. Sorry, sir, wrong hotel 🏨. You are in the other one we have with the same name. I see Flo really nervous for the 1st time, but luckily, the story is true, and the other one has a better location, even if it looks less charming.

    Anyway, for $45 per night for 6 people, including a decent breakfast , who are we to complain 🤔.

    But we are still worried a bit about the risk of theft. I spot some foreign workers, and so I ask them about that and any general advice or tips. A nice South African, here to extend the local brewery, says he has no security concerns, but in town do not speak to anyone who tries to attract your attention. So we relax and begin to enjoy Tanzania , including Kilimanjaro beer
    for $1.30 each.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 15

    SIM card, home school, hot Springs

    August 19, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We slept in ! No planned activities, other than washing our clothes. Well, that is if you don't count home schooling, which you must, and the uniquely Tanzanian experience of getting a SIM card.

    The children had home schooling from 10 am to 1 pm. This is going well, but it's tough on Flo. In school, they don't constantly make demands of the teacher. At "home" with Flo, they do "mum", "mum", [repeat 1000x].

    In parallel, I went to get two local SIM cards. I came back 3 hours later with 1. Why? Well, a passport is not enough. They need to take a photo and fingerprints. They write into an app every single detail of your passport and visa. This job is delegated to a junior who repeatedly fucks up. I try to explain my name is Ian not LAN, but with initially no success. I eventually take the phone from her and do the entries myself. (Precision is important because if the name spelling is not exactly the same it gets rejected and you start again).

    Whole process in shop took 2 hours 15 min. Only 3 in queue in front of me. For comparison, in Egypt it took 5 minutes, and in Kenya 10 minutes.

    Also in Tanzania most things are cash only, even sophisticated companies like Airtel.

    Then I say to Flo, leaving to come back in 5, but it took me 30 mins why? I tried to take a tuk-tuk like I had on the way in for 500 Tanzanian Shillings, or about 25c. But the price rose 10x to 5000 and although that's still only $2.5 , I don't encourage rip offs, so I walked back.

    The children had worked hard, Flo too and I was exhausted by a SIM card, so we decided to go swim at the nearby hot ( more like 30C) springs. More than warm enough, and a lot of fun playing Tarzan by swing from a tree into the water. See Flo's blog for more.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 16

    Moshi to Karatu: 2 x 1/2 is less than 1

    August 20, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We travel to Karatu to be able to visit Ngorogoro crater the next day. Travel as always requires planning and negotiation. I asked for a price, so I got a quote $300, as I expected,but I said that I couldn't afford that, we would take the bus for around $60-80. So then I get an offer, we take you half way for $65, then you take the bus, and that saves you at least 2 hours. Ok, it's a deal. In the car, the guy makes a call. My friend in Arusha can do the 2nd part for $65 . I plead poverty again, we will take the bus. Price drops to $50. I don't immediately agree, and so the price goes down to $45, Ok deal. So with splitting and haggling, the price is 1/3 of the original, and only marginally more than the bus, whilst being 3h quicker.

    We arrive in Karatu. Hotel a bit underwhelming, but Ok. They know location, location, location, and hence charge 3x more than in Moshi for a similar room.

    We rest in the afternoon, as tomorrow is a 6am start.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year
    Day 17

    Ngorongoro drops down in our estimations

    August 21, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    15 years ago, Florence and I visited Ngorogoro, which is next to the Serengeti in Tanzania. It's the crater of what was Afica's biggest volcano, which erupted explosively 2.5 million years ago. What is left is a crater 650m high and 25km across. The big African animals live in the crater all year. The bottom of the crater has a salt lake (flamingo habitat) and a smaller fresh water lake and marshland. The inside and outside of the crater walls is jungle straight out of Tarzan.

    Ah, I mentioned we have been here before, so let's go back to the crater floor. The area that was not covered by the two lakes was green, and in wide parts, elephant grass grew to 3 or 4 meters. Seeing elephants in that grass was wonderous. There were also plenty of lions, hippos , birds, and other animals. I found it hard to say if Masai Mara or Ngorogoro was my favourite African reserve.

    As a result, Ngorogoro was high on my list of things the children should see. When I went to book a hotel and a driver, I thought the prices that were more than 80% higher than Kenya meant it was still top. Unfortunately, far from it. Large parts of the crater floor are very dry, the elephant grass covers only a small area, and that grass is shorter. We did see a male lion, lots of hippos,and some smaller cats, as well as lots of antelope, wildebeest and Buffalo, but it just wasn't the same as we experienced it previously, and without prompting the kids rated it last on their parks league table.

    What happened? Undoubtedly, drought played a big part, but I suspect that poor water management is also to blame. After all, the dryness is only on the crater floor.

    Sad 😔.

    Recommendation is simple. If you want to see the jungle book live, then by far the best is Masai Marra. It's just as good as ever and whilst it's not cheap, you can have excellent accommodation and guides for $100 and $150 respectively. The latter includes a car all day, big enough for 6-8. It's also a good idea to visit more than one park and I was charmed by Amboseli. Let's hope that drought does not degrade it. A couple of the kids made Nakuru their second choice, and I can see why (rhinos, monkeys, birds, butterflies. ..). I hope better water management can return Nakuru to its former glory. That leaves Ngorogoro a poor 4th in my recommendations. A car costs $450 for 6 hours, and hotels are expensive. Compare that to Masai where a car and driver it cost $150 all day. Somebody in Tanzania needs to start thinking about the future!    Read more

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