Kenya
Kiambu

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    • Day 3

      The Safari Starts - A First Glimps

      October 16, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ 🌩️ 25 °C

      Today, the Safari officially starts. I use Absolute Africa as the tour operator and the tour called “Simba Sounds” will last 38/29 days and runs around Lake Victoria from Nairobi to Nairobi.

      The first stop today was the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi. It was a great opportunity to get a first glimpse of the majestic animal and we could feed them with a little snack - only a little one, as they were officially on a diet.

      I have also met the group today and it looks as if it will be quite a fun and great safari. Most fellow travellers in the group opted for the 77 day tour that after my tour finishes continues on all the way down to Cape Town.

      In short, all systems GO before we head into the Masai country tomorrow.
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    • Day 19

      Journey back to Karen Camp, Nairobi

      December 13, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

      We set off back to Karen Camp, passing several Masai settlements and a whole village that was apparently on the move. The look of the Masai people is very striking in their strongly coloured red, blue or orange checked robes, the men carrying long sticks which, I imagine, would once have been spears. They are often very lean and tall people with long, thin, almost gaunt, faces, often with quite large protruding front teeth which doesn't detract from their handsome and dignified appearance. We returned to the main road and more familiar African towns with their multitude of shop fronts and strange names written in English above the door. I was feeling tired and quite 'travelled out' so sat quietly writing my journal as the five hours of travel slowly passed. After a couple of stops for food and refreshments, we approached Nairobi with Mount Suswa looming impressively ahead of us, cloud shadows skating down its vertiginous, jagged sides and a huge flat plain before it, accentuating its rugged grandeur. We then climbed up a very long incline behind slow lorries up to over 2300 metres with epic views over the rift valley plains far, far below. Street sellers had built fires under small, rickety wooden shacks to roast sweetcorn which they then precariously sold to lorry drivers by jumping up onto their cabs as they drove by. Sadly, we saw the result of the road traffic, 'no rules', chaos in Kenya when a poor woman stepped out in front of a van travelling on the wrong side of the road and was hit full square in the back - the van was not travelling quickly so hopefully the woman wasn't too badly injured but we couldn't stop to find out. We eventually arrived back at Karen camp and I set up my tent. It was nice to meet some of the staff again after my arrival over two weeks ago, which now felt like six months ago with all I'd experienced since then. We will have several fellow travellers leaving at this point of the trip and they will all be missed as it's been a very nice group to travel with. I said my goodbyes to those that are leaving and said hello to one of the six people who are now joining our trip for the next stage.Read more

    • Day 4

      Tag 3 - Masai Mara & B I G 5️⃣

      September 30, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      On the Road again 🚙!
      📍Von Nairobi über das
      📍Great Rift Valley bis zur
      📍legendären Masai Mara!

      Abfahrt in Nairobi nach dem Frühstück. Mit gemischten Gefühlen fahren wir vorbei an den nicht enden wollenden Slums, in denen von den rund 6.000 Einwohnern Nairobis eine halbe Millionen Menschen leben.

      1️⃣+2️⃣Zwischenstopp am Aussichtspunkt am Great Rift Valey, einem über 6000 Quadratkilometer großem Krater, der jedes Jahr um weitere 10 mm absinkt.

      3️⃣ Ankunft in unserer Lodge im Masai Mara Nationalpark. Die Lodge besteht aus vielen einzelnen Hütten, in denen die Gäste wohnen. Zu unserer war es zwar ein Stück, aber der Weg war sofort entschädigt, denn als wir ankamen staunten wir nicht schlecht, als ein paar grasende Zebras im „Vorgarten“ standen 😍

      4️⃣ - 6️⃣ Nach dem Essen hieß es gleich wieder aufsitzen, denn wir unternahmen die erste Pirschfahrt in der Masai Mara. Wir haben ein neugeborenes Impala entdeckt, das etwas wackelig auf seinen noch nicht komplett entknitterten Beinen stand🥹. Bis ich den Zoom an der Kamera scharfgestellt hatte, hat sich dann noch ein Zebra mit seinem Vogelkumpel auf dem Rücken ins Bild eingeschlichen (😅).
      Zum ersten Mal haben wir auch Gnus und einen Kaffernbüffel vor die Linse bekommen.
      Im Vergleich zur Savanne Tsavo West Nationalpark, ist die Masai Mara eine Steppe, daher sieht es hier ganz anders und viel grüner aus🌱

      7️⃣ + 8️⃣. Wenn Nelsen plötzlich meint „wir probieren was“, aufs Gas tritt und vom Weg herunter in die hügelige Steppe heizt, so dass wir von den Sitzen abheben(😅), heißt es schnell Kamera bereit halten. Wir rasen um die nächste Kurve und da liegt ein Gepard. Der genießt die Mittagssonne und bleibt einfach liegen als wir direkt neben ihm halten 🤯😍.

      9️⃣ + 🔟 Als damit alle Erwartungen an diese Pirsch mehr als erfüllt waren, kommt plötzlich nochmal Aufregung im Jeep auf. Ein Löwe sei wohl irgendwo in der Nähe!
      Plötzlich kamen überall Jeeps angefahren, Nelson gibt alles, Kameras bereit und wir komplett on fire 🔥
      Und dann sehen wir ihn, er schießt los hinter ein paar Pumbas hinterher und krallt sich vor unseren Augen ein kleines Warzenschwein😱! Mit seiner Beute im Maul rennt er an unserem Jeep vorbei und bietet uns damit ein Wahnsinns Erlebnis!

      ✅ Das letzte Foto benötigt keine Beschreibung mehr.
      5️⃣ von 5️⃣!
      Wir haben die B I G F I V E und das an Tag 3😍!

      Man muss erwähnen, dass Nelson beim losfahren meinte die Safari ist „heute nur Vorspeise“ …. ahja😉).
      Wir sind einfach baff und überglücklich 😍
      Read more

    • Day 115

      Driving alongside the Great Rift Valley

      August 29, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      We got up at 7.30am to shower and get packed up. We had breakfast and were ready to be picked up by Omondi at 9.45am. Unfortunately, he didn’t turn up until 11am!! This did not bode well! Patrick, the hotel’s concierge, was concerned for us and wanted to call Omondi. Just as he was about to, Omondi messaged to say he was stuck in traffic. We were very worried that we wouldn’t get to the Masai Mara in time for our evening game drive. Omondi had told us yesterday that the journey would take around eight hours!

      When we got in the car, there was a distinctly frosty atmosphere. We headed out of Nairobi. Within minutes, we came extremely close to running over a pedestrian! We stopped for fuel and again to pick up paperwork. Then, we turned back towards the city. We were still in Nairobi at 12 noon. It felt like we were getting nowhere! I asked Omondi if we would get to the park in time. He said we would. He explained that we were taking a short cut! There were loads of speed humps, which made for an uncomfortable drive. The upside was that there was plenty of local life to see!

      We joined the main highway for a while and then turned off to drive along the edge of the Great Rift Valley. The valley is a series of geographic trenches that run for about 7000 kilometres from Lebanon to Mozambique. It is a divergent plate boundary that geologists believe will one day split Africa apart. They refer to the two evolving plates as the Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate. Several deep, elongated lakes, called ribbon lakes, exist on the floor of the rift valley. These include Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. The region has a unique ecosystem and contains a number of Africa's wildlife parks.

      As we drove, it was very hazy, but we still had good views down onto the valley floor. There were dozens of baboons by the roadside. There was also a huge amount of traffic, mainly trucks travelling between Kenya and the landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC. The only seaport serving these nations, and many others, is Mombasa.
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    • Day 388

      Southern Aberdare Range

      January 8, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Look on a topo map and you will see super interesting, banded hill formations. Crazy! And I drive on one of these ridges right now. The surroundings are densly populated and completely transformed into agricultural land with a lot of coffee and tee. Still very beautiful.Read more

    • Day 389

      Gatamaiyo Forest Nature Reserve

      January 9, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      I spend a spontaneous night at the little frequented Theta dam in the middle of the Gatamaiyo Forest Nature Reserve. Beautiful, lonely spot with wonderful ambient noise at night and day. Signs at the reserve's gate state that entering is not allowed but the guards/rangers/soldiers at the gate tell that it is indeed possible to take the road and they even recommend to stay overnight at this dam. Strange place, surrounded by pristine forest but showing this massive human footprint. Also illegal logging is going on as I found many evidence just when entering the forest. While writing this after breakfast I hear at least two big trees falling in the distance. But it turns out that previously this has been partly used as industrial forest. Further up you find Eucalyptus plantations. It is a nature reserve for just around 20 years the locals tell me.Read more

    • Day 389

      Mud maniacs

      January 9, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Another one of these days where plans don't work out as expected. Who the fuck invented plans at all? I have the impression that they actually never work out. Why do we stress ourselves with meaningless plans? Just stop making plans, for Beelzebub's sake.
      Shortly after departure from the dam I meet people in a crappy front-wheel-drive Toyota who got stuck in an impressive mud bath. While I turn my car and pull them out ... there arrives the same model of crappy car from the other side and ... gets stuck as well. Am I stupid? Why do they go here with these shitty cars? Don't they see the mud? What is there to be overseen? Unfortunately the first car's motor died and we could not get it back to life. I am the only one with a recovery rope so I agree to pull them back 10 km out of the forest onto the tarmac road where they can find a mechanic to fix this pile of crap. Oh boy, just don't look into the engine bays of these cars. Everything is improvised. It's a miracle that they manage to run at all.
      After that I drive back into the forest, fly over this mud and continue in direction of the great rift.
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    • Day 6

      Kedong Ranch, ou le petit désert

      December 14, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Nous longeons le beau volcan Longonot (qui n’aura pas explosé pendant la nuit) pour atteindre les berges du lac Naivasha. Pour cela, nous avons du traverser une zone plutôt désertique sur une vingtaine de kilomètres.

      Nous avons pu voir 🦒 🦓 🐐(je ne trouve pas d’icône d’impala) qui sont tres curieux de nous voir passer à vélo mais aussi très peureux !

      Il fait tellement sec ici que les chemins sont devenus des tas de sable à peine praticables à vélo.
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    • Day 2

      Hospitali-thé

      December 10, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      Nous avons trouvé un super endroit où mettre la tente ⛺️… ou même pas car on nous offre l’hospitalité ce soir : un toit solide sur la tête, une douche, même un repas… il faudrait pas qu’on s’habitue à trop de luxe 😁. On ne remerciera jamais assez Elijah pour sa générosité. Nous étions allés simplement demander de l’eau…

      Sinon, la route est juste magnifique, on a le droit à du bitume en alternance avec des chemins de terre rouge. Nous sommes maintenant à 2300m d’altitude.
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    • Day 4

      Forêt magique

      December 12, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Quand on pense au Kenya, je ne crois pas que c’est ce genre de paysages qui ressortent de notre imaginaire. Et pourtant au dessus du Grand Rift, on trouve de belles forêts avec de l’herbe bien verte.

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Kiambu, Kiambu District

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