|
An Elephant in
the swamp in Amboseli National Park in Kenya on a Fly Drive 4x4 African Wildlife Safari |
|
|
Drive a hired 4x4 and plan your own independent Kenya safari These fully serviced 4x4 vehicles may be old but they can handle the riggers of the African bush with ease. They have been converted to cope with demanding off-road usage. The mustard coloured Range Rover I hired had sturdy coil springs, heavy duty gas shock absorbers, exhaust snorkel, thick tread off road tyres, and an internal roll bar cage. The roof had two flip up covers that enabled the front and rear seat passengers to climb up onto the roof for a better view of the African Wild life. In the hot high altitude tropics there is a danger of mechanical fuel pumps failing. The only first aid remedy is to wrap a moist cloth around the fuel pump and drip cold water on it. Our vehicle had an electrical centrifugal back up fuel pump installed in line with the present mechanical membrane pump. A must do conversion for overland travel in this sort of environment. A custom switch was fitted on the dashboard. It turned on the back up electrical fuel pump if the mechanical petrol pump became too hot. It immediately restored the fuel supply I was concerned that the company did not offer comprehensive insurance as an option in their rental agreement. I did not want to be stung with a big bill if I accidentally dented part of the body work. When I phoned I was told that comprehensive insurance was not needed. The cars were so old that any damage was banged out by their own workshop or a new section was bolted on from the collection of spare parts they had accumulated in their yard. What a refreshing concept. Renting an old car, rather than a flash new car, is a safer option in Africa. You are not targeted by car-jackers. They are interested in stealing new BMW’s, Mercedes and air conditioned Toyota Land Cruiser, not dusty, dirty, dented old Land Rover Defenders or Range Rovers. Get an A to Z street map book of Nairobi before you go, arrange for a mobile phone, a compass that works inside a car, safe needle kit, Flying doctor temporary membership of Kenyan Flying Doctor evacuation service, membership of Kenyan Automobile Association breakdown service.
Kenya Safari Photography Tips Buy and fit a polarised filter to all your lenses. It protects them and also makes the sky in your photographs a richer darker blue. Buy extra batteries. You are a long way from a shop. Ask the hotel or lodge reception if their electricity turns off at certain times of the day. Make sure you recharge all your camera batteries when the power comes back on. Learn how to bracket your photographs. Ideally when you take a photograph your camera will automatically take three photographs of the same thing at the same time. One photograph will be over exposed, one will be what the camera thinks is the correct exposure and the last one will be under exposed. This way you will never have a photograph rendered useless due to exposure problems. As you are going to take lots and lots of photographs make sure you have plenty of memory disks. Keep the disks separate from your camera bag just in case it gets stolen. That way you do not lose your photographs. Cameras can be replaced under your travel insurance. The photographs of all those memories cannot be replaced. Kenyan Visa
Nairobi capital city of Kenya David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust - Kenya Elephant Orphanage The trust looks after baby elephants and Rhinos whose mothers have been killed by poachers. They are adorable. When they are very young they are given a blanket to wear over their backs to prevent them getting pneumonia. They stay at the orphanage for about two years and when ready are moved to the older orphan herd in Tsavo National Park (pronounced ‘Sarvo’) where they are gradually rehabilitated back into the wild elephant community. This transition is made at the elephant’s own pace and in their own time. Some of the ex-orphans living free in the bush have now had wild born young which they have brought back to show the staff. You have to remember that the orphanage is inside the Nairobi National Park. There are no fences. When we were there a family group of wild pigs decided to visit the gathering of humans waiting to see the elephants. At 11am the staff bring the junior group of elephants into a clearing. They love charging about and playing football. They are very inquisitive and if you are not careful you will find a baby elephant’s trunk going up the trouser leg of your shorts or into your pockets. A member of the staff gives a very informative speech. These dedicated young men live with the elephants 24 hours of the day. Sometimes sleeping in the stables with them when they are distressed. Their dedication is amazing. Later the senior group of one to two year old elephants arrive and join the babies. Do not stand too near the water tanks as you may get sprayed. The staff always welcomes gifts of leather footballs, blankets and ladies tights (pantyhose). The tights are used to tie the blankets onto the baby elephants. The entrance is hard to find. It is on the Magadi road. As you come from Nairobi go past the National Park entrance and follow the boundary fence. Drive past three ‘Park staff only’ access gates. As you past the first one you have to turn left at the fork in the road. Keep the park fence on your left. It is quite a distance from the main gate. Look for the park gate that says ‘Nairobi National Park Workshop’. There is no sign pointing to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage
The Giraffe Centre, Langata, Nairobi, Kenya An education centre was built to teach local children and tourists the importance of the wildlife preservation. There is a gift shop, a café serving good Kenyan tea and coffee. The toilets are clean. The income from the tourist’s visits funds the breeding programme and a bus which ferries groups of school children to and from the centre for free. There is an observation deck at the same height as an adult giraffe’s head. Here you can feed these majestic gentle animals with cattle pellets. Having two giant giraffe heads either side of you, eating out of both of your hands, is an experience you will never forget. Place a cattle pellet between your lips and a giraffe’s highly dexterous blue tongue will gently extract it. Nairobi National Park Nairobi National Park is only a 30 minute drive from the airport. It is not the most attractive or animal rich park in Kenya, but it has some of the most challenging, dense jungle roads not found in the other parks. It also has the advantage of being the Headquarters of the Kenyan Wildlife Service. It is here that you buy your safari electronic Smartcard. This is what you need to gain access to each national park you plan to visit. To stop robbery and corruption the remote entrance gates out in the savannah do not accept cash. You have to pre load the smartcard with credit. This means you must work out what parks you are going to visit and for how long. It is very expensive. You have to pay for the vehicle and then for each passenger on a daily rate. Make sure you buy a park map at the gate. You will need it to find your way around the best rugged dirt roads. Most of the park is open grassland savannah dissected by rivers and incised valleys but the northern section of the park is covered in trees and dense tropical vegetation. Many roads are only single track and in a poor state of repair due to the constant flooding from tropical downpours The park is a seasonal park and is dependent to the annual migrations. Nairobi National Park is not an animal safari park. The western and northern sides of the park are fenced, the southern part is completely open allowing animals to migrate. The grazing herds usually leave the park in late March, come back late July, then they leave the park in November to finally come back in January. Just to the right of the main entrance is the Rangers Restaurant. It is a nice place to eat. Try and sit near the veranda as it is positioned over a watering hole. You can eat your meal and watch African wildlife at the same time. Try the Kenyan Tusk beer. It is good stuff.
Lake Nakuru National park Lake Nakuru National Park is run by the Kenya Wildlife Service. Three major rivers and several springs along the shore drain into the very large blue-green soda lake. Because of the high evaporation rate caused by the hot equatorial sun the shallow water becomes strongly alkaline. Dense blooms of aquatic Cyanophyte Spirulina Platensis thrive in these conditions. It may have an unpronounceable name but the long legged pink flamingos feast on this sludge. It is their major food source. Great areas of the lake appear to turn pink as thousands of flamingos in huge brightly coloured noisy flocks can be seen feeding, flying, landing, mating, or just strutting in the shallow water. It is a timeless, photogenic fabulous sight but the smell can be a bit over powering. Thousands of birds produce thousands of bird droppings. You can drive down to the waters edge at certain points. Have a good look around you for lurking Lions or hyenas, before you get out of your vehicle to walk along the beach. The park is also one of the few places on this planet where you can easily see the rare black and white rhino in the wild. You will see the white rhino on the valley floor feeding on the grass with their wide flat mouths near water holes. You normally find the black rhinos in the bush feeding on leaves. They have pointed lips which they use to rip off succulent leaves. For this reason alone Lake Nakuru National Park must be on your list of places to visit before you die. White Rhino have wide square mouths for grazing on grass. The word white in the name "White Rhinoceros" derives from the Afrikaans word for "wide" rather than the color white. They can be spotted on the valley floor. Look for Black Rhino in the bush. The have pointed hook lips which they use for ripping leaves and twigs off tree branches and shrubs. Although this Rhino is referred to as black, it is actually more of a grey, brown or white color in appearance depending on the colour of the last mud pool it wallowed in. The name of the species was chosen to distinguish it from the White Rhinoceros. Another compelling reason to visit Lake Nakuru National Park is it is a 4x4 enthusiast’s heaven. Like many other National Parks in Kenya there are no tarmac covered roads. If you want tarmac roads on a safari go to South Africa. This is the real thing. The main loop around the lake is a gravel road that also extends southwards into the jungle. The fun begins when you start to explore the minor tracks. These are terracotta red earth roads, once flat but now reshaped by flood water in the rainy season. There are tracks that go nearly vertical up the side hills that surround the park and lake. They really test your four wheel drive. The view at the top is worth the effort. We also nearly bumped into a Black Rhino feeding on the young bushes high up on top of the hill. Having been to the Giraffe Centre in Langata, Nairobi and learnt about the conservation and breeding program to rescue the Rothschild Giraffes if was moving to see herds of relocated Rothschild’s giraffes flourishing freely in Lake Nakuru National Park. This was one of the National Parks used to reintroduce back into the wild these majestic giant animals. It was pleasing to see that their new home was obviously suitable for their needs. I was amazed at how many baby Rothschild’s giraffes there were in each family group. There are a great variety of other animals in the park. Look out for early morning Hyenas lazing around the lake looking for an easy mouthful of flamingo. Breeding groups of ostriches also come scratching around the beach area. I saw my first Leopard in Lake Nakuru National Park walking through the green undergrowth of the wooded area to the south of the Lake. I knew Leopards climbed trees but I had never heard of lions climbing trees until I saw a young lioness leap up a tree and act as lookout for the prides’ next meal. The Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge is halfway up a hill. To get to some of the bungalows you have to climb up stairs. Don’t be too shocked that you start to feel out of breath. It may look like you are near the valley floor but in reality you are very high. The altitude of the lake is 1,758 m - 5,768 ft. The highest mountain in Britain Ben Nevis is only 1,344m - 4,409ft. Lake Nakuru is a very shallow strongly alkaline lake 62 km2 in extent. It is set in a picturesque landscape of surrounding woodland and grassland next to Nakuru town. The big mountain behind the city is an extinct volcano. The landscape of the National Park includes areas of marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs and outcrops, stretches of acacia woodland and rocky hillsides covered with a Euphorbia forest on the eastern perimeter.
Amboseli National Park We stayed at Ol Tukai Lodge in the centre of the park. It was amazing. You could see herds of grazing gazelles and buffalo from your bungalow’s veranda. In the distance the snow capped Mount Kilimanjaro was visible. The quality of the room food and facilities was first class. During our stay we visited all the other lodges and concluded Ol Tukai Lodge was the best of the bunch. In the evening the Masai put on a show around a fire near the bar. During the day they give talks on their beliefs and way of life. You have to pay a small fee but it is worth the investment. To prevent getting ill in the tropics by drinking infected water or eating unclean vegetables the Masai drink the blood of their cows and eat their meat instead. They do not drink water or eat greens. They love answering questions at the end of their talk. Ask them to show you the medicinal anti malaria quinine bush and the Yellow fever trees that grow in the grounds of Ol Tukai Lodge. They will explain to you how they use these plants to make medicine. There is a petrol station at one of the other nearby lodges. The reception desk will give you directions. Remember to bring an alarm clock with you on Safari. Safaris are not meant to be relaxing. You have to get up very early if you want to see the animals. Get up at 5am to be on the road before 6am You drive back to the lodge for a cooked breakfast at about 9am and then go back on safari until 1pm. After lunch at the lodge and a quick swim in the pool you go back on safari about 3pm until dusk. It is a waste of time trying to see animals in the mid day sun. Most just find some shade and go to sleep until it gets a bit cooler later in the afternoon. A good tip is to try and locate the hippo pool on your first day. Take photos of the hippos poking their heads out of the water. Remember where the pool is located. The following morning rush back to the pool and aim to be there before 6am. Look in the distance for a brown blob moving towards you and the pool. It will be a well fed hippo who has been up in the hills chomping on grass all night returning home. They can travel over 14 km each night. It is amazing to see them out of the water travelling at speed on their stumpy legs. You can only see this early in the morning as they leave the pool under the cover of darkness. The entrance to Amboseli National Park is not near the main road. You drive south from Nairobi on the potholed but tarmaced Namanga Road, the A104, heading towards the Boarder with Tanzania. Some of those potholes are dangerously deep. If your tyre goes down one you could break an axel or fracture your engine’s oil sump. I could not understand why there were sacks of charcoal just left on the road side. I learnt later that the locals in the country collect wood and slowly burn it in hand made large clay kilns to make charcoal for sale in the big cities as a cooking fuel. Just as you enter the boarder town of Namanga you will see a petrol station on your right. It is on the junction with the C103 dirt track road that leads to Amboseli National Park. Take the opportunity to fill up with petrol and check the oil and water. Lock the car doors as you go topay for the petrol. You vehicle will be surrounded by locals trying to sell you local jewellery and craft work. Haggle if you want to buy but just tell them no thank you and wave them away. Be a little bit careful when you turn left onto the C103 road. Check that the road ahead is clear and not blocked by a tree trunk. Some of the locals in the shanty town huts that line the road for the first200 yards have started to demand a toll from the tourist vans to remove the tree trunk. Some of these men were armed with machetes. The Police try to stop this. It only happens near the main road. If the way is blocked reverse back onto the main road and drive into town. Find a police man and tell him what has happened. They will come and deal with them and let you drive down the road freely It is a 57 km drive to the Ol Tukai Lodge in the middle of the National Park on a very rough road that has been sawn out of the bed rock by road making machines. The ridges on the road this machine creates makes for an incredibly bumpy ride. It is better to drive fast than slow on this stuff. Again another reason for having a good 4x4 in Kenya. The road skirts around the edges of a big salt lake. In the dry season you can drive on it but some parts are still swampy. Stick to the road. Look out for Masai villages along the route. The National Park entrance gate is about 35km from the main road.
Unilever PG tips Limuru Tea plantations. You can watch the tea pickers in the fields plucking the top two leaves and bud from each plant. Tea needs good rainfall. The hills around Limuru are ideal as they have plenty of rain. The tea is picked all year round. The picked tea leaves are sent to the factories to be processed and sold to local and export markets like the United Kingdom. Kenya is the third largest producer of tea after Sri Lanka and India. Limuru town grew with the railway, the tea industry and the Bata shoe factory and head office. At the turn of the last century one of the executives from Brook Bond India came to Kenya on Safari. He identified that the climate, altitude and fertile soil was ideal for tea cultivation. He started Brooke Bond Kenya Ltd. It changed its name to Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd in 2004. It is the largest producer of tea in Kenya and owns over 16,000 acres. It owns 20 tea estates, 8 factories including the Mabroukie tea factory in Limuru, and produces 32 million Kgs of tea every year. It’s the largest commercial employer in Kenya, employing about 21,000 workers in the peak seasons. The Nairobi to Nakuru road over the African Rift Valley The main road deteriorates rapidly when it starts to descend the eastern cliff of the Rift Valley, just after passing the Kenyan Rifles Army Camp. The road has disintegrated leaving little islands of tarmac and huge potholes. Passing heavy lorries throw up tons of dust. You need to put your headlights and rear fog lights on during daylight, to be seen in the clouds of thick yellow dust. Maintaining a good breaking distance from the vehicle in front is critical. This was the only time I wished our classic Range Rover had air conditioning. The dust got everywhere. All I could do was close the windows and air vents. It became very hot and sweaty. It was a very challenging, bumpy bone shaking, drive. You had to be vigilant to avoid grounding and oncoming traffic in the middle or on the wrong side of the road, as other drivers coming in the opposite direction tried to driver around three foot, deep holes. On the African rift valley floor the road surface gradually returned the nearer we approached Nakuru. A new tarmac road is being built by Chinese contractors but no completion date has been released.
How the locals live The recent rains had caused problems. The surface of this country road had been ripped apart by those heavy large vegetable collection lorries. Rather than being flat the road was now a U shape. The lower centre was a muddy quagmire of deep tyre tracks. Only the higher edges had firm ground. I kept the near side wheels on the firm ground of the road edge. The four wheel drive system of the 30 year old Classic Range Rover handled the situation with ease. After about a mile the road started to go down hill as if we were heading for a valley. The tyre ruts were getting deeper as the mud was getting softer because of the downward accumulation of runoff water. As I drove around a bend I saw one of the large Bedford 4 tonne collection lorries about 150 yards in front. It was stuck. The mud was over its axels. The villagers were out in force unloading the crops to lighten the vehicle. Others were hacking down trees and placing them under the tyres. If that lorry, with its very high ground clearance, could not negotiate those muddy ruts my Range Rover would certainly get stuck. As this thought was going through my mind the range rover suddenly started moving sideways. I was only doing about 5 mph. The rear end was moving towards a large tree on the other side of the road. I came off the accelerator and tried to counter steer into the skid. Nothing happened. The car had a momentum of it’s own. I was not in control. All I could do was wait for the expected thump as we hit the tree, but nothing happened. The range rover stopped about one inch from the hazard. I started to breath again. The car was now at a right angle across the road. “What am I going to do now? I thought, “I am in the middle of Africa. Miles away from any help and without a winch, in the middle of a deep muddy slippery mess.” I then remembered the low gear four wheel drive switch. I had read up about using this lower gear selector but had never used it before. I had been told that on this vehicle you had to turn off the engine before selecting the switch. This I did. My passengers were confused. I explained what I was trying to do. My expectations of success were very low. I envisioned being knee deep in mud very soon, trying to find logs to put under the tyres. I restarted the engine and gentle depressed the accelerator. I was shocked. The ultra low four wheel drive torque setting enabled this wonderful old classic car to find grip in the mud at an extremely slow speed. I was grinning like the Cheshire cat. I love Range Rovers. What a fantastic machine. I was so thrilled and relived to have successfully got out of that deep slippery muddy boggy mire. I drove back to the main road without any further problems. Jackson then directed me to his mother’s house via a donkey track. It was on top of a nearby lush tropically forested hill that had a few farmsteads placed irregularly on its brow. My British made mechanical donkey had no problems climbing the gradient. This rocky track was dry and firm. We were in for a very humbling experience. Jackson’s mother was a widow and lived with her youngest son & daughter in two rectangular mud huts with rusty corrugated iron roofs. She farmed a small plot of land hacked out of the tropical forest by here late husband. She had invited her friends to come and meet us and help with the cooking. We did not realise that a feast had been planned in our honour. Jackson said to me, “You realise that you have made my mother very proud. She will be the talk of the area for months. The last white man to come up here was a missionary about thirty years ago.” After Jackson introduced us to all his family and his mother’s friends we were given the guided tour. The outer walls of the two large rectangular mud buildings were very roughly finished. I was expecting to find the same condition inside. I was so shocked when I walked inside. I was speech less for a few moments as I took everything in. All four internal walls were smooth and straight as if a professional plasterer had finished them. Six foot long white lace curtains were draped along each wall to lighten the room and add decoration to the walls. This was sensible as paint or wallpaper would just peal and crack. I counted two, three seater sofas and six big upholstered chairs lining the wall. In the middle of the room was a large coffee table. The fabric used on the furniture was very bold and colourful. All the furniture looked new. “We have skilled craftsmen in the village and wood is cheap. They make good furniture,” Jackson explained, “please have a seat.” The sofas and chairs looked out of place in a mud hut. I was not expecting this level of luxury. Clean pure water was obtained from an artesian well dug deep into the porous volcanic bedrock. Two solar panels on the roof provided electrical power for the radio and a light bulb. Excess power was stored in a battery. Some posters were attached to the curtains to further decorate the smooth mud wall. These too seemed out of place in an African mud hut. At one end of the room was a large poster of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the terminator. At the other end was a poster of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio from the film Titanic. Around the edges were smaller missionary religious posters that used photographs of white children to illustrate their messages about God. This is black Africa. Why use photographs of white children? As guests of honour we were served with a meal of chicken, sweet corn and potatoes. All home grown on the farm, freshly picked and killed that morning.
Medication, jabs, pills and vaccinations for Kenya Take Gifts to Kenya Transport from the Airport Safari Clothing for Kenya
Disadvantages of going on an organised package deal Safari Holidays Some of the local drivers smell. Being stuck in a hot car for hours on end is not pleasant. Some of your fellow tourists on the same vehicle may be the family from hell with teenaged children who are bored with looking at yet more animals. They are loud and scare away the animals. Once they have spotted the animal they want to move onto the next. They are not interested in spending time to observe the animals in there natural environment in the peace and quite of the African savannah. The main advantage of going with a guide is that he has a radio and learns where the animals are from other tour guides. I found by talking to them they are only too pleased to share information about the most recent sightings of lion or a leopard. Other Websites by the Craig Moore
|
|
