Diani Beach
Travel article for Diani Beach
by Alexander
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From:
London
Age:
51-55
Travel time:
in January 12
Wonderful time in Kenya and Tanzania with Aktive Safaris
Had a wonderful time in Kenya and Tanzania
Masai mara
Had a wonderful time in the Mara. Really lived up toeverything we had heard/ read about it. We lost count of the number of lions wesaw, including cubs. Zebra, wildebeest, Grants gazelles, elephants, hippo, giraffeplus lots of birds. We also saw a leopard. The sunsets on the Mara with giraffesilhouetted against the sun were just unbelievable.We had a campfire every night at the Olumara camp with Masai dancers which wereamazing. We spent 3 nights.
Lake Nakuru
Highlights were the flamingos, pelicans and other water birds plus we saw alarge number of white rhino, which was the only one of the Big 5 that we hadmissed at the Mara. We also saw a Rothschild giraffe in Nakuru, in the fadinglight in the evening, he spotted a leopard in a tree about 2 rows removed fromthe track. After he stopped and pointed it out, it took us a couple of minuteswith our binoculars to actually spot it. For the life of me, I can’t figure outhow he saw it, while driving too. He was on the radio in a flash and withinminutes there were 7-8 other vans jockeying for position around us (we had thebest location, of course!)After 2 days in a tent Flamingo tent having electricity and hot water in thehotel was a great feeling. The camp experience showed us the value of what wetake for granted!
Amboseli
Our first impression of Amboseli was not great, here you had to stick to thestandard paths, unlike in the Mara where you could go off-road and get reallyclose to the animals. Also there seemed to be fewer games to be seen ascompared to the Mara. However, that changes very quickly on the second day, when we saw the herds ofelephant, zebra, wildebeest and buffalos near the swamp area. Amboseli is avery nice park the herbivores also seem to be much more relaxed here than inthe Mara, where you could sense that they were on tenterhooks all the time,watching out for predators. In Amboseli, there is only one pride of lions, sothe wildebeest and zebra seemed more comfortable. We also got a chance to seethe Kilimanjaro in the morning game drive with some snow on top. We also wentto a Masaai village in Amboseli, which was a nice experience.We stayed at Kibo camp which was the nicest lodge throughout our safari and itis set on the place where you have a great view of Kilimanjaro. The food at thecamp was very good.
Arusha
We were dropped off this side of the Namanga border by our Aktive safaris guideand were met by there representative in Tanzania and we went to Lunch at MtMeru Lodge. We had consciously planned for a half day break in our safari atArusha, and were glad we had done it. We spent the day wandering around Arusha,which is a pretty town.
Tarangire
In Tanzania, we had a large Land Cruiser 4 WD(Plenty of space) Arusha to Tarangiretook only about 1.5 hrs good road. We stayed at Tarangire Safari Camp We took a walk in the bush around the River Camp,where a couple of Masaais and the camp manager showed us tracks of animals,explained the medicinal properties of various plants that the Masaai use. Afterdays spent entirely in a vehicle, this was again a different experience.Tarangire is elephants and baobab trees. We lost count of the number of elephantswe saw in Tarangire a highpoint was when a big male tusker walked up the roadand stood in front of the vehicle for a full 15 minutes, we were a littlescared, because up close, we could feel the sheer size of the animal. Luckily,he moved on after what seemed an eternity.We took a large number of pictures of baobabs against the sunset. Tarangire isalso where we saw the largest number of bird species we are pretty avidbirdwatchers, so we really enjoyed seeing the barbets, hornbills, fish eaglesand the rest.
Ngorongoro
The road from Tarangire to Ngorongoro is recently laid and is very good the best that we saw throughout. We reachedthe crater by noon and were in the crater till evening. Nothing that you haveread or heard or watched about the crater quite prepares you for the actualthrill of descending down the crater and seeing the virtual zoo in front ofyou. I believe that it was in the crater that we got closest to the herds ofwildebeest and zebra even more so thanin the Mara or in the swamp in Amboseli. The animals in the crater seem leastbothered about the vehicles on the track. Highlights in Ngorongoro were seeing 3 black-maned male lions fight over apride of lionesses we saw the action from quite a distance through ourbinoculars,. Also saw a black rhino from a distance. The hippo pool also hadsome of the most uninhibited hippos we saw during our trip they floated bellyup and turned over every few minutes. The Ngorongoro wildlife lodge inNgorongoro has good views over the crater (like all the lodges in the crater),and has an excellent bar around a fireplace. Ngorongoro gets really cold duringthe night.
Serengeti
And so, on to the last and our favorite park in East Africa the Serengeti. Ofall the parks we went to, if I have to choose just one, this is it. InSerengeti, you can see anything that you see in any of the other parks; and thesheer expanse of the Serengeti you will not find anywhere else. For hours onend you go through endless savannah and to me this feeling of space is whatdistinguishes the Serengeti from the Mara, which is much smaller. We saw 2 lion kills within the space of 1 hour (our guide told us that we werevery, very lucky!). For the first one we waited more than 30 minutes, while thelionesses planned, tracked her prey and sprang all by the side of the road; inthe second we arrived on the scene as the lioness was just about to spring. We saw a pack of 3 hyena surround and chase away a lone cheetah on a rock, whothen came to the side of the road and called out in response 2 other cheetahcame and joined her and they went away into the bush. We saw a full grown malelion within touching distance looking for his pride, and countless otheranimals.We stayed at the Seronera Wildlife Lodge which was very comfortable. We alsohad our most serious tse-tse fly menace in the woodlands near the lodge, butthat was only on one particular afternoon game drive the rest of the days werefine.
Nairobi
On the last day, we were transferred to the boarder and our driver from Kenya picked us and drove allthe way back to Nairobi airport to connect to our flight back home.
Masai mara
Had a wonderful time in the Mara. Really lived up toeverything we had heard/ read about it. We lost count of the number of lions wesaw, including cubs. Zebra, wildebeest, Grants gazelles, elephants, hippo, giraffeplus lots of birds. We also saw a leopard. The sunsets on the Mara with giraffesilhouetted against the sun were just unbelievable.We had a campfire every night at the Olumara camp with Masai dancers which wereamazing. We spent 3 nights.
Lake Nakuru
Highlights were the flamingos, pelicans and other water birds plus we saw alarge number of white rhino, which was the only one of the Big 5 that we hadmissed at the Mara. We also saw a Rothschild giraffe in Nakuru, in the fadinglight in the evening, he spotted a leopard in a tree about 2 rows removed fromthe track. After he stopped and pointed it out, it took us a couple of minuteswith our binoculars to actually spot it. For the life of me, I can’t figure outhow he saw it, while driving too. He was on the radio in a flash and withinminutes there were 7-8 other vans jockeying for position around us (we had thebest location, of course!)After 2 days in a tent Flamingo tent having electricity and hot water in thehotel was a great feeling. The camp experience showed us the value of what wetake for granted!
Amboseli
Our first impression of Amboseli was not great, here you had to stick to thestandard paths, unlike in the Mara where you could go off-road and get reallyclose to the animals. Also there seemed to be fewer games to be seen ascompared to the Mara. However, that changes very quickly on the second day, when we saw the herds ofelephant, zebra, wildebeest and buffalos near the swamp area. Amboseli is avery nice park the herbivores also seem to be much more relaxed here than inthe Mara, where you could sense that they were on tenterhooks all the time,watching out for predators. In Amboseli, there is only one pride of lions, sothe wildebeest and zebra seemed more comfortable. We also got a chance to seethe Kilimanjaro in the morning game drive with some snow on top. We also wentto a Masaai village in Amboseli, which was a nice experience.We stayed at Kibo camp which was the nicest lodge throughout our safari and itis set on the place where you have a great view of Kilimanjaro. The food at thecamp was very good.
Arusha
We were dropped off this side of the Namanga border by our Aktive safaris guideand were met by there representative in Tanzania and we went to Lunch at MtMeru Lodge. We had consciously planned for a half day break in our safari atArusha, and were glad we had done it. We spent the day wandering around Arusha,which is a pretty town.
Tarangire
In Tanzania, we had a large Land Cruiser 4 WD(Plenty of space) Arusha to Tarangiretook only about 1.5 hrs good road. We stayed at Tarangire Safari Camp We took a walk in the bush around the River Camp,where a couple of Masaais and the camp manager showed us tracks of animals,explained the medicinal properties of various plants that the Masaai use. Afterdays spent entirely in a vehicle, this was again a different experience.Tarangire is elephants and baobab trees. We lost count of the number of elephantswe saw in Tarangire a highpoint was when a big male tusker walked up the roadand stood in front of the vehicle for a full 15 minutes, we were a littlescared, because up close, we could feel the sheer size of the animal. Luckily,he moved on after what seemed an eternity.We took a large number of pictures of baobabs against the sunset. Tarangire isalso where we saw the largest number of bird species we are pretty avidbirdwatchers, so we really enjoyed seeing the barbets, hornbills, fish eaglesand the rest.
Ngorongoro
The road from Tarangire to Ngorongoro is recently laid and is very good the best that we saw throughout. We reachedthe crater by noon and were in the crater till evening. Nothing that you haveread or heard or watched about the crater quite prepares you for the actualthrill of descending down the crater and seeing the virtual zoo in front ofyou. I believe that it was in the crater that we got closest to the herds ofwildebeest and zebra even more so thanin the Mara or in the swamp in Amboseli. The animals in the crater seem leastbothered about the vehicles on the track. Highlights in Ngorongoro were seeing 3 black-maned male lions fight over apride of lionesses we saw the action from quite a distance through ourbinoculars,. Also saw a black rhino from a distance. The hippo pool also hadsome of the most uninhibited hippos we saw during our trip they floated bellyup and turned over every few minutes. The Ngorongoro wildlife lodge inNgorongoro has good views over the crater (like all the lodges in the crater),and has an excellent bar around a fireplace. Ngorongoro gets really cold duringthe night.
Serengeti
And so, on to the last and our favorite park in East Africa the Serengeti. Ofall the parks we went to, if I have to choose just one, this is it. InSerengeti, you can see anything that you see in any of the other parks; and thesheer expanse of the Serengeti you will not find anywhere else. For hours onend you go through endless savannah and to me this feeling of space is whatdistinguishes the Serengeti from the Mara, which is much smaller. We saw 2 lion kills within the space of 1 hour (our guide told us that we werevery, very lucky!). For the first one we waited more than 30 minutes, while thelionesses planned, tracked her prey and sprang all by the side of the road; inthe second we arrived on the scene as the lioness was just about to spring. We saw a pack of 3 hyena surround and chase away a lone cheetah on a rock, whothen came to the side of the road and called out in response 2 other cheetahcame and joined her and they went away into the bush. We saw a full grown malelion within touching distance looking for his pride, and countless otheranimals.We stayed at the Seronera Wildlife Lodge which was very comfortable. We alsohad our most serious tse-tse fly menace in the woodlands near the lodge, butthat was only on one particular afternoon game drive the rest of the days werefine.
Nairobi
On the last day, we were transferred to the boarder and our driver from Kenya picked us and drove allthe way back to Nairobi airport to connect to our flight back home.
