AFRICA - MAY 2017

 

Wow! What a year the past 12 months have been. May 2016, Peru: Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. August 2016, Italy, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro. February/March 2017, Panama and now, May 2017, AFRICA!

This was our second visit to the World’s second largest Continent. We did Egypt in 2009, but only for a very long day as part of a Mediterranean cruise. We have wanted to do an African photographic Safari for years but fundamental Islamic terrorism has kept us away from that part of the world. Security was tight in Egypt in 2009, but nothing like it is now. However, with dozens of American based tour companies taking thousands of tourists to Kenya and other parts of Africa everyday without incident, we could wait no longer. We signed up with FriendlyPlanet.com (our first tour with them was to the Galapagos and they were wonderful) almost a year in advance to go to Kenya this May. Only for a week, so it was a “fast and furious” trip. FriendlyPlanet.com is known for its smaller tour groups and includes airfare in the price. So, for under $5,000 the two of us enjoyed an experience of a lifetime. All we had to do was get to JFK International Airport! We live in Little Rock, AR. So, with sufficient air miles with Southwest, plus $11 each in taxes we got to LaGuardia. Then, $30 each round trip to JFK on the NYC Transporter, we were ready to board Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Germany, then on to Nairobi. The return trip would be on Swiss Air from Nairobi to Zurich, Switzerland, then on to JFK and back to LaGuardia.

To put Africa in perspective, it is second only to the Asian Continent in size with 11.7 million square miles and a total population of 1.2 BILLION people. The USA has 3.8 million square miles so Africa is 3X the size of the U.S. With about 325 million of us here, Africa has 4X our population. The Northern most point in Africa is the same Latitude as the northern borders of NC, TN, AR, OK, NM and AZ. The Southern tip of Africa is on Latitude with Uruguay in South America.

Kenya is an East Afric equatorial and coastal Nation of 47 million people of a size a little smaller than Texas at 225,000 square miles versus 269,000 for Texas. Kenya has almost twice the population of Texas’s 28 million though. Nairobi, the Capitol of Kenya lies in Southern Kenya just a few degrees south of the Equator. There are 6.5 million inhabitants in the greater Nairobi Metroplex. Kenya, like all of Africa is an impoverished nation. 67% of those 47 million (or 31+ million of them) are unemployed – most are still traditional subsistence farmers, hunters and gatherers. Those that don’t farm, live in squalid small towns and city slums and depend on relatives who do farm or are employed for survival. There is NO government welfare! NONE! Compared to the average Kenyan, the poorest people in America are rich beyond Kenyan imaginations.

Kenya is still primarily a Christian Nation as is still, much of Africa. The Islamization of Africa has been severe and widespread leaving only Sub-Saharan Africa mostly Christian. The terrorist imprints of Islam are seen everywhere in Kenya with their Red X graffiti, and the extreme security measures that all commercial area of any real value have to under-take. We had to go through five levels of security to return to the Nairobi Airport to return home. Long before you reach the airport perimeter, there is a guarded gate to check ID and vehicle ownership. A mile further, all passengers must exit the vehicle to go through ID check, x-ray and magnetometers while the driver and vehicle go through a chemical and electronic bomb check and more in-depth ID and registration. Then you get to the parking lot but to enter the airport building, another ID, x-ray and magnetometer. Bag check is a two-step process drop off, and then through “normal” airport security, immigration check, x-ray and magnetometer. Finally, you are at your gate area, and you guessed it, a separate secure gate area with ID, x-ray, and bomb sniffing check. Finally, you sit down to wait for your plane and pass your boarding pass though the machine – again! Folks, this is what unfettered immigration and the open arms welcoming of Islam is bringing to America. (Speaking of unfettered immigration, when we landed in Frankfurt, to get to our next gate, we had to actually leave the secure area, leave the terminal, and catch a train. Then a bus from the assigned exit gate to our plane, parked out on the tarmac after passing over runways while waiting for other planes to take off and land! (Germany has completely open borders!!! NO immigration control what-so ever!!)

Kenya is a mountainous high-plain (called Savannahs) Country. Nairobi is a mile high city. Where we stayed at Lake Naivasha is at 6,700 feet. Mt. Kenya in the center of the Nation is 17,057 feet, and Mt. Kilimanjaro on the Kenya/Tanzania border to the South is 19,341 feet. Unlike Peru last year, the altitude did not bother us. It does keep the temperatures cool (75 to 85) and dry humidity. VERY pleasant weather. We arrived during the rainy season, which, had been a drought this year until the week before we arrived. There was rain but never all day. Except for the first morning in Nairobi, it never interfered with my photography efforts.

We landed in Nairobi around 8 PM in a light rain, and woke up the next morning at the Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel, across from the Parliament building in a light rain. The Hotel was abuzz with extra security due to a visiting West African President. The Hotel – as most buildings – was surrounded by a 12 foot high steel fence topped with razor wire, and even without the dignitary, has around-the-clock armed guards with fully automatic machine guns. We enjoyed a good breakfast and then a brief FriendlyPlanet.com orientation where we were given gifts of a cloth safari hats, a 100% wool Maasai robe and a document holder. Then we were off to the Elephant Orphanage.

I want to stop here and let all the readers know that every one we met, all of the Kenyans and all in our tour group and our driver-guides were wonderful people. The Africans could not be more friendly and accommodating. Including Linda and I, there were 13 in our tour group, and only four of us in our van – one of three vans. Our group consisted of Bonnie, Jason, Donna, Larry, Teresa, Tony, Simon, Marie-Claire, Ben, Tim and Candace. We were the oldest. We had two medical doctors, a Realtor, a Financial Analyst, a lawyer, an occupational therapist and a Computer guy among us. Our driver was Jim, and the lead driver, a fellow Master Naturalist, was Peter Wamugunda who is now a Facebook Friend. We enjoyed being with everyone.

After leaving the orphaned baby elephants – all of which were rescued from all over Kenya under various tragedies. They have to be kept and slept with by a tender until they are at least two years old – we piled in our respective Vans for the 4 hour drive to Lake Naivasha. It is only about 100KM (62 miles) so why 4 hours? Well, we did make a couple of pit and shopping stops, but mainly the roads. Once you are outside of the Nairobi Metroplex area, the highways and rural country roads are atrocious. They are crowded and pot-hole pocked. The way is dotted with small villages, and the Maasai herd their cattle, sheep and goats along all green shoulders of roadway.

Sopa Lodge on Lake Naivasha is a wonderful oasis and nature preserve. All of the pictures are in order taken except for a little judicious arranging to make sense. The Sopa Lodge grounds are well manicured by the grazing Zebra, Waterbuck, Hippo’s and Giraffes. There was a warning sign about Cape Buffalo, but we never saw them at Sopa. The Lake dock area and Lake cruise was magnificent for bird watching … and, seeing the Hippo in their natural element.

After two days at Sopa we left for the Maasai Mara National Park. A 6+ hour drive over 216 KM (135 miles) the last 50 of which was “gravel”! I use the word “gravel” loosely here. At best, the road was heavily ribbed washboard strewn with fist sized rocks and at worst was akin to driving down (or up) a boulder strewn dry creek bed. And, yes, even more than on the paved roads, we had to contend with Maasai herders. (Note, I am using the Kenyan spelling of “Maasai” and not the English version, “Masai” )

While World Renowned, the Maasai Mara National Preserve is actually one of the smaller National Parks in Kenya. It lies Southwest of Nairobi on the Tanzania border. When it was originally established in 1961 as a wildlife sanctuary the Mara covered only 520 square kilometres (200 sq mi) of the current area, including the Mara Triangle. The area was extended to the east in 1961 to cover 1,821 km² (703 sq mi) and converted to a game reserve. The Narok County Council (NCC) took over management of the reserve at this time. Part of the reserve was given National Reserve status in 1974, and the remaining area of 159 km² (61 sq mi) was returned to local communities. An additional 162 km² (63 sq mi) were removed from the reserve in 1976, and the park was reduced to 1,510 km² (580 sq mi) in 1984. In 1994, the TransMara County Council (TMCC) was formed in the western part of the reserve, and control was divided between the new council and the existing Narok County Council. In May 2001, the not-for-profit Mara Conservancy took over management of the Mara Triangle.

The Keekorok Lodge was a very welcome sight and oasis after almost two hours of bone jarring road where I had to ask our driver Jim to slow down. Rarely am I afraid of dying, but being in the front seat with no airbags, and feeling the Van skate across the ribbed road at 50mph toward boulders and deep ditches, I was genuinely concerned!

Even deep in the heart of sub-equatorial Africa miles from any civilization as we know it, the Reserve had a stone and high steel gate with machine gun armed soldiers and a thorough security check to get into the Mara. Once we reached Keekorok, another Iron gate, security guard and back-up, steel lift pole across the road. These Maasai do not accept fundamental Islam as a “religion of peace”. They know better. Just before entering the Mara, we had the pleasure of visiting a traditional Maasai village. The Maasai (meaning “the people” and “Mara” meaning “the place”) were traditionally for millennium nomadic people. Now, those who choose to maintain a traditional way of life, live in stick constructed mud and donkey manure clad huts. These four room huts consist of a marriage bedroom where one wife sleeps, a kitchen, a child’s bedroom and a guest bedroom. Often the young goats and sheep are kept in the “guest room” at night. Maasai men can have multiple wives based upon the number of cattle they can accumulate. The wife builds the house. So, if the man has 5 wives, he has 5 houses to visit. He sleeps in one per night. Wealthy Maasai have dozens of wives and possibly hundreds of children. There is no running water. No bathrooms other than the great out of doors. Each village compound is surrounded by a stockade fence of cut trees and brush where the cattle are brought into the compound at night. This is Lion, Leopard and Cheetah country!

We crossed into and out of the Great Rift Valley on our way to Naivasha and the Mara. Much of what we saw were vast acres of farmland and commercial farms – great habitat loss to the native wild animals and birds. Only on the larger wheat farms did we see evidence of mechanization. Most farm labor is still stoop labor. Like we saw in Panama, filth, trash and litter lines all the roads and city streets outside of Nairobi.

Our two days at Keekorok and the Mara were nothing short of spectacular. Our only complaints with Sopa and Keekoroak was the bed mattresses gave the word “firm mattress” a whole new meaning – HARD!!! The Lodge staff was very friendly and accommodating, and the reception desk staff even allowed me to use their one and only computer to back up my picture files to my portable hard drive. (I left my lap top at home – that weight thing again). There was no “business center” at these lodges. They did have wifi – slow, but you could make cell phone calls and check your e-mail if you had a Kenya enabled sim card smart phone.

Leaving Keekorok Lodge was sad. We really should have booked the second week in Tanzania. The road back to Nairobi was no smoother and certainly no shorter. (255KM or 152 miles) It took 7 hours! We did have a couple of nice stops including one over-looking the Great Rift Valley.

Because our flight left early at 7:40 PM. We did not get to have the farewell dinner with the whole group. We did have a nice lunch at the Carnivore Restaurant with Bonnie and Jason. After lunch, we visited the Rothschild’s Giraffe Preserve and the Karen Blixen House/Museum before heading to the airport. We had to miss the bead factory tour.

 

The photographic link accompanying this trip blog is a shareable and downloadable link. You are free to use these pictures for your own pleasure, but all are copyrighted so no commercial use is allowed. Also, please accept my apologies for the lack of top quality as I left my big Nikon bodies and lenses at home to conserve weight and to enjoy the convenience of my Nikon “point and shoot” B700 which does have the optical zoom of 28 to 1400 35mm equivalent – but, the resolution and s/n ratio simply cannot match my heavier and more expensive equipment. None-the-less, I think you will enjoy most of the pictures – I hope so, anyway.