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Trans Africa expedition 1 Our motley crew
Africa - Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin
Duration: 9 months
On the evening of Sunday 26th January my best mate, Mark, drove me from London to the port of Felixstowe, where I was scheduled to begin my 9 month Trans Africa expedition! I entered the P&O Passenger Terminal and eagerly scanned the terminal for a likely looking crowd, sure enough there was a small group with backpacks and sun hats! Our boat was due to set sail for Zeebrugge, Belgium at 11.00pm, so I spent some time getting to know the group. It felt strange to think I would be traveling with this group for 20 weeks overland from England to Kenya! We boarded the ship and after a brief chat everyone decided to bed down. I soon realized the tone of the trip when I discovered that our 'cabin' was actually the floor of the lounge!
Our motley crew was made up of 6 English guys, 1 English girl, 1 Belgium guy, 2 Canadian girls, a Canadian couple, 1 Aussie guys, 2 Aussie girls, an Aussie couple, 1 Kiwi girl and the two expedition leaders. The group seemed reasonably balanced with a roughly equal number of guys and girls spread in the age group 21 - 35 years of age. On our routing down through Europe to Morocco the first stop was Paris. I was quite surprised to learn that -6 degrees Celsius was not considered extreme weather, so we were camping! This was the first of many disagreements I had with the trip leader.
Gavin & Co.
foto: Janin
(to be continued)
Safari Journal 5
Arab domination was curtailed by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The Portuguese built the fort on the coast here to protect their trading interests in spices, cotton, coffee and slaves.
The Omani Arabs threw out the Portuguese in the eighteenth century and they in turn were replaced by British colonial rule at the end of the nineteenth century.
The vast majority of the inhabitants are Muslim and mosques form some of the most distinctive architecture. The Mandhry Mosque, said to be the oldest in Mombasa, built by the Arabs in the sixteenth century, has an unusual obelisk minaret. Some research (Lighthouses of Kenya) indicates that this could originally have been a beacon, one of many along the coast. Or maybe the mosque came first and the Portuguese used it as a beacon!
The journey back was rather eventful. At Mombasa airport our first attempt at take-off was aborted as we were going down the runway with complete instrument failure - a bit scary! Still, we had a fine view of Mount Kilimanjaro and the famous snows on its peak when we did finally get airborne.
Safari Journal 4
We flew out of the Masai Mara back to Nairobi in an eighteen-seater De Havilland (with British pilots!), landing a couple of times to pick up passengers.
It was a fantastic experience, flying low over Kenya we saw lots of elephant, Masai villages and the Great Rift Valley.
Mombasa
From Nairobi we flew on to Mombasa for three days relaxation on the beach. This isn't really our scene and three days is quite enough.
However, we had lovely rooms at the Jadini Beach Hotel with stunning views over Diani Beach and the Indian Ocean. Diani beach is a vision of paradise: an expanse of beautiful white sand, fringed by tall palm trees, practically deserted except for a few locals trying to sell sarongs and trinkets to the occasional tourist. Small boats and traditional dhows with triangular sails dot the waters near shore.
It had been overcast for much of our stay in the Masai Mara so it was wonderful to see continuous sun and blue skies.
Mombasa is situated on an island and is the cradle of the Swahili culture. Today Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya after Nairobi but it has been an important trading centre for about two thousand years.
(to be continued)
Safari Journal 3
Driving in we saw our first elephants - hoorah! - as well as zebra and giraffe - the bird life is superb too. In the afternoon on our first game drive hyenas - vicious looking creatures - topi, more zebra and giraffe.
Over the next few days we had half a dozen game drives and saw lots of animals, including many elephants and lions. From the lodge we could see a pride of lions on rocks, also zebra.
The most beautiful gazelles inhabit the area. We'd seen quite a few already but never got tired of seeing these shy, graceful animals.
The Bare-faced Go-away bird was another favourite - wonderful name!
Mostly the lions we saw were not very active until later in the day when it was much more difficult to take good photographs.
The hippos were very difficult to see well as the river was quite high due to the recent rains, so we saw lots of ears,snouts and backs but little else!
One of the most attractive creatures was a little jackal. I'd always thought they would look vicious but they don't at all.
We saw lots of birds just at the lodge, and a monkey with a baby on the roof! The ostriches are also a wonderful sight - quite stately birds.
But the most memorable, for me, were the elephants and, in particular, on our very last drive when we saw a complete herd of elephants on the opposite side of the valley with the females and youngsters together and the young males on the outskirts of the group. It was too close to dusk to get good photographs but the memory will stay with me always.
(to be continued)
Safari Journal 2
The thing is to spot as many of the "big five" as possible - that is African Elephant, lion, African Buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros. So we bagged two of the five - not bad for first timers!
Crossing the equator and via Thomson's Falls near Nyahururu to Lake Nakuru National Park. Stayed at Lake Nakuru Lodge in a little cabin with a mosquito net over the bed.
Here to see the vast numbers of flamingos, like pink foam on the shores of the lake. We couldn't get terrifically close to them, but the experience was wonderful.
Apart from the beautiful flamingos there are lots of other birdlife and animals to see on the game drives, particularly antelope.
Still no elephants.
On to the main event, so to speak. We drove from Lake Nakuru to the Masai Mara where everything was very wet! It had been raining recently and the roads were washed away in places. Ben, our driver, was very skillful at negotiating the muddy tracks of water-filled pot holes.
We stayed at Keekorok Lodge which was excellent - some at Cotters Camp were not so comfortable!
(to be continued)
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