An African Adventure

[coyote25]

I’ve al

I have to read any trip report with Africa in it . That’s a large number of countries you are covering. It will help pass the time until our trip in September

I’ve almost finished my 60 day trip, got lots of notes and updates for this thread but I’ve been either too busy having fun or limited wifi access on downtimes.

Updates coming soon including a country by country summary and all important border crossing stories! In the mean time my daily travel blog is up to date if interested.

Nathan's Insights

 

[ALH]

You are so good to have done so much in your trip report. I've been home for 4 days and haven't even downloaded my photos from the Camera yet.

 

[Flying mermaid]

You are so good to have done so much in your trip report. I've been home for 4 days and haven't even downloaded my photos from the Camera yet.

Hope it all went well?

 

[ALH]

Hope it all went well?

Unbelievable. I'll start a trip report and post the most import video clip. Perhaps that will force me to do the whole report

 

[Flying mermaid]

Unbelievable. I'll start a trip report and post the most import video clip. Perhaps that will force me to do the whole report

Looking forward to seeing it!

 

[coyote25]

Kenya
Population: 50 million
Visited: 23/11-28/11/2017 & 06/12-09/12
Places visited: Nairobi, Masai Mara, Eldoret, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha
Visa: Either $50 USD single visit or $100 USD East African Visa

Kenya was the kick off country for this Africa trip. On arrival Emirates First Class & Business passengers were provided with a courtesy van from the tarmac to Immigration and customs. You can get a visa on entry but I had previously applied for one online previously, I should however have gotten an East Africa Visa on arrival instead.

I noted in Kenya was how many Chinese construction projects that were underway in particular for roads which are definitely needed. During my time in Kenya I got to see most of the major safari animals; lions, cheetahs, leopard, elephant, giraffe, jackals, hyenas, hippos, crocodiles, impalas, warthogs, flamingos, white rhinos and wildebeest.

The Masai Mara was a significant highlight of the entire trip which I also did a hot air ballon over and visited a Masai village. The East Africa Mission Orphanage (EAMO) at Naruku was also worth a visit. I was also surprised at how green Kenya was especially in the mountain areas.

A great experience in Kenya on this overland camping 57 day trip.

Kenya Blog Posts.

 

[ellen10]

Signing on very late for this trip report.
Looking forward to going back and reading all the information

 

[Flying mermaid]

This is a real safari - not like the glamping I do . Love your blog - huge amount of work!

 

[coyote25]

This is a real safari - not like the glamping I do . Love your blog - huge amount of work!

Thanks Flying mermaid, actually this started out as written travel journal back in 1999 and since then I’ve gone digital which allows me to share some of the journeys. Really I just write so I can look back and remember the good (and the bad), you always remember the great stuff but it’s surprising some of the good things to don’t immediately recall. Once I retire I’ll review everything and pick a few places I really want to explore in depth.

Happy travels.

 

[coyote25]

Uganda
Population: 41 million
Visited: 30/11/17 to 05/12/17 (excluding 03/12/17 Rwanda)
Places visited: Kampala, Lake Bunyoni, Jinja
Visa: Either $50 USD single visit or $100 USD East African Visa

In many ways visitingUganda was the entire point if this trip as I wanted to visit the endangered Mountain Gorillas and I expanded the trip from there. At the border crossing from Kenya to Uganda I moved from single country visas in East Africa to the East Africa Visa. Immigration officer wasn’t happy to do this but eventually allow it. I switched over as I decided to visit Rwanda as well and you need three days at least to get their visa whereas East Africa visa includes Rwanda. Lession learned in that this is what I should have done first up.

Mountain Gorilla Experince (Bwindi Impenetrable Forest: The Bwera family) - Video

The mountain gorilla experience was even better than I imagined it wold be. One of the baby gorillas was extremely playful. I was got lucky and only had to hike 1.5 hours to get to the Bwera gorilla family. I did however manage to slip and fall down several times on the hike back! Also while in Uganda I went white water rafting on the White Nile, watched a stunning sunset over the Nile, did the tourist thin of standing in two hemispheres (and did the water test as well), and visited an orphanage school. I was amazed at how green Uganda actually is, and how beautiful. If you get a chance it’s worth visiting the mountain gorillas.

Uganda Blog Posts

 

[VPS]

Enjoying this - you've put a lot of effort into it - so thank you

 

[JohnM]

Late aboard but settling into 1A.

 

[coyote25]

Rwanda
Population: 11.9 million
Visited: 03/12/17
Places visited: Kigali
Visa: $100 USD East African Visa (got me into Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda)

This was a last minute decision to leave the tour and do a day trip to a country I’d only heard about in regards to genicode from 1994. During the day I visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Hotel Rwanda (real name Hôtel des Mille Collines), Belgian Solider Memorial and learned a lot about this violent history but also the rebuilding. In particular how many of the guilty were required to do extensive community service as they didn’t have enough jails. This has lead to one of the most clean countries I’ve seen in Africa.

You cross the border and our driver had to change the side of the road he was driving on which is always a little weird with the steering wheel now in the wrong position for this country. I was also surprised by how green the small part of Rwanda that I visited actually was.

Definitely worth visiting in order to better understand recent history in this region.

Rwanda Blog Story.

 

[coyote25]

Sorry for the delay in posting, it was a hell of a trip and took me a while to recover returning to this so called ‘real’ world / normal life

Tanzania
Population: 55 million
Visited: 10/12/17 - 20/12/2017
Places visited: Arusha, Dar Es Salaam, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, Mikumi National Park
Visa: $50 USD

The highlight of the visit to Tanzania was easily the 2 day visit to Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. At the Ngorongoro Crater we spotted lions, elephants, a black rhino (from afar), elands, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, ostriches, warthogs, hippos, hyenas, a mass of wildebeests, gazelles and loads of zebras. The highlight of the morning was the numerous sightings of lions. This started with a lioness walking around the 4WD vehicles and even marking some of them with her pee. The lions didn’t seem to have any concern or interest in humans in open air vehicles which is just as well I guess.

The Serengeti allow me to see wildebeest running in huge herds. Also at night at the bush camp we could see huge lightning storm which was just an incredible show. We saw some elephants fighting each other for dominance and a baby zebra which lost its mother for a few minutes and started to panic. We used patience to spot a leopard on the hunt that stayed hidden for about 30 minutes.

I’ll also remember how green most of Tanzania was during the long drive around the country and how the children would always run to the side of the road to wave at us tourist with a big smile on their face. At Dar Es Salaam I got to swim in the Indian Ocean with it’s very warm water (and I also saw some jellyfish which got me out of the ocean very quickly - LOL)

I’ll cover Zanzibar in the next post.

Tanzania Blog Stories.

 

[coyote25]

Some photos I took while in Tanzania.

 

[Quickstatus]

How did you get to Tanzania?

 

[coyote25]

How did you get to Tanzania?

It was part of On The Go Tour - Great African Expedition overland tour (ie by truck). I started in Kenya and fly there from Melbourne via Singapore and Dubai on a one way F Award which was an amazing experience on Emirates A380 (for MEL - SIN -DXB legs).

 

[Quickstatus]

Onthegotours.com?

 

[coyote25]

Onthegotours.com?

Yes Tanzania Safari and Africa Overland in 57 Days | On The Go Tours

 

[Quickstatus]

Yes Tanzania Safari and Africa Overland in 57 Days | On The Go Tours

Drooling!!
Met your expectations?

What was excluded in the quoted prices?