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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Kenya Safari Part I

On Saturday 17 December Grant and I left the camp at 4.30am. (See tomorrow's post for stunning sunrise photos!) By the time we reached and passed Nakuru, the sun was high in the sky and I managed one photo of a crater along the way.

Not sure which crater this is, but I enjoyed taking the photo through the window of a fast-moving vehicle!

We spent the night in Nairobi, and early the next morning we started out on the first leg of our safari.


We stopped at the turnoff to the Masaai Mara Game Reserve to take photos of the many signs, We were booked into Fig Tree Camp situated on the Talek River. (More about this fantastic camp later). While I was focussing on the signs a man ran up to Grant and warned him not to take the road ahead due to recent heavy rains. He convinced Grant to get out while he drew a map leaning on the vehicle bonnet. He had a selection of coloured pens with which he drew an elaborate map mostly with secondary roads leading off the main route and notes saying: "don't take this road" ! Ten minutes later he handed Grant the map and asked for KSH1000/US$13!

We continued on the normal route, ignoring the con-man's map completely. The road was tarred which made it much worse as the tar is almost non-existent. The distance between the turnoff where I took the photos of the signs and the entrance to Masaai Mara is 101km. It took us almost three hours to cover this!
The main road to Masaai Mara Game Reserve was a challenge in anyone's language!

At last we arrived at the entrance but more about this later.

8 comments:

  1. All those signs could be very confusing. I'll bet that map maker catches some folks for the money.

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  2. I was afraid your conman would lead you on loads where you would be robbed. Luckily he just wanted some quick cash.
    Three hours for 100 kilometres is not bad going when you consider some of our roads here.

    Glad you got there in one piece.

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  3. I believe that crater is Mt. Longonot, and if not, then Suswa. I've passed it so many times on the A104 Highway - and have also flown over it in a Cessna 172. What memories! And memories of the con-men too. They seem to flourish along those main routes where we wazungu travel. ☻

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  4. All of that sounds so familiar! What a good photo you got of the road--how well I remember those roads. Looking forward to more stories and photos.

    Linda Thomas

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  5. Look f'ward to the next installment Jo! xoxo

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  6. I love the animal photos in your header, especially the elephants.
    The photo of the signs made me think of Mexico, where my parents spent many, many winters. All the bright colours, and the tin buildings behind!
    Con-men are everywhere, aren't they? We arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris exhausted, and someone actually sold Dick two used train tickets.
    I hope you are happily settled back in with the cats at the camp.
    Luv, K

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  7. OMG ! what a road ! Looks like ours here after winter, lol !
    The guy knows how to "milk" tourists !

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  8. I'm thinking there are con men in every society! I'm glad you ignored the man's map, but sorry that he conned the money from you.

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