Tag Archives: Kenya

Ready to Roll Kenya Africa

Ready to Roll Kenya Africa

Ready to Roll Kenya Africa

It’s me. I’ve just left the supermarket. I’ve got some chips and some cookies and some water and a little bit of brandy. I’m now ready to roll. I even got rid of all my Kenyan shillings. I probably look happy here. I won’t be for long. The day was cool and the window was down and the tour leader refused to put the window up. "You’ll get used to it…", she told me. Maybe so, but that didn’t make it a pleasant experience. My advise – if you plan on going overlanding understand that the budget trip experience may take some "getting used to." It might be better to go with a company that costs a little more. 20120602

Who is Where in Africa

Who is Where in Africa

Who is Where in Africa

Guess who! Guess where! This is pretty much a gimme, isn’t it? Some people rank the Serengeti as one of the top attractions in the world. I’ll leave that up to other people. I will say that the sight of zebras and wildebeests as far as the eye can see in all directions is pretty overwhelming. Do one day in the Serengeti and one day in the Ngorongoro Crater and it’s an experience you’ll never forget. If you’re a serious traveler and you haven’t been to some conservations areas in Kenya and Tanzania, I’d advise you to put them on your list. I hear the Gorillas in Uganda are exceptional as well. That one went on my list after hearing about it from some members of my group.

Zanzibar Tanzania Power

Zanzibar Tanzania Power

Zanzibar Tanzania Power

This is my power meter on my netbook. The reason for the picture is to remind me to include a comment about the perpetual power outages that I have experienced during my stay in Africa. Do they happen everyday? It seems so. When I think about it seems that they certainly average one every day. The one that prompted me to take this picture lasted over two hours and was the second one that day. Remember, we’ve been moving around Kenya and Tanzania during this time. These aren’t just localized to one area. I’ve seen power outages in lots of places, including my own home town, but these are quite frequent, relatively.

Breakfast Kenya

Breakfast Kenya

Breakfast Kenya

On my first day in Kenya I met a couple of guys from Israel who had been in Nairobi for a while and they were nice enough to take me out to one of the local places for breakfast. I think breakfast cost about 30 cents and, luckily for me, they paid. I hadn’t gotten any local money from an ATM. The pair had rented a 4-wheel drive vehicle and were going to wander around Africa for a few months. Maybe I should have canceled my trip plans and went with them. Then again, it was probably the best thing to do to go on the trip I had planned. 20120530

Super Market Kenya

Super Market Kenya

Super Market Kenya

It’s a supermarket that I shopped in in Karen, Kenya. If you go on a camping trip in Africa you will have to go to the markets and supermarkets to get food and supplies. I know, I went to many of them. They represent those little slices of interdependency we all have among ourselves. Someone grows the food, someone takes ti to the packager who packages it. Someone delivers it to the supermarkets who in turn sells it to consumers. The best possible situation is the one where the person who grows or raises the food is the one who consumes it. I keep threatening to plant a garden but I never do. Maybe it’s because I’m gone so much. 20120602

Camping Truck

Camping Truck

Camping Truck

This was a truck that I saw on my first day in Nairobi, Kenya. It was outfitted pretty well. The occupants were probably going to take it into the "bush" for a little adventure. Notice the tent is high off the ground. This is good as it keeps certain critters out of the tent. The whole outfit was geared for local exploration. It looked like fun to me. Think about it – going out into Africa to see and explore some of the more remote and more interesting places. 20120530

Safari Trucks Kenya

Safari Trucks Kenya

Safari Trucks Kenya

The safari trucks are lined up at Karen Camp. This is place where people come to get their equipment ready to head out into Africa. Generally, they are going to Kenya and Tanzania, the two widely recognized locations for animal viewing. Karen camp is in no way a hotel. It’s a rough, rowdy place where overlanders and safari types come to get ready for their trip. Personally, I would never recommend that anyone ever go there to actually stay for any length of time. It’s too far away from anything to be a good location. It’s located in Karen, Kenya but too far outside of town to be close to any commercial activity. 20120531

Hot Water Kenya

Hot Water Kenya

Hot Water Kenya

See the wooden stove that made hot water at the campsite in Kenya? I had to check the stove to see if it had been working before I decided to take a shower at the campsite in Nairobi. The weather was a little cooler than I would have wanted. Hot water was good, Very good. 20120531

View from Desk Kenya

View from Desk Kenya

View from Desk Kenya

It’s the view from the desk I had in Karen Camp. It was very interesting. Actually, it was just a table out back for people to sit at. It had an electrical outlet so that I could stay charged up. There was some lovely vegetation and I could take my meals there. In the mornings I could sit there and drink some coffee and study or write. It was very peaceful. In the evenings I could do the same until the crowd started getting so rowdy that I either had to retire to my room to work or put up my PC and join in. 20120530

Safaricom

Safaricom

Safaricom

If you are staying only in Kenya and Tanzania, you can get Safaricom. This is a Safaricom dongle. It gave me a somewhat to reasonably good internet connection while I was in the Nairobi area. The cost of the dongle itself was around $30. Karen Camp provided it to me free with a $30 deposit. The cost of the internet bandwidth was high, however. It is a prepaid service and the rates are at their Web site – safaricom.com. 20120530