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Stage Four: Amboseli And A Missing Mountain
To enter Amboseli via the Kimana Gate is to drive into a dust bowl. Huge plumes follow each safari truck, every animal movement is followed by the same giveaway and by the time the first hour of our first game drive has passed, our mouths taste of nothing but dry dust. But the dustbowl is but one element, there is more to learn about unique Amboseli, a set of characteristics which set it apart from Kenya’s other safari regions. For a start there are four separate habitats: the dry dusty plain, a freshwater lake, a salt water lake and an extensive swamp. What really makes Amboseli unique though is the…
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Stage Three: Lake Nakuru to Amboseli
Early starts are par for the course when you’re on safari, so by the time we hit Saturday the alarm is going off at 5:15am for the fourth morning in a row and is going to carry on doing so for a few days yet. A dense mist lies over the lake, obscuring most of it from view, and a heavy dew hangs in liquid baubles from plants bent over by the weight. Birds sing and baboons talk: wildlife doesn’t need an alarm clock. When we chose the itinerary for our safari week, we opted for the one which would take us to five of Kenya’s great safari regions, an…
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Stage Two: Maasai Mara To Lake Nakuru
We’re not always one hundred per cent certain about visits to tribal villages, it’s sometimes a thin line between an authentic experience and something touristy and exploitative, and it’s hard to tell the difference beforehand. Whichever, the bottom line is that the time honoured customs of the local people will be being impacted one way or another by the influx of tourist money, there’s no getting away from that. But here, in a new country and deep into the Maasai Mara, our desire to learn more of their culture outweighs the doubts and we commit to an early morning sortie. As it turns out, it’s not touristy, it’s definitely not…
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Safari Stage One: Into The Maasai Mara
Our base for the first two nights of the safari adventure is Jambo Mara Lodge, where we are greeted by staff bearing those heartwarming smiles which are already becoming very familiar since our arrival in Kenya, and then by baboons swinging from the trees immediately outside our window. Every now and again a playful one leaps from the tree and pitter patters across our tin roof as if to warn us that this is the territory of the animals and not of mankind. The approach through the Maasai Mara to Jambo has brought us through tiny villages which bear ever more recognisable features of the Maasai people, until in the…
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Africa Underway – Trouble On The Streets Of Nairobi
Nairobi, Tuesday 7am. Darkness lifts as we progress slowly through passport control and baggage reclaim, then out into the melee of taxis, buses and safari jeeps clamouring for passengers or waiting for someone to spot their name on a board and head out under the big morning sky. The expressway from airport to city is a racetrack of vehicles constantly changing lanes and squeezing through gaps which are barely there. Alongside and parallel, huge numbers of people make their way on foot to their workplace, giving the industrial quarter the look of an African Lowry painting, stick figures jostling through crowds in every direction. We are met at our one-nighter…
- Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, Independent travel, Photography, South America, Travel Blog, Wildlife
Biding Our Time
“Wasting my time, resting my mind And I’ll never pine For the sad days and the bad days When we was working from nine to five” Lyrics from “Biding My Time” by Pink Floyd We’re in a bit of what you might call a hiatus. It’s been a strange year, one way and another, with the whole of January at home to deal with a property matter, then our Brazil trip interrupted by the sad news of Michaela’s Dad’s death and our return to England for the funeral. Of course, we then reconvened our trip and enjoyed ten weeks of Brazil, the southern states of the USA and a little…
- California, Independent travel, North America, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Travel Blog, USA, Walking, Wildlife
California: Chill Time Before We Head Home
Underfoot the ground is parched, rock hard and dusty, the sun shines hot from crystal skies and occasional breezes rustle the trees and send dust clouds up into small eddies while only marginally cooling the heat. Tufts of weed and grass remain but seem to be turning to pale yellow by the hour, some already sun kissed enough to disintegrate into more dust if we step on them. It’s all very different from the verdant forests and regular rain of the last three weeks. Spring is turning into summer into the mountains above Los Angeles. Acton, the small town which is my daughter Lindsay’s home, receives its hot days of…
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On The Road Again: From Smoky Mountains To Sweet Home Alabama
It’s with a real sense of occasion that we set off from Gatlinburg through the greenery which is this morning made even more intense by the glorious bright sunshine brightening the leafage and dappling the roadway. We’re on the road again on the final leg of our southern states road trip. Ahead of us lies an 850-mile journey from the Smoky Mountains back to New Orleans where we will return the rental car and catch a flight to Los Angeles; splitting the trip into three sections means two more small town one night stands on the way. Anticipation is buzzing inside the Chevy. With more time between check out and…
- History, Independent travel, North America, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Tennessee, Travel Blog, USA, Walking, Wildlife
Smoky Mountains, Black Bears & The Trail Of Tears: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
It’s the sort of thing you take with a pinch of salt, advice placed inside the apartment on what to do if you meet a bear when you go out the door. I mean, it’s never really going to happen, is it…. Except it does. On our fourth, and last, night here, we set off towards town for our last evening meal, and get no more than 50 yards from our door when we come face to face with a young black bear in the street outside. Thankfully he or she is more scared than we are, and turns and trots the other way, soon joined by what looks like…
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Non-Stop Nashville: 4 Days In Music City, Then Time For A Change
The Interstate cuts a sunken swathe right through the heart of Nashville, the gleaming skyscrapers of the city telling of its recently gained reputation as an economic powerhouse. Giant companies such as AT&T, FedEx, Nissan and Bridgestone have all set up major bases here as Nashville grows in confidence and influence, commerce clearly adding another string to its bow. Or maybe another string to its guitar. It may have made that move, but as we walk down Broadway (aka Honky Tonk Highway) for the first time there’s absolutely no mistaking the fact that Music City is still Music City, not only another site of huge musical origins and influence but…
