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The Safari we took lasted seven days, in the
beginning of 2002, most of
which
were exhaustively driven on rough roads, across rocky pathways to find
the animals. Even the normal roads were bumpy experiences.
Taking
photographs
under these conditions is difficult at best, and we ended up with some
4500 of them, with a huge number (almost 3000) offered up on this CD.
Many pictures were shot out the window of the moving Safari Van;
snapped
almost blindly. We wanted to capture the visual images of Kenya's
landscape.
During the safari drives themselves, the driver would stop when animals
were in view, sometimes right next to them. They totally ignored the
vans.
But we were warned that if a human being stepped out of a van the
animals
would be quite dangerous.
These pages display small versions of the pictures, called thumbnails,
which need to be clicked on to view them full size. I have
managed
to keep all written comments to a minimum. There are many minor
and
even slightly out of focus pictures; but they gave some information
that
seemed valid. Just click on the thumbnails which seem most
interesting
to you. Some will surprise you; some will be ho-hum; can't be
helped.
But the totality, hopefully, offers up an exhaustive photo essay of the
Safari the Somak Tours offered us.
For more
detailed
information concerning the trip, click MORE
INTRO or
return TO TOP
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The safari road was a rough rocky-road for the
most
part. But our beginnings were in Los Angeles, a delayed flight to
London by some 6 hours. Luckily we discovered this before being taken
to
LAX by Roadrunner. We simply had to wait at home those extra
hours
– hours lost in London [instead of having an extra afternoon to see the
town we arrived in the early evening – after dark].
The two night stay in London gave us just enough time to catch up on
the
“jet lag” and to see a little of the surrounding town, including Hyde
Park,
just a few blocks from our hotel, The Regency.
The flight to Kenya started around 7PM and we arrived in Nairobi in the
early morning after some 8 hours flight time. That was just the
beginning!
We had a day in the town, and could have taken a tour, but were too
tired
to consider such luxury. [On our return, at the end of our
stay, we never got around to seeing the city on foot, merely settling
for
a drive-through under the guidance of our driver.] Instead we
relaxed
and enjoyed.
Considering what was to follow it was a good thing, too. We'd
need
all the rest we could manage.
The next days were for the most part traveling on rocky roads.
Other
than the main super “freeway” the roads were, at best, pot-holed, with
edges like jagged teeth, "painted" over rocky ground. Once inside
the different parks we were on naked dirt roads, which meant being
jumped
and juggled every minute of driving. Out driver Peter was the
only
other person in our tour “bus”; so we had a private guide during the
next
days.
The tour included the following: Samburu [for two nights - after many
hours
of rapid driving through pot-holed roads], then Mountain Lodge, Lake
Nakuru,
and finally Masai Mara [for two nights]. Plus every day we’d be taken
out
on a “safari” drive to see the local animals, mornings and evenings for
a couple (or more) hours at a time. Barely any time left to relax
and recover!
The first night at Samburu we met a man named Alan Johnson who had a
birthday
celebration. We had been invited to join him and his
nephew.
Another couple joined us the next day; newly-weds from Scotland.
These four became our eating companions during the safari week. The
trip
ended on Brigitte’s birthday, and in the morning we took a balloon
flight,
and in the evening had a celebration at dinner.
Our return flights started with an 5AM wakeup, a long 8 hour drive
through
rough roads to Nairobi where we waited at the Somak building until 7,
then
taken to the airport where we waited until 11 for our 8 hour flight to
London. Once in England we had to wait around 5 hours for our 12 hour
flight
to LAX. To say it simply: this was one double flight we would
never
want to make again. A real killer on top of the days on the
Safari.
But it was all worth it as can be seen in the following pages.
SOMAK
TOUR SCHEDULE
&
KENYA MAP
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