Self-drive safari in Kenya - September 2011

[M & M]

The great migration in the Masai Mara was something that we had never seen. We had made self-drive safaris to Kenya before, but in 2011 we timed it to see one of the most dramatic spectacles in the natural world. Besides the Masai Mara, we also visited the drought-stricken Meru National Park, where we had the most amazing cheetah encounters; beautiful Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserve with its friendly elephants; Lake Nakuru and Tsavo East. Being supporters of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for some years now, we decided to also visit their Ithumba Release Station in northern Tsavo East, which was a very special place to get to know and it was an unforgettable experience mingling with the orphaned elephants large and small!

 

For a detailed report of our safari, including several hundreds of photos, please visit our website:

 

http://www.wildscope.com/travel-reports/Kenya-2011-photo-report/

[PCNW]

Great report, thank you.

[Super LEEDS]

Hi M & M

 

Sorry it took me so long to read this, I think others may have missed it for some reason too so here's a bump!

 

Great report. I'm completely biased, but isn't Kenya great?! so varied, something for everyone.

 

Loved the orphans after the mud-bath, seemed like some kind of pachyderm holi festival!

 

Do you have any pics of the gurdwara in Makindu at all? Would be interesting to see them.

 

Leeds

[pault]

So your cook traveled with you as a passenger, while you drove? A very useful addition to the usual camping equipment!!

 

I'm reading the long version and I mostly only have acess through my I-Phone so it may take me a little longer to finish it.

 

Your time in Meru is particuarly intetresting, with fabulous cheetah sightings and some more disturbing stuff... I hope your worst suppositons aren't true.

 

I am also interested to hear that "the prices for the monkey men have skyrockedted" but "Charles had told us privately that we definitely had to get one."

 

I hope that all creates some interest as it is a very interesting read so far!

[M & M]

Thank you everyone for your positive and encouraging comments!

 

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the Gurdwara in Makindu. We'll remember it next time!

 

Taking Charles, the cook, with us (for the second trip running) was one of the best decisions we made. We can thoroughly recommend it as he was very good at organising our provisions and the food he cooked was extremely varied. And obviously he was always in the camp to ward off marauding baboons and monkeys while we were out on game drives.

 

We are looking forward to our next African safari, but meanwhile we are off to northern South America - a new experience for us!

[safaripics]

Great report and some lovely photos. I think we may have come close to crossing paths as we did Tsavo East, Tsavo West and the Mara in September and October last year!

[bushbaby]

wow..what nice pics and report there...driving across the varied topography and it's endemics are always eye opening ! And the pics portrayed , thankfully so, the trees and the vegetation and the overall habitat - thanks for that !

 

Also reading the longer report and it's super fascinating and Im glued to my laptop for over an hour now !

 

Just as an aside, I typically find reading long reports with dark background and light fonts very straining to eyes! (read somewhere a research which states dark background and light fonts leads to almost double the strain than dark fonts on light background)

Edited May 22, 2012 by bushbaby

[M & M]

Glad you all liked the report and photos!

 

@Bushbaby: We are aware of the problems of pale fonts on dark background, and we have tried to lessen the effect by using off-white on a dark grey background. However, we do feel that a dark background shows the photos off much better than a white one. We guess the best option would be to add a download where one could download just the report, which would make it easier to read. Maybe we'll do that when we get a bit of time.

[Abena]

I just read through your website report about your safari - I really enjoyed it, and the photos were beautiful. Getting to interact with the baby elephants must have been amazing!