"To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong
about other countries."
SAFARI IDEAS
| Trip made by 10 Norwegians in 2008 - Tsavo West National Park, Lamu, Aberdare National Park, Lake Nakuru National Park and Masai Mara National Reserve. | VIDEO | |
| 25 days self drive safari to Nakuru National Park, Samburu National Reserve, Lake Baringo, the Masai Mara National Reserve, Amboseli National Park, Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks and Nairobi National Park. | ||
| Self drive safari to Nairobi, Lake Nakuru National Park, Masai Mara National Reserve and Dinani beach (south coast). | ||
Example of 8 days self drive safari and relaxing time on the beach in Kenya . Summary: This self drive was done by 2 native Kenyans and 2 adults and one 11 years old kid from Norway, in March 2008. The stay included some sightseeing, safaris and quite relaxed life at the beach. The travel started and ended in Nairobi. I will try to explain our experience and show cost / budget on each event. The five fist days we had a 4x4 Range Rover from Erikson Rover Safaris in Nakuru at a rate of 12,000 KSH (200 USD) a day, including camping equipment and an experienced driver / guide. One day in Nairobi: Giraffe Centre, Sheldrick Trust, and Carnivore restaurant. Two days in Nakuru: Lake Nakuru National Park Three days in Masai Mara National Reserve: Game drives, and camping at Crocodile Campsite close to Talek Gate. Four days at Diani Beach (South Coast Mombasa) in CDC House at the beach (private house).
|
 |
|
Day 1. The Range Rover was driven from Nakuru to Nairobi to pick up the Norwegians who had arrived in Nairobi early in the morning (charged 4000 KSH for the pick up). We started going directly to the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi - about 30 minutes drives (if it’s no a traffic jam). The Centre was excellent and the kid was easily attracted to the animals. Some of us were able to get a wet kiss from one of the giraffes. The Giraffe Centre was an excellent experience for about 1-1,5 hour. The cost was about 10 USD a person We then left for The Sheldrick Trust (open only one hour a day starting at 11am). We had fun with about a dozen of small friendly elephants and watched two small rhinos. Sheldrick is always nice, and for visitors coming from big cities this is a friendly way to get use to “wild” animals in 1-1,5 hour. The cost was about 10 USD a person and they ask for donations. After two attractions we went to Carnivore for lunch. Carnivore serves as much food as you like until you surrender… This time they only offered crocodile and ostrich as game meat. The cost is about 50 USD including drinks for each person. We spent 2 hours before we started driving to Nakuru on nice roads (2,5 hour). In Nakuru we stayed in the company’s house (Erikson Rover Safaris Ltd.) in Milimani. The company offers this location with two bedrooms for free for customers renting their cars. Check availability with the Company’s staff. We went to a local restaurant for a meal and some drinks in the evening. A meal including drinks cost about 10 USD a person. If your stomach is not used to Africa, have the meal of the day because this has a great turnover and is fresher. |
 |
|
Day 2. We drove for a game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park. Excellent place and we watched several mammals as lions and rhinos on top of everything else - except cheetah and leopard. Lake Nakuru has thousands of flamingos and pelicans and we looked at quite a few of them. In the afternoon we went back to the city of Nakuru for some walks. The entrance fee to the park is 40 USD a person a day (adult). Day 3. We started the day by going shopping for the goods to bring with us to Masai Mara. Then we prepared the car for the 4x4 drive with all the camping equipment etc. We drove in the direction of Njoro, crossing the newly prepared Mau Narok road to Narok. This road used to be terrible, but it’s now quite ok. We entered Masai Mara at Sekanani gate after 5 hours and had a game drive to Talek gate. As always, Masai Mara was excellent. We watched a lot of animals on our way to the camp. We did our camping at Crocodile Camp just outside the Talek gate. This public camp is operated by Maasais and we adore staying with them. We rented a kitchen cabin at the spot, and we had brought our own camping equipments with us. The Maasais helped us to put up the tents, preparing food and getting firewood for the campfire, in addition to be our local guide during the game drives. In the night they guarded our camp. They were very friendly and offered singing and dancing and enjoyed a lot of drinks from their guests… |
 |
|
Day 4. This day we had a game drive in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening. We watched several animals, but not as many as in the autumn during the migration. We watched a few groups of lions and more hyenas than we have seen before. During the day we had helped several Toyota Hiaces and Toyota Landcrusisers in the wet Masai Mara. This is an environment for Range Rovers! We prepared our meals and enjoyed the campfire with local Maasais and their families in the evening. Hyenas were visiting our campground during the night - no problem. Day 5. We went for at game drive at six o’clock in the morning. One cheetah was located and we followed her for a while. Giraffes, worthogs, lions, hyenas, bat eared foxes were located before lunch. We put down the tents and equipment and arranged the car. We started another game drive with everything in the car and ended up at the airstrip close to Mara Explorer. We had arranged with a plane from Mombasa Air to pick us up and take us to Ukunda airstrip at the south coast of Mombasa (220 USD a person). We dropped the car, and the driver took it back to Nakuru with the camping equipment etc. (Additional charge of 170 USD for the drop). We were picked up by a taxi ordered from the CDC House at Diani Beach, and after a 10 minutes drive we were in the house. CDC house have 3 bedrooms and is perfectly located at the beach. In the house there are 2 staff members (Francis and John) and one askari (guard) during the night. CDC house charge 190 USD a night for the whole house, including the staff. The beach is quite natural and nobody prepare it for the next morning. Using shoes for walking in some areas is no bad ideas. The beach is perfect 350 meters south of the house |
 |
|
Day 6. We slept into the late morning and got waked up by the staff serving food on the terrace. In the big plot to this house there are three different types of monkeys (Columbus, Syke and Velvet monkeys). Some of them are very friendly and would like to share your food. If you don’t like monkeys – don’t go to this house! We all had great fun with them and served them a few different dishes. The days we spent on the beach we had a few drinks at the “Ali Baba – Fourthly Thieves” (walking distance). We had a real camel taxi back home with a cost of 10 USD a person. In the evening we went to some local bars / discotheques like Tandoori and Shaqataq. Both is nice for a party. Day 7. We enjoyed our stay and started feeding the monkeys, even climbing into the trees to be one of them! We arranged with some local guys to take us out to a coral reef just outside the beach. The diving was much better then expected and we had some nice hours on a sandbank. Not as the Red Sea but nice anyway. Cost was about 10 USD a person for 6 hours. We did some local shopping in the evening and finished by having lobster (20 USD a kilo) for dinner. |
 |
|
Day 8. We had a late breakfast including small oysters directly from the sea (5 USD a dozen). At noon we got a taxi for some sightseeing in Mtwapa (north of Mombasa) and in Mombasa. We even did go carting at Mtwapa at a cost of 20 USD for 10 minutes. In the evening we had a flight to Nairobi (125 USD). We stayed overnight in Parkland Shade Hotel Nairobi (40 USD a double room). It’s a fun place to stay, but not the place to be if you are looking for a silent night (there is a disco in the back yard). Lovely stay once again. Prepared by ourselves it gives us a nice and real experience of safari. The travel where done by: Bjørn Tore Holte, Magnus Holte, James Murage, Akinyi Odongo and Stein Eriksen with help from Erikson Rover Safaris Ltd.
|
 |
|
|
 |
