Tag Archives: africa

Algeria’s history – from ancient to modern times – is a rich and interesting one. If the internet is to be believed, the first inhabitants here appeared some 300-400 thousand years ago! That means that before it was conquered by the Romans, several ancient states had already existed on the territory. After the Roman colonial period came barbarians, followed by Byzantines; next there was the Arab expansion, and that was followed by a succession of the Spanish, Turks, and finally the French. Then, in 1962, after an eight-year war against the latter, Algeria gained its independence.

Given such a rich history, there’s plenty of it to check out as a tourist! And of course there’s the Sahara desert with all its sand-and-rock beauty, and sensational sunsets and sunrises. Alas, my business schedule was full and hectic – lots of meetings, getting acquaintends, discussions, and a regional partner conference, so we couldn’t check all that much out. We had to settle for micro-tourism: a brief stroll around the capital, Algiers. All righty – off we pop…

First up – Maqam Echahid: the monument commemorating the Algerian War ->

Read on…

Hi folks – from Algeria!

It’s the first time I’ve been to this country – giving me a +1 to my list of visited countries: the 106^th! And it’s the second newbie to that list this year (after the Philippines)…

Here’s a view of the country’s capital – Algiers:

A few facts about the country:

Read on…

And finally, as per tradition, it was time finish off our typically active vacation – this time our Kenya safari – with a spot of decompression: to take it easy after all the dashing about and tourism-till-you-drop and getting up early every morning to fit everything in; also, to make sure the return to the reality of everyday life doesn’t take place too quickly for the mind (or is it spirit, or even soul?!) to cope…

And since our tour of Kenya’s national parks took us, slowly but surely, eastward – from Nairobi over to the east-African coast along the Indian Ocean – the perfect setting for decompression was deemed to be Diani Beach, just south of Mombasa. Why? Because “it has been voted Africa’s leading beach destination for the fifth time running since 2015” (– Wikipedia, 2020). And I can see why: not busy at all, super-fine sand on the beach, and refreshingly cool water (too cool for comfort actually, neoprene advised)…

Not that we resorted to the neoprene; we were here to take it easy: no active anything – including watersports. Instead – inactive everything; e.g., beach + Bombay Sapphire, and sun + Scotch – on the rocks sand!

…

Read on…

En route from Tsavo East National Park to the eastern coast of Kenya, I had plenty of time for snapping life-as-it-is scenes by the roadside. And now, here’s my edited collection of such pics for your curious-viewing pleasure…

First up, one thing you Brits might notice: the signposts are just like in Blighty! Same color, font, styling!

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After the brief Bali-interlude, we’re back in Kenya…

First – recap:

Pre-safari Nairobi – done.
Ol Pejeta reservation – done.
Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru – done.
Maasai Mara – done.

Next up, Amboseli National Park – here. Amboseli is more of the same wonderful wildlife but with the accent firmly on elephants – and with none other than  Mount Kilimanjaro in the background…

Read on…

The main course on our Kenyan safari was Maasai Mara, the country’s vast game reserve, which we caught at just the right time: during the wild animals’ mass migration. Huge herds of wildebeest, zebras and assorted other, smaller hooved beasts. But the main attraction is the wildebeest, and their particular migration is known as the great migration – up from Serengeti in neighboring Tanzania ->

A zillion zebras too:

Read on…

Before continuing with my narrative along our route through Kenya, I must tell you a bit about where we stayed on the bank of Lake Naivasha. It was at Hippo Point (but don’t click that link just yet)…

Now, before reading on, dear readers, can you guess what I’m about to write here? Was I one-star-hotel slumming it, or five-star-living-large?…

See, I do both – and everything in-between. I prefer 5*, of course – who doesn’t? – but sometimes lesser star-rating hotels (or no-star establishments, like Airbnb-style apartments in remote towns in deepest Siberia) are the only thing going. In Tibet and Nepal the ratings tended to dip, while in Kamchatka and Altai we’ve always bedded down of a night in the tents we carry on our backs all day. Then there are the spartan but cozy-enough cabins we sleep in on yachts workhorse ships – that sail around, say, the Kuril Islands or even Antarctica. Things sometimes get real bad: in the year 2000 we stayed a night in an abandoned port in Belomorsk; it was… indescribable. Heck – the trauma lingers to this day!

So, come on folks, what do you reckon?…

Well, it went like this at Hippo Point:

Joke. That’s the former servants’ quarters of even stables of the British landed gentry that must have had the place built and who lived here originally. Here’s where we were staying:

No, it’s not an Edwardian country pile in Surrey – it’s actually Hippo Point here in Kenya!

Inside, just like outside, and just like the lawn and garden – all in traditional English style. Couldn’t complain…

…Wait: yes we could!…

See, the place was so old-fashioned and typically British that it still featured old-fashioned and typically British… taps (faucets to our American friends); meaning: one tap is for (freezing) cold water; the other – for (scalding) hot water. No mixer tap/faucet where you can get just the right temperature for the water for your bath. And bath’s the right word since – there’s no shower here either! What? In 2023? :0)

We have a walk around the property and its grounds…

Africa, stone fireplace, armchairs. The only things missing are a Sir John and Lady Mortimer or some such!

All’s set for cocktails at sundown ->

And finally – my luggage lost by Ethiopian Airlines arrived! ->

Over there – zebras!

From here to the lake – a zebra crossing! ->

Sunset: another aaaaah ->

And that was that. All very nice. We’d have loved to have stayed longer in this little piece of England, but we had to be up and off in the morning…

The rest of the photos from Kenya are here.

After the brief Everest Base Camp trek video interlude, I continue today with my tales from the Kenyan safari side…

Pre-safari Nairobi – done.

Ol Pejeta reservation – done.

Next up – Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru (here). First – Naivasha…

It’s around 200km to Lake Naivasha from Ol Pejeta, which took us four or five hours by road. What made the journey a pleasant one were the good quality roads: astonishingly well-built, smooth, and rather new:

Read on…

Should you ever head to Kenya for a vacation, you’d most probably fly into the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, the nation’s capital. Nice airport: good level of service – and extraordinarily light on lines for both passport-control and customs. I wonder – were we just lucky, or is it always like that?

Nairobi itself looks like… pretty much what I expected: the capital of a country that’s successfully developing toward a brighter future. There’s poverty – plenty; but there are also plenty of districts that are positively salubrious…

Read on…

As you can work out from the title to this post, this year’s trip to Africa wasn’t my first lengthy vacation on the African continent. In early 2016 I was in Tanzania, where I scaled Kilimanjaro, went on a safari around the country’s savanna, and wunderbarred in Zanzibar. And details and pics of that African adventure were later all compiled into a hardback illustrated travelogue book – Awesome Africa.

Fast-forward to 2023, and here I am again – this time in Kenya!…

Africa: jaw-dropping landscapes, vast swarms of roaming wild animals, and the ultimate in stark continent-specific daily-life-with-a-difference! In short: all the ingredients for an amazing vacation!…

Read on…