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#11
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
In message , Liz Leyden
writes In message Pat Anderson wrote: In message , Liz Leyden writes Just back myself from Uganda, where I heard that it's not unheard of for people to fly out, drive to Bwindi in a day (nightmare) do a gorilla trek, drive back to Entebbe the next day (or sometimes they stay one more day at Bwindi) then home again. "What will we do next weekend?" Hi Liz, you are just back from Uganda? Tell us where you went, what you did, have you been before? I`m interested to hear your safari story! Pat. All in good time! First trip to Uganda. First impressions are just what people here have said befo Ugandans very friendly and not hassling, like often in Kenya. Not so many animals in the parks (QENP has an ongoing problem with displaced people (specifically, allegedly, Rwandan refugees) shooting lions and hyaenas etc, even in the past week). Much greener/lusher overall than Kenya/Tz in July: they say a walking stick stuck in the ground would sprout roots overnight. A country made poor by a dictator. :-( I went specifically for the gorillas, chimps and my No 1 wish bird, the Shoebill and saw all three. Gorilla trek nearly killed me, I'm so unfit! Discovered that tea grown in Bwindi sells for 125USh, about 5p, per kg, and the pickers have to be paid out of this. Renewed my commitment to being a Fair Trader. Not successful photographically, because apart from the first two and last two days it varied from bland heavy grey overcast to bland light grey overcast. In the forests, bright light would have led to heavy shadows anyway, and the enormous difference between dark and light caused me all sorts of problems with the gorillas. We saw and heard chimps, but in a really dark piece of forest. Flash not allowed with the gorillas or chimps. It was officially a group bird trip, a bit too birdy for me, really, in that it was often running up a list of species seen at the top of the forest through telescopes. The one time we saw elephants in nice light, drinking and bathing, *no one else was interested* (how weird is that?), so we didn't go closer, and I didn't get pics! That's the compromise when you have to go on group trips and are limited to July: just have to take what's going. :-( I'll put info on my website and will post here when it's done. Could take some time (weeks, not days), as I shot mostly in RAW (don't know why I bothered!) which will take ages to process. Am transferring images s-l-o-w-l-y - via CF cards as I can't find the cable - between my P-2000 and the pc as I type this! Slainte Liz Liz, thanks for taking time to tell us about your safari to Uganda, the gorilla trip sounds gruelling but worthwhile when you got up there, a great experience! You have been in the three main East African countries now so you have seen differences in each one. Glad you saw the shoebill and I agree, not being interested in the elephants was weird, certainly to me as I love them. I look forward to looking at your website when it`s done, a lot of work for you! Enjoy the rest of your summer holiday. Pat. -- Pat Anderson |
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
Well, each to his own I guess. I find that visiting a place like
Kruger gets too much after about three days, but maybe that's because I go there often, not just once or twice a year. I have become used to visiting countries for only a week or ten days at a time, so it feels normal for me, and I tend to cram as much as possible into the time. As for Kenya being a "little country", the author clearly has never been to Lesotho or The Gambia :-) but he is from Canada, so just about everything else IS small. ;-) Just for interests sake, Canada is 4 times larger than Africa's biggest country Sudan, and 884 times larger than The Gambia!!!! Marc On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:39:27 +0200, Hans-Georg Michna wrote: [Had to laugh at, "Kenya is an amazing little country ..." Guess the guy hasn't looked at a map. Besides, I don't agree with him. I've tried different safari durations and invariably liked the longer ones more. Nothing shorter than two weeks ... Hans-Georg] |
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
Marc Lurie schreef:
Well, each to his own I guess. I find that visiting a place like Kruger gets too much after about three days, but maybe that's because I go there often, not just once or twice a year. Hi Marc, that is a luxury "problem". :-) I have just returned a few days ago from a month in Kruger. I was very glad to be there for a month as we did unfortunately have several mishaps. First of all Air France lost our bagage (and they did so again on the return flight!!!) and we were without any clothes or anything for five days. Specially hard for the kids. I got ill (40 degree fever) for two days. One day SANP messed up our booking and we ended up in Malelane in the pitchdark with no accomodation and no staff to assist us. One of my (two) cameras broke down. With the public service strike being over on the day we left, SANP staff went on strike. We had rain for three days and one day a leaking roof (in Sirheni). All that happened in the first week of our stay! Had we been there only for one week, we would have hated this trip. Luckily we three more weeks to have a great time and a great experience, specially for our young kids as it was their first time here. Also, we hardly saw any wildlife during the first three weeks. Just elephant, buffalo and hippo. But we drove hours without even seeing impala. After three weeks mopane trees definitely get very boring. :-) The last week made up for that as we had great sightings, even saw the "big 5" within a few hours! We mostly stayed at all the bushcamps and even though the first two weeks were in the middle of South African school holidays with everything fully booked, we had the roads to us most of the time. Only directly around main camps we saw lots of cars, specially Skukuza was awfull. Away from there, we usually saw no other cars for hours. Regards, Hans |
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:36:52 +0200, Wildpicture
wrote: First of all Air France lost our bagage (and they did so again on the return flight!!!) and we were without any clothes or anything for five days. Specially hard for the kids. Doesn't bear thinking about. I mean, I couldn't imagine the anguish my kids would go through if we had to spend five days naked together... Cheers, Alan, Australia -- http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/ latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/ latest: Self-Testing and Type 2 Management |
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
Sounds like a nightmare week?!?
One of my greatest fears is getting ill far from home. As I am usually travelling for work rather than pleasure, getting ill is doubly bad. I did get ill once in Uganda (salmonella), and I really thought I was going to die. Ever since then I travel with a course of Ciprofloxicin just in case. I'm glad you ended up having good sightings eventually. People don't understand that about Kruger. The animals are unpredictable and you can go for days without seing much. It's not "canned" game viewing like so many other places. Marc |
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
In message
Hans-Georg Michna wrote: To be honest, like most people, I would not have thought of a quick trip to Africa when planning for a vacation. By quick I mean eight days with my feet actually on African soil. Add three days to get there and back and you have 11 days away. Whatever we might think, short safaris seem to be The Thing. The other day I was in a local travel agent's. As the assistants were both on the phone, I started to browse the brochures and soon homed in on the Safari one - by a company I didn't know. A quick shufty revealed several short (I mean 3 or 4 nights ex Maun) safaris in Botswana before an excited clerkess was available (only to be disappointed when I was just booking a seat on the bus for the camera club's day trip!) Next, I browsed the Trailfinders brochure, where I find: Gorillas through the mist: a walking safari in Rwanda - 3 nights ex Kigale. Fly-in Masai Mara (2 nights ex Nairobi) ... and several seven nights safaris. Slainte Liz -- http://www.v-liz.com - Kenya; Tanzania; Namibia; India; Galapagos |
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'Quick trip' to Africa proves to be a resounding success
In message , Liz Leyden
writes In message Hans-Georg Michna wrote: To be honest, like most people, I would not have thought of a quick trip to Africa when planning for a vacation. By quick I mean eight days with my feet actually on African soil. Add three days to get there and back and you have 11 days away. Whatever we might think, short safaris seem to be The Thing. The other day I was in a local travel agent's. As the assistants were both on the phone, I started to browse the brochures and soon homed in on the Safari one - by a company I didn't know. A quick shufty revealed several short (I mean 3 or 4 nights ex Maun) safaris in Botswana before an excited clerkess was available (only to be disappointed when I was just booking a seat on the bus for the camera club's day trip!) Next, I browsed the Trailfinders brochure, where I find: Gorillas through the mist: a walking safari in Rwanda - 3 nights ex Kigale. Fly-in Masai Mara (2 nights ex Nairobi) ... and several seven nights safaris. Slainte Liz Liz, I too have seen these safari ndogos ( bad Swahili! ) such as leave London on Thursday, visit Zanzibar or go on safari and return the following Monday. A short trip like that would kill me, I need at least two weeks! I have met many businessmen on flights to Nairobi who have been going out to attend meetings and then back home a few days later, I suppose we are all different. Good on those who can do the short safaris. Pat. -- Pat Anderson |
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