Our African Adventure - Part 1 - Dubai

This Spring, while at a birthday party for our neighbor Lucy Stefan, I was having a conversation with our neighbor Cathy Kainer.  We were discussing what we would be doing this summer.  Cathy mentioned that she and her husband Ron would be doing an African Safari in July.  My eyes must have gotten awfully large, because she asked if we might be interested in going.  I told her this had been on my bucket list for many a year.  Cathy indicated that they had just had two openings open up with their tour group and asked if I wanted her to send us some information.  I asked Ed if he would be interested "in going to Africa this summer;" and, he responded, "why not!"

Cathy sent me the information and I got in touch with Becky Fuchs who was making the arrangements for the group.  We verified that the spots were still open.  Ed and I took a look at our budget; and, since we don't normally follow it anyway when we travel, we decided to take the plunge and sign up.

We then realized Ed's passport would expire in a month, so the paperwork began in getting it renewed.  Next came the application for visas to both Kenya and Tanzania.  AND THEN, we found out about all the vaccinations and medicines that we would need before we could go.  Ed commented that if he had known he was going to have so many shots, he might have said no.  (Note:  it is now 60 days from the start of the trip, and we are just finishing our dosages of malaria pills.)

The initial tour flight was to go through Amsterdam.  We had researched taking a couple of extra days in Europe, but the stopover cost was not feasible.  So when the tour company called to tell us that they could not get us on the Amsterdam flight, and we would be flying through Dubai, United Arab Emirates, without a stopover fee, we jumped on the chance to see another country.  So we booked a hotel in Dubai and started looking at what we could see in a two day visit.

In the meantime, we had also researched various websites, and talked to friends, about what we should take with us.  It was also recommended that we spray our safari outerwear with permidian to protect against mosquitos and other critters. 

Ed spraying our safari clothing

 

Luckily we had learned to pack in small duffels when we took our Alaskan trip in 2018.  But, we still found it difficult to fit everything we needed into our duffels and meet the airline/tour requirements.  This time, along with the hair dryer, the laptop had to stay at home.  We did switch to a new phone contract and made arrangements to do texting while we were in Africa.    Based on recommendations, we had packed extra spray bottles of Deet and the recommended sunscreen. 

 

Becky and her husband Jim had a potluck at their house for last minute instructions/questions and to give Ed and I an opportunity to meet the other 13 that would be going on this adventure.

 

 

Our flight left Denver for Dallas at 7:00 AM on July 10.  We found out that the shuttle from Fort Collins did not start early enough to get us there in time for the flight.  So, we caught the last shuttle the night before and spent our first night on vacation in the lounge chairs at DIA.  (We had thought about getting a motel, but figured we probably wouldn't get much sleep anyway.)



 

After getting checked in and passports checked, we were on our way.  We were able to take a catnap on the way to Dallas.  We then arrived at our next boarding location.  We would be flying Emirates Air to Dubai (a 14-hour journey).  When we looked out the window, we could hardly see the end of the plane. Take a look at the airlines website and check out the first /business class seating.   http://www.emirates.com/us/english/flying/cabin_features/cabin_features.aspx  Of course, we were in economy, but the legroom was better than we had had on any other airline. 

 

Our flight left Dallas at 5:00 PM, and we were immediately given warm towels to freshen ourselves; offered cocktails (for free),

and then a full course dinner followed w/cocktails.  Soon after that the lighting was dimmed in the plane and their were "twinkling" stars on the ceiling to give the passengers a feel of nighttime.  If you were tired, you were able to plug in your cell phone and play games; or they offered about 18 movie channels, various music, and additional games.  If you were awake at midnight, they gave you pizza and a drink.  Then when morning came, the warm towels were distributed to freshen up and  

breakfast was served. 

There is a 10-hour time change between Denver and Dubai.  We arrived in Dubai at noon. 

We had traveled 8,267 miles.  This was more seat-time miles than we had spent on the entire Alaskan motorcycle trip. 

We had made prior arrangements with our hotel to pick us up at the airport.  We retrieved our luggage and passed through customs. 

 After reading on the website, we were concerned about customs -- they banned certain prescription drugs from coming into the country.  We were flagged on through without any questions or search.  We then stopped at the Visa desk.  We had read that American citizens could get a temporary visa.  The desk told us this would be handled at our hotel. 

The temperature was warm when we arrived.  Our ride from the airport was however quite comfortable due to the town car's air conditioning.  (A lot different than our hotel shuttles back home.)  Upon check-in we were told that we had arrived during Ramadan and there were some guidelines that we would need to follow.   Ramadan is the Muslim celebration that believes one's self is improved through fasting from sunrise to sunset.  This would allow them to practice and develop patience, perseverance and discipline while encouraging people to rise above basic human desires.

This meant that most of the restaurants would be closed during this time.  The hotel had arranged to have a breakfast available for guests, as well as afternoon tea, a cocktail hour, and snacks after sunset.  Drinks were also not allowed (including water) during the fast, so they asked that we be discreet.  We stayed at the Radisson Blu and it was located on Dubai Creek in the older section of the city.

 

First to visit on the Dubai agenda was the tallest skyscraper in the world.  We wanted to see the area at sunset, so we had purchased our tickets ahead of time.  We took a short nap, and then took a taxi to the skyscraper.

 

The skyscraper is 160 stories high.  The observation deck is located on the 142nd floor.  We were expecting a ride similar to that of the Empire State Building, and were quite surprised that the ride only took about 4 seconds.  No change in air pressure.  When the doors opened, there was a fantastic view in front of us. 



Persian Gulf

Downtown - Interchange



Persian Gulf at sunset

Iftar (part of Ramadan) is when Muslims break their fast at sundown by eating dates and sharing their food and conversation with others.  We were surprised when we were invited to participate in Iftar at the top of the skyscraper.  Everyone was given a boxed meal which had various types of foods made from dates.  A hot drink was also offered. 

 

The following morning we chose to catch the Hop-On-Hop-Off-Bus-Tour.  We figures that this would give us the best view of Dubai during our one day we had in the city.  There was a bus stop not far from the hotel, so after breakfast we headed out for our adventure.  Luckily the bus company provided bottles of water, because the temperature reached 110 that day. 

 

The bus ride first took us to the new section of Dubai.  With the "new" city being as young as it is, we were amazed by the organization of both the airport and the roadways throughout the city.  As Ed noted, the city was an example of wealth.  All the taxi cabs were Lexuses.  There are two routes to be followed on the tour -- we chose the one along the coastline because we wanted to say we had waded in the Persian Gulf.   The hotel next to the public beach has an 8-star rating and is used exclusively by the rich and famous.  It is built on its own island, and is in the shape of a sail.

 

 

 After the visit to the beach, the bus ride took us past the Atlantis of the Palm hotel.  This is designed after the famous Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas.  Contractors have brought in sand and built several islands into the gulf.  The shape of these islands is that of a palm tree.  The Atlantis is at the end (or top) of the island.

After visiting this side of town, it was getting close to lunchtime, so we headed over to the Hard Rock Café.  A shuttle from the tour takes you to and fro.  We had lunch here.  We then visited the Ferrari store next door and then continued on our tour.  As we got closer to the older section of town (where our hotel was located) we ventured out on a Dhow ride on Dubai Creek.  It was quite warm and uncomfortable, but we did learn a lot about the history of Dubai.



Our hotel behind us (left)

 


Embassies align the creek





Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the country. First recorded history is in 1799 as a fishing village near Dubai Creek.  Then because of its strategic location, it grew with the import/export trade.  Freighters from all countries in the area can be seen in the harbor.  When oil was discovered in 1966, the city grew by leaps and bounds.  It is said to be now the 22nd most expensive city in the world. 

 

After the Dhow ride, we returned to the bus and traveled through the oldest section of the city.  Here we saw the Dubai Museum (previously the Al Fahidi Fort), the Heritage Village and Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's House which are all open to the public if you have time to visit.

 

We passed by the Gold Souk (shopping) and the Spice Souk before reaching our hotel.  Outside the Spice Souk they were unloading many freighters that had brought in many types of spices for trade.  From here we reached our stop -- we were both fatigued from the heat -- the bus driver noticed this and took us to the front of the hotel.  This is one of the many courtesies we had while visiting here.  We stopped in for some libation and headed to the room for a good night's sleep.

 

 

Spice Souk

 

The following day we had a lazy morning -- tried to get everything back into the duffle bags and head to the airport for our 6- hour flight to Nairobi.  Being on Emirates Air we knew we would be comfortable for the duration of the trip.  Soon the warm towels, cocktails and lunch were served.

 

 

 

 Go to http://www.emirates.com/us/english/destinations_offers/discoverdubai/aboutdubai/index.aspx to learn more about Dubai and the many sights available to tour.



 





Our African Adventure - Part 2 - Kenya

 

 

 

 



We were the first of our group to arrive in Nairobi.  We were immediately taken to our hotel where we got settled and had some libation before settling in for the night.

The following morning we met our tour guide and the rest of the group.  It appears that the group of 15 from Colorado had added another 13 to make it a full tour group of 28.

Today will be spent touring the area around the outskirts of Nairobi.  Our first stop is the Giraffe Center.   This facility was established in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie Melvile, whose extraordinary vision brought together an education center in conjunction with rescuing Rothschild giraffe.  The raised platform gives one an opportunity to meet the giraffe eye-to-eye.   http://giraffecenter.org/

 

The schools bring in school age children to visit the Center and learn about the various wildlife in their country.  We also saw our first warthog here.

         









From here we traveled to the Karen Blixen Museum. 
This is a former coffee planation purchased by Bror & Karen Blixen in 1917.  They separated in 1920 & later divorced, leaving Karen to oversee the plantation.  She stayed until 1931, often visited by her lover Denys Finch Hatton.  Her story is told in the movie "Out of Africa" from an adaptation of her book by the same name.  In 1985 the property became a national museum.  http://www.museums.or.ke/content/blogcategory/13/19/

 




Before lunch, our driver took us to an unscheduled stop -- Kazuri Bead Factory.  This factory was founded to provide employment for disadvantaged women (mostly single mothers).  There are currently 340 women working here; 300 more on the waiting list.

 






From here we were taken to Tamambo Restaurant where we had our first of many buffets in the days to come.  From here we returned to the hotel for libation and to get our duffels ready for our next day's adventure.  The hotel Ole Sereni is located next to the Nairobi National Reserve and gave us numerous opportunities to see wild animals while enjoying the local brew.  http://www.ole-sereni.com/

 











The following morning we loaded into individual 4-wheel drive vehicles with 6-passengers and the driver.  We convinced our driver Oliver that one of us should be able to use the front seat -- so we alternated seats throughout the trip. 

Our first destination was north to the Mount Kenya area near the Aberdare National Park.  We would stop first at a local curio shop for a bathroom break.  The guides had an arrangement with some of the curio shops that if they would provide and keep their bathroom facilities clean, they would stop there with the tourists.  As the trip went on, we found out how valuable this was.  However, the timing of having 28 browsing/bargaining/paying customers can cause time delays in reaching other destinations.

The scenery was beautiful as we started climbing into the Kenya hills.  The city life style was left behind. Housing ranged from estates to small villages.  Del Monte has acreages in this area where pineapple is grown.

Small Village

Del Monte Plantation

 As we entered the Aberdare Country Club property, we were surprised to see the various wildlife (zebras, gazelle, and warthogs) that was located along side of the roadway.  We were told that this area is a wildlife preserve.  We had lunch at the Club and then sorted our luggage -- some would remain here until we returned the following day.  Our next lodge is the Ark   http://www.thearkkenya.com/  Designed after Noah's Ark, there is not enough space in the rooms to hold all of the luggage.

We boarded a bus and headed towards the Ark.  We passed through the Aberdare National Park and just beyond the gate we started seeing wildlife.  There were cape buffalo on the right and olive baboons on the left.  The cape buffalo are the largest bovine in the world and can weigh nearly one ton.  They are the only buffalo in Africa.  Males have horns like a helmet; females have regular horns.  As we noticed at the Ark, they feed during day and night equally.

 


The view of the lodge shows the waterhole next to the building.  Here we would see many more types of wildlife through the remainder of the day and night.

The Ark has 4 floors that provide viewing.  The lowest floor is at ground level and has a bunker with open windows where you can be at eye level with the animals.  They have a bell system so if special animals come to the watering hole, they will buzz the rooms (day or night) so you can see them.  (Unfortunately, we didn't get any buzzes in the night.) 

Activities included a bird walk at which time the employees would bring food to the bird community. A Dik Dik (a small antelope) appeared near the birds.  You could wander throughout the Ark looking from various views at the animals.  Animals appearing when we first got there were cape buffalo, waterbuck, and Thomson gazelles.  The Ark gave a talk in the evening, but a family of elephants arrived at the watering hole -- so I cannot say what the talk was about. 

Arrival of elephant family

Cape Buffalo mixing it up

African hogs
 

I have about 30 minutes of movies watching the elephants and the cape buffalo intermingle among themselves.  There were only two elephants originally; and, one appeared to be injured.  When the family arrived (including a baby) there was interaction between the two sets of elephants -- the first trying to protect the injured; the second trying to protect the baby.  And, the cape buffalo would get in the mix once in a while to stir things up.  A family of African hogs also joined the crowd for a while. 

African bush baby

genet

I set my camera down to have some libation.  While in the bar area, they were feeding some small-spotted genet and African bush baby.  They had told us to bring warm pajamas -- we found hot water bottles in our bed. 

 

The next morning we awoke to see the sunrise over Mount Kenya.  It had been cloudy the day before and this was our first glimpse of the mountain.  Mount Kenya is the highest peak in Kenya; and, 2nd highest in Africa, after Mount Kilimanjaro.  After breakfast we needed to board the bus and head back to the Club to pick up our remaining luggage.   Today we will head north to the Great Rift Valley region.  On the way north we crossed the Equator. 

 

 
We also made a stop at Thomson Falls.   Joseph Thomson (a Scottish geologist\naturalist) was one of the first white men to walk across Kenya through Maasai land looking for the source of the Nile River.  He discovered these falls in 1883.

 


Leaving the Falls we followed the main highway that goes from the port in Mombasa (Indian Ocean) to Western Kenya and Uganda.  We turned off this road and headed to Lake Naivasha.

We checked into the Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort.  http://sopalodges.com/lake-naivasha-sopa-lodge/overview  We were given time to put our belongings in the room, and then we headed out for a boat ride on the Lake.  (Not exactly the type of boat we were expecting.)

The Lake covers 43 square miles and the water is fresh (a lot of the lakes in the Rift Valley are salty).  There are over 400 species of birds recorded in the region

Yellow-billed Stork

-- these include (the ones we saw) pelicans, cormorants, African Sacred Ibis, kingfishers, African spoonbill, yellow-billed stork, Egyptian goose, ducks and African  fish-eagles. 

Click to Watch

  The lake is also home to a "large" family of hippopotamus.  Hippos are one of the most dangerous animals in East Africa.  An adult male can weigh 7,000 pounds; a baby weighs 90 pounds at birth.   

 On one section of the shore we saw gazelles, zebras and wildebeests.  
These were imported here (and left) for the making of "Out of Africa." It gave us our first glance of a wildebeest.  Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," fostered Elsa, the lion, and her cubs along these shores.  We saw some locals fishing and were told that it was illegal.  All non-domestic animals in Kenya are owned/controlled by the state government. 


After returning to the resort, Ed and I decided we had had enough buffets to hold us over for several days. (Doing this without thinking that we would be missed, we had phone calls from both the restaurant and our guide to verify that we were all right.)  So we took our libation and snacks and headed out to the deck of our room. 

View from our deck

Baby hippopotamus

Were we surprised when a family of 12 hippos passed under us gnawing their way across the open area.  We found out that the lake abuts the resort property and during the daytime the hippos reside in the water; then at night, when they feel safer, they come out to eat.  Now we knew why they told us we would need a guard when walking from the lodge to our rooms at night.

The next morning while waiting for our vehicles, we were entertained by the Colobus monkeys.  They came from the trees beside the lodge and traveled across the roof before descending to the trunk where the food could be found.

Mother holding baby

After all photos were taken, we loaded into the vans and headed to Lake Nakuru National Park.  http://www.kws.org/parks/parks_reserves/LNNP.html  This 80 square mile park was created in 1961.  It is famous for the collection of flamingos that gather here each year; but, there are numerous other forms of wildlife to be seen on this photo safari.  The ecosystem provides for about 56 different species of mammals and nearly 450 species of birds.

 

 









As we exited the vehicles so our guides could raise the roofs, a large number of Olive baboons came from within the park to greet us.  They behaved like gypsies -- some of the younger ones would draw the attention of the tourists, and then others would climb into the vehicles to find food.  They were quick!

 

 We are now ready for our first safari!! Instead of entering through the gate, we were taken on a different route.  It appears that the rainfall was excessive this year, and caused the lake water to cover parts of the roadway, 

The water had also covered the algae that attracted the millions of flamingos each year, causing the number of flamingos to be minimal for our viewing.  Nakuru means "swirling dust," and this soda lake can vary from bone dry dust to a full fledged lake.

 We had many wildlife encounters throughout the afternoon.   We had not been in the park more than a half hour and we had already seen a warthog, Thomson gazelles, a white rhinoceros, two male lions, cape buffalo, zebra, Vervet monkeys, Helmeted Guineafowl and an impala.

 

White Rhinoceros

Two male lions

As we neared the lake, we came across groups of impalas, white rhinoceros and cape buffalo.   There was only one black rhinoceros.  We learned that the white rhinoceros were more social and grazed on the grassy areas.  The male black rhinoceros is less social and browses on bush.  Because the bush is usually found in tree-lined areas, these are more difficult to spot.  The difference between the two types is their lip shape.  The white rhino has a wide mouth; the black rhino has a thin mouth.  Also, the color of both types is actually gray.  It is thought that the "white" is derived from the Dutch word "wijd" meaning wide. 

Impalas

White Rhinoceros

 Black Rhinoceros
 



Cape Buffalo & Flamingos

 

Before climbing to the overlook, we came across another group of baboons.  Along this part of the road, we got our first glimpse of flamingos.  While at the overlook we saw a rock hyrax.  Although small in stature, it is said to have a remote ancestral link to the elephant.  We were also entertained by a rock iguana.

Rock Hyrax

Leaving the overlook, we saw Rothschild giraffe (which are distinguished by no markings below the knee), more Vervet monkeys and a lioness in the tree.  Like a house cat trapped in a tree, the lioness was having difficulties finding a way down. We also saw Grant gazelles.  These also are named after an explorer, James Grant, who also came looking for the source of the Nile -- it was determined that the source was Lake Victoria. 

 

We cannot leave the park without displaying some of the many birds we saw throughout the day.

Yellow-billed stork

Dark-crested eagle








 

Flamingos

Pelicans



The secretary bird got its name because of its quill-like feathers on its head.  They are good flyers; but, need a runway to take off.  They are able to stomp snakes to death.  The modern-day description of how this bird got its name is based on its gray feathers (that similar to a jacket) and its black petticoat (similar to a skirt) representing the modern day secretary attire.

As we were headed to the exit, Oliver received a radio call to turn back towards the lake.  As we approached, we were told that a python had captured a pink flamingo.  We were told that seeing a python was a rare occurrence when visiting the park.



Python

Before exiting the park, we had a buffet lunch at one of the lodges.  We then headed back to the resort.  We had a group meeting before dinner.  One of the tourist mentioned that they would need a wake up "knock" because an animal had eaten their phone cord.