October 12, 2012

We’re off today on the long planned helicopter adventure through Ethiopia and Kenya! Or rather we’re not as the helicopter is stuck in Aswan waiting for permission to transmit through North Sudan. When the helicopter left France on October 2nd, permits were promised, but as so often happens in Africa, reality did not live up to expectations.

What to do now? We have tried every angle to get permits for Sudan (and there are supposedly nine other helicopters also waiting). I have been postponing the trip on a day by day basis hoping that the authorities in Sudan would see sense and allow the flight to happen.

Oct 16

No further forward with Sudan, so we have decided to re-route the plane via Saudi, Yemen, Djibouti and into Ethiopia from the north west. It is an extra two days flying, but that’s the only way to get south. Difficulties were expected with the Saudi and Yemen overflight permissions, but they proved easier than anticipated, so hopefully Chris Allison, the helicopter pilot, is set to go soon. Of course we should have done this 7 days ago, but we continued to wait expecting the Sudan permission to come through any day. Now we have lost perhaps the best part of the trip – Ethiopia – and will join at the start of the Kenya section.

In Ethiopia we had to take a military person on the plane with us. It wasn’t clear to me whether he was there to protect us, or to protect the Ethiopians from us. It would have been a great nuisance and possibly the addition of an extra person + baggage would have meant that the plane did not have enough power to visit the Simien mountains at 11,500 feet. So our trip there, possibly in April 2012, is going to take more planning.

Oct 19

At least the weather in Provence from October 12th has been stunning. Not a cloud in the sky (apart from one thunderstorm that predictably fried my router). Day after day of warmth, sun and Autumn colours in the vineyards. Plenty of time to take out old cars for runs to nice lunches. But that wasn’t what we had scheduled or hoped for, so we have substituted a few days in Luxor while the helicopter is re-positioned via the new routing. Today was our first day in Luxor; hot, hot, and more hot!

I last visited here 37 years ago. I am sure that lots of things have changed, but my memory isn’t that good. We visited the Valleys of the Kings and Queens this morning. Very interesting, particularly in the colours in the paintings which are pretty much as they were 3000 years old (not that I can recollect them exactly). I am impressed by the care that the Egyptians have taken to look after the sites, and minimise tourist damage. Of course there are the endless vendors of souvenirs that you don’t either need or want, but they are less insistent than Turkish carpet sellers (or maybe Avon ladies!). Excavations continue in many areas although very much at an Egyptian pace.

                                      

Christine compares Egypt with India, but I think that this is unfair. While people are poor, it is nowhere near as extreme as in India. The main roads are very clean for a third world country although this is achieved by old men sweeping the streets with small brooms; side roads are another story. Everyone appears well fed, and we didn’t come across any beggars. I remember being assailed by kids last time, but that’s largely gone. Certainly, more than half the buildings are incomplete with concrete posts sticking out of the top, waiting funds to add another storey (and the quality of construction would make a health & safety inspector shudder). The motto of the local construction industry would appear to be ‘Build badly; Never finish; Don’t maintain’. Paint would appear to be in desperately short supply for buildings, cars and boats. Maybe there are sanctions on paint although enough has been imported to daub the walls with graffiti.

Traffic is not the terror that it is in India. Most people seems to understand what dual carriageway means. Drivers don’t think that they are Lewis Hamilton at the start of a Grand Prix. At night time lights appear to be optional – saves the battery. 125cc motor bikes still carry complete families, all without helmets. I saw four young men on a bike yesterday; maybe that’s how they arrived at the name ‘Honda Hero’ for India’s most popular bike.

In the country the main means of transport remains the donkey, some of them moving fast enough to compete with Christine’s race horses. The appear in town too with farmer’s carts and as individual transport. There are some tractors ploughing the fields, but all have reached free bus pass age.

                                                                                        

Oct 20

Our local travel agent tried to get us into a hot air balloon with an 0415 (yes, you read that right) departure from the hotel. NO WAY! We took the later flight, but even that meant leaving the hotel at 0540. Only moderately interesting, but the trip showed how fertile the banks of the Nile are, and how sharp the line between green agricultural land and the desert.

Along the banks of the Nile are about 50 laid-up river cruise boats. They look mostly in pretty poor condition, so whether they will ever go to ‘sea’ again is doubtful. As you would expect, the tourist industry is suffering badly from the Arab Spring, which has been effective in drying up the flow of tourists. Our very nice hotel, the Nile Hilton, is probably 25% full.

In the afternoon we visited Karnak and Luxor temples. As in the Valley of the Queens the Antiquities Department has been ruthless in demolishing houses that have encroached on the site. They have started work on restoring the 3 km walkway between the temples, which will be tremendous when finished. However, all work stopped in April, and goodness knows when it will restart. As in all Africa, good intentions are not enough. The very large open space created in front of Karnak was surfaced with stones just two years ago, but already half of them are cracked and broken. It is a good thing that building standards were higher 4000 years ago!

Both the temples remain hugely impressive, especially Luxor lit up at night. Although they were built over a long period, they still must have taken – as the European  cathedrals – an enormous proportion of GDP to construct and maintain. Helps to have many slaves; where are they today when one needs them?

                  

         Luxor temple at night with tourists                                                                        Karnak temple entrance

Oct 21

A three hour flight to Lokichoggio in north west Kenya was uneventful, with only desert to be seen apart from Lake Nasser. The Nile is surprisingly wide at Khartoum, but with very little agriculture on the banks. Not a  place that you would want to visit.

The helicopter was waiting for us at Lokichoggio along with a host of friendly immigration and customs people.  I am sure that we were their only business for the day, maybe the week, and quite possibly the month! A two hour flight eastwards took us to the landing strip at Desert Rose, as we were unable to find the helipad. This is, without question, the most remote place that I have been to. The lodge is perched on a very steep mountainside, about 1500 feet above the valley floor. We were driven from the airstrip to the lodge (2 miles as the crow flies; 45 minutes in the 25 year old Toyota Landcruiser) by Emma, the owner. The road was partially (largely?) washed away by recent rains, making it even more challenging. We did most of it in the lowest range and lowest gear possible. Emma gets through lots of diffs! I didn’t know that cars could go over roads as steep and rough. You couldn’t really call it a road, more of a vertical goat track. We were bounced from side to side, even though doing only 5 miles per hour. But we arrived safely to the lodge to a warm welcome and a much needed glass of sherry.

Desert Rose is in the middle of nowhere. There is a small village 1000 feet below in the valley with 1000 people (including 500 kids of school age). The next nearest village is perhaps 20 miles away, and the nearest town about 200 miles. Chris said that it was the only place that he had ever landed in Africa where we were not surrounded by people within 10 minutes.

The lodge is delightful, really more of a home than a hotel. There isn’t anything to do here, the mountains are too steep for walking, but one night was very pleasant. Emma made us very welcome.

Oct 22

Early next morning Chris braved the drive back to the airstrip and flew the helicopter onto the very small  helipad where we refuelled from drums. Then, with the guidance of Emma, we went for a sightseeing trip around Lake Turkana area. First to the only sand dunes in Kenya (not a patch on Sossus Vlei in Namibia), then to fly around Lake XXX where there must have been hundreds of thousands of pink flamingos. Finally we landed on a dried up river bed to see 2000+ year old rock paintings. Back to the lodge for brunch, more fuel and then on to Lake Nakura. Enroute we flew over the painted desert and many large craters from extinct volcanoes. It would have been impossible to view these except from the air; no roads nearby and untrek-able country. A spectacular flight.

                                 

Karnak Temple entrance                                                       Lonely Agusta on a river bed near Lake Turkana; no tourists here                                      Painted desert from the air

Oct 23

After a night in the really grim Flamingo Hill hotel (chosen by Abercrombie & Kent), we started a drive in the Lake Nakura national park with John, the local A&K guide. Fortunately next night we move to a better hotel.

Lake Nakura is a large body of semi salt water, surrounded by savannah grass, tall yellow fever acacia trees and steep escarpments on both sides of the lake. It doesn’t feel like the bush, more like the English countryside. The park is about 20,000 hectares including the lake, which is relatively small for a nature reserve. The shores of the lake are lined with more pelicans, storks and flamingos than you believed existed. In the park there are many white rhino, large herds of Cape buffalo, zebra, impala, gazelles of various types, plus endless troupes of baboons. There are lions and leopard, but these are rarely sighted. All the birds and animals are much less skittish and less afraid of both people and cars than in Southern Africa, allowing the vehicles to get very close to them without running away. Great for close up photography.

                            

Oct 24

En route to the airport we took a further park drive. Just outside the hotel gates we came across three very sleepy lionesses, who could not be tempted to get up for photos. The helicopter has been at a strip in the middle of the reserve, and today it is surrounded by zebra which we have to chase away to take off. A forty minute flight over hilly, fertile countryside with smallholdings growing mealies (maize) took us to Borana Lodge, just north of Nairobi. On arrival the temperature was about 30C, but plummeted to less than 20C after lunch when rain and cold winds swept in. We are about 2 miles north of the equator, but have a fire going in our room, and are dressed more for a ski resort than a game reserve. We cancelled our game drive for this afternoon as too cold and without sun there is no point in taking photos. It is easy to forget that we are at 6700 feet.

From our bedroom window we look out over rolling hills. Because of rains last week they are now green, but sparsely covered with grass and dotted with acacia and euphobia trees. Many of the acacia trees are just a metre high, having been neatly trimmed by elephant and giraffe. This is a 30,000 hectare working farm with 1800 head of cattle as well as the big five. It is clearly well managed both for game and cattle, and that’s a difficult combination to get right. Two of the big five – elephant and buffalo – can be seen without even moving from our room. Who needs to go on bumpy game drives?

Oct 25

It rained over an inch during the night, leaving all the tracks very muddy. We started on an early morning game drive, but had to abort when heavy rain blew in. Low cloud made all game viewing impossible so we returned to base for a large breakfast.

This aborted drive was more than made up in the afternoon by one of the best drives that we have ever had. We caught up with the reserve’s lion pride, and although we didn’t see the two males, we were able to spend a lot of time with the 11 cubs, who were accompanied by two females. Unusual sightings were Grevy’s zebra (more stripes than the usual, and the only one in the reserve), very fast moving Patas monkeys (only found in Borana), rarely seen and very skittish long necked gazelles (never seen these before), and an Aardwolf (cousin to a hyena).

Borana is a stocked reserve, although some of the animals have been there for a long time. They hope to add 20 white rhinos in January, an expensive undertaking. There appears to be a lot of people both in South Africa and Kenya who are devoting their money to conservation, and care of the animals. We are very lucky that these people exist as otherwise the native population would eliminate all the wildlife.

                   

Nine month old lion cub in Borana                                                                                             Over grazed acacia trees

Oct 26

On our early morning drive (well, fairly early), we searched for the two males lions. Despite valiant efforts to get the Land Rover stuck at the bottom of steep gullies, the driver and guide, Richard, wasn’t able to locate them in thick bush, so back for another breakfast. You never know when a game drive is going to be good or bad.

The Dyer family do a great deal for the community, including funding 5 primary schools with more teachers, classroom equipment, adult literacy classes etc. We found this spirit generosity all through Kenya with much help being given by the white Kenyan families to the locals. See www.borana.com for more information.

Our poor game drive was more than made up for by a great helicopter trip from Borana to Ol Donyo Was. This flight of 180 nautical miles due south took 1 1/2 hours against 6 1/2 hours by road. We were very glad to be doing this by helicopter.  The flight started over the remainder of the Borana reserve, then over a heavily wooded forest, followed by smallholdings, and then very large and well organised commercial farms with flower growing greenhouses. This took us to the foothills of Mount Kenya where we flew over the neck between the 17,000 and the 14,000 mounts in the Mount Kenya range. To do this we had to go up to 11,400 feet – high in a helicopter. The north side of the mountains was rather like the Scottish moors, covered with heather like plants with a complete absence of trees. On the south side of the mountain range we were immediately over green tropical forest with deep ravines, waterfalls and steep hillocks. The forest gave way to small holdings on steep mounds, growing what looked like coffee or tea. We descended into a flat plain, stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction. First came enormous rice fields, and then smallholdings of 2 – 4 acres. This are the lands of the Wakamba tribe. Fields are very small, each following the contours of the land. Ploughing is done by two oxen with maize as the primary crop. On the higher ground mangoes and avocados are grown. From the air the land is a patchwork of red, brown and black fields (where there is still lava), each bordered with dykes or rows of bushes and trees.

                            

Main road to Nairobi with smallholdings                                      A lake en route from Borana to Ol Donyo Was

The helipad at Ol Donyo is the smallest that we have used to date with trees all round it and a small bush actually growing in the circle. Quite a challenge to get into; there was no more than 2 metres of space on all sides between the blade ends and the branches! Ol Donyo is perched on the edge of the very lovely Chyulu Hills, about 100 feet above a plain extending 80 kms to Mount Kilimanjaro (which for those of you whose geography is hazy, is in Tanzania). Below the lodge is a water hole fed by the grey water from the lodge. There are constantly between one and five elephants there, and (when the elephants are not monopolising the hole) baboon, impala, warthogs. The rooms are the best that we have stayed in anywhere in Africa. Unfortunately at present there is very little game in the 300,000 hectare reserve due to lack of water which has meant that most of the animals have decamped elsewhere. Hopefully to the Masai Mara where we go on Saturday.

Last night it rained to the delight of the management here, although only 3mm. So our arrival has brought rain to two lodges. If this keeps on we will be elevated to the status of Rain Gods, and invited all over Africa to practise our witchcraft.

Two game drives have yielded almost no sightings of animals, although there are lots of birds. One plus of having fewer animals is that the acacia trees have not been munched away, and so their parasol shapes contribute to a very African landscape.

                       

Big tusker known as ‘Torn Ear’ at the waterhole                             Only his mum could find him attractive!

Oct 27 

Instead of doing the second game drive, which we left to Christine, Chris and I went on a flight over the Chyulu Hills, which are entirely volcanic. They are relatively young, having been formed about 1/2 million years ago.  Apart from one which erupted about 100 years ago, most of the many volcanoes must have been silent for many years as they are covered with forest at the top and grassland lower down. They are so green that they could be the Malvern Hills. Masai, who are nomadic herders, use the hills for periodic visits for their cattle and goats, having burnt the lower slopes so that grass can grow for grazing. Being volcanic, rainfall seeps through the mountains leaving no local water holes, and so limiting the amount of time that cattle can stay in the hills. Water from the hills drains underground to a point 20 miles away where it is piped to Mombasa, 200 miles distant.

                               

Sundowner stop in the plains near Ol Donyo                                                                                                            The green Chyulu hills from the helicopter

There is only one couple here, other than the three of us. The manager tells us that there have been four cancellations within the last week. We know that Michael Dyer, owner of Borana, has had to close his resort on the coast north of Mombasa because of the Somalian kidnappings, which are really hurting the tourist business in Kenya.

Accompanied by continuous rolls of thunder, a guide and an old man with an even older shotgun, I took an hour’s walk in the acacia area below the lodge. On foot I saw more game than on both of the drives. Six giraffe, oryx, baboons, eland and jackal were all spotted. The giraffes were mostly curious about the walkers, staying still and following us with their eyes. Elephant dung and other animal poo covered the paths to the depth of many inches, so clearly there is more game here at other times of the year.

Oct 28

On the advice of the locals we flew 40 miles westwards for a morning visit to Amboseli National Park. This is a 36,000 hectare park on Florida-flat land at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Part of the land is swamp, other flat dry and rather dusty plain. It has obviously had a lot of rain recently from the standing water in the ‘fields’ and at the airport.A car was sent from the lodge to meet us at the airstrip for a three hour tour.

I don’t think that we have seen so much game anywhere. Apart from cats we saw everything, and in huge quantities. A herd of 40 elephant, all in single file, crossed our road just 50 feet in front of us. The bird life was stunning with the Crown Crane being our favourite. At one time we saw over 200 elephant close by. And the same with Wildebeest, Buffalo, Gazelles, you name it. So a very successful morning.

On the way back we ran into rain, and just after landing at the lodge it started pouring. It cleared for a time mid afternoon to the sight of Mount Kilimanjaro (the top of which is seen only about three times a year), and the neighbouring mountain. Apparently seeing both together is very rare.

If you are thinking about it, I would suggest that you don’t plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The top is nearly always in cloud, it rains incessantly, and looks to be a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

Fuel for the helicopter is in drums which seem to be located at most lodges. We have made arrangements where we help ourselves to the number of 50 gallon drums we need, and get billed for this later. It is a bit of a messy job to transfer the fuel using a slow hand pump, but that’s the only  way to do it. Local helicopters have an electric pump built in, but we are not that sophisticated.

Oct 29

On this morning to the Masai Mara, the ultimate game area in Kenya. It is a hour and half in the helicopter from Ol Donyo against 8 hours driving (though most people fly into one of the many airstrips).

Many of the one and a half million Wildebeest have moved southwards to the Serengeti in Tasmania, but we are assured that there will be still be lots of game. The Mara is a large area of grass savannah interspersed with rivers, small bushy areas and some trees. Before the migration happens in July the grass is about 1 1/2 metres tall; now it is closer to 1 1/2 centimeters. No mowers needed in the Mara.

                         

We are staying at a tented camp looking down on the Mara river and about 30 hippos who sleep the day away in the river directly below our room. Sometimes somewhat noisily when a domestic breaks out. Accommodation is primitive and cramped compared to Ol Donyo; electricity and hot water are available for only a few hours each day. Food is not too good either, but that’s not what one goes to Kenya for.

We are lucky in having a super driver/guide who is extremely knowledgeable and who seems to know where to find every sort of animal. On our first afternoon drive we see massive herds of wildebeest, zebra, land rovers, impala, Thomson’s gazelle, as well as lion cubs. We were warned that the park would be very crowded with tourists, and that driving would be a bit like Piccadilly Circus. While we did count 12 vehicles waiting for a river crossing by the wildebeest (who rejected our invitation), most of the time we were on our own. Be warned: it might be different in July and August.

Game viewing was as good as anywhere we have been to. We saw a leopard cub and full grown male lion (although sound asleep as lions are for 20 out of 24 hours).

After we returned to the camp it started raining again and continued all night. Christine was so cold that she had to have 2 hot water bottles and two duvets. So much for being within 120 miles of the equator! Our reputation as rain gods remains intact. All that I need is a bone through my nose, and my African fortune is made.

We have decided to cut our stay short by a day. Enough of being bounced around in 4x4s. It is time for some decent food in France and seeing the dogs. But it has been a fantastic trip, even with the loss of the Ethiopian sector.

                       

 

 

Notes for serious game photographers

1. Point and shoot cameras won’t do the job for game photography. Nor will the new half way house cameras, such as ‘four-thirds’. You need a DSLR with a long lens.

2. All the cameras are now so good that it doesn’t much matter whether you have Nikon, Canon, Sony or other. I use Nikon D7000.

3. You need a zoom lens with a minimum focal length of 300mm. 400mm is even better. I use a 70-300 mounted on one camera body and a 280-540 on another, but one zoom is probably enough.

4. Don’t think that you can swap lens as needed. You will always have the wrong lens on, and the animals won’t stick around for you to change. Also you will get dirt on your mirror and sensor while the camera is open.

5. Take lots of photos and delete afterwards. I usually delete 90% of what I take. Photos are free!

6. If you aren’t familiar with ISO, f-stop, speeds, aperture priority, histograms etc., try using AUTO or one of the specific scene alternatives that your camera offers, but focus can be more difficult than with a single point. Photos come out amazingly well, and sometimes even better than fiddling with the settings.

7. Back up your photos daily onto a card or a computer. Nothing is more heart wrenching than to return home and find that all of your wonderful photographs have disappeared.

8. Always focus on the animal’s eyes. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the face or body is out of focus, but out of focus eyes never work.

9. Cameras, even with vibration reduction and high speeds, need to be stable. A tripod doesn’t work for animals. A beanie bag is the best. Use it always.

10. If you possibly can, get a full row on the truck so that you can move from side to side. Pictures of the heads of other guests don’t play well.