PLASTIC BAGS IN KENYA

Kenya is one of over 40 countries that make plastic bags illegal, with a ban imposed in 2017. Africa has been leading the global war on plastics, and southern and eastern African countries have banned plastic bags.

The law bans the use, manufacture and importation of all single-use plastic bags.  Travellers coming into Kenya with plastic shopping bags (including duty-free bags) will have to leave them at the airport. Re-usable ziplock bags continue to be allowed.

All single-use plastics have been banned from Kenya’s National Parks, conservation areas, forests and beaches since 5th June 2020. This means that visitors are prohibited from using disposable plates, cups, cutlery, straws and plastic plates.

Picture credit @kenyawildlifeservice

You cannot use plastic bags for shopping in Kenya.  If you go to a shop, then take your own fabric bag or receive your goods in a paper bag.  Supermarkets sell fabric bags for around 10 Kenyan shillings (approx. 10 US cents).

Tanzania, Botswana, Uganda, Rwanda and Seychelles have also banned plastic bags and Namibia has banned plastic bags from its national parks and reserves.

Rwanda instituted its plastic bag ban in 2008 and is now noticeably cleaner than other African cities with UN Habitat declaring Kigali to be Africa’s cleanest city. The lack of plastic bag litter on the streets is visible in the countryside too.  Rwanda’s constitution states that “every citizen is entitled to a healthy and satisfying environment” and so the country is considering banning other types of plastic and becoming the world’s first plastic-free nation.

For your own plastic-free safari consider the following tips:

• Use an electric or stainless-steel razor
• Switch to paper or bamboo ear buds
• Unpack new items to remove plastic packaging; this may also save on luggage weight and space
• Use paper straws (or no straw) in cocktails and juices
• Use a refillable water bottle; many camps are bottling their own fresh water for guests to refill their water bottle (it’s also handy on the plane as they never give you enough water on long-haul flights to keep you hydrated – you can empty it and take it through airport security to refill on the other side)
• Carry a backpack or large bag when shopping for souvenirs
• Take an eco-friendly, biodegradable toothbrush

And if you are travelling with children:

• Carry sweets that don’t have wrappers
• Consider the more compact dried fruit rather than fresh that also has peel and cores to dispose of
• Nuts take up less space than crisps and have less packaging
• Use rechargeable batteries or take used batteries home to recycle

Overland Travel Guests Pack School Supplies to Make a Big Impact on Kenyan Students

This post first appeared on Pack For A Purpose: https://www.packforapurpose.org/blog/2020/06/206434/

When Bryan and Jade landed carrying their full business class luggage allowance we were overwhelmed with their generosity, as well as their family and their friends’.  Their personal belongings for the safari were about a quarter of their luggage and the rest was stationary, clothes, and even some tablets (IPads, not medication!) for us to distribute to the community projects we support. We took Bryan and Jade to Amani Kibera so they could see for themselves the impact they were making on the community. For us, that is the real highlight of Pack for a Purpose: being able to take guests to the projects where they can make their donations in person and meet the beneficiaries.

Bryan and Jade are not the only guests who have come laden with supplies for Kenyan communities. Sheila had been sponsoring Ndunda’s education for some time before she and her friend Christine came for a safari in Kenya and then to Botswana. Ndunda lives at Kiota Children’s Home, one of the projects we support, and we worked a visit into Sheila and Christine’s itinerary. They had brought a pile of stationary, not just for Ndunda, but enough for all the children in the home.

Amani Kibera has a community library and relies entirely on donations of books to fill the shelves. Their primary focus with any funding or grants they receive is to buy the Kenyan syllabus texts as many children in the Kibera slum cannot afford their own copies. All other books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been donated by well-wishers. It’s really important to give children access to books other than their textbooks as it is not common to have books in the home. Kenyan children have to work a bit harder to get an interest in subjects not taught at school or to pick up a novel and get lost in the fantasy. Having such books available at the library gives them these opportunities and can open up the wider world to them.  Tom brought books when he visited and so did the McDonnell and Wedeen families.

Even people who have not booked a safari with us have got in touch with us because they wanted to Pack for a Purpose. Given early starts on most safaris and odd flight times, we sometimes don’t get to meet these people in person but it’s lovely to walk into a hotel and receive a suitcase full of toys for Amani Kibera’s childcare centre or bags of stationary and arts and crafts supplies for Kiota.

Jackson was so inspired by the project he visited that a couple of years after his safari, he raised and sent us money to buy smart phones in Kenya. This gave the project leaders the ability to communicate more effectively with the world about their work and also use the DuoLingo app to learn English.

The benefit to the projects is immense. When every penny of funding and donations goes towards school fees, food and necessary school stationary, it is such a treat for the children at Kiota to get some art and craft supplies. The education system in Kenya is largely rote learning so getting such materials gives the children an opportunity to explore their own imaginations and develop creativity they might not get at school. Plus it’s fun, which is also important for these children who have had a pretty tough childhood.

Bringing stationary and other school supplies to Amani Kibera means they can distribute them to needy families who barely have enough money for school fees.

The projects benefit from Pack for a Purpose because they are able to specify exactly what they need and guests can bring those things. After this current COVID-19 crisis, everyone will have suffered in the economic downturn and especially those with less than the average person. We have unfortunately had a few of our sponsors cease their sponsorship of a Kenyan child’s education due to their own financial hardship in the current circumstances. When this is all over and we can travel again, any school supplies that can be brought to assist families as they scrape together money for school fees, uniforms and text books will be a great help.

Samburu and other northern adventures

Samburu, Aberdare and Meru National Parks are not on a typical safari circuit.  But these are the three parks that Ian had his heart set on when he was planning his Kenyan safari.  He had seen two three-day itineraries on our website and asked to combine them into a week-long trip.  Being a specialist in tailor-made safaris, we of course said yes and put together a tour that took him off the beaten track into Northern Kenya.

By the time we met Ian, he had completed two weeks on a group tour through Kenya and Tanzania.  Needing a bit of a break from long, bumpy drives, he spent a day in Nairobi between safaris doing a walking tour of Nairobi’s city centre.  George is our local guide for these tours.  He was trained by MCF Panairobi, an NGO educating street children in the Mathare slum.  Armed with training and experience, George recently stepped out on his own to establish a tour company specializing in city and slum tours.  For Ian, the opportunity to learn about life in Nairobi, as well as the colourful history of Kenya, from a local who had grown up on the streets was a highlight of his time in Africa.  So much so, that he kept in touch with George after returning home and the continued relationship led to him contributing a large amount of money to a school that George was involved with.  We absolutely love when our guests make connections such as these.

Aberdare adventure

The first stop on Ian’s northern trails safari was Aberdare National Park.  He stayed at The Ark, named for its shape which is a likeness of old Noah’s vessel.  Aberdare is divided into two sections – the moorland and the salient.  The moorland is at a higher altitude and features a number of waterfalls that you can walk to.  The salient is quite dense bush and where the wildlife prefer to be.  The Ark is in the middle of the salient and has a marvelous walkway that is strung high above the ground giving guests an excellent vantage point to view elephants, bushbuck and, if they’re lucky a bongo.

Heading further north into Kenya’s arid area, Ian next visited Samburu National Reserve.  Here he camped in the middle of the park in a simple A-frame tent enjoying the bush cooking of our safari cook.  Samburu is one park where leopards are relatively easy to spot – it’s never a guarantee, but you’ve got a better chance in Samburu than in most other parks.  Ian got really lucky and saw a leopard out on a hunt!

The third and final destination was Meru National Park.  In seven years of operating OTA, we have only had two guests go to Meru; it is out of the way and definitely off the beaten safari track.  But it is an excellent park to spot rhino, which Ian did.  He stayed at Ikweta Camp, a beautiful (and very affordable) tented camp just outside the park gate.

On his return to Nairobi, he had a night to spend before flying out.  He availed himself of our spare room which we rent out on AirBnB and we took him out for a quintessential Kenyan experience: nyama choma.  We chewed on overcooked goat and sipped on Tusker beer, and reflected on Ian’s African adventures.

Ian’s Trip Advisor Review:

Way way more than just a specialist in day tours!

It’s such a shame that OTA (Overland Travel Adventures) comes up in the category of “Private Day Tours” since the reality is that they offer day tours as well as much longer adventures. Tours can be customised or set itineraries and dates can be joined. Either way, a first class experience can be guaranteed. My tour was a customised six day tour for one (me) and from start to finish I was hugely impressed. My goal was to see some of the lesser travelled parks in Northern Kenya (having already been on safari for two weeks in the south of Kenya and northern Tanzania) and with Tracey and Francis’ expert knowledge we settled on Aberdare NP, Samburu NR and Meru NP. Although I live in Australia (Tracey’s origins too), the planning went without a hitch and the whole trip was a wonderful addition to my earlier trip. Highlights were many but I think the day traversing Aberdare NP West to East (barely seeing another person) was one of the great day drives of my life; mind you the stark semi arid landscape of Samburu and its fantastic wildlife also stood out; as did rhino spotting in Meru. All in all, Francis (a born a bred Kenyan) was a wonderful guide; accommodation was exactly as I had hoped (waterhole room in Aberdare; bush camping in Samburu; Safari Lodge in Meru) and the trip, a perfect addition to my Kenyan and Tanzanian adventures. Just to top things off, Francis and Tracey have an Airbnb room so I finished the trip at their place and went out to dinner for some Nyama Choma and a Tusker beer or two.If you want a small local company, that provides outstanding service and value for money while being socially and environmentally responsible then you can’t go past OTA.

Jasmin’s Safari

The first week of 2016 saw Francis again heading to the Maasai Mara – it seemed as if he was going every week for those couple of months of Christmas holidays!  This time it was with two Swiss and two Argentineans.  Jasmin had been staying in our spare room (AirBnB) and wanted to visit the Maasai Mara together with her brother who was coming to visit her in Kenya.  We were able to find them some travelling companions, to make their safari more budget-friendly for all four of them.

Jasmin had spent a semester on exchange at Multimedia University, studying journalism.  The university is not far from our place and at the end of her semester her boyfriend came to explore Kenya with her.  They rented our AirBnB room before heading off to the coast where her brother joined them.  She returned to Nairobi with her brother for the next leg to the Maasai Mara.  An Argentinean couple was also looking for a trip to the Maasai Mara at that time so the four of them headed off with Francis.  They stayed at Mara Explorers near Sekanani Gate, owned by our friends Laura and Moses.

On their game drives they saw plenty of animals – as usually happens in the Mara.  Impala, topi, ostrich, giraffe and buffalo were in abundance.  One particular highlight was when a mother elephant and her baby came very close to their vehicle.  Another fun creature is the angama lizard which looks like a lolly with all its bright colours.  But to crown it all, and what most people come to the Mara to see, was the lioness with her cubs.  The mama lion rolled in the grass as her cubs peered out between the blades.  It was grooming time and then lunch time, although mama seemed to get a bit annoyed with the young cubs all vying for time at the milking station.  The cubs were typical toddlers though: being cute but not doing as they were told!

Of course birdlife is also incredible but sometimes overshadowed by the wildlife.  Hamerkop is one distinctive bird that is pretty special to spot.  It is called hamerkop as the Afrikaans word for “hammer head” and indeed when you see this bird you could not call it anything else!  Guinea fowl are usually found in flocks on the ground, but on this trip to the Maasai Mara, Francis found them up in a sausage tree.  Lilac-breasted rollers, the national bird of Kenya, flashed their purple and blue through the bush too.

The group got their obligatory photo at the border point that marks where Kenya ends and Tanzania begins.  It is a simple obelisk-type structure in the middle of the bush but it would just be so great if there were an actual border crossing we could use in this location.

In the end, Jasmine described the safari as an “absolutely relaxed and responsible safari.”  Here’s the review she left on Trip Advisor:

Me and my brother made a safari to Masaai Mara. We already knew Francis and Tracey because we’ve spent some nights at their place in Rongai. They are really nice and helpful people and we had an amazing time with them. The safari to the Mara was one of the highlights of our time in Kenya.

I think Francis is a really good driver and I felt so relaxed in his car. This is important because it is quite a distance to the Mara park from Nairobi. Also in the park we felt that he really knows the area and that he exactly knew when he can drive through a waterhole (this time there were a lot of them) – we never got stuck. He also drove respectfully when animals were around, what I appreciated a lot. He really asked what we wanted and did not just stop at any souvenir shop like I knew it from other safari organizations (and I think can be a bit annoying). Finally, the place where we went for the two nights was also a great spot (The Mara explorer’s camps).

I totally recommend to travel with OTA because it is a small, really personal safari organization of such a nice couple with experience and knowledge.

You Can Share a Meal With a Kenyan Family and Make a Difference

What’s the best way you can think of to get to know someone?  In my opinion, sharing a meal opens people up and enables a friendly comfortable conversation.  When we travel, it can be difficult to scrape the surface of a place and I often find myself wondering how I can dig deeper and get to know the culture better.  So we decided to give travelers to Kenya that very opportunity by offering the option to enjoy lunch or dinner with a Kenyan family.

We met Patrick, Joy* and their two children several years ago.  Having worked on the edges of tourism for about ten years, Patrick was looking for a way to continue in the industry but also be there for his young family.  Despite their modest living conditions, he was very proud of his wife’s cooking and so came up with the idea to invite travellers to see the “real Kenya” and share a meal with him and his family.  This would allow the family to earn a small income while fulfilling the goals of spending time with his family and working with tourists.  On the first visit, there was another benefit that became apparent – his children had the opportunity to play with the visitors’ children, giving all children the opportunity to learn from each other.

A Typical Family

A lower-class Kenyan family typically lives in a one- or two-room apartment or unit.  Curtains act as walls to divide a room into sitting room and bedroom.  The sitting room is at the front and visitors are rarely invited past that.  The wife spends much of her time in the kitchen and brings out pots of steaming food to her husband and guests.  The kitchen might have a gas bottle with a burner for quickly boiling water and one or two “jikos” which are small stoves that fit one pot and use charcoal.  Bathrooms are usually shared between all the residents of the building.  The toilet will be a cubicle with a hole in the concrete which descends to a large pit.  The ‘shower’ is a cubicle with a small hole in the corner acting as a drain and residents take their own bucket of water to wash themselves (no shower rose or even a tap).  There is usually no plumbing in these buildings so residents buy their water in jerry cans.  Given the lack of space inside, children tend to spend most of their time playing outside.  Many families have chickens running around the yard, which are mainly used for meat on a special occasion.

Each tribe of Kenya has its own traditional food.  Joy prepares a selection of dishes from different tribes to give visitors a good taste of Kenya including:

• Githeri – a stew of beans and maize
• Plantain – green bananas boiled and then fried with tomato and onion
• Rice
• Mukimo – mashed potato mixed with pumpkin leaves and maize
• Tilapia – fish found in freshwater lakes around Kenya
• Chapatti – flat bread originating from India (Kenya has a large Indian population who have influenced the cuisine)
• Chicken stew
• Zikuma wiki – kale
• Ugali – maize meal mixed with water to make a polenta-style dish
• Cabbage
• Sweet potato
• Fruits for dessert

In Kenyan tradition, when we visit friends or family, the etiquette is to bring gifts.  These are probably not what westerners would normally consider gifts; rather we take maize meal, tea, sugar, rice, and other basic food items.  If there are children in the house, you might also take pens, pencils and exercise books and perhaps some sweets.

Kenyans traditionally eat with their hands and so hygiene is very important.  The wife will prepare some warm water and bring it in a jug with a bowl, soap and towel to each guest.  She pours the water over your hands so you can wash, and then offers the towel or a serviette.  As I mentioned earlier, there is no running water in most houses, so it often comes as a bit of a surprise to visitors to be presented with this method of washing hands.  There are a lot of stews on the menu so you might think eating with your hands is going to be very messy, but there are two key dishes that can act as spoons: ugali and chapatti.  The chapatti is clear as it is flat bread which can be curled into a scoop.  The ugali is of such a consistency that it can be formed into a scoop as well.

Kenyan food can take a bit of getting used to.  The meat tends to be a bit tough and the maize tends to be a bit tasteless.  Ugali is not my personal favourite, but it is not designed to be eaten on its own – it is meant to be eaten with a sauce or stew and that is where you get your flavour.  Kenyans don’t use a lot of spices in their cooking – flavour is added by salt and maybe chicken or beef stock cubes.  But the vegetables are fresh, they haven’t been months in cold storage as we often get in the west, so you get the full flavours of the actual food you are eating.

Guests often have mixed reactions throughout their visit.  On first entering the compound and then the house there is definitely some trepidation as it is quite a different way of life than what we are used to.  There’s also uncertainty about how to react if the food proves inedible.  And then there’s relief as fish, rice, chicken, mashed potato and cabbage is presented.  It might be cooked a bit differently, but it is recognizable and definitely edible!  As conversation flows guests relax into their surrounds.  The children play outside together and by the end of the meal there’s pleas from the kids that they want to keep playing.  Friendships are formed, connections made, and bonding over a shared meal leaves everyone with the warmth that comes from being with other humans.  Despite the nerves at the outset, all our guests have come away from this experience with positivity and believe that it was a key part of their whole Kenyan safari.

If you would like to share a meal with a Kenyan family as part of your safari adventure, please email tracey@ota-responsibletravel.com.

*not their real names

Is It OK To Book A Safari While In Kenya?

Is it OK to book a safari once you arrive in Kenya or is it better to book in advance?  This question repeatedly comes up on various travel forums.  Many travelers (including myself) like the freedom of landing in a country and seeing how it flows without being locked into a set itinerary where you are told when and where to eat, sleep and go.  So let’s explore how you can go on safari with some sense of freedom while remaining safe, comfortable and within budget.

Let’s start with “Yes”, it’s OK to book a safari once you arrive in Kenya.  If you wander the streets of Nairobi’s CBD, you will be approached by touts selling cheap safaris.  It is very easy to go along with one of them.  The vehicles are usually parked near City Market, so if you are ready to go, you could go immediately.  They accept cash so you just need to go to the ATM, withdraw, hand it over and you’re away.  Simple.

For those who are happy with doing things quickly, simply and are flexible in their expectations, this is perfect.  For others, this might sound a bit dodgy.  I had a friend who went for this method and it wasn’t until her and her comrades had withdrawn the money from the ATM that they realized they were about to walk through downtown Nairobi and at least one person knew they were carrying masses of cash.  It suddenly seemed a foolhardy approach.

So we move to “No” it’s perhaps not a good idea to book a safari when you arrive in Kenya.  Safaris aren’t cheap….or you definitely get what you pay for!  If you find a deal on the street that seems too good to be true, then it probably is.  You might find yourself eating zikuma (kale) and ugali (maize meal) for a week and every day dealing with the results of a poorly maintained vehicle.  Remember, fuel is the same price as at home and the roads are in bad condition (like, worse than you could even imagine), so running a vehicle here is an expensive proposition.

You want to trust your tour operator.  You are about to hand over a large amount of money to make this once-in-a-lifetime safari the one you’ve always dreamed of.  Why would you risk that by picking any Joe off the street?  Take time to do your research.  Read reviews of tour operators (Trip Advisor, Safari Bookings and Your African Safari all help), and start an email conversation to get a feel for how they respond to your wishes.  While it’s not necessary, you may also want to check with industry bodies such at KATO (Kenyan Association of Tour Operators) whose members tend to be more reliable and competent than non-members.  You also want to know who you are dealing with – an agent or an operator.  Of course if you are dealing with your travel agent at home then they will connect you with a reputable tour operator.  But some Kenyan agents can look very much like operators on their websites.  This means they will not be responsible for vehicle maintenance and be “selling you” to a tour operator.  In this case you still don’t know who will be responsible for your comfort and safety while on safari and whether you trust them.  And agents in Kenya are not held by the same rules and guarantees as agents at home, so if they disappear with your money there’s not much recourse.

Kenya is not all bad!

But it’s not just about avoiding shady people (I don’t want to sound like Kenya is full of conmen!), it’s also about availability.  Most people want to come for the Wildebeest Migration in July and August.  These months are also summer holidays in the US and Europe so accommodation in Maasai Mara is around 97% booked throughout the period.  Christmas is also a peak period, with a lot of Kenyans travelling at this time as well as international tourists.  Accommodation and vehicles can be difficult to source in these peak times if you leave it to the last minute.

If you are not fussy about food, the vehicle, or which game park you go to and are on a budget, then you can take a chance with booking your safari when you get to Kenya.  But I recommend you spend some time researching reputable tour operators with good reviews so you know you are safe.  Unfortunately, Kenya is perhaps not the best country to trust strangers on the street who have “the best safari deal for you!”

Overland Travel Adventures has excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and we love working with our guests to personally design their dream safari.  We are a family-run business with husband and wife team, Tracey and Francis, taking care of you from planning through execution.  Email tracey@ota-responsibletravel.com to start planning your holiday today.

Ellies and Giraffes with Linda and Amy

One of Nairobi’s best-kept secrets is a beautiful nature park opposite the AFEW Giraffe Centre.  It’s where Linda, Amy and I had a picnic to the soundtrack of birdsong in March 2016.  Volunteers at the Sunrise of Africa School in Kitengela, Linda and Amy booked a day trip with us to see some of Nairobi highlights.  So we visited the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and the AFEW Giraffe Centre – two fantastic places where you can get up close to the animals and support conservation efforts carried out by these two organisations.

Kitengela is Kenya’s fastest-growing town and each time we visit Sunrise of Africa School it feels like we have to re-learn the way as buildings go up, roads are built and/or moved and landmarks change.  Eventually I found Linda and Amy early in the morning and we headed straight to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage.

My opinion is that the Elephant Orphanage is THE best place to visit in Nairobi; if you only have time to visit one attraction here, make it the baby elephants!  They spend most of their day out in the Nairobi National Park, under the supervision of the keepers, learning to forage and live in the wild.  The intention is for their rehabilitation back to the wild when they are old enough.  But for one hour each day they run down to the centre for a milk feed and a play in front of the large number of visitors who come every day.  They are fed formula milk from huge bottles – the younger ones need their bottles held by their keeper, but the older ones twirl their trunks around the bottle and hold it high, emptying the milk straight down their throats.  The keepers give a talk about the orphanage and introduce each elephant, telling the story of how each orphan came to be here.

Nearby is the Giraffe Centre and opposite the Giraffe Centre is a park with walking trails and hundreds of birds.  It is a serene place to spend some time out from the hustle of Kenya’s capital.  Linda, Amy and I found some rocks to perch on and enjoy our picnic lunch in the peace of the bush.  Only one other group came by as we feasted on salad sandwiches, fruit, yoghurt, and cakes.  It sounds a simple lunch for our visitors, but after spending a month eating traditional Kenyan food (beans, lentils, spinach, everything stewed to death, and then the carbs…..), a fresh salad was a welcome change for Linda and Amy.

After lunch, we rejoined the crowds at the Giraffe Centre.  Here is where you stand on platform at eye-level with the giraffes and feed them.  And get a kiss if you’re really game!  The centre is home to several Rothschild Giraffes, one of the most endangered species of giraffe in the world (did you know there are seven species of giraffe, three of which can be found in Kenya?).  The staff give a talk about giraffes in Kenya and about the work of African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, the organisation that founded the Giraffe Centre.

Linda left this review on our Trip Advisor page:

“Tracey met us and and took us to the elephant centre, she was warm, friendly and efficient and provided an excellent picnic between the first and second visit. A very relaxed and happy day.”

Would you like to visit the elephant orphanage and giraffe centre in Nairobi?  Get this free day trip with your safari when you come to Kenya between February and June!  Send an email to tracey@ota-responsibletravel.com so we can start planning your holiday today.

Travelling Solo in East Africa

Quietly considering myself a “seasoned traveller”, in June 2010 I packed my backpack and headed off to Africa for the adventure of a lifetime.  Family and friends told me I was out of my mind and requested I join a tour.  But I had already backpacked the USA, Europe, and worked as a tour leader in Central Asia, Russia and China independently travelling in those parts between tours.  So what could Africa throw at me that I could not handle?

This naivety is not uncommon, I am relieved to admit.  But in fact Africa is NOT Europe.  It is not even Vietnam, which may be considered a reasonable comparison if you look at development data.  But that is the wonderful thing about this amazing continent: it is different to everywhere else in the world.  And despite having started my backpacking career sixteen years ago, Africa still makes me feel like the greenest of travellers.  That is not to say independent travel is impossible; indeed I survived three months backpacking South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi.  If not for finding a job, I was planning to continue up to Nairobi.  As it happens, nine years later I find myself living here, in the continent which has thrown me my toughest challenges and continues to do so.

These days I do suffer an internal conflict: I am a huge advocate for independent travel, getting to know real life through home stays and using public transport; but now I run a tour company offering private safaris (I’ll admit that up front, so you can read this article in whichever light you think appropriate) and the more I use my own vehicle, the less I enjoy crowded buses.  So what’s my advice for someone wanting to travel solo in Africa?

Transport

First let’s talk about public transport.  It’s not comfortable and you need to be prepared to be overcharged on the price of a journey.  But maintain a sense of humour, ask locals how much the journey usually costs before embarking the bus, and relish the opportunity to “live like a local”.

Most people come to Africa to see the wildlife, so getting to a National Park or three is a priority, and the second challenge.  Unfortunately public transport rarely gets you all the way to a National Park.  The best way is to book your accommodation and ask them for a pick up from the nearest town.

Accommodation

Speaking of accommodation, lodges in or near the parks tend to be expensive.  Regardless of where you are in the world, travelling solo and sleeping in private rooms every night can eat into your travel budget quickly.  After a month of backpacking in South Africa, I noticed many other backpackers were carrying a small tent and I realised that could be a way to extend my travel time by cutting costs.  There are many hostels and guesthouses that have yard space where you can pitch your tent and safely camp as a solo traveller.  I do not advocate bush camping though!  Also at such hostels and guesthouses, it’s easy to meet fellow budget travellers with whom you can share the costs of hiring a vehicle for game drives.

Tours

Even if you are not into the group tour thing, I would suggest getting yourself on short trips – just to save your sanity.  From Nairobi for example, there are regularly three-day tours to the Maasai Mara or Amboseli.  Three days is manageable, right?  So use long distance buses to get between big cities – Nairobi, Mombasa, Kampala, etc – and then join a short tour and make your life a little more enjoyable.

If are not averse to group travel, overland tours can be a fun way for solo travellers to see Africa.  Overland trucks traverse the continent, catering mainly to the backpacker market, making them a cheap option.  Sitting in the back of a truck for a few weeks sharing all the amazing new experiences with a bunch of other travellers is fun.  At the end of the day, there’s always someone to have a drink (or three) with.

Africa is not like Europe with backpacker hostels everywhere.  Some countries are easier than others – South Africa for example has great tourism infrastructure to suit all budgets, while Tanzania has less options and Botswana outright targets the luxury market.  It’s definitely possible to travel solo without being a millionaire though.  With humour, time and a little bit extra in your back pocket so you have room to splurge when the going gets tough, travelling solo in Africa can be one of life’s greatest adventures.

If you would like more advice about travelling in Africa, please contact me on tracey@ota-responsibletravel.com.  I love to talk travel and will be happy to point you in the direction that suits your preferred travel style so you can get the most out of your African adventure.

John’s Trip

Have you ever been so dehydrated you’ve seen green elephants, green hippos or a giant weevil about the size of a cow?  On his descent of Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania, John had these hallucinations, but that didn’t stop him from continuing up three more mountains in a two month East African adventure!  A solo traveller on a mission to climb the peaks and visit the mountain gorillas in Uganda, John was looking for pocket-friendly ways to see the region.  Joining group tours is always a gamble, and he regaled us with tales of the fellow travellers he met on the tours we organised for him.

Before John came to Kenya, he had spent a lot of time in Tanzania climbing three mountains (Ol Doinyo Lengai, Meru and Kilimanjaro), hanging out in the Serengeti and visiting a Maasai village.  His other African goals included scaling Mount Kenya and tracking the gorillas in Uganda.  So we helped him find a tour to Uganda which had the added bonus of travelling via the Maasai Mara, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru National Park and Jinja.  As with all group tours there is a chance that your travel mates might not be compatible, but it is certainly a convenient and affordable way for a soloist.  He visited Elsamere, the home of Joy and George Adamson of Born Free fame, took a cruise at the source of the Nile River, and visited orphanages at Lake Bunyonyi and Nakuru.

While he was in Nairobi between trips, John stayed in our spare room, which we have on AirBnB.  We were regaled with tales of his travels (he has travelled all over the world!) and he got to experience a very “local” life in Ongata Rongai.  We took him for dinner a couple of times to our favourite local for nyama choma, as well as the more touristy sites of the elephant orphanage and the giraffe centre.  He also went into town to visit the National Museum, which gives an excellent history of Kenya from pre-history to present.  We took him to Kibera to visit the community projects of Amani Kibera and a day hiking in the Ngong Hills.

Mt Kenya was the big climax though for his Kenyan experience.  Again being a soloist, the climb can be prohibitively expensive, but our colleague in Nanyuki was taking a group up and said John could join.  It was a school group, as it turns out – so John hiked up the mountain with 40 teenagers!

After leaving John to hike up the mountain, Francis and I decided to take our own adventure.  We spent some days exploring the area, checking out different accommodation, and having a break from the bustle of Nairobi.  We ended up at Naro Moru gate for the night where we camped at the public campsite.  We drove up the mountain as far as we could and then continued walking….for about 20 minutes!  I don’t think I can say that I’ve hiked Mt Kenya!  With rain clouds on one side and clear blue sky on the other, the weather on the mountain is unpredictable and can change suddenly.  Francis wasn’t keen on lingering as there was a high chance of getting stuck if the road turned muddy.

In the morning we wandered up to Batian Guest House about a kilometre from the campsite.  It is a self-catering house that sleeps eight.  Stunning views of the mountain would greet you in the morning as you ate breakfast on the balcony.  On our return to the campsite, baboons were running amok!  Our food was safely locked up, but the creatures were everywhere!  As Francis approached, they scattered but not before one broke the side mirror as he slid off the roof to the ground!

Our next stop was Aberdare National Park – a new one for me!  We had a bit of a challenge finding the campsite but finally we slid down an embankment into a clearing.  It was beautiful!  Surrounded by trees with a river running by, we had the forest to ourselves.  The next day we went for a drive around the forested Salient where we saw plenty of buffalo and bushbuck, before we headed to the moorland.  Aberdare is not a big park but it is divided fairly definitely into two sections – the salient and the moorland.  We thought that our chances of spotting animals would disappear on the moorland, but we were wrong.  We saw elephants and then the elusive bongo!  Bongos are incredibly shy and notoriously difficult to spot, so I held no hope of seeing one.  But we saw two!

We visited Fishing Lodge, a self-catering guesthouse that sleeps 14 people (seven in each cottage).  It is in a great location from where you can fish in the river and walk a few kilometres to the waterfalls.  Aberdare has landscape one doesn’t normally associate with Africa: waterfalls, forest, and babbling brooks.  So it is quite an interesting addition to the typical safari itinerary if you are looking to experience Kenya in all her diversity.

If you are looking for some (or all) of the experiences described here, please get in touch.  We love planning interesting itineraries tailored to your interests and budget, and as you can see there is much more to Kenya than savannah plains.  Email tracey@ota-responsibletravel.com to start planning your safari today.

Three For Free!

Are you planning a safari in Kenya next year?  OTA is offering a free city tour with every safari taken between February and June 2021.  So book your Kenyan safari with OTA today to enjoy this incredible bonus.

All safaris that are booked for the period beginning 1 February through to 30 June will enjoy a complimentary day trip around some of Nairobi’s highlights.  The first stop will be the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage where the baby elephants come in from the park for feeding time.  Their keepers introduce each elephant and tell the story of how each one came to be at the orphanage.  (Read more about the Elephant Orphanage here: https://overlandtraveladventures.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/the-david-sheldrick-wildlife-trusts-elephant-orphanage/)

Next is the AFEW Giraffe Centre (https://overlandtraveladventures.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/the-best-location-to-see-giraffes/).  The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife hosts about a dozen giraffes at Nairobi’s Giraffe Centre where you climb up to a platform to be at eye level with these beautiful creatures.  You can feed them and even get a big sloppy kiss if you are very keen!

In the afternoon we head to Africa’s second-largest slum, Kibera.  Amani Kibera is a community-based organisation working towards peace and development in the slum.  Started by a team of young people following the traumatic post-election violence in 2008, Amani Kibera is committed to eradicating the tribalism that erodes Kenyan society.  They promote peace through three pillars: sport, education and economic empowerment.  You will have the opportunity to visit the public library they have established as well as the youth economic empowerment project where you can lend further support by purchasing some of the handicrafts the young people produce.

Valued at $135 per person this tour of Nairobi gives you the chance to see the positive work being undertaken in the fields of conservation, education, and youth empowerment by various organisations.  And it’s yours for free when you book your safari with OTA to travel between February and June 2021!  Contact tracey@ota-responsibletravel.com today to start planning your Kenyan adventure.