Photo Safaris in Kenya (page 5 of 18)

What was Régis thinking wanting to come here??

What do you mean my park isn’t great? I loved it—you get to see animals you won’t find anywhere else, and it’s the park with the largest number of melanistic animals. Besides the serval, there’s the genet and the leopard.

But I get it—with your over-the-top love for cold and high altitudes, this must’ve been tough.

Still, it’s such a change from the usual parks.

What was Régis thinking wanting to come here? 😡

What do you mean, isn’t my park great?

I loved it—you get to see animals you won’t find anywhere else, and it’s the park with the largest number of melanistic animals. Besides the serval, there’s the genet and the leopard.

But I get it, given your over-the-top love for cold and high altitudes—it must’ve been tough for you.

Still, it’s such a change from the usual parks.

Yeah, this park is really different—you’ll see more in the next part 😉 After the little Christmas break 😊

Can't wait to see the rest..... but I get the Christmas break Happy holidays to everyone!

Hi Isabelle

If there’s still a little room, I’d love to come along too! 🙂

Kenya’s been calling my name for ages, but my husband’s really hesitant about traveling there (safety concerns). Though I did manage to get him to go to South Africa, and he had pretty much the same worries then… so I haven’t given up hope yet!

Happy holidays and see you soon for the next update.

Hi Virginie, Yes, there’s still plenty of room—come join us! 😊

As for safety in Kenya, I can’t really say since we were always accompanied. I don’t know if anyone’s done a self-drive trip there—maybe Bernard (Blesdl)?

Happy holidays! 🎄

Hi Virginie,

Solene40 just went on a self-drive trip to Kenya—she can share her thoughts with you!

Hi there,

Gorgeous photos from Amboseli! I saw Kilimanjaro back in 2022, but never with such a clear sky. What luck to spot a black serval! Looking forward to the next posts about the Aberdares (only 1.5 days there last year), Samburu, and Meru (Ikweta too), which I visited this September. Merry Christmas.

Welcome to this travel journal, Didier! 😊 So you’ll share your thoughts on Aberdare? 😄 2022 and 2024—I get the feeling that, like us, once you’ve experienced Kenya, it’s got that "come back for more" vibe. 😌

My take on the Aberdares: staying at "The Ark", rooms are a bit dated, but the food was really good—though with a silly check-in process at another lodge a few kilometers away. Lots of rooms. The lodge has a watering hole and photo opportunities via "hides", not too bad. Bird feeding around 5 PM was great. We did a full day with meals near the highest point, feeling like we were the only ones in the world. A day with leopards, servals (not black), elephants, colobus monkeys, and birds we’d never seen before. The forest was stunning and reminded a friend of some New Zealand forests.

Whoa, big words there, Regis, about "self-drive" 😄. We rented a car for 4 days to visit the tea plantations and the lakes north of Nairobi, then took the train for a 2-night stop in Tsavo with a local agency, finishing up with some scooter rides by the Indian Ocean. Seriously, Virginie, safety-wise during the day (we didn’t go out at night), NO worries at all, and Kenyans are *super* welcoming. Christelle

Thanks Isabelle, Régis, and Christelle for your reassuring messages. Budget-wise, I’m guessing we’re looking more at Namibian prices than South African ones? Or maybe even pricier than Namibia?

Hi there, I’ll be following this travel journal closely. After a trip to Southern Africa (South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia) a year and a half ago, we became totally hooked on Africa and dream of going back. Unfortunately, our trip ended two weeks early—we had to come home suddenly. Your photos are absolutely stunning.

Virginie, I don’t want to "clutter" Isabelle’s travel journal, and I’m not sure if you’re talking about the overall budget or just the safari part. You can send me a private message if you’d like more details 😊 Christelle

Welcome Brigitte to this travel journal! 😊 I get the feeling that, like many of us, you’ve caught the Africanovirus 😄

No worries Christelle, maybe others will be interested too 😊 since it’s still in Kenya 😍

Price-wise, yeah, it’s more expensive than South Africa. I’d say that for similar services, it’s like Namibia. If I remember your Namibia travel journal right, you only stayed in lodges.

So it's simple for 2 nights in Tsavo East: 50 € park entry per person for 24 hours 260 € for a vehicle with driver for the two of us over 2 days and 336 € for 2 nights in full board at a small lodge 12 km inside the park. To balance it all out, we ended up by the sea with 3 nights in an Airbnb at 40 € per night (and it was still magical 😊). Overall, this 15-day trip cost us less than expected, but I organized everything myself, and it really wasn’t easy to find info for this country when VF was down! But phew, we’re saved now 😌. Have a good evening, Christelle

Thanks Christelle! 🙂

I’m waiting for the rest of Isabelle’s travel journal and, to pass the time, I’ll go read all the older ones 😎

Oh Virginie! You're putting me under pressure 🤪 The rest is coming, but slowly—I need to write it up and dig out the info since I didn’t take any notes 😕

Aberdare

As mentioned earlier, Aberdare National Park is at over 3,200m altitude. In the morning, it’s pretty tough to crawl out from under the thick duvets when it’s more than just chilly in the room. Come on, up you get! The animals are waiting outside—we’re pumped!

Indeed, the atmosphere is completely different from Amboseli. The mist swallows everything. The animals are just shadows on the paths—buffaloes, defassa waterbucks with their heart-shaped snouts.



Honestly, when you go to Africa, you don’t expect this kind of scenery... it feels like one of our European forests.



As Régis mentioned above, this park is home to some species you won’t find anywhere else, like the giant forest hog, a massive warthog.



Besides the baboons we saw in all the parks, the black-and-white Colobus monkeys are stunning with their long tails. They come to lick and bite the rocks to get the salt they need.



The Mount Kenya guenons are a bit more feisty.