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EAST AFRICA - 2006 Galleries

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INTRODUCTION and INSTRUCTIONS

060929 The LONG trip over (via London) : We left San Francisco on Friday at 1 PM and arrived in Nairobi on Sunday mid-morning!

060929 The LONG trip over (via London)

061001a Nairobi : Nairobi is the de facto economic capital of East Africa. It is a magnet for capital investment and for people who hope to do better there than where they're from. Some do, and some don't. Consequently, Nairobi displays the extremes of physical development, from modern high-rise office buildings and a vibrant downtown to a slum of such poverty as is all but unimaginable to we in more advanced nations. And Nairobi is continuing to grow, upward, outward, and downward.

061001a Nairobi

061001b Sheldrick Nairobi - noon : Perhaps the activities that Margaret was most looking forward to were the visits to the Sheldrick trust facilities, the orphanages for baby animals (elephants, in particular). Set up and run by Daphne Sheldrick, whose late husband had been a pioneer in the establishment of Kenya's National Parks, these orphanages are amazing places. The one in Nairobi is open to the public for the noon feedings, and a visit is a 'must-do' for anyone going to Kenya.

061001b Sheldrick Nairobi - noon

061001c The first day - misc : Despite jet-lag and sleep deprivation, we enjoyed a couple of diversions within Nairobi on our first day.

061001c The first day - misc

061001d Sheldrick Nairobi - PM : Margaret "adopted" one of the adolescent orphan elephants, so we were afforded visiting priveleges beyond those available to the general public. During the evening feeding we got word that a newly discovered orphan was being brought in (a tiny baby just a couple of weeks old), so we hung around and got real close with the existing residents.

061001d Sheldrick Nairobi - PM

061002a Mombasa : While Nairobi is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in all of East Africa, it depends upon the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa for its survival. Mombasa enjoys a far lengthier and more eventful history than Nairobi, too. The colorful Old Town area, with its narrow alleys and sidewalk merchants - especially around the Municipal Market - is fascinating to explore. The ancient Fort Jesus gives visitors an appreciation of Mombasa's importance, not only to Kenya's growth but to the entire Indian Ocean trade circuit.

061002a Mombasa

061002b Fort Jesus : In Mombasa, on the Kenya coast, is a centuries-old fort that has been largely renovated and makes a fascinating side-trip.

061002b Fort Jesus

061002c Old Mombasa : The oldest part of Mombasa is a maze of alleys alive with people, for whom the 'street' in front of their dwelling is just as much a part of their home as what lies inside. With colorful vendors on the sidewalks and people moving every which way, Mombasa's Old Town is truly a pedestrian's city. A good guide is a necessity, though, and Omar was very good indeed. We learned so much more than had we attempted to explore on our own.

061002c Old Mombasa

061003a Rukinga & Wildlife Works

061003b Imani Women's Group : Near the Rukinga Ranch headquarters of Wildlife Works, a self-help group has been growing among the women of nearby communities. To see what they've accomplished already and to listen to what they are working on was inspiring.

061003b Imani Women's Group

061003c Marungu Primary School : Wildlife Works, and Rob Dodson in particular, has been instrumental in building and improving local schools in the area, especially this one. Our visit, to a place ordinary tourists never get to, was a very special event for the students as much as for us.

061003c Marungu Primary School

061003d Kasigau district scenery : Surrounding the prominent Mt. Kasigau is a landscape of small dry farms and a few rural towns typical of southeastern Kenya.

061003d Kasigau district scenery

061003e Rukanga village

$061004a Tsavo East National Park : One of our days in the Rukinga area was devoted to visiting the largest national park in Kenya, and we only saw a small fraction of it in an all-day game drive. It gave us a perspective on the enormity of Africa, with vistas that seemed to stretch out forever.$

061004a Tsavo East National Park

061004b Sheldrick orphanage in Voi : Near the Voi entrance to Tsavo East National Park is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust facility where the adolescent elephant orphans are kept and are reintroduced to the wild. Because Margaret had "adopted" one of them we were able to visit, as the kids were let back into the compound for the night and their evening meal.

061004b Sheldrick orphanage in Voi

061005 Mombasa to Nairobi to Malewa :

061005 Mombasa to Nairobi to Malewa

061006 Malewa River Lodge : Along the Malewa River, which feeds Lake Naivasha, lies a successful integration of economic productivity and environmental preservation. A working cattle ranch and dairy, which employs local residents, shares the land with a growing population of indigenous wildlife. Also thriving here are some animals that were approaching extinction in their native range. One of the nice things about visiting this lovely spot is that you're allowed to walk around - something that's forbidden without special permission. It's strange to see such familiar animals as cows mingling with giraffe, zebra, Thompson's gazelle and rhinocerous.

061006 Malewa River Lodge

061008a Arusha National Park : Arusha, Tanzania, is the starting point for many people's safaries to Ngorongoro Crater and the surrounding parks, as well as for those who trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro. Arguably one of the loveliest parks in the area, Arusha National Park is just a short ways outside of the city, but it's missed by so many of the visitors who come through the region.

061008a Arusha National Park

061008b In and around Arusha : Arusha ("The Geneva of Africa") is included in many people's safaris to Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, and several important destinations in between. This brings a lot of tourist money into the local economy, and the city has been expanding rapidly as that money gets distributed. Surrounding downtown are extensive areas of tin-roofed shanties as well as neighborhoods with a mix of traditional mud-and-thatch dwellings and more modern brick-and-lumber homes. Arusha is also a sort of "mixing-pot" for peoples of numerous different tribes who have been culturally assimilated, to varying degrees, into the western-oriented population center. It is a place of energetic social and economic activity.

061008b In and around Arusha

061008c Arusha - Masai family

061009b Arriving in Serengeti : It's a short flight from Arusha (or a long day's drive on rough unpaved roads), but it's like another world. Endless savannahs with a few widely separated hills and rocky outcrops, and a sky that goes on forever. And countless wild animals that don't seem to much mind the carloads of sightseers, allowing us to approach surprisingly closely.

061009b Arriving in Serengeti

061010b Serengeti - AM game drive : We spent a full day in Serengeti National Park, as well as the prior afternoon and the morning after, so we were able to cover a lot of the park in the pop-top Land Rover (just Margaret and me and our driver/guide). There's LOTS of wildlife out there!

061010b Serengeti - AM game drive

061010c Serengeti - only elephants : The elephants were one of the primary reasons for our going to Africa in the first place. In the Serengeti they're grey, as most people are used to seeing them, unlike the ones in Tsavo. With edible stuff all around them, and poaching under control, these elephants don't seem to have a care in the world as they constantly wander.

061010c Serengeti - only elephants

061010d Serengeti Visitors' Center : Although the buildings were closed when we were there, we ate the box lunches that the hotel had prepared. The grounds are overrun with hyraxes, the cute, tail-less ground squirrels that populate the kopjes. The self-guided tour looked interesting but we were more interested in getting back out into the savanna.

061010d Serengeti Visitors' Center

061010e Serengeti - PM game drive : After a late lunch break at the Visitors' Center we continued our drive toward that night's lodging. Although we stopped less frequently than the drive earlier in the day, the declining angle of sunlight made the scenery even more beautiful.

061010e Serengeti - PM game drive

061011a Serengeti - the morning we left : The drive back to the airport was another game drive, and we saw yet another different face of the Serengeti when we stopped at the Hippo Pool. But we wound up at the airport just in time for our flight, and as the plane rose and I looked around on what we had covered on the ground, I realized how enormous this African continent is.

061011a Serengeti - the morning we left

061011c Arriving in Zanzibar : Our last stop, before back-tracking home, was the fabled "Spice Island" of Zanzibar. The name alone evokes a sense of the exotic. For centuries it has been a maritime crossroads, and its people are a mix of disparate ethnicities and cultures. It is an island of tropical jungle lined by white sand beaches. On the other hand, litter is seemingly everywhere, and one must be prepared to negotiate on prices.

061011c Arriving in Zanzibar

061012 Zanzibar : The final leg of our voyage before starting home was the beaches of Zanzibar. A tropical island, with white sands, waving palm trees, and an equatorial climate, it was a contrast to the dry regions we had been visiting.

061012 Zanzibar

061013a People of Zanzibar : This gallery illustrates what life is like for the residents of Zanzibar (at least those who live along the highway). It's quite difficult to get candid shots of people: they either begin to behave self-consciously and even stop altogether what they were doing, or they refuse to be photographed at all.

From within the car as we traveled south toward the airport at Zanzibar City, I tried to catch snapshots of people within their everyday environment. Between the speed that we were traveling at, and the car windows that were closed to retain the air-conditioning, these are a little blurry. Just the same, they should provide a sense of what Zanzibar is like away from the city environment and the resorts.

061013a People of Zanzibar

Construction materials & techniques : Having invested nearly all of my career in construction-related jobs it only seems natural that I take special notice of local building materials and craftsmanship. The greatest difference from what I'm used to was the relative lack of power tools and machinery - in many cases the lack of electric power altogether. Building components and furnishings are produced in tiny enterprises along the roads in and around every city and major town. Due to the climate, most of these establishments conduct a lot of their activity outside in public view, and they display their work - in various stages of completion - out in front as well.

Construction materials & techniques

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