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Kenya Safari Travel Plan
Last change 2008-06-24. Copyright © 1977-2008 Hans-Georg Michna
About this document
Safari Services
A Day in the Wilderness
A Travelling Day
Can I Stand It?
Children
Airline Flights
Preparations
Country and People
The Off-Road Vehicle
GPS
Rules
Flying
Camping
Photography
Health
Security
Cost
Nairobi
Naivasha
Nakuru
Baringo
Maralal
Baringo – Samburu direct, bypassing Maralal
Samburu/Buffalo Springs
Shaba, Meru, Kora (not in the normal itinerary)
Mount Kenya (not in the normal itinerary)
Samburu – Nairobi
Ukunda
Lamu
Kilaguni Lodge
Amboseli
Amboseli – Nairobi
Masai Mara
Serengeti – Ngorongoro Crater
Nairobi – Departure
General_Information_about_Kenya
Conditions of Entry
Hotel Prices
Car Hire and Prices
Nature Reserve Prices
Money
Mobile Phones
Internet Connection
Links
Kenya is rated highly by most tourists who visited, with 96 per cent of the travellers interviewed saying their expectations were met in respect to the quality of services offered compared with 4 per cent who indicated otherwise. Some of the reasons the tourists gave as satisfying are enjoying the whole holiday experience, hospitality of the Kenyan people, attractive and appealing sceneries, uncrowded and unspoiled parks, game tours, prompt services by staff, adequate safety, good and appealing physical facilities … and beautiful beaches. (From nationmedia.com 2007-10-29)
The main purpose of this document is to give free advice to travellers and some additional, specific information to those who want to do a self-drive safari in Kenya.
I also arrange such safaris from time to time for friends (not for profit), and this document is meant to prepare them for the trip.
If you want to plan your own self-drive safari or want to take part in one, please read this document thoroughly. It contains important information about your journey to Kenya. Please note that all information given in this document is without guarantee and could be wrong. You are responsible for yourself. This especially applies to all security and health questions and for fulfilling legal requirements when entering Kenya.
You can also hire me as a guide or security advisor. In this case please send me an email and ask about my offers, but please be aware that prices are higher than those of the ordinary package tour. A rough estimate of the lower limit, using standard lodges, is $3,000 per week and per person plus the cost of the airline tickets plus $5,000 per week for the entire group.
Please note that these prices are for a professionally guided safari. If you travel on your own, your costs will typically be around $1,500 per week and per person plus the cost of the airline flight to and from Kenya. This is a pessimistic, worst-case estimate. For more details please see the chapter Cost below.
Your safari can be arranged with your choice of lodges, car sizes and, if you prefer not to drive all of the tours yourself, with experienced drivers. Self-driving is quite possible and is recommended for very active adventurers. If you prefer to relax, take a driver. You can still take to the steering wheel whenever you like.
Your safari can be geared towards wildlife photography or zoology and can include a visit to a zoological research project and a lecture by a researcher.
I am also available as a planner, security advisor, and guide for exclusive group and V.I.P. tours to east Africa and can advise security escorts and body guards on specific local risks.
Suitable airplanes are available for pilots, e.g. Cessna single-engine four-seaters with high wings and, because of altitude and high temperatures, powerful engines and constant-speed propellers. These airplanes can be piloted after a three-day (max.) bush flying course. If a pilot doesn't pass the final test flight and there is no other pilot in the group, a safety pilot can be taken along who acts as pilot in command, but nonetheless lets the safari participant fly, safety permitting.
The minimal requirement for pilots is the possession of a private pilot license for single engine land airplanes, including an English language radio operator license. Recommended is some flying experience in single engine airplanes with constant speed propeller and at least 100 hours as pilot in command. Without this there is an increased risk of failing the flying course and its final test.
Forms: Foreign licence validation; Summary of flying; Self fly charter info
A flying safari works best when pilots are accompanied by a group, like family and friends, that uses at least one four-wheel-drive vehicle with some participants, taking turns as passengers in the aeroplane. The reason is that ground transportation is needed to drive the flyers to airfields and lodges, to do game drives in the nature reserve, and to take the non-flying participants through the country.
The following descriptions of two days on safari are fictitious and do not reflect any particular route.
"Chai, Bwana!" ("Tea, sir!") Slowly I wake up and begin to understand that the black servant beside me is not a strange dream. Yesterday I had asked to be woken up this morning at 6 o'clock. Now the time has come. Perhaps I should rather sleep longer tomorrow!
I rise and dress, also donning the warm jacket, because it is still quite cool. I walk over to the room where more morning tea and coffee is served. It is still pitch dark outside. Only a pale-blue stripe on the eastern horizon announces the approaching day.
At 6 o'clock we walk out to the off-road vehicles, wipe the dew off the windows and windshield, turn the heating on to the maximum, and off we go, out into the wilderness. At first we drive with the headlights on, so we can see where we drive, but a few minutes later the sun rises above the mountains at the eastern horizon, beaming in bright yellow color, because the air is so clear, something which we almost never experience any more in our smog-infested industrialized countries back home.
We look out for vultures, which in turn look for successful other predators and their prey. In the distance we spot a vulture, heavily flapping its wings, without any updraft at this early, cool time. He flies at low altitude, trying to avoid being seen by yet more vultures. But another one is already flying in from another corner, apparently to the same destination. We try to make out the direction and follow them.
A quarter of an hour later we drive over a ridge and see a gruesome scene unfold before us. Two lionesses had hunted a gnu calf before sunrise and are still eating from it. A large number of vultures sit around around the lions at a safe distance. Many sit on nearby trees. New vultures fly in from all directions all the time.
We slowly drive closer to the lions, always at an angle, never directly towards them, and observe how they react to us. They do not react at all and are obviously accustomed to tourist cars. We drive to approximately 15 m beside the lions and watch them. One of our photographers says, "Could you drive three meters back and to the left? Then we would have the sun almost from the side." The driver obliges and stops the engine to stop the vibration and make sharper photos possible. Roof and windows are open, and I use the telephoto lens and polarizing filter. Another one tries to photograph the approaching and landing vultures with the help of a strong, far-reaching flash and autofocus, which will also work out fine with these many opportunities.
A spotted hyaena approaches with his typical amble, but then sits down and keeps a respectful distance, not daring to come closer.
After a while the lionesses are totally full and can gain no more from the gnu calf. The remains now consist mostly of skin and bone. One of the two lionesses rises and trots slowly down the slope towards some shrubs. Shortly thereafter the other one follows. Almost before she leaves, the vultures all at once descend on the carcass, forming a hissing mountain of vulture wings. From further afield more vultures fly right into the middle and try to grab another bit of meat or at least skin or bone. Suddenly, only few seconds later, the hyaena enters the scene and jumps likewise into the middle on the vultures, which flutter up violently, frightened, and meet again in a circle around the carcass. The hyaena creeps into the thorax of the prey and pulls out a long thread of tissue. I almost feel sick, but the vultures slowly move closer again.
The scene remains thrilling, until one of us notices that it is already after 8 o'clock and we will, like yesterday, miss the breakfast, if we don't reach the lodge until 9 o'clock at the latest. We decide to set a GPS waypoint on the place, so we can find it again, and for now have our own breakfast.
Just before 9 o'clock, but still in time, we reach the lodge and hurry to the dining room. There's still some food left, and the waiters already wait for us with tea and coffee. I try the English breakfast, porridge (a kind of oatmeal cooked in water, with some sugar and in a ring of milk), then scrambled or fried eggs, small salty sausages, grilled tomatoes, beans in tomato sauce, bacon. After being active early in the morning this is not bad at all. Others prefer "continental breakfast", toast with jam. There are always some local fruits, papaya, melons, pineapple, green (but not unripe), fruity-tasting bananas, sometimes also a mango.
After the breakfast some fanatic nature lovers drive again out into the bush to catch a few more photographs. Others are lazy, but some go out on a safari on foot through the savannah, led by an armed Masai. A few branch off later to the swimming pool. I take photos of the baboons that pass through the lodge compound.
At noon there is a complete buffet meal. The incessant game drivers come back, again just in time, to get another share of the food, but if they missed it, it wouldn't be so bad—the next meal surely comes, and after each meal there is again tea and coffee.
After lunch all unanimously feel lazy. The sun radiates almost perpendicularly from above. It is warm. Most disappear into the reed-covered, airy and cool huts, read, clean their cameras, write postcards or a travel diary, or hold an early afternoon nap. Some sit near the river bank and watch the water and the butterflies, lizards, and birds, which keep appearing from the bushes. Only after 3 o'clock, when the sun has left the zenith, most feel lively again and get ready for a further game drive in the four-wheel-driven off-road vehicle. Three of our off-roaders drive off, on their daily afternoon game drive.
We visit the gnu calf again, of which nothing edible remains, and find only a few vultures in the nearby trees. We look once more, then want to drive on, when someone suddenly calls, "Look there!" He points to the group of shrubs, but we cannot see anything. The first car starts moving toward the shrubs. Only as we almost touch them, we see the whole lion pride in the bushes. There are nine, including three cubs. This time the male lion is there also. Except for the cubs all lie there with their eyes closed in the funniest positions, breathing heavily to get rid of surplus heat.
We stay with them taking photos for a while, then we drive on, this time towards the river. On our way we meet a group of giraffes, an enormous herd of wildebeest, zebras, Impala antelopes, Grants and Thompson's gazelles. We meet a hyaena in bright daylight, in front of its cave, looking at us suspicously before running away for a little distance, then stopping and looking at us again. Finally we come down into the river valley and now drive under trees and through bushes.
We reach the river, whose brown water rolls to the south between the sandy river banks. We get out of the cars and stand high on the steep bank. There in the middle of the water the head of a hippopotamus emerges, breathes, throws a look at us, snorts, and goes under again. Then still more pop up, to the left and to the right of him. The whole river is full of hippos. We move as little as possible and slowly sit down in the grass, positioning our cameras. After a while the hippos lose their initial shyness somewhat and emerge more frequently. Two big hippos get into a wrangling. The water sprays, and the others emerge to see what's going on. The cameras click to keep the scene.
After another while suddenly someone points far to the right at the other bank of the river. We look, but it takes us some time to spot what our friend is seeing. On the bank or the river lies a large crocodile, roughly four meters long. Through its colouring and total lack of movement it was so well camouflaged that nobody had noticed it the whole time.
Eventually we get up, back into our off-road cars, and drive some way along the river. We see a group of elephants, which end up plunging into the river from the other bank. We approach as closely as possible and photograph them. The scene is very beautiful. The elephants obviously enjoy the water. They drink, spray themselves and play for a while in the water. Then the matriarch (the oldest cow and leader) starts moving again. The others follow. Elephants don't have much time for playing. They must eat most of the time to nourish the large body. But again we could take a few unique photos.
We drive on and enjoy the almost indescribable beauty of Africa, our archaeological homeland. Around 6 o'clock the sun is low and seems to fall perpendicularly down to the horizon. We begin our trip back home and move slowly towards the lodge.
As we almost reach the lodge and again drive down to the river, the sun is just about to dip behind the horizon. "Stop!" somebody calls. "Could you please go back ten meters?" The driver goes into reverse. Now we also see what the attentive photographer had seen. The marching gnus on the ridge to our side walk right through the disk of the setting sun. The cameras are taken out once more.
At 7 o'clock we are back in the lodge. All disappear into their huts to reappear again at 8 o'clock in the dining room. Dinner is the main meal. There is a selection of different kinds of meat and an almost endless buffet. A corner is reserved for Indian meals, because in Kenya there are wealthy Indians, usually businessmen, who can also be found in the lodges, usually as guests, but also as employees, managers, or owners of the lodges (e.g. Lake Nakuru Lodge, Sundowner Hotel, Amboseli Lodge). Some of us try the Indian meals, which are very tasty, but also spicy hot.
After the meal a wildlife video is shown on the terrace, filmed by Alan Root, a white Kenyan, showing Africa in ways we cannot experience on our little journey. It shows, for example, the termite mounds, the meter-high chimneys we admired time and again on our travel, but it also shows them from the inside and explains the ways of life of their creators and their predators.
After the video we meet at the campfire and try some smalltalk with American and English tourists. Also a few other Germans just arrived and ask us about the lodge and our game drive. An Englishman tells us how he observed the hunt of two cheetahs in the evening, until nightfall forced him to return to the lodge. Quite tired, I sink into my bed around 10 o'clock and keep listening to the hunting calls of the hyaenas and the territorial calls of the nearby lion prides, but soon I fall asleep.
In the next morning our time in this lodge is coming to an end. We want to drive on and look at other areas. The distance this time is moderate, about 150 km on reasonably good gravel tracks, so that we expect a leisurely travel time of four to five hours. We want to drive off right after the breakfast, so that we have some daylight time still remaining at our destination.
We all sleep somewhat longer and meet at 8 o'clock for breakfast after packing most of our luggage and depositing our travel bags in the off-road vehicles. At 9 o'clock we take our remaining luggage to the cars. Four people fly with the airplane and have to be taken to the airfield, a small runway near the lodge. I volunteer to drive the fliers and their small flight luggage to the airfield. The heavier rest of their luggage remains in the car to keep the airplane light.
At the airfield the pilot checks the airplane, then the four climb in. The engine is started. At the other end of the runway a herd of gazelles emerges. I drive down the runway to chase them away. As I return, the airplane is ready for takeoff with the engine running and the taxi and landing lights switched on (which protects against bird strikes) on the gravel runway and waits for me to clear the runway. Slowly the engine winds up, to avoid damage from stones, and the airplane begins to roll. Twenty meters down the runway the engine reaches full power, and the little plane accelerates quickly. The passengers wave merrily. Already half way down the runway the small four seater airplane takes off and rises slowly up into the sky on a straightforward course. I drive back to the lodge, where everybody already waits for me, ready for departure.
Our way is a single track, partly sand, partly gravel, which can usually be driven quite well, so that we can drive between 30 and 50 km/h without feeling uncomfortable. We are not in a rush and enjoy the way as much as eventually the destination.
The landscape slowly changes its character. Impressive mountains appear and move past, "The Green Hills of Africa".
Because of the dust we drive at a distance of 300 to 500 m, but we try to keep the following car in the rear view mirror. One of the passengers suddenly says, "Where is the next car?" I look into the mirror and cannot see it either. I decelerate and wait to see whether they will emerge. Then I stop. The next car in front of us also stops. We wait one minute, then I turn around and go back. There they are, not even a kilometer behind us. The car is parked at the edge of the track, the roof opened, all look to the right. We carefully drive closer, then we see the reason of the delay—two cheetahs are sitting under a tree. We had overlooked them completely, just like the crew before us. Our first vehicle has also returned in the meantime and is stopping behind us.
The animals are beautiful. We stay there for quite a while, then we continue. On the way we come through a small town, where we have a short rest in the only "hotel" of the place, a shed, which, however, has a refrigerator. So we can drink some cold Sprite, Coca Cola, and mineral water and eat a few mandazis (sweet, round pancakes) and somosas (Indian folded pancakes with a spicy meat filling). The people are friendly and pleased about the little additional business and distraction. Some souvenir dealers descend on us and want to drag us into their stands, but we are already supplied and rather prefer to drive on.
Our way continues until we reach a tourist lodge with a runway right beside the road. There are our flyers with their airplane. They made an intermediate stop and spent some time in the lodge. We stop and describe our experiences. Two of the flyers are ready to jump into the car again. I would like to fly and take my small shoulder bag and camera box to the airplane. "Tanks full, badders empty!" says Hans-Georg, our pilot, and sends me over to the lodge bathroom, while the off-road vehicles are already disappearing in a cloud of dust on the horizon. We will very soon have caught up with them again.
I come back to the airplane, while the pilot, carefully as always, walks around the airplane slowly and checks all screws, flaps, hinges and examines the plane. I guess that is probably a good idea. After all our life depends on the little machine for the next hour.
I enter and sit down on the copilot seat. I should not step on the pedals, Hans-Georg explains to me. Moreover I receive another safety briefing for the case of a forced landing. I should not open the seat belt in the air (because of turbulence and of vultures). And still another obligation: I must always try to look out for vultures, which circle here in all heights and which we should rather evade, before they come in through the windshield. For that one must see them in time, and when the pilot looks on the map, then the passenger must watch out from the copilot seat. This is different from travelling in an airbus.
I get a pair of ear plugs offered, because the small, single-engine airplanes can be rather loud. I gladly accept them and stuff them into my ears. The noises around me change into a muffled murmur. The pilot checks all instruments and starts then the engine. After a few propeller revolutions the heavy six cylinder engine with its 235 hp springs to life hesitatingly, but then begins to run smoothly and evenly. The propeller already makes quite some noise, but then the folding window on the pilot's side is still open. "Don't you want to close that?" "Soon, it's still too warm in here." He should know. Probably the thing would fly with an open window as well.
We roll to the beginning of the runway. Our pilot tests the brakes and the instruments, then we roll onto the runway. The pilot closes his window and now gives full power. Now I notice what the ear plugs are good for. The thrust pushes me into the backrest, but I still have the camera ready and take photos through the side window during the takeoff.
We take off and fly in a gradual climb over the African landscape. Below us we see a herd of buffalos and far over there three red elephants. "This comes from the red soil." someone says. I can hardly take in all the impressions and take photo after photo. I'm glad I bought that bigger memory module before this safari, so I don't have to worry and can sort out the bad photos later.
From the air we have a marvellous view over the endless width of the east African savannah. We see a manyatta, a small nomad village with its circular thorn bush hedge, in which the domestic animals are protected from predators at night. Then we see the road again underneath, more precisely the dirt track. We follow it. After a short time we can already see our cars. The first has a aviation band receiver. We set the frequency and call our colleagues on the ground. Have they switched the thing on and set the right frequency? Yes, they stop and jump out of the car, while we fly by at low altitude. All cars stop normally on the left side in the driving direction. That was the agreed signal for everything being OK on the ground. Another curve—everybody waves—then we fly on in the direction of our far away destination. Over the radio we give yet another hint to the cars. Further in front is a branch, at which the cars should drive left. The way on the right continues into the wrong direction. We announce it, then we tune the transmitter back to the normal aeronautical frequency.
"You have control." our pilot tells me and takes his hands off the steering wheel. But I cannot fly! Hesitatingly I put the hands on the steering wheel. He holds my hands and shows me some steering movements. Actually, it's exactly as in a car. Left is on the left and right is on the right. Not as difficult as I thought. Apart from the fact perhaps that the entire aeroplane tilts into the curve.
I can also pull—then it goes up, or push, then it descends, and one gets a funny feeling in the stomach. After short time I steer the airplane as if I'd never done anything else. "Always keep the horizon horizontal", he says, and, "Steer a little bit more to the right, so we stay on course." In the meantime he looks at the map. I can only hope that he knows what risk he's taking.
In front of us, little points emerge in the air. I ask him: "What's that over there?" "Vultures, I take over." He grabs the steering wheel, while I release it, and he says the standard formula, "I have control." Some vultures are directly in front of us. The pilot makes a slight turn to the left before pulling up the plane to escape further vultures. After this sudden climb we go down again, almost like in a roller coaster. Strange feeling in the stomach. But that's probably normal here in Africa. "O.K., now it's up to you again. You have control."
Time passes quickly. We are already descending again, because far in front of us there should be the lodge, our destination for today. Slowly, we sink lower and lower, and I pull out my camera again. The pilot shows us the runway, to the left and in front of us. We have to turn once more, because the wind comes from our side, but we have to land against the wind.
We begin with the landing. Are all seat belts tight? Yes. The pilot aligns the plane with the runway. The landing flaps are down aready. We fly and sink slowly. Suddenly I see something on the runway and draw the pilot's attention to it. "I saw them too. We'll have to go around again." The landing flaps are retracted, and we fly only a few meters above the runway. Two zebras are standing there, in the middle of the runway at the far end. When we rush tightly over their heads, at full power, they run away quickly. Two turns later, we're landing, this time without any zebras. "Is this normal?" "Yes, it happens sometimes. I can't imagine why the creatures like these barren runways."
Leisurely we park the plane and secure it with stones against rolling away. Then we unload our luggage and sit down in the shadow under the wings. The zebras appear again. I get up and reach for the camera, when they suddenly gallop away. "Why?", I ask. "Well, they don't fear any vehicles, but they fear people." With us humans they have had bad experiences for a few millions of years. Cars or planes are instead considered to be some kind of harmless plant eater that never hurts them."
It doesn't take too long until the others come to pick us up for the lodge. We look back to our little white plane, which we leave alone and unguarded, before we direct our attention again at the landscape and the animals.
Early in the afternoon we reach the lodge and are welcomed by a small glass of cool fruit juice. Most of us look quite dusty. Also the bags are all in the same colour—reddish brown. We beat off the dust using some cloth, as well as we can, before we move into our huts.
Even today some of us haven't had enough action, so one hour later they get into their off-road vehicle again for an evening game drive. I prefer a little walk through the extensive lodge area and later write some postcards at the pool.
The dinner is at least as good as the one in the last lodge. On this journey, I won't loose any pounds, probably.
For an entirely healthy person the journey is not problematic at all. If you suffer from travelling sickness or any other illness, you should check if one of the stress factors described below could be a problem for you. In case you find something that may cause a problem, it is strongly recommended that you stand back and don't take part.
The following factors could be a problem for sensitive people:
The heat in Kenya remains within bearable limits. We are under the equator, but spend most of our time in the highlands. Nairobi and Masai Mara are chilly at night (lowest average day temperature in June, the coolest month in Kenya: 8°C/46°F) and only get warm during the day with direct sunshine. With full sunshine around noon, it can reach up to 30°C/86°F in the shade. Without any protection you cannot spend a long time in the sun without sweating heavily, but we normally do not do this. Baringo and Samburu lie somewhat lower and therefore are somewhat warmer than the highland, but still dry. The coast (Ukunda) is warm and humid, even at night. There you always sweat a bit. But even at the coast temperatures do not rise much above 30°C/86°F.
Especially in the highlands the sunshine is very intense, and it is very easy to get a sunburn. Therefore it is recommended to use sun screen, in particular on the face, nose, forehead, cheeks, neck, on the back of the hands, and also on the arms if you wear short sleeves.
In a closed car it gets hotter, especially when the sun is at its highest point at noon and shines on the roof from vertically above. The sun here has an intensity that is probably unknown in the higher latitudes of your home country. Due to this you should not stay in the stopped car during noon, but either get out of the car and sit in the shade or drive with open windows.
While driving you have to open a window to get cooled from the airflow. This airflow and the thin and normally dry air make the sweat evaporate very fast and make the heat bearable. In these temperatures you usually won't catch a cold.
Most of the days we will spend the time around noon between the large meals being lazy at the pool or in our rooms in one of the lodges. Only on the travelling days we probably have to drive at noon. We will only rarely be able to drive much faster than 50 km/h (31 mph), often even slower, such that the airflow remains tolerable.
If you sweat a lot, you have to drink a lot, which can irritate your digestion. The food is also not as clean as in an industrialized country, so you will experience some light diarrhea occasionally. Some people get a kind of light diarrhea from the heat, that occurs as a result of the body's involuntary precautionary storing of liquid in the bowels. If the body gets in a cooler situation for a few days, it apparently then tries to get rid of the unnecessary water and this can cause some light diarrhea as well, which is luckily not very uncomfortable or unpleasant.
The medicaments Metifex, Immodium, and similar ones seem to help against travel diarrhea. Who perceives a slight diarrhea as too unpleasant or is afraid of loosing weight should buy a pack of this or a similar medicament in a pharmacy.
The drives can be exhausting, because a few of the distances can take a whole day (with short breaks). The driving itself can be tiring, sometimes because of partly bad roads and sometimes because of being continuously shaken for hours. If you believe you will have physical problems because of that, you should think carefully about joining the expedition at all. The speed driven on these roads is a compromise between making headway, bumping, smashing, and zigzag driving. There is also the risk to end up with a broken axle after missing, or, more precisely, not missing a deep pothole.
Once you arrive at the lodge, there will not be any problems with the heat. In the midday heat you can relax in the relatively cool and airy huts, which usually have thatched, cool roofs, or you can spend your time in or at the swimming pool. The game drives (short drives in the off-road vehicles to see the animals) can be done in the morning or in the evening, when it is cooler. Only at the coast it is constantly warm and humid, even at night, but there are swimming pools and sometimes air conditioning and we will not start any exhausting tours from there.
Some places in Kenya are very dusty, especially Amboseli. So far this has only been a problem for persons wearing hard contact lenses. It is absolutely necessary for them to bring their glasses. Because of the dust, hard contact lenses are probably not usable during much of the journey, though some people have had good experiences with soft contact lenses. A dust allergy would also be a contraindication.
This journey is also nothing for late risers, but if the early sunset leads you to go to bed early you are not expected to have any problems.
Kenya can also be interesting for children. The dangers for children are usually overestimated, which certainly does not mean that children are at no risk at all. The main problems with children are the following:
In our experience, children have, even if they are quite young, a lot of fun on such journeys, although they are probably not as much interested in the actual attractions of Kenya. At a lot of places children will get price reductions, for example at the flight to Kenya they get up to 50% off (like with Egypt Air). This can also work in the lodges, if two small children can sleep in one bed, each with the head on one end.
Favorable flights change from year to year and are unpredictable. The most important questions are:
Some airlines used to offer students' tariffs.
Prices vary between €400 and €800 from Europe for economy return flights for one adult.
Flights can be booked with Travel Overland (www.traveloverland.de), even directly through the Web:
Travel Overland head office: Barer Str.73, 80799 München
Booking telephone: 089-27276-300
Fax: 089-30798893
Email: tickets@travel-overland.de
On the Web site the flight data can be recalled.
Children get 50% discounts with several airlines like Egypt Air and Air France. Some others, like Alitalia, give a 40% discount.
The Kenyan departure tax was raised from $20 to $40, but is usually contained in the flight ticket price.
Not everybody has to bring all items mentioned below. Sometimes you can share things with others, for example a malaria self test, a malaria cure (not everybody gets fever or even malaria on a short safari), GPS receiver, maps, water container, charger for rechargeable batteries, binoculars, etc.
The Kenyan currency (Kenya Shilling) may be imported or exported only in limited amounts. The conditions have been loosened, but in case of doubt you should inquire before the journey.
If you fly in a group, make sure everybody can recognize all the luggage for everybody in the group. The reason is that the first person who makes it through immigration should immediately go down to the luggage area and take the luggage, because there is a risk of luggage being stolen from the conveyor belt. One way of achieving this is to mark all luggage of the entire group with some unmistakable sign, the more conspicuous, the better.
Cross-check with another International Travel Checklist.
First a basic remark on travelling in Africa. Most human-made things in those parts of Africa I have seen are crude, unintelligently made, and of low quality. This, however, does not hold for the living beings in primeval nature, wherever it still exists. Life in Africa is more intense, often faster, and extremely impressive and admirable.
The typically African problems hamper every safari and are unavoidable. The only positive aspect is that they deter lazy visitors looking for convenience and therefore make the experience out in the bush more exclusive.
Lest anybody accuse me of racism, I don't see any indication that Africa's problems can in any essential part be traced back to genetic differences between human races. The reasons for the underdevelopment of Africa are instead described in the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond and have nothing to do with human races. Africans are just like everybody else, and where they differ, they mainly do so because of debilitating conditions in nutrition, upbringing, and schooling and certain cultural deficiencies (like female genital mutilation, euphemistically called circumcision). But Kenya is developing fast, and I see a new generation growing up that is rapidly shedding these problems.
Here are only a few pieces of information especially on Kenya, which are important for driving a car and other contacts. If you are moving in the country freely, then you will inevitably come into contact with most diverse people. Because of the very different cultures and education levels these meetings do not always fulfill the expectations you may have brought along from your home country.
The first rule is that people who force themselves upon you should be avoided. In many cases these are tourist touts or souvenir salesmen, who only want to have your money. Normally they are unpleasant and sometimes even dangerous. If you need information or assistance, select a person on your own.
Do not let anybody take the initiative out of your hand. Most citizens of Kenya are, as almost everywhere in the world, friendly and well-meaning. However, on the streets that are used a lot by tourists you find that almost every contact is connected with the thought of earning a quick shilling, or a quick thousand shillings. You don't always have to give in.
Experience shows that Kenyan women are less affected by this phenomenon, so that it is easier to have a normal conversation with them. However they often do not know as much, if questions concern more distant targets, because they do not travel as much as men do. Also, women in Kenya sometimes do not get a good education, so that they cannot speak English sufficiently, or they don't talk out of shyness or fear.
You have to consider that almost everybody in Kenya has to learn three or more languages and therefore many cannot be perfect in all of these languages. If you meet someone with whom you can converse well, then use this opportunity to get a better impression of the country and its inhabitants.
Take hitchhikers with you! You do not always have to do that and you can choose the ones that you feel comfortable with. First of all ask them whether they can speak English, because otherwise you will not be able to talk with them. For several reasons you should prefer women. You should also consider whether you can have a good conscience when you let a woman with a heavy bag and a sick child walk 20 km to the next hospital while you are driving the same distance comfortably and with free seats.
If you have something to eat with you, offer a bit to your passengers. That way you can often make your short term passengers happy.
If you take people with you who live in a traditional culture in more remote areas, then pay attention to the smell of these people. In our culture with a daily per head water consumption of one hundred and more liters, we are not used to body smell any more, but in hot and dry areas without water pipelines such a way of life is not possible. Many people living in dry tropical areas have to carry their water home every day from a distant water source (mostly the women), and that means that bathrooms or showers are not available. Instead they treat their bodies with different natural substances whose smell mixes with the normal human body smell and constitutes the characteristic smell of a certain culture.
If you arrive at the next lodge after such a journey and take your next warm shower immediately, then try at least to take it not always for granted.
A phenomenon is the widespread theft. In Kenya it is a type of popular sport. You can be pretty sure that your bags will be opened and you have to consider that something may be stolen. Usually they try to do this in such an inconspicuous way that you will not notice it before your departure. That's the reason why you are continuously asked for your schedule, particularly when you are going to leave, because the last day, the morning before your departure, is particularly suitable for it. In order to avoid this, load your luggage into the car before breakfast.
Lock your bags in a certain manner, for example by leaving each zipper open one or two centimeters (half an inch). Then you can at least check whether your bags were opened, because this is usually done clumsily and is easy to discover. That your luggage remains perfectly undisturbed, despite the opportunity, is rather rare.
You may read Theft in Kenya for more details.
An off-road vehicle and its use differs from your normal car in some substantial respects. The ones we use in Kenya have a roof that can be opened, so you can look out, standing on the seat or on a spare wheel. Do this only while standing still or while driving slowly. You can oversee the area better from above and for example see animals in the grass that cannot be seen by the driver and seated passengers.
If you receive your off-roader, never rely on the car rental service for equipment and function. You must check the following things. Always take the time to do this! If you notice only with the first flat tire that the crank does not fit the jack, then you may have a big problem. Therefore:
Tire pressure plays a special role. It can be worthwhile to drive with low tire pressure because thus the tires can absorb a larger part of the vibrations at higher speeds. You can lower the pressure, depending upon type of vehicle and tire, down to about 20 PSI (pounds by square inch, 1.4 RKS, normal pressure is about 30 PSI). Unfortunately this also has some disadvantages:
So if you want to drive with low tire pressure, do it even more carefully and always brake immediately when you approach any rough patch in the road. But on some routes, particularly corrugated ones, the advantage outweighs the disadvantages, so a low tire pressure is recommended for those.
While the rattling and shaking due to corrugation is somewhat reduced at higher speeds, unfortunately the speed creates new problems of its own, particularly from holes and ditches across the road, but also from bends where you cannot see oncoming traffic and have to slow down. So you usually have to lower the speed often.
In small off-road cars like the Suzuki Sierra and particularly the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy you can have the rear seats removed, so can sleep comfortably in the car after sliding the two front seats far forward. In bigger vehicles, if the rear seats can be removed, you have even more space to sleep, but often the whole idea of having a bigger car is being able to carry more than two people, so everybody sleeping in the car is out of the question anyway.
Some off-road vehicles have a Diesel engine which requires Diesel fuel and can run in an emergency on similar light oils. All other cars require gas/petrol.
Most, but not all non-Diesel off-road cars can run on any kind of gas/petrol. Therefore you can normally fill the tank with regular fuel, because it's cheaper, instead of super. But ask the owner or read the manual to find out for sure whether that's also true for the car you are driving. Some smaller off-road cars, like most Suzukis, use standard small limousine engines that may require super fuel.
Examples: The Suzuki Sierra used up approx. 8 to 9 l/100 km (11 to 12.5 km/l) and has a range of only approx. 400 km. The Suzuki Maruti Gypsy has a more modern fuel injection engine that uses less fuel. At absolutely optimal driving this off-roader can get close to 6 l/100 km (16.7 km/l) and can approach a range of 600 km. Larger off-road vehicles usually have a somewhat larger range due to their bigger tanks.
When driving in a developing country and being unsure of fuel availability, the rule is to fill the tank to the brim at every opportunity. It can also be useful to know where the last fuel station is before driving a long distance without any fuel stations.
All time estimates are valid only for a slow, careful and defensive way of driving. A suitable speed is 40 to 50 km/h (25 to 30 mph) on rough roads and generally not faster than 80 km/h (50 mph).
The Kenya Roads Board is right.
Reasons for these seemingly low speeds are:
Reduce your speed below 80 km/h when bushes or high grass are next to the road, because goats, sheep, cattle, and dogs can suddenly run onto the road. Also reduce the speed immediately when you see a change in the road surface ahead, because it could be a pothole.
Always guarantee that you reach your overnight stop before darkness falls (i.e. absolutely before 7 p.m. in Kenya). Reasons:
Dawn begins at 6 a.m., the sun rises at approximately 6:30 a.m. At 6:30 p.m. the sun sets, and around 7 p.m. it rapidly becomes pitch dark. Avoid all movement in the dark outside your accommodation. Remember also that you need some buffer time, for example, to change a wheel, and still arrive before nightfall. One hour is about the minimum for that.
Learn before the journey how to change a wheel. You will almost certainly need this ability. The most important points are:
On paved roads the main problems are:
For these reasons don't drive too fast, even on good paved roads, but at most 60 km/h and on very good roads at most 80 km/h. Do not let yourself be influenced by the fact that some natives drive substantially faster. Some Kenians joyfully take risks.
On sand and gravel tracks the problems are somewhat different:
In each case you must brake before the obstacle, if necessary with full force, blocking all wheels. Immediately before you roll into a pothole or a ditch, you must, however, release the brake pedal, for two reasons:
Each surface is different, so that you must try again and again to find an optimal driving fashion. Often, but not always, it is favourable to drive beside the track. Sometimes one can avoid corrugated surfaces by driving something to the side on the flanks of the track. If you must drive a longer corrugated distance, try different speeds, under otherwise good conditions up to 70 km/h. If shaking and rattling do not become worse, then you are better off this way, because at least you cover the same distance in a shorter time. But you do not overdo it, because each car eventually breaks, and you don't want this happening to yourself.
If the roughness becomes too severe, you may have to drop your speed all the way down to 20 km/h (bicycle speed).
Driving along tracks while it is raining or shortly after it has rained presents some very special challenges.
As long as you're driving on stony ground, there are hardly any problems, as the stones provide sufficient grip even when you drive through puddles. Even sand can often be negotiated, as long as the grains are big enough and not microscopically small, such that the rainwater filters through it.
The problems begin when there are too few stones on top of the mud or no stones at all and when the soil is soft, muddy, and slippery. Of course it is impossible to drive through any considerable stretch of soft, deep mud, but typically you are following car tracks indicating that the track has been drivable and driven on before.
A typical situation is that tracks have been reinforced by depositing gravel. However, the stones often disappear into the mud during rainy seasons, and you have stretches of slippery mud on a harder base, either stones or ground that the rainwater has not reached.
On such roads you can drive at varying speeds, usually between 20 and 40 km/h (12 to 25 mph). You have to concede, however, that every puddle can hide a deep hole, so you should not go too fast through puddles.
Another typical characteristic is a graded track that is convex in shape and thus has relatively deep ditches on either side. Here your biggest risk is sliding off to one side and ending up in the ditch where the wheels might sink in deeply and have too little grip to get out again.
Therefore you have to drive in the middle, on the top, preferably in older car tracks, even if those are already dug in somewhat deeply, like 20 cm (8 inches). Often there are stones underneath the mud, otherwise no car could have driven through. By looking at the older tracks you can usually tell whether and where other cars have got stuck before. If you don't see such spots, the track is probably safe to drive.
In this situation it is very important to keep an optimal speed. Drive too slowly, and you don't have enough momentum to negotiate short, difficult stretches, but drive too fast, and you run the higher risk of losing control of the car when, for example, the rear wheels slip off to one side, and the car slides uncontrollably into one of the ditches on either side. The optimal speed here is around 20 km/h (12 mph), depending on circumstances 30 km/h (19 mph) is certainly too fast.
I experienced this in one incident where the rear of my off-road vehicle slid off to the right side in a gentle curve so far that the steering reached the stop and I could no longer compensate. After the car kept turning, the front wheels steered me over to the left, although the steering was at the right stop, and I ended up in the left ditch. My speed in that event had been 30 km/h (19 mph), which was too fast. I had also tried to drive outside the entrenched car track, which turned out to have been a bad idea. Even a two-wheel-drive minibus showed me that it could go slowly and carefully right in the track without getting stuck, making this experience a bit embarrassing.
In the event I could still drive very slowly in the ditch after the wheels had dug deep enough to reach firmer ground, and very slowly create a new, drivable track there, but in one first attempt to steer out of the ditch, the car's front wheels slid back in after already being out by almost a meter.
I would have retried this and might have got out that way without too much trouble, but another car passed by and towed my out in a matter of seconds. (Of course you have your tow rope on board.)
The main lessons from this experience are:
Deep sand has to be crossed with four-wheel drive (4WD) engaged. Always use first gear, even though you want to drive relatively fast. The reason is that very deep and soft sand may slow you down when using second gear, particularly when you have a small, weak engine, and you may not be able to shift gears down to first without the car already stopping. Starting in deep sand is more difficult that to keep moving, so therefore you want to be in first gear to avoid this happening in the first place. With a very strong engine you may try second gear, but only if you can oversee the entire sand crossing and are sure you never have to slow down.
If your 4WD vehicle stops anyway and digs itself in, first check whether you really, really have four-wheel drive engaged and all four wheels driven. Don't forget that some 4WD cars have the additional switchable free-wheeling locks on the front wheels that need to be locked manually from the outside. Check these also, ideally before you reach any difficult terrain.
If you are certain that all wheels are driven, but you are still dug in, look for hard materials to put under the wheels. Branches and stones work well, but the stones have to be big enough or very many, because small stones are simply pushed down into the sand by the wheels without having much positive effect.
Normally you want to get out backwards, because you already know that that path is drivable. So unless you have good reason to believe that moving forward will get you out, aim for backtracking.
If you can find four or eight big stones, put them in front of the wheels, then try to drive the car onto them without rolling over them. Stop, pull the handbrake, then put the next stones behind the wheels to move over to those. If you have gotten this far, you have almost won the battle, because now you have a method to get out slowly, stone by stone. Keep moving one set of stones behind the wheels and roll onto them until you are on firmer ground. You can also try to put more stones and branches behind the wheels to give yourself a short stretch to accelerate, then accelerate backwards gently. If you do it too strongly, your wheels will push the stones out and dig themselves in again. If you do it too weakly, you won't gain enough speed, so you may have to experiment. Once you are rolling, release the clutch and use as little power as possible to keep moving. If you step on the accelerator too hard, the wheels will spin, slip, lose traction and dig themselves in again. Too little, and the car will stop, so again it is a matter of the right dose.
Big stones, deep holes and ditches washed out by water test the driver's ability. Always stop before such obstacles and take some time to think about how to cross them in the safest way.
First of all, never forget to consider circumnavigating the obstacle. A mile-long detour is better than even a 1% risk of getting stuck or breaking the car. If that's not possible, determine the risk of not making it across the obstacle and consider turning back.
If you decided that you can and will drive over the obstacle, plan the track that all four wheels will take over the obstacle without getting any of the wheels into a hole or between two big stones. Steep ascends or descends are usually no problem, since the 4WD has extraordinary climbing and braking force with four-wheel drive engaged and in the slowest gear. If you drive down a steep, rough descent, you can do it without using the engine and at extremely slow speed by using the foot brake. This allows a slower speed than uphill, which can be an advantage because it leaves you more time to react and the car is not shaking as much, allowing fine brake dosage.
When going uphill, you need four-wheel drive and the slowest forward gear engaged, clutch fully released and a certain minimal number of engine rpm, at least twice the idling speed, approx. 1,500 rpm, so the engine develops enough torque. If the ascend is not steep, you may be able to move at even lower speeds, just above idling, so all movements remain very slow and well controllable.
Very important: the heel of the accelerator foot has to be firmly on the floor, because otherwise you cannot control the accelerator in a jumping and shaking vehicle.
Mud holes can be a particular challenge. Always try first to circumvent the water completely by driving some distance up the river or to the side. If this is not possible because of other obstacles, then try to drive on the side with one pair of wheels outside the hole, so that you keep the traction and guidance at least on one side. If all this is not possible, then you have only the choice between driving through and turning back.
If the wheels come into contact with mud, you must always activate the four-wheel drive before entering. Here also always select the slowest gear, because you may need force to overcome submerged obstacles.
A safe method, even when driving through deep and long mud holes, would be to gather some speed and use the momentum to drive through, if it weren't for the danger of a large stone or tree trunk submerged in the middle. Try to examine the mud hole with a stick for such obstacles. If you are convinced that no obstacle is there, then you can reverse, accelerate, and drive through the mud with speed.
Stay calm when the mud sprays up and obscures your windshield. The mud can also slosh into open windows, therefore close all windows beforehand and don't panic if you suddenly don't see much.
If you can't test the mud hole beforehand and if it is large, then you have an uncalculable risk to get stuck and be unable to get out by your own means. You can still try to estimate the risk by checking whether the ground in the area is generally stony and by looking at fresh tracks of other cars that crossed it recently, but bigger off-road vehicles or trucks may be able to cross obstacles that a smaller car with smaller wheels may not be able to cross. However, you still don't know which method the other drivers used, where exactly they steered, or whether the bottom is stony or soggy. If you cannot arrive at the conclusion that you can successfully cross the obstacle, you have to turn back and look for another way.
Many 4WD vehicles have an additional shift lever for the four-wheel drive. This lever has three positions:
If one of these positions cannot be engaged, then release the lever, shift the normal gear switch into neutral, release the clutch briefly, then step on it again. If you can still not select the desired position, then set the car in motion slowly in first gear and the steering straight, then switch while the car is slowly rolling. Even this sometimes doesn't work when you drive a curve, because of the high torque forces between left and right wheel with the differential lock engaged. This is the reason why you may have to drive straight forward to shift the four-wheel drive lever.
There are exceptions, however, and so it pays to know your off-road car well. In the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy and the Suzuki Sierra, for example, you can shift from 2 wheel high to 4 wheel high and vice versa while you drive, even at moderate speeds; you only may have to release the accelerator momentarily while pushing on the lever, because otherwise the load on the gear prevents the shift. This is very advantageous when driving along wet tracks, as you can shift in and out of 4-wheel drive as often as you like and in any situation, without having to stop. You cannot switch between 4-wheel high (fast) and 4-wheel low (slow) while moving at speed, however.
If you have a four-wheel drive high/fast and a four-wheel drive low/slow setting, the four-wheel high/fast setting is unimportant and of little use. So remember that you want the two-wheel high/fast setting for normal driving and the four-wheel low/slow setting for negotiating obstacles.
Four-wheel drive means that all wheels are propelled (unless you have unlocked the free-wheeling switches on the front wheels, as described in the respective subchapter below). The four-wheel slow setting also means that the speeds are lower by a factor of roughly 2, which is more than the factor between two adjacent gears. The idea is to have the slow speed gears interspersed between the high speed gears. For example, assuming the same engine rpm, the third slow gear would yield a driving speed somewhere between the first and second fast gears. Most off-road vehicles work that way, although there is a tendency in some modern ones for even slower speeds that are particularly suitable for rock crawling.
Being half as fast means having twice the force, which becomes dramatically apparent in the first gear when the 4WD is set for slow, four-wheel operation. Even a small 4WD vehicle is now extremely forceful and doesn't need much accelerator to climb even steep slopes and drive over big rocks (the already mentioned rock crawling). Always use this setting, slow four-wheel drive and first gear, when you have to drive slowly over very difficult terrain.
Normally you drive in the two-wheel drive setting, so only the rear wheels are driven. Some 4WD vehicles have free-wheeling switches on the front axles, the older designs being switchable by hand from the outside hubs of the front wheels. You turn a knob from the LOCKED to the FREE position. Thus the axles of the front wheels become uncoupled and do not rotate. This, so the manufacturers of those locks state, saves 2% in fuel.
Assuming that the manufacturers will certainly not understate the importance of their product, this means that you want these locks unlocked, as long as you drive on paved or otherwise very good roads, but you always want them locked before you do any off-road or narrow track driving, like in nature reserves. One of the most stupid mistakes is to forget that your front wheels are free-wheeling and get stuck because your rear wheels dig themselves in.
In other words, it is a rather slight error to have them locked by mistake, but a severe error to have them unlocked by mistake. Keep this in mind.
The locks also allow you to use the lower, more powerful transmission ratio in two-wheel drive. To use this, you have the locks set to freewheeling and the four-wheel drive lever in the four wheel low position. A situation in which this could be useful is when you want to drive extremely slowly or up a steep slope, where you still don't need the four-wheel drive.
Most larger 4WD vehicles additionally have a differential lock. To understand what this means, you first have to understand what a differential is.
A differential is a small gearbox that has one driveshaft coming in from the main gearbox (or from another, central differential) and to outgoing driveshafts, usually the axles going to the wheels (or the driveshafts going to the rear and front axles).
The purpose of the differential is to allow one wheel (or one axle) to rotate faster or slower than the other while still forwarding the rotational force to both. This is necessary in curves and to a smaller extent even going straight, because of a slightly differing wheel radius. Without differentials there would be constant high forces, leading to some wasted energy and a lot of wear and tear.
A 4WD can have up to three differentials. One near the main gearbox, dividing the rotational force onto two driveshafts, one leading to the rear axle, one to the front.
Then there are two in about the middle of each axle, dividing the force onto the two wheel axles. Some smaller, less expensive 4WDs (like the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy and the Suzuki Sierra) do not have a center differential and instead convey the rotation equally to the front and the rear axles. In such cars you should engage the four-wheel drive only briefly when you really need it, or only on ground with little traction, like sandy or wet soil.
The classic differential distributes exactly the same force to both output axles. This, however, has one disadvantage. If one of the two wheels (or axles) has no resistance, for example because one wheel is on slippery ground or hanging in the air, the other wheel will also receive no driving force. What will happen is that the slipping wheel will rotate at twice the speed, while the other one, that is on the ground, will not rotate and not convey any significant force at all.
On good roads this never happens, but out in the bush it does. Therefore most bigger, more expensive 4WD vehicles have differential locks, some for all three differentials, some only for the front and rear axle differentials. Smaller, cheaper off-roaders (again like the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy and the Suzuki Sierra) do not have any differential locks at all, meaning that you should avoid situations in which two diagonally opposed wheels lose ground traction.
On those 4WDs that have differential locks, the differentials can be locked by means of a special lever or button. You engage the differential lock when one or two wheels are slipping or hanging in the air. As soon as the car is moving on firm ground again, you should immediately disengage the differential lock to avoid the high axle forces and the accompanying wear and tear.
The most freqent beginner error when driving a 4WD off-road vehicle is to drive over obstacles with slipping clutch. Nearly everybody does this, because in the limousines back home the first gear is usually to long (too fast) to drive very slowly with the clutch fully engaged, i.e. the pedal fully released.
Unlearn this and never do it again. Why?
For these reasons there is one rule: letting the clutch slip is only appropriate when you stand and begin to move. As soon as the car rolls with sufficient speed, the clutch should be fully released. After shifting gears the clutch is immediately, fairly quickly, and fully released. The only two exceptions are that you either have to drive too slowly for the first gear for a short distance, for example in a traffic jam or for parking, and don't want to engage the slow off-road gears, or that you're rolling slowly downhill and don't need the engine.
Actually the same rules apply to driving your limousine back home, but some drivers have developed bad habits, because in the limousine it does not matter much.
The other point is that the heel of the clutch foot has to be firmly on the floor when you start driving. On a smooth, paved road this hardly matters, but when you want to move the off-road car out of a more difficult situation, the clutch is often uncontrollable or not controllable finely enough when the clutch foot hovers above the floor.
A typical situation is that the off-road vehicle has stopped with the wheel locked between two stones. To set it moving again, you have to use a lot of accelerator and a lot of power while the clutch is slipping, until the vehicle suddenly begins to rise above the blocking stone and shoots forward. If your clutch foot heel were not firmly on the floor, your clutch foot would be pulled back along with your entire body by the sudden acceleration, releasing the clutch fully and leading to an uncontrollable jump forward of the entire vehicle. You don't want that, so always remember to have the heel of the clutch foot on the ground. The same holds for the accelerator foot, as already mentioned earlier.
The general rule is that you want to keep engine RPM (Rotations Per Minute, the engine speed) at the most cost-efficient value while you drive the desired speed. The problem is to determine what the most cost-efficient value is in the varying circumstances. Let us look at the different problems and their solutions.
If your engine RPM is too high, i.e. you're driving in a too low gear, you entail a few disadvantages. The fuel consumption is higher, wear and tear on engine and gearbox is somewhat higher, and the car is noisy. There is also an advantage though. You can suddenly deliver a lot more force to the wheels, because you don't need any extra time to shift gears first. So in a situation where you may suddenly need a lot of force, it is correct to stay in a lower gear and have the engine revved up. An example is driving through sand or mud or over rocks, where an unexpected obstacle could bring you to a sudden halt if you don't have enough force available.
If your engine RPM is too low, i.e. you're driving in a too high gear, you have some more severe disadvantages. Fuel consumption is usually lower at lower RPM, but if the RPM is very low, it can actually be higher. But a more important reason is that you can cause so much wear and tear on the engine and particularly on the gearbox and all other driveshafts and axles that too low RPM is not advisable under any circumstances.
When is the engine RPM too low? Depending on their size and the number of cylinders, most modern engines can endure full power (accelerator pushed to the stop) from about 1,500 upward for a big engine with six or more cylinders or from about 2,500 rpm up for a very small (1 liter) four cylinder engine.
You can test this for your off-roader by driving it on a smooth, paved road, decelerating to a low speed, like 40 km/h in the highest gear, then pushing the accelerator to the floor and listening to the sound, particularly of the gearbox and axles. Any uncommon vibration and particularly any rattling or otherwise uncommon sound indicates that the RPM is too low.
On the other hand, when you need very little power, i.e. you're not driving uphill, you're driving over smooth ground, and you're not driving very fast, most engines, particularly bigger ones, can deliver enough power even at idling speed. Smaller engines may need a little more rpm, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500, to deliver power smoothly and without any undue vibrations or rattling. For example, in many (but not all) off-road vehicles, even in small ones, you can drive as slow as 20 km/h in third gear and enjoy very smooth, quiet going, for example on game drives.
Of course the smaller off-roaders with smaller, weaker engines develop only very little power at low RPM, so your scope of driving with low RPM is smaller than with a big engine.
A practical example is this. Some smaller off-road vehicles, for example the Suzuki ones, particularly the Sierra and to a lesser extent the Gypsy, create a rattling noise in their transmissions when you use low engine speeds with high torque (accelerator pushed far down). This disappears when you reduce the power (release the accelerator partly). Needless to say, the speeds and power settings at which this rattling occurs have to be avoided reliably. So you have to test the off-road car on a smooth road and, not having an RPM indicator, remember the speeds at which this happens.
The following table shows an example for the lowest tachometer speeds in km/h that you should not undercut for a small off-roader like the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy. Take these only as a very raw guidance, because every type of vehicle is different in this respect. The speeds are indicated tachometer speeds, not true speeds. The true speeds are usually lower, depending on tire diameter.
| Gear | Very Low Power | Medium Power | High Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2 | N/A | 15 | 20 |
| 3 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| 4 | 40 | 50 | 60 |
| 5 | N/A | 60 | 70 |
Minimum speeds for the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy
The N/A entries are there because the precise lowest speeds for these gears are not known and play hardly any role, because for example in first gear you accelerate so quickly that you usually reach a sufficient speed anyway before full power is applied. The N/A for the 5th gear is there because you cannot drive in 5th gear with very low power, except downhill.
The very low power speeds apply when you go horizontally on a very smooth road, like a paved road (or when you go downhill).
Larger off-roaders, like an Isuzu Trooper, can be driven at amazingly low RPM values at or near idling speed, as long as the road is smooth and horizontal (or downhill). This is particularly pleasant on game drives, because the car is then very quiet and comfortable.
But note that the 3rd gear of the Suzuki Maruti Gypsy is ideal for game drives. Many drivers make the mistake of staying in 2nd gear while driving 20 km/h and above during game drives, where you actually want to have the engine as quiet as possible.
If, however, you encounter an obstacle or if the path slopes upward, you have to shift into a lower gear before reaching the obstacle or slope.
On long journeys without fuel stations or if you're short of fuel, you may want to drive in the most fuel-efficient way, if possible. The highest range is always achieved in the highest gear, so the question is whether you can keep up the minimal speed required to drive in that gear. For example, the longest possible range is probably achieved in a Suzuki Maruti Gypsy when driving at around 60 in fifth gear at quite a bit less than full power.
Of course you cannot keep this up when the road goes uphill or when the surface or curves don't allow this speed. The first advice here is not to get short of fuel in the first place, so there is no question of wanting to drive faster for that reason in the first place. Never let fuel calculations tempt you into taking additional risks. When you drive into a curve where you cannot see any possible oposing traffic or any obstacle, of course you have to reduce speed and shift into a lower gear no matter what. An accident is even worse than getting stuck because your tank is empty.
A particular problem on the sidelines is dust avoidance. When you drive through a dry, dusty area, there is an unpleasant tendency of the dust to get into the car and accumulate there. This is difficult to avoid entirely, but there are a few ways to reduce the amount of dust.
First of all we have to understand how and why dust gets into the car. Obviously, some dust will come in with the air you use for ventilation, unless you have an off-road vehicle with an air filter (and air conditioning), which is not a frequent occurrence exactly in those countries where it would be needed most. Some dust then sticks to every surface and usually stays there.
But this doesn't explain the high amounts of dust one is often gathering inside the car. The unpleasant truth is that it is a physical law that makes the situation in a moving vehicle worse. This law was found by the physicist Daniel Bernoulli, is known as Bernoulli's equation, and postulates that the pressure decreases as a gas (or a liquid) streams by an object.
The problem occurs mainly when you drive with open windows, which you often have to because of the heat. Dust is stirred up by the wheels, particularly by air being pushed aside in front of the wheel and air being sucked under the wheel behind it and turbulently streaming around the wheel. Due to the turbulent air flows under the off-road car and to the side of the wheels, the lower rear of the car is often moving in a dense cloud of dust.
Even though this dust usually does not reach the open windows (unless you suddenly stop), it seeps in through all small gaps, even under the driver's door and even more around the rear part of the car.
This happens because Bernoulli's effect of the air streaming past the open windows creates a lower air pressure inside the car, not exactly a vacuum, but enough to suck in dust through all holes and gaps.
Knowing this, what can we do about it? One simple way is to drive very slowly, something between pedestrian and bicycle speed. This is OK for the occasional dust bowl, but usually you don't have the time to go so slow for long. The other way is to close all windows and switch on the electric ventilation. Depending on the car you may need more or less forceful ventilation to counteract the Bernoulli effect, which is still working on the main vents and small gaps and holes and might still suck some dust through some holes if you wouldn't create a slightly higher pressure inside with the ventilation.
Of course this depends very much on the design of the car and its ventilation system, and in a warm climate it may get too hot in the car, but that's about all we can do about the dust getting into the car.
A very simple method to keep at least the luggage clean is to put travelling bags into a seabag or a huge plastic bag or into one large enough plastic bag each. This is one of the reasons to have a seabag with you. (The other is that you may encounter the two-pieces-of-luggage airline rule that may force you to put several bags into a big one to stay within the two pieces limit.)
Another, not so heavy source of dust is oncoming traffic in combination with a wind direction that blows the dust wake over to your side of the road. Fortunately this problem is not continuous, but occurs only when you meet another car.
The standard method of dealing with such dust wakes is to crank up all windows and stop all ventilation blowing air into the car. In some cars you can set the ventilation to circular air flow, rather than fresh air flow through. In others all you can do is to switch the ventilation off and hope that your car actually blocks the residual air flow. Some cars do that, others don't and keep some air flowing through. The only other thing you can do is reduce the speed until the other car has passed, which is also a display of politeness, because you stir up less dust yourself and your tires also won't throw stones as much.
By the way, stones thrown up by the tires can hit the windshield of oncoming cars and actually shatter them. Other than driving more slowly to reduce the problem a little, what you can do is put your flat hand near the middle of the windshield (or one hand of the driver and a passenger in the middle of each pane if there are two) and press your hand against it. This dampens the high-frequency vibrations caused by a stone hitting the glass and can often avoid the shattering of the glass.
Another method to avoid these dust wakes is to drive over to the wrong side of the road and off the road, then stop and let the other traffic pass. Since you're doing a rather irritating move to the wrong side of the road, you have to do it in time, so the other driver does not get confused and doesn't try to avoid you by also swerving to that side. You want to be stopped off the road much earlier than the other car passes, 10 seconds at the very least.
This maneuver looks stupid and wastes a lot of time if you do it often, but it may still be sensible when the dust wakes are very thick and when there are not too many other cars around. It also borders on an illegal road maneuver, so apply it sensibly and with caution.
All in all a 4WD off-road vehicle is a fascinating means of transport. After you will have driven the first thousand kilometers in one, you will most likely appreciate the advantages of such a powerful rough-terrain vehicle.
The Global Positioning System is a fascinating, new technology for finding out where exactly your are. The system of approx. 28 satellites, equipped with atomic clocks and circling the earth at a distance of 20,000 km and moving at 8,000 km/h, operated by the American military, makes it possible to determine position and height to a few meters with a cheap handheld receiver, costing something from $100 upwards. For Kenya a very simple, cheap device will do, because the additional abilities of the more expensive devices, such as auto-routing maps, are not useful to you in Africa. The only exception is that it helps a bit to have the Garmin WorldMap loaded, which covers many roads, even unpaved ones, in Kenya, but is not very accurate. Apart from that, an old, minimalistic GPS 12 or a tiny Forerunner or Geko or one of the eTrex line will fit the bill nicely.
It would be very unwise not to use this simple and inexpensive technology, particularly if you do not know Kenya yet, because without it you could lose your way and, in the very worst case, your life.
However, the GPS receiver does not replace the map, which you must also have with you in any case. A small compass also belongs to the complete equipment. You will need it if the GPS receiver fails or gets lost.
You need a computer data cable to transfer the waypoints and routes, which you can download from www.michna.com/gps, into the GPS device. To power the device, you need rechargeable batteries and a charger. NiMh rechargeables with a capacity of at least 2,000 mAh are recommended.
In addition you can bring along a power cable for the cigarette lighter, which, however, cannot always replace the batteries. Some off-road cars do not have a cigarette lighter, so that you may need yet another adapter with car battery clamps. Or you can ask the car rental service to fit a cigarette lighter socket.
You should have three sets of fully loaded batteries before you move, one of it in the GPS receiver. The reason is that the combination of rechargeable batteries and charger is not perfectly reliable. If you want to be even more safe, bring along a set of normal alkali batteries for emergencies.
Further you need a mobile phone holder with a suction cup, by which you can attach the GPS device to the windshield, where the reception is best. If you want to use a cigarette lighter power cable at the same time, then you should test the combination before you travel, because in some combinations the cable does not fit between the GPS device and the windshield holder.
Do not forget this! Test the windshield holder before you leave for Kenya. You cannot leave the device banging around in the car, you cannot stow it away because it does not receive well in any other place than under the windshield, and no passenger will be willing to hold it up for something like a 10 hour drive.
Clean the batteries, particularly the contacts, of dust, before you insert them in the battery charger or into the GPS receiver. Sometimes strong shaking while driving can still switch off the GPS device, because of a brief power interruption. Use a piece of foam rubber under the windshield holder to prevent the device from banging on the dashboard. You can affix this to the dashboard by means of self-adhesive velcro strips or you can cut it into a shape that clings to the windshield holder.
Some of the very small, very cheap GPS devices can store only one route, usually with 50 Waypoints. This is not as good as, for example, 20 routes with 30 Waypoints each in the good old GPS 12. Nevertheless these are suitable, because the only longer route with something over 40 Waypoints is Nairobi – Baringo – Samburu – Nairobi (divided into two routes to facilitate GPS devices like the GPS 12, which can only have 30 waypoints per route). You can load these from the computer into the route memory and use the other routes only manually by entering a Goto command for each waypoint, which is not too complex when the waypoints are already loaded. Also bring a printout of all routes, so you can reenter them by hand if needed. Of course you can also carry a computer, but you risk that it does not survive the shaking, the dust and the heat. If you bring a computer anyway and your front seat passenger is willing to use it while driving, then you can load scanned maps and use an appropriate program for a moving map display, e.g. OziExplorer.
If possible, you should always drive in a convoy; only if all passengers in one car agree on driving on their own, you can take a different route, but it would be on your own risk (not recommended). Driving in a convoy increases safety substantially. On dusty tracks the distance between the cars must be increased, depending on the wind up to several kilometers. However the visual contact should not be interrupted continuously. Look regularly into the rear-viewing mirror. If you cannot see the following car any more, stop and wait for it. If it does not appear during the next minute, turn around immediately and drive back. The best you can find back there is the other car standing in front of a pride of lions or another photo motive, which you did not see because you were driving to fast. (This happens a lot).
In case you have several route suggestions, you have to take the easiest route.
You should always drive at a comfortable speed, which is much slower than the possible maximum. There are two reasons for this:
On top of that, the range is higher at low speeds, as long as you can drive in the highest gear(starting from approx. 40 km/h).
I urge you to follow these few rules, and I speak from many years of experience. Unfortunately, some male travelers have a tendency to try to stand out through special initiatives or fast driving. However, a journey like this always suffers if male travelers are constantly busying themselves with direct or indirect ranking fights or with proving themselves as racing drivers. Moreover, this lowers the general safety, also for the other cars. Besides that you should always be aware of the fact that all passengers of the car have to rely on each other. For special initiatives there are three possibilities:
If you encounter wild animals, the first rule is that the animals are not to be disturbed. It is e.g. absolutely illegal to throw a stone at an animal in order to force it into a better position for a picture. Also do not drive close to an animal if it reacts to the car. In other words, as soon as an animal shows any further reaction but quietly looking at the car, you should stop immediately.
The exception are animals that block the way. Wait first to see whether they move away. If they don't, drive on very slowly to give them time to move without wasting their energy unnecessarily.
Special caution is required with animals that are able to defend themselves and that are unpredictable such as hippo, buffalo, rhinoceros (if we should have the luck, to see one), elephant, and lion, because they attack. You should also be careful with shy animals, like leopards, cheetahs, birds of prey, because they flee. The best sign for the fact that an animal does not feel in trouble, is that it continues feeding and does not look at you. If it stops feeding, then you should stop moving. Signs of irritation are for the hippo to stop feeding and freeze, for all other of the above five species to shake the head, to snort, and similar signals. Most of these five species can attack suddenly, with little warning.
If buffalos block the way and if it is not possible to drive around them, then you have to drive close until they recognize you and look at you. Now you need patience and have to wait until the animals themselves lose patience and move out of the way. They normally do that, but it can take 10 minutes or longer. The normal behavior of the buffalo is not to run away if there is any danger, but to attack if necessary. Therefore it is much more difficult to handle a herd of buffalos than other animals.
When you observe a cheetah, you should additionally pay attention not to obstruct their hunt, because they are diurnal (day-active), unlike the other big cats. Do not place yourself in such a way behind the cheetah that potential prey is alerted to the cat by the car. The best position is probably at the side, perhaps even closer to the potential prey than to the cheetah. The most important thing in such a situation is not to drive to close at all, but rather to observe and predict, how the situation is developing.
If you do not like car rides, you have the opportunity to fly by light airplane. We will usually have at least one light plane that fits four people (e.g. a Cessna 182, 1 engine with 235 HP, more than 2,000 km max. range).
For an impression of what it can be like, you can watch this video, but only if you have a fast Internet connection.
Flying is more expensive though, and it is not possible for everybody at the same time on all journeys. A to-and-fro shuttle flight, for example on the route Baringo – Maralal – Samburu, can normally only be flown with an intermediate refuelling stop in Nairobi, because there is no other place in the area, where you can refuel, unless a car would carry extra fuel for the plane. Of course the detour to Nairobi increases the price.
On the route to the coast one can refuel in Mombasa and Malindi, so that this problem does not occur there. I always have to make shuttle flights though, which must be paid completely, and one hour of flying costs approx. €150, which has to be shared by all passengers. I am definitely willing to make such flights, which also help to achieve the minimum flying time per day, which we must pay with this rented airplane. Up to three passengers with very light luggage can fly in one plane.
The atmosphere in Kenya is usually choppy because of earth surface heating by the sun, so that the airplane usually constantly rocks. Who cannot stand this, should not fly. Otherwise flying is of course very pleasant. The temperatures up in the air are lower. Only the engine and propeller make a substantial noise. I have a supply of foam rubber ear plugs, which absorb the noise and leave only a dull humming. Flying is also safer than driving a car.
There is also the safety aspect of the plane that it allows to fly a sick person back to Nairobi quickly, should that ever happen. (This has happened to me once, when a friend, himself a pilot, had a kidney colic.)
In the improbable case of a forced landing you should observe the following rules.
Who carries a small tent and is therefore independent of the lodges, can save money and has the unforgettable experience of the tropical night.
I once slept in my tent with the flap open, but the mosquito screen closed. I enjoyed the view of the stars, but soon afterwards I realized that this may have been stupid, as lions frequently come close to tents, and it is not clear whether a lion can become dangerous when confronted with a visible sleeping human at such a close distance. I've never done this again in any small tent and always closed the outer tent. I do keep the flaps open and rely only on the insect screens in bigger tents though, where I do not sleep so close to the screens.
Normally lions never attack closed tents, but if you really invite them â€
