Bill & Elaine's Adventure 2009 - billelainesadventure2009
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Welcome
Welcome to Bill and Elaine's Summer Adventure 2009. Our adventure started on July 1st leaving Kennedy International Airport on our Emirates Air flight to Kenya. We checked in at the airport. Our names were announced when boarding began and we were lucky enough to be bumped up to Business Class where we had champagne, hot towels, a great dinner, lots of movies to choose from, travel kits, stars light to sleep by, seats that lays flat and a cool sunrise. What a perfect way to start.
Our trip covered 4 countries: Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Australia and New Zealand. We traveled around the world flying east and included 4 continents: North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Our trip starts on a Safari in Kenya.
You can link to other pages of our adventure above. I've made it so that you can watch all the photos without linking to view a slide show although the best way is to click and watch a full size slide show at each photo section.
Elaine A. Rhoades owns the copyright to the photos on this website. Please contact me if you wish to order a photograph.
Business Class! - 4 photos
other
Personal Screen with movies, games, shows, etc _MG_3031.jpg 2009-07-01 Bill enjoying champagne _MG_3032.jpg 2009-07-01 Evening Starlight in Business Class _MG_3039.jpg 2009-07-02 Fired up! Ready to Go! _MG_3028.jpg 2009-07-01
Arival in Nairobi, Kenya
We arrived in Nairobi on July 2nd after running for our connection in Dubai. Everyone had to go through a thermal scanner as we entered the airport in Dubai for swine flu fever detection. Since we were bumped up to Business Class the connecting flight believed that we were not on our flight and gave Elaine's seat away. 5 hours in the middle of a group of 40 or 50 teenagers was loud and annoying after the Business Class and the 13 hour 1st leg of our trip.
George, one of our guides, greeted us at the airport with a sign "Bill and Elaine" and a bottle of wine. We unfortunately arrive at rush hour and sat in traffic for 2 hours before arriving at our hotel. It was smoggy and full of vendors along the side of the road.
July 3rd everyone arrived and we were off on our adventure to Mount Kenya, our first destination "Mountain Lodge". We were greeted with a hot towel, juice and directed to a large picture window where animals including elephants, African buffalo and other smaller animals were gathered at a watering whole. All windows had a view of the watering whole so we watched the animals from our room as well.
Happy 4th of July! We were all up early, ate breakfast and got ready to head to 3 days at the "Elephants Bedroom". We drove for a couple of hours and stopped at a sign that was marking the Equator. Does the water spin to the left or to the right based on which side of the Equator you are on? Does it flow stright down if you are exactly on the equator?
We stayed in cottages at the Mbweha Camp. The camp was great with an amazing fire in main bar & meal area. Again the food was great. The camp was located less than 5 minutes from the entrance to the park. The park was completely fenced. Many of the animals were not native to the area but were brought to the park to protect them.
Lake Nakuru is know for the sea of flamingos that wade in the waters where they create a circle of pink near the shore line for most of the day.
We were again amazed by the birds and animals some we hadn't see before like a Rhino.
The baboons were lined up along the road as we entered the park. The rhinos were like huge vacuum cleaners swaying back and forth sucking up the grass.
_MG_3188.jpg _MG_3188.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3189.jpg _MG_3189.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3192.jpg _MG_3192.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3195.jpg _MG_3195.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3196.jpg _MG_3196.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3198.jpg _MG_3198.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3202.jpg _MG_3202.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3204.jpg _MG_3204.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3206.jpg _MG_3206.jpg 2009-07-04 _MG_3072.jpg _MG_3072.jpg 2009-07-03 Bill and George _MG_3040.jpg 2009-07-02 Elaine and Bill in their safari tour hats. _MG_3041.jpg 2009-07-02 Billboard _MG_3051.jpg 2009-07-02 Trip mates getting ready to go. _MG_3067.jpg 2009-07-03 Roger, Colleen and Bill _MG_3068.jpg 2009-07-03
The Elephants Bedroom
The Elephants Bedroom was amazing. The tents were well appointed and the animals were walking on the river bed where we were located. We had great meals everyday.
We spent most of the time in the Samburu National Reserve along the Ewaso Nyiro River, a desert area where we were surprised how our guides could find some of the animals that blended so well into the background.
Bill and I stopped at the lobby/bar/meal tent for cocktails after our afternoon safari.
We were all wondering if our trip could get better than it had already been so far. We already had seen giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, impalas, monkeys, lions, zebras, leopards and more.
The last night the crew preformed traditional tribal dances for us. It was a challenge to photograph by candle light with only a camera flash and only 1600 iso.
We decided to stop at a Maasi Village on the way to our final destination the Maasi Mara Reserve.
After the men in their late teens early 20's performed a traditional dance and ritual, Bill and Roger competed with them to see if they could jump as high. If they could be eligible to take another wife.
We learned that the traditional homes were built by the women and were make of cow dung and sticks. We were show how the men started fires and the children sang for us.
It was both enlightening to see the tradition and distressing to see several of the little children with flies on their beautiful little faces.
Tipilikawni Camp Mara National Park
We arrived in the afternoon and took a drive over to the park. Although we had already seen an amazing number of animals there was even more to see. It was the season for the Wildebeest migration and we were there. Lions and hyena were mating. There were more elephants and giraffes and we could see the Sarengeti in Tasmania on our last day's drive.
The camp was another great stay where we celebrated Roger's birthday and the staff sang. There was a great view of the park form the camp as well as a nice bar! We had a picnic out in the Mara on the last day which we all thought would be sandwiches but it was a 3 course meal!
Larry's 1st Group Safari
Photos Through the Van Window
I wanted to share what we saw as we drove across the country from each national animal reserve area. We drove through many small villages and large towns and a few cities. There was lush mountain vegetation areas as well as vast desert areas.
Children walking often waved as we passed. School children wore uniforms.
Some new building was going on but mostly we witnessed what a "3rd World Country" meant.
Larry is a good friend of mine and we were excited when we heard that he was going to Kenya on a safari.
Larry had lived in Kenya during his High School years when his parents were in the Peace Corp. For many years his parents would lead safaris to Africa and he would often accompany them. This year Larry was ready to take on his own safari and we were lucky enough to be with him for this adventure on Twiga Tours. Larry is looking forward to be continuing to lead safaris in the future and we were so thrilled by the safari that we encourage all to consider this adventure.