We decided to leave Nairobi on a Sunday in order to avoid the terrible traffic - good move as we sailed straight through and out onto the Mombassa Road. Even being a Sunday there was quite a lot of truck traffic heading towards Mombassa - they tend to be overloaded and struggle uphill at less than 30kph, then scream down the other side as fast as they can. As the road is single carriageway this slows anyone else down considerably unless they want to take their lives into their own hands and attempt overtaking on crests of hills, corners, junctions etc - and a lot of people do.....
At Emali we topped up with fuel and turned onto the new road south to Oloitoktok. There was practiaclly no-one else on this stretch so we had a good run down to the junction off to Amboseli. On the way we stopped for lunch and as usual someone turned up - a locla youngster who asked for water by miming, then something to eat...we gave him a cup of water and some lemon creams and he seemed very happy, but then asked for money.....
From the main road to the gate at Amboseli is some 20km of gravel - and as usual as soon as the tourist safari vehicles are using a road it's been torn to shreds - hard corrugations all the way. We let the tyres down and bumped along at low speed up to just before the gate where a turning took us down to Kimana Campsite. This campsite is literally jsst outside the park and maybe only 500m from the KWS campsite inside the park boundary. Kimana is half the price - oh and if you think that being inside the park will lead to more night-time wildlife - there are no fences....so the same elephants etc wander through.
We seemed to be the only visitors until late in the day a small group of French turned up.
Everyone we have spoken to in Kenya about the apparent lack of tourists has confirmed that almost no-one is coming - and worse no-one at all is making any bookings. This seems to be due to scares about both Ebola and terrorism. Lets be clear - Ebola is in WEST Africa - mainly in the area around Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is closer to London than it is to Nairobi (if you don't believe this then just search for "distance Freetown to London" and "distance Freetown to Nairobi online!). When you arrive at Nairobi airport they are scanning EVERYONE for elevated temperatures - when you arrive at Heathrow there are just posters asking you if you feel ill. Hmmmm.
In terms of terrorism - the vast majority of Kenyan incidents are either around Mombassa or in the North-East corner. Kenya is a large country and transport is difficult. Draw your own conclusions. In my mind, if anyone has been thinking of visiting East Africa and/or doing a safari - now is the time to be doing it - you'll have the place almost to yourself!
At Emali we topped up with fuel and turned onto the new road south to Oloitoktok. There was practiaclly no-one else on this stretch so we had a good run down to the junction off to Amboseli. On the way we stopped for lunch and as usual someone turned up - a locla youngster who asked for water by miming, then something to eat...we gave him a cup of water and some lemon creams and he seemed very happy, but then asked for money.....
From the main road to the gate at Amboseli is some 20km of gravel - and as usual as soon as the tourist safari vehicles are using a road it's been torn to shreds - hard corrugations all the way. We let the tyres down and bumped along at low speed up to just before the gate where a turning took us down to Kimana Campsite. This campsite is literally jsst outside the park and maybe only 500m from the KWS campsite inside the park boundary. Kimana is half the price - oh and if you think that being inside the park will lead to more night-time wildlife - there are no fences....so the same elephants etc wander through.
We seemed to be the only visitors until late in the day a small group of French turned up.
Everyone we have spoken to in Kenya about the apparent lack of tourists has confirmed that almost no-one is coming - and worse no-one at all is making any bookings. This seems to be due to scares about both Ebola and terrorism. Lets be clear - Ebola is in WEST Africa - mainly in the area around Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is closer to London than it is to Nairobi (if you don't believe this then just search for "distance Freetown to London" and "distance Freetown to Nairobi online!). When you arrive at Nairobi airport they are scanning EVERYONE for elevated temperatures - when you arrive at Heathrow there are just posters asking you if you feel ill. Hmmmm.
In terms of terrorism - the vast majority of Kenyan incidents are either around Mombassa or in the North-East corner. Kenya is a large country and transport is difficult. Draw your own conclusions. In my mind, if anyone has been thinking of visiting East Africa and/or doing a safari - now is the time to be doing it - you'll have the place almost to yourself!