Intro: Kenya
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KENYA - SAFARI PAR EXCELLENCE

Kenya has become a country synonymous to safaris - if you want to go on safari you go to Kenya. It goes even a bit further than that: Kenya is becoming synonymous with big crowds on safari which doesn‘t really help the countries‘ image as a safari destination. And the latest violent outbursts early 2008 after the elections didn‘t really help either. Either way, Kenya is still a beautiful country to visit.

Sure, parks like Masai Mara, Amboseli and Tsavo are very much visited and you won‘t be the only one to visit the park to see wildlife. But Kenya is more than these 3 parks. In 1995 I visited Kenya for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed parks like Buffalo Springs and Samburu NP. Not many visitors, stunning landscape. But I was really blown away by Lake Turkana, back than not the safest place to travel to. But what a wild wild country. And the tribes we met - Samburu, Pokot, Turkana - extremely colourful and interesting. Also de lakes of Bogoria and Nakuru with thousands of flamingos were awesome, and Lake Baringo was a nice lake to relax. We ended on the slopes of Mount Kenya - and enjoyed the sight of colobus monkeys.

In 2002 I returned to see only a small part of the country - the south western part. On the shore of Lake Victoria we found the cities of Kisii and Kisumu and enjoyed very much hiking in Kakamega Forest. We also saw a good number of the monkey species living there before we continued to Uganda.

In 2006 we returned to Kenya, this time primarily to spend some time on Lamu island. Also called little Zanzibar, this interesting island offers a car-free environment with Moorish influences all over Lamu town. Highly recommendable if you want something else than Zanzibar.

All in all, kenya caters for both the high end market as for the adventurous do-it-yourself traveller.

Klik voor de Nederlandse taal © copyright on all pictures by Rick Versteegh. No picture or image may be copied, printed or reproduced without written permission