Very, very lucky...

We're still going, and so is the laptop, amazingly.

After two break downs (burst waterpipe, hole in fuel tank) and some
minor surprises on the money front, "how much?" which seem to be an
African refrain, we still think it is all worth it.

Two days ago we saw two male cheetahs making a kill on the road from
Narok into Masai Mara (outside the park, before you pay the entrance
fees, and almost hidden off the road). Mark has sharp eyes and
spotted them. We stayed there for 90 minutes whilst the cheetahs ran
and hid from a Masai who we then bribed to go away. He of course
interpreted this as an excuse to hang around! The cheetahs came back
and took turns standing guard whilst feeding. Gorgeous!

Yesterday we saw the wildebeast migration across the Mara river.
Twice, in one day, and only because Mark and I have poor bladder
control and had to use the facilities at Hippo point (everyone else
had left 5 minutes earlier). Absolute carnage, 4 out of 10 failed to
make the other bank and floated down the river as corpses. Meanwhile
thousands of other wildebeast stampeded into the jam of thrashing,
drowning, exhausted animals. Madness.

Amusingly the Kenyan army, rather than guarding the border, instead
escort tourists to see the crossing sites and the wildebeast milling
around Hippo point. Nice little sideline but they did spend all
afternoon with us while we gloried at the spectacle, so we gave them a
lift back to their base (ak47's, bolt action rifles and all).

Today we did a balloon safari, VERY expensive but did see two lions
making seperate kills in 5 minutes.

I think if we see nothing else for the next two weeks we would still be lucky.

Tonight we have to burn many DVD's so we can actually take some more
photo's. Expect us to burn the midnight oil, after 3 nights of 4
hours sleep, this is very tough.

Can anyone hear the puny violins playing???

In Kenya, day 3

Arrived and successfully negotiated immigration to rendevous with a still functioning Sharon.

Late into Nairobi, early to leave the following morning to Ambesoli game park in southern Kenya. Some "interesting" roads, bumper fell off van and is held on by rope, to be mended :-)

Very pretty, lots of elephants and some naughty lions and a few giraffes.

Now back in Nairobi, before we head to Masai Mara and counting the damage so far to wallets and sore, dirty, dusty, rattled bodies. Everything still works and the hyena didn't break into the tent, it just sniffed around. Scary when you need a toilet break!

She did make it!

Sharon's emailed post for the blog reads:

"Yesterday (18th Oct 2008) Sharon successfully overcame all obstacles in her way and reach the Uhuru summit of Kilimanjaro.  It was very hard going but she made it up and down in one piece.  She would like to think she is a better person for it, and has now added pig-headed determination to her list of qualities."

Go Sharon!  But um... added????

You might very well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment!

Climbing Kilimanjaro - did she make it?

If my reading of her schedule is correct, Sharon should have summited and be on her way down now.  

I should find out in 12 hours.  Any bets people :-)   ?

Wildlife to tide you over

No African wildlife yet, so here's something to tide you over.  We made a slightly tamer photographic safari trip down to the British Wildlife Center down near Lingfield, south of London.

This was a photographic day where the keepers let us into the cages with the animals, whilst they fed them.  We took ridiculous quantities of pictures - which is good practice for Africa.

The first shot is a Little Owl, the other two are of a Scottish Wild Cat (basically, a REALLY hard tabby).  

She was the keepers favourites because they could approach her, she would bristle and snarl (nicely posing for the cameras) and settle down as they backed off.

The other cats would respond to the keepers approach by either:

• Bristle, then run away and then hide - not great for photo's.
• Or snarl, leap on the keeper and claw the living daylights out of them - this is great for photo's, however somewhat less popular with the keepers.

I've uploaded a number of shots here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyrandell/sets/72157608006182567/

Some of the shots are very similar, I haven't mastered the art of post processing work flow well enough yet to eliminate all the obvious similar shots (also a slight lack of originality in the composing).

Can I just say, in closing, that the little owl was gorgeous...

Now the hard work starts, and some mountain porn...

I received an email from Sharon this morning, she's made it to Tanzania after some fun at the airport (BA ran out of visa forms for Kenya combined with massive queues = much enjoyment for all) and is off to climb the mountain.

"Minor hiccup with the flight from Nairobi to Kili, but the Ausie boys checking in next to me where onto the case. So we spoken to a Kenyan Airways manager and he spoke to someone a Precision Airways and the little plane they had been sending got upgraded to a bigger plane (40 to 78 seat) and the 28 people who were due to be bumped onto the later flight got on too..... wasn't too keen to spend an afternoon in Nairobi, even if it was going to be in a 'nice' hotel.

Arrived yesterday afternoon and it was noticeably hotter here than in Nairobi - low thirties..... have drunk about six million bottles of water since then and (almost) wishing for the cooler climes of Scotland. Is it still raining?

Anyway tomorrow we start our trek up the mountain. Met the other folk on the trip with me, there are 12 of us in total, all from the UK, good mix of ages too. Six of the trekkers went up Mt Meru first and said it was hard going, but I am hopefully that if we take it slowly, but surely I will make it to the summit.

Must go Kili is showing off her top!

Love to all

Sharon"

Edinburgh Zoo Photo Competition - Sharon won

Sharon has won the Edinburgh Zoo photo competition, her portrait of a chimp will hang in Edinburgh Zoo reception for the next year. Woohoo!

This is a great omen for the trip, and SHOULD give Sharon impetus to start posting some more of her images online. Sometimes being a perfectionist can slow you down... mind you other times it wins you competitions :-)

No photo however, because she hasn't posted it yet. I might see if I can find a thumbnail kicking around her system and post it here.

Day 1 - 10th October - And she's off

Sharon has gotten on her flight and is winging off to London, then to Nairobi where she overnights before heading down to Tanzania to join her mountain climbing expedition. Good luck!!!

I think we're over-packed however we are going for several months, and camping all the way. The weight will come down as the various consumables get exhausted and it's difficult to think what else we could leave behind other than clothes.

The photo equipment does take up space but one of the reasons we are going is to take photo's. We've made painful decisions, leaving behind some nice lens and kit to keep the weight down.

I guess we're just a bit too keen on the gadgets, hooray for a chance to play with them!

I have a week left in Edinburgh to organise the house sitter and pack away the remaining stuff and detritus - I imagine the time will go quickly.