3 Day Scout Trip Kenya/Tanzania

[JurgenSteyn]

Hello All,

I might have an opportunity to spend 3 days in Kenya/Tanzania on my way back to South Africa from Germany.


I might be landing in Mombasa early on 14 December and want to do the attached route and leave via Nairobi airport on the afternoon of the 17th December.


I would like to see the following places:


1. The bridge over the river at Tsavo (Ghost and the Darkness movie) - this is a must for me as I went to Chicago to see the skins a few months ago.
2. The big tuskers at Amboselli National Park - childhood dream
3. Mount Killimanjaro (will have view from Amboselli) - I will be back to climb it one day
4. Ngorongoro Crater (where is the best place to view the great rift valley?)
5. Serengeti National Park - childhood dream


1 South African adult male.

Questions:

1. Car hire - I presume I need 4x4? Do I need a driver or can I self drive with my RSA license? Where do I hire?
2. Visa - seems I do not need a visa for either Kenya or Tanzania?
3. Route - Day 1: Mombasa - Tsavo - Amboselli. Day 2: Amboselli - Ngorongoro - Serengeti. Day 3: Serengeti - Nairobi. Can this be done? Where do I camp?
4. Anything else I should know? Include/exclude? (I know its a lot of driving)



Thank you so much in advance!

[botswanadreams]

If you hire an airplane instead a car it would work maybe. Otherwise no way.
You have T4A. Look careful on distances and travel time. There isn't any border post between Serengeti and Mara.

[Stan Weakley]

Hi Jurgen, this is an ideal opportunity for a very quick look-see but you are being far too ambitious. I would abandon all ideas of including Tanzania.
My 3 overnight stops would be

1. Tsavo East
2. Tsavo West
3. Amboseli.

Have a look at my Slow donkey blog for campsites, routes, road conditions and times starting here http://www.slowdonkey.com/content/ke...e-wednesday-16
The Mombasa - Nairobi tarred highway can be a nightmare because of the multitude of badly driven articulated trucks. If you take the above routes you can largely avoid the highway except for the final couple of hundred kilos into Nairobi.

December can be quite wet in the parks and the dirt roads may be sticky and I would definitely hire a camping 4x4, don't know where though. Take your GPS with Kenya routes as the roads are not always that well signposted.

Your SA driving licence is fine. The visa situation is fluid and they now have on-line E-visa application forms. But might might still be able to organize your visa at point of entry at the airport. Get your travel agent to check for you.

Enjoy!

[Wazungu Wawili]

As botswanadreams says, it is not possible unless you have an aeroplane!

Visas: South African citizens do not have to pay for a visa for Kenya. See the attached http://evisa.go.ke/eligibility.html. Visas are available at the airport for all other nationalities and cost USD50 for up to three months. I don't know if SA citizens have to pay for Tanzanian visas, but that is immaterial since you don't have time to do all you thought you could do.

Car hire: see another thread in this Kenya section of the forum started by ortelius about hiring 4x4s. Yes, it would be prudent to hire a 4x4, but it is not easy or cheap.

Serengeti-Mara: as Stan says, there is no border crossing between the Serengeti and the Mara. Even if there was a border crossing, it would take you three days from the Serengeti back to Nairobi.

I would recommend - as you only have 3 days available - to organise a vehicle and driver (and I can give you contacts with a good travel agency in Nairobi) and go to Amboseli only and stay in a lodge there. The Mara is a little too far for 3 days, but you could fly into the Mara and stay in a lodge or luxury tented camp.

It might still be wet in December, as Stan says. Forget about driving to Tsavo just to look at the bridge. You will shorten your life by spending any time on the main Nairobi to Mombasa road particularly at that time with lots of holiday traffic plus the trucks. You could fly to Tsavo and, again, stay in a lodge or luxury tented camp.

Good luck!

[Wazungu Wawili]

Furthermore, for the sake of others reading this thread and thinking about hiring a vehicle in Kenya and driving to Tanzania through one border crossing and back into Kenya through another border crossing, this is not possible without some degree of planning and bureaucracy. The original logbook for a Kenyan registered vehicle must be deposited at Kenyan customs at a border crossing, you are then issued with paperwork, and a temporary import permit is issued by the Tanzanian (or Ugandan) authorities. This means that one must exit and enter Kenya through the same border crossing, and collect the original logbook on return.

[JurgenSteyn]

Thank you so much for the replies!

What would be the minimum time required to complete the original route?

Any camping suggestions along this route?

Excellent blog Doc!

Thank you!

[Wazungu Wawili]

Thank you so much for the replies!

What would be the minimum time required to complete the original route?

Any camping suggestions along this route?

Excellent blog Doc!

Thank you!

Your original route is not possible as there is no border crossing between the Serengeti and the Mara. Plus the fact of exiting and entering Kenya through the same border crossing and collecting the original logbook on return into Kenya.

However, if one had spent at least a day at the Kenyan customs HQ in Nairobi and had lodged the logbook there and been issued with the relevant paperwork (and you are then given 3 days to exit the country) - and then spent a day on your return at the Customs HQ getting the logbook back - and exited the Serengeti through the Western Corridor and through the border crossing at Sirari/Isebania, had a bit of an adventure getting to the Mara from near Migori, this whole route would take a minimum of 10 days hard traveling.

[Stan Weakley]

What would be the minimum time required to complete the original route?

Minimum, something like 7 nights with one night at each destination. Two weeks is more realistic. If you want to extend your time rather spend 2 nights at Tsavo East and West and also at Amboseli. Taking a hired vehicle into Tanzania complicates things a lot.

[Wazungu Wawili]

I had to Google about the film "The Ghost and the Darkness". If you are interested in Patterson and the Man-eaters of Tsavo, then spend your three days in Kenya at the Railway Museum in Nairobi... It will take you most of the day to drive into Nairobi (because of heavy traffic) and to the Railway Museum, but they have the railway carriage and, I think, some of the lions claws.

The Chinese are building a new high speed railway line. The old "Lunatic Line" is still there and, I presume, Tsavo bridge. If you want an adventure, you could go on the train from Mombasa to Nairobi (the old line) - that might take up most of the three days as it often derails or the train breaks down. It used to be one of the great train journeys of the world and the last time I went on the train from Nairobi to Mombasa, there was still a faint air of old world charm and some of the Uganda Railway silver in the restaurant car. However, at one point, we did wonder whether to get off the train and walk through the bush to the main road and hitch a lift, but did eventually get to Mombasa hours late. We flew back from Mombasa!

[JurgenSteyn]

Hello All,


Thank you for your quick responses!

I have taken your advice and will be staying in Kenya for the whole time renting a camping 4x4 - please see attached routes and advise if its better to stay on the less busy grey route?


Night 1: Tsavo East/West (which is best for camping?)
Night 2: Amboseli
Night 3: Close/in Nairobi (don't want to miss my flight home)


What your opinions on my new plan?

How is animal sightings in Tsavo East/West compared to Amboseli?

Firewood? Bush collecting or buy? Where?

Where in Mombasa can I stock up for the 3 days with food and water? Shopping center?


Thank you
Jurgen

[Wazungu Wawili]

What your opinions on my new plan?

Crazy! But probably do-able... As I said, the Mombasa-Nairobi main road is a death trap. The timings on your Google maps are WAY out. Use T4A for better timings etc.

Over to you, Stan, as you have camped in both Tsavo East and Tsavo West more recently than I have, and can you also explain about the 24 hour rule on park entrance fees and that Tsavo East and Tsavo West are different national parks.

Jurgen: read Stan's blog as he gives very precise GPS points of everywhere he camped in both Tsavo East and Tsavo West. The grey routes on your Google maps are dirt roads. The one between Tsavo West and Amboseli is likely to be impassable if there is any rain. I would advise the grey route out of Amboseli to Namanga and thence to Nairobi as the road from Namanga to Nairobi is new good tarmac and is quiet compared to the main Mombasa-Nairobi road. The dirt road from Amboseli to Namanga can be quite corrugated, but it is a relatively short distance - and then the good tarmac.

Where in Mombasa can I stock up for the 3 days with food and water? Shopping center?

Google Nakumatt which is the Kenyan supermarket chain. There are three Nakumatts in and around Mombasa, but you will have to go into Mombasa city from the airport (which is to the north of Mombasa city and near the main road to Tsavo and Nairobi). The traffic on Mombasa island is heavy and slow.

Good luck!

[Stan Weakley]

Jurgen you sorely need to get hold of the Kenyan edition of the T4A GPS program to do any accurate planning. It will even guide you to the Nakumat stores in Mombasa.

When looking at the slow donkey website be sure to look at the "Detail for Geeks" section as well as the "Daily Dispatch" section. The Geek section is where all the route details and GPS points are. I even have screenshots of the T4A routes followed.

December can be wet in Kenya and if so you might largely have to travel on the Mombasa - Nairobi highway and tar rather than the dirt roads, which will not be the end of the world. Otherwise I endorse the routes given by Wazungu, she knows this area backwards. If dry the routes I traveled should give you a mini-taste of these parks. I do however think that 2 nights in a single park like Amboseli or Tsavo East might be more constructive. There are many campsites outside Amboseli if you want to save a little money, or you can camp inside the park. In Tsavo East I would go for the public campsite we chose. It is going to cost you quite some dollars just to drive through these three parks as you will pay vehicle and entrance fees for all. You have to leave any park by the time, 24 hours later, that you entered that park or you will pay for 2 days.

These 3 parks do not have the animal densities of Serengeti and in the rainy, bushy season in Tsavo you may have to work hard to spot lots of animals. Amboseli is lovely in the wet as the animals move out of the swamps and you will see the biggest tusker elephants in East Africa. It also has better all-weather roads. In your shoes I would concentrate on Amboseli. The route to get there depends on your finances and the amount of rain there has been.

Stop to collect firewood on your way into the parks or buy from locals if available.

[Wazungu Wawili]

This may also assist in your planning.

http://www.kws.go.ke/download/file/fid/2019

[JurgenSteyn]

Thank you so much guys for all the info, but for now I have to put Kenya on hold.

Plans have changed. I need to get to Detroit and I also need some time at home so I am currently quite eager to get out of Germany.

Kenya will see me one day...

Thanks again - I will return to this thread in the future!

[Wazungu Wawili]

Thanks for letting us know. If you are in the motor industry (Detroit/Germany?) and obviously like driving long distances in short times, this may interest you.

http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/

Also, if you like extreme 4x4, the Rhino Charge is an annual competition which raises funds for a charity called Rhino Ark (originally set up to put an electric fence around the whole of Aberdare National Park which is now complete, and they now raise funds for other rhino conservation projects in Kenya). Google Rhino Charge.

Karibuni Kenya!

[JurgenSteyn]

Wow! I would like to do something like that one day! Thanks