Packing question for those who have done K & T
In lieu of the Tauck duffel provided for some tour segments, can my wife instead use her personal item carryon, which would be a Lug or Vera Bradley type bag, to go in the cargo area of the plane? We are trying to go light, and the Tauck duffel is substantial itself, so we are looking to avoid it if possible. Many thanks.
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The duffel itself is really not that heavy but holds a lot, and, at least previous versions, could be synched and made smaller. The key is the ability to fit with other bags of the same type in irregular shaped spaces without wasted space. Neither the Lug or Vera Bradley bags look like they quite meet that criteria.
The Tauck duffel will likely hold considerably more than the Lug or Bradley bags I just looked at. Also, the TD and baggage handlers will be looking for Tauck duffels, though I don't know how much of a factor that is. Give Tauck a call.
For K&T my wife and I consolidated our stuff in a single duffel. She also had a small personal bag she carried aboard the aircraft.
You must use the Tauck duffels, it is not a choice. They must all be the same size for fitting in the vehicles and small planes and for ease of finding. Other AFRICA safari companies do the same.
Thank you. That is very clear advice . We were trying to go without checking bags, but for various things we need/want to have, the rolla board with carry-on route was hard to begin with, and so much more so with the space the Tauck duffel would take. Back to our regular bags which will be underfilled but easy to manage. Thanks again.
Remember, you can always travel to and from Africa with any type of carry-on or checked bags you want- standard, hard shell, even Lug or Vera-Bradley, as long as they meet airline and Tauck criteria. Once you switch over to the Tauck duffel(s), Tauck will transfer and temporarily store your normal luggage until you meet up with it again. You can leave clothes and other items you won't need during duffel days in your normal luggage. As I said one duffel was large enough to hold whatever we needed for the few days we spent in the Serengeti and Masai Mara.
After the safari are we given time to shower and change when we arrive back at the hotels
Sometimes yes, sometimes you go right to dinner. It’s all very casual. When we had time to shower and change, we wore to dinner whatever we were going to wear on safari the next day. No need for special evening attire.
Thank you for your reply thats what i was thinking any other tips would be very helpful
How many pairs of pants do you suggest for the daily safaris do you suggest (Im having packing confusion 😂)
All of the hotels have laundry service, but it is most convenient and less expensive at Amboseli (about the half-way point on tour). The game drives are very dusty. Also, avoid navy blue and black, particularly in the Serengeti, as those colors attract tsetse flies. The number of pants and shirts is dependent on how often you want to do laundry and adhering to weight restrictions for your luggage.
Thank you again
MaryAnn when I went last September I took 4 pairs of pants and 4 shirts. Laundry is very inexpensive at the Amboseli lodges
This is ‘all’ of our luggage for the flight out of the Mt. Kenya Safari Club airfield (on the property).
Sealord, on Google Maps that looks like a new asphalt airstrip! Years ago we flew in/out of Nanyuki. During a horseback ride back then we saw the only strip on site- the long-closed remains of a very old, overgrown dirt strip used back in the days of William Holden and earlier. It looks like it is still there- an "L" shaped dirt strip part of which is on the Meru-Nyeri County line.
I’ve been on the old strip on horseback as well. In June we did not use Nanyuki inbound either. It was a different field. I don’t know the genesis of the ‘new’ strip, but it is generally in the same direction as the old one. You drive our the main gate, and turn left and pass the orphanage by maybe a quarter mile. It is not very long … full power and hold the brakes, and let her rip.
By the way, this sign got my attention because I was looking at the gps position on my iPhone. The Safari Club equator is not where it should be. They did not have GPS when the Safari Club was built, so it was a pretty good ‘estimate’, but wrong. That makes the ‘parlor game’ coriolis demonstration with the bowl of water swirling in opposite directions even more ‘false’. Both bowls are on the same side of the equator. The real equator is a couple hundred feet away from where they have it located.
The equator monument near Quito is also in the wrong place.
Using Google, numbers to numbers, the new runway measures approx 5200' RWY 34 is marked closed? Elev. 7,020 ft.
I found this: "05 Dec 2019. Airkenya Express has suspended operations into Nanyuki Civil Airstrip, near Mount Kenya National Park, effective December 4. This is due to the prevailing rains and deteriorating state of the airstrip.
Airkenya will pick up and drop off guests staying at Fairmont - Mt. Kenya Safari Club, at Mount Kenya Game Ranch Airstrip. According to another article, it was finished in 2017.
I see the runway on Google Earth. I don’t think the ‘L’ you are looking at is the old runway. I think this is a new runway on top of the old airstrip. I see the ‘X’ on runway 34, but that is the runway we used for takeoff. Perhaps the picture was taken before they opened the airstrip. According to Google Earth, the Safari Club is even farther from the equator than I thought … perhaps two miles. My iPhone only had it off by a few hundred feet.
I zoomed out a bit so you can see both the new airstrip (it even has a small hangar at the southern end) and the old (upside down) "L" dirt strip to the right.
When I searched for the Conservancy airport (some links refer to it as the Mt. Kenya Game Ranch), one link http://jetrequest.com/airports//Kenya/Mashariki/Mount-Kenya/Mount-Kenya-Game-Ranch-Airport lead me to a description of and coords to the dirt "L" runways- 01/19 and 09/27 4265' and 6233' long respectively. One link showed aircraft symbols at the new and old "L" shaped runway. They may have run a bulldozer over the old one a few years ago because there seems to be less vegetation and looks better than what we saw on horseback in 2015 , before they built the new asphalt runway. As I mentioned according to a contractor website, the new asphalt runway, hangar, and lounge were finished in 2017. https://belgraviaservices.com/kenya.html
According to Wiki the original Nanyuki Airfield was located much further northwest of its current location but taken over by the military and is now Laikipia Airbase. Iit still labeled as Nanyuki Airport on some maps including Google. The Nanyuki civil airport is where all other air traffic used to fly to and where we flew in and out of in 2015. Imagery shows an "X" at each end and the runway does not look good! There are small civil aircraft still parked there however. According to Flghtradar24, AirKenya Express and others are using Nanyuki again. I suspect, due to the tourist demand, the airbase may have been temporarily designated for joint use, with just a few flights to the conservancy runway if all passengers are staying at the Mt. Kenya Club.
According to a Dec '21 article, "The construction of a new and modern runway on the Nanyuki airstrip is expected to be completed by the end of January 2022." (Inshallah!) The new runway is supposed to be 5000' long (it was 3,900') so maybe the Google satellite photos are actually old. I couldn't find any updates!
Our horseback ride in June was to the North of the new runway. I yield to your research on the old runways. We rode near them some years ago, but I did not realize there were two. There are blonde zebras out that way. Did you see them?
Try dropping a pin in the middle of the Mt. Kenya lodge on Google Earth and notice the latitude. My iPhone 13 GPS shows it much closer to the equator than Google, but it does not run on that path through the middle of the bar. My phone has it several hundred feet away from that position, putting the ‘coriolis’ demonstration entirely in one hemisphere. Also, the orientation of the building is neither North to South, nor East to West. That path where they do that demonstration is Northeast to Southwest. It would have to run exactly East and West in order for it to ‘follow’ the equator. The water movement is due to the shape of the pan.
We did a nature walk from the Mt Kenya Lodge and were fortunate to see several “golden” or blond zebras.
We saw only one from a distance along the approach road to the Mt. Kenya Club.
I think they said it was a horse - zebra hybrid, a zorse. Depending on the sire and equine involved, pairings can result in a donkra, zedonk, zonkey, zorse, zebrose, zony, Zetland, etc. The offspring is usually infertile.
They told us they were albino zebras.
No, the stripes on an albino zebra are reversed, they are brown not white/tan.
Nat Geo says,"A few dozen partially albino zebras live on a private reserve in Mount Kenya National Park."
AlanS - I saw your "Nat Geo says" comment online when I searched. I also found the following online when I searched. I'm just saying that the Tauck people told us they were albino zebras. Online they also call them golden or blond zebras.
So are the stripes brown and white or white and brown?
Depends on if you look at them from the left or right, inside or outside, upside down or rightsize up, ...
I was just going through my photos and I had forgotten about this. Our room attendant at the Four Seasons prepared a bath for her:
(Please don’t elevate your expectations. We’ve been there three times and this was a first.)
SeaLord, you have a flag for your photo of a bath! 😂
Yup! Someone is flagging just about everything I post. Flag away. I … don’t … care. My like to flag ratio is about six to one the last time I checked.
I have you beat, I'm running a 1:1 ratio!