Relaxed and well-manicured Musanze is the gateway town for Volcanoes National Park and a popular base for those here to explore the region. Sitting at the foot of the Virungas, its magnificent volcanobackdrop entices the adventurous. Some quality restaurants like Silverbacks Cafe or...
We had a terrible storm at night, and rainy weather continued today, so we were not sure if we should go on a game drive, but we risked it and jumped into the safari car (130 USD) and went to the Queen Elizabeth National Park (🎟️44 USD). It is often ranked highly as one of Uganda’s...
After reading many reviews of Kibale NP, we decided to try the Chimpanzee Trek (🎟️999000 UGX), but of course, we had a terrible experience with a local con man. At the park gate, they gave us the phone number of the UWA office in the Fort Portal. They promised to book our tickets online...
We drove through Uganda’s largest national park (🎟️45 USD / 24 hrs, 🚙50 USD) and one of its best. Animals are in plentiful supply, but our main target was the raging Murchison Falls, where the Victoria Nile crashes through the rock and descends dramatically towards Lake Albert. Despite a...
We finally arrived at the final frontier, the lakeside city of Kisumu. Since its founding in the early 20th century, Kenya’s third city has always had a bit of a different flavor than the rest of the country. Kisumu has been home to many Luo people, a community with roots in the Nubian...
Since there were no safe parking spots, we stayed overnight at the Impala Sanctuary in Kisumu. This 1-sq-km sanctuary is home to a small impala herd and provides substantial grazing grounds for local hippos. In addition to the impala, there are cages of other Kenyan antelope and monkeys...
We arrived late in the afternoon at Lake Nakuru, and it took us quite some time to get approval from rangers to park there overnight. This park is among Kenya’s finest national parks, flanked by rocky escarpments, pockets of acacia forest, and at least one waterfall. The park is...
Late afternoon, we arrived at Elsa Gate of the dry, dusty, but infinitely peaceful Hell’s Gate National Park. It is a rare Kenyan park made for bicycles and walking. Large carnivores are rare, so we rented bikes (800 KES) and paid a cycling fee (250 KES) and a park entrance fee (28...
After the whole day of driving (468 km), we arrived at midnight at the Sekenani gate of the famous Maasai Mara National Reserve. Rangers were pretty shocked but allowed us to park behind the gate just a few steps from the main building. The following day, we paid the “special”...
Google Maps offers two roads from Tsavo East National Park to Amboseli National Park. Still, these are not roads but some paths through the Tsavo NP; you must pay the entrance fee (54,34 USD) and carefully drive through; it’s probably passable with a small 4WD, but not with our...