On this trip I investigated (played) with a number of apps:
On our trip round the area we saw lots of wild life. We were lucky enough to stumble across this ostrich. I was surprised by the size of the thing, much bigger than I expect. I feel, I have to stress here that the animals we saw where all wild, not farmed, or kept in a field. They where in their natural habitat and it was a privilege to have had the opportunity to see them.
This video was shot from the car widow as we drove round the area we where staying. It give a good overall impression of what the environment is like. The animals in the back ground are zebra.
Well I'm back home after spending yesterday travelling and meeting new people. I've slept and am now going through the photos and video I shot whist in Kenya. Now that I'm back on broadband I will be up loading them. I don't know yet what my lasting impression of Africa is going to be but I do know that I'm glad I choice to go and that the experience is one that I will treasure and reflect on for some time. I can see why some people fall for the country, it's beauty is truly remarkable and is in stark contrast to the lifes of some of its inhabidance.
As part of my knowledge development, with regards to blogging, I'm trying out how to use video. Whist I was on my trip I captured a number of videos and got interested in the time-lapse option on my video app. I have edited and upload a number of the videos to youtube and over the next couple of posts will be sharing these with you, I hope you enjoy them.
Today's bug of the day is this rather beautiful black bug. I have know idea what it is but it decided to join us for lunch.
The shift ended at midnight and I went back to the tent and snuggled down in my sleeping bag. I awoke at around 04.30 to a static buzz it took me a couple of minutes, in my sleepy state, to realise that it was the rain hitting the tent. I let the white noise lull be back to sleep.
The sun comes up around 06.30, by 7.30 it is fully on the tent. The effect of this is that the wet canvas starts to steam and those inside find that they and getting a free sauna.
It's now been raining on and off for a couple of days. It rains hard for about 15 to 30 minutes and then stops. You can tell when the rain is coming the temperature drops and the wind picks up, 3 minutes later it's raining.
Today's bug of the day is the "praying mantis" or as I text last night the praying man toss. How cool is this insect it even looks like its wearing shads. Notice how it turned to face the camera. I'm wondering what tonight's insect of interest is going to be.
Today we started getting into the rhythm of the think. 12 hour shifts, I'm doing midday to midnight so the first meal of the day is lunch.
The weather is dramatic it goes from 85% humidity and temperatures of around 28 degrees to about 7 degrees with a cold wind. I seem to be putting cloths on and then taking them off 5 minutes later. The much talked about rain has not arrived today however it is still forecast for the next two days. The cloud cover has increased, which means it won't be quite as cold tonight and it makes for a spectacular sunset.
I'm not going to be uploading many images for a while as the data bandwidth is poor and this picture took about 15 mins to upload but I just want to prove that I am real in the middle of no ware.
The roads are spin rearranging and it tacks a level of skill and a good vehicle to be able to handle them. Lucky we have off road trained drivers.
Last night was the first time I've slept in a tent in about 20 years. I did sleep but it got cold about 3am and I could have done with a better pillow. Much to my surprise and delight I didn't keep any of the others awake with my snoring. Food is good and there is coffee and something they call tea which I wouldn't water my garden with.
Well we made it. It's been a long day and we are all quite tiered, the luxury is gone and now we are using drain pipes as urinals......picture to follow.
At night the sky is incredible, with no light pollution, who would have thought that there so many stars.
Not to may bugs and greebles, apparent they come out after it rains.....rain is forecast for Thursday and Friday.....joy!
The connectivity is limited so I will take pictures and video over the cause of the week and upload them when I get access to a better connection.
Busy day tomorrow so I,m off to bed.
I now have got round to up-dating this post with the promised picture of the men's urinals. The picture that follows is the view, I thing it has one of the best toilet views I've seen.
So today we are off up country......say good bye to luxury and hello to sparse living lets hope the weather holds. The temperature here can be described best as pleasant not to hot, with a breeze.
I'll be losing the network connecting until we get one set-up so the posts may stop for a bit.
I'm still learning how to get the best out of this blogging thing so I'm going to try and upload some audio and video at some point, just to see how it works.
Not that I'm try to make anyone feel jealous but this was the view at breakfast. The lump on the skyline in the background is mount Kenya.
And my office for this morning....
So much has happen today, here are a couple of pictures taken on route.
The transfer flight, first time I've been on such a small plane. Not a bad flight a little bumpy and the airstrip we landed on was about the size of a postage stap.
View from the plane widow
This is the airport that we landed at. I can recommend the coffee at Barnes
The hotel room.....sweet
So I've made it to the airport, taxi didn't smell good, obviously someone had a good night and deposited half of it in the back of the cab. The cabby drove well and we made good time, checkin was really quick and very friendly. Good old Virgin always happy to help. Security was a breeze and I made it into departures in under 5 minutes. Walked round all the shops bought smokes and laughed at the price in Dixon's this is supposed to be duty free, it's all cheaper else where in my opinion.
After getting back to the UK I bought a paint of binocular I tried (Olympus 10x25) for a third of the price.
I'm leaving blighty shortly for a couple of weeks and though it might be fun to try and blog as I go. Just waiting for the taxi to the airport where I will meeting up with my travel partners, Jack, Neil and Chris. I'm also meeting up with Jon at terminal 3 for a scotch before he heads out to Austria. Taxi here got to go.
