Verreaux's Eagle-owl

Verreaux's Eagle-owl -also known as the Milky Eagle Owl, Giant Eagle Owl- is a member of the family Strigidae and is the largest African owl. This owl is claimed to be the world's third largest owl; after the Blakiston's Fish Owl and Eurasian Eagle Owl.

Verreaux's Eagle-owl ranges from 66–75 cm (26-30 in) in length. This species can attain a wingspan 2 m (6.5 ft) and weighs from 1600 to 3115 grams (equal to 3.5 to 7 pounds). In appearance, they are distinguished by a whitish oval disk face with a black border, pink eyelids, orange eyes and two feather tufts on their ears. Their feathers are dark brown on top and light grey below.

It is a nocturnal bird; it can be seen perching on exposed branches during the day. It often hunts in early evening and will wade into water to catch fish. Particularly partial to hedgehogs when nesting, it will take a wide variety of prey from moths to Great White Egrets, Grey Herons and apparently even Secretary Birds. At Lake Baringo Club the resident family has driven the White-faced Scops Owl from the grounds, having preyed on their chicks. They have also decimated the hotel's domestic cat population, the remaining cats are very cautious. Above all Verreaux's Eagle-Owls are opportunistic feeders which are quite happy scavenging for leftovers. You should watch out for them at lodges that engage in daily crocodile feeding.

Kilima Camp: one of the best safari holidays camp

Kilima Camp

Kilima Camp has a fantastic location overviewing the Masai Mara River and Plains. The intimate eco-lodge is an ideal base to enjoy the real African wildlife experience in comfort and style.

The camp has 12 Standard classic safari tents as well as 2 Deluxe tents which are ideal for honeymooners and families.
The camp manager together with his highly professional team will give you an African experience to remember and can propose several bush activities to make your stay at Kilima Camp even more interesting, enjoyable and rewarding. 
Game viewing is superb all year and the camp is surrounded by wildlife. You will be sure to have memories for a lifetime during our safari game drives and we guarantee you to see amazing wildlife.
Kilima Camp is an intimate eco-lodge with 12 standard tents and 2 Deluxe Tents. Kilima Camp is a friendly safari holidays camp located in the Masai Mara (Maasai Mara) in Kenya. Kilima Camp is an ideal African safari camp and has a perfect location for those who wish to enjoy unforgettable safari holidays in Africa.
Kilima means “mountains or little hill” in Swahili. Kilima Camp is located in Kenya in the Maasai Mara (Maasai Mara) area at 1,800 metres above sea level.
The safari holidays camp is situated on the edge of the Siria escarpment, overlooking the Mara River (1,500 metres) with a phenomenal view, “the Gods’ window”. Hence Kilima Camp has a fantastic location in the Masai Mara (Maasai Mara), bordering the official perimeter of the game reserve.
Surrounded by an abundance of wildlife, Kilima Camp offers a true African adventure in style and comfort, it makes Kilima Camp a perfect safari holidays camp.
Game viewing in the Masai Mara (Maasai Mara), whether by car or on foot, around Kilima Camp is superb all year round. There is no doubt that your safari holidays will be wonderful and unforgettable.
From July to October, Kilima Camp is an ideal safari camp to witness the Great Migration where more than one million wildebeests and zebras cross the Mara River, an event which happens nowhere else in Africa but in the Masai Mara (Maasai Mara). This is a safari holiday of a lifetime!
At Kilima Camp, we do not only strive to offer our guests an unforgettable safari holiday in the African bush in one of the best wildlife areas in the world, but we also want to contribute to the conservation of the Masai Mara Ecosystem as well as to the well-being of the local Masai communities.(Maasai). We are proud to have been rewarded a bronze medal by Ecotourism Kenya.

Problems facing Masai Mara National reserve.

 The completion  of the 87-kilometre Mai Mahiu- Narok road brought some relief, another 96 kilometres to the main gate is in a bad state. Tour drivers said they are forced to divert to people’s farms, a situation which they say have led to conflict between them and the local community.

It is a shame when tourists are blocked by weapon-wielding locals, who are rightfully protesting that tour vehicles are disturbing their livestock and trampling on their pasture,

Vice chairman of the National Tour Drivers and Guides Association Andrew Mungatana and the association’s chief executive Joseph Ole Parpai said the 40-kilometre section of the Narok-Sekenani stretch was almost unmotorable.

Narok and Trans Mara county councils get more than 80 per cent of their revenue from the wild life resort.

The local authorities gain from the reserve by charging gate entries, royalties in the lodges as well as balloon settings and airplane landings. Although Narok County Council announced it had switched to electronic ticketing in a bid to shore up its revenue and seal corruption loopholes.

Tour drivers are asking the government of Kenya to intervene and make sure the road is repaired.

Kenya Airways to Resume Flights

Kenya’s National carrier, Kenya Airways, will resume fights between Nairobi and Abidjan effective May 2 2011.  According to the latest flight schedule published by Kenya Airways, there will be 3 flights every week operating between Nairobi and Abidjan.

Kenya airways, like many other international airlines had to stop their flights on this route due to the crisis that followed the elections in Ivory Coast. The prevailing situation raised major concerns for the security and safety of passengers, crew and even the aircrafts.  At the height of this unrest, the French troops took over the Airport at Abidjan.

 After weeks of various attempts at finding a solution, the situation escalated prompting intervention by the UN and the French.  Gbagbo, the former president was finally captured to make way for the Ouattara, his rival.

ETT- Kenya Safaris Desk

 

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Thomson's(Nyahururu) Falls - Simple but Majestic

Thomson's Falls is a beautiful waterfall at the Ewaso Nyiro River which drains from the Aberdare Mountain Range in Central Kenya. The waterfall is 74 meters (243 feet) high. It is situated near the town Nyahururu in central Kenya; one of the biggest hippo pools of Kenya is located upstream from the falls. It’s possible to view the falls from above, and there’s also a trail down to the bottom of the ravine.

The Thomson’s fall gets its name from Joseph Thomson, a naturalist and geologist from Scotland who discovered it in 1887 when he walked all the way from Mombasa to Lake Victoria.

If you travel from the dust bowl of Nakuru it’s a joy to see the ever changing landscape and vegetation. Tea and coffee plantations merge with the lush forests, colours of Africa fight for attention in your head, around every corner there is another view which makes you want to stop and enjoy. 

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The Carnivore.

Fancy nibbling on a bit of crocodile? Or, perhaps ostrich is more to your taste! Whether you’re meat lover or not, this restaurant just has to be on your itinerary while you’re in Nairobi Situated 4 kilometres from the city centre, The Carnivore opened its doors in September 1980 to instant success. The food, service and atmosphere are strikingly different from anything ever seen in Kenya. It’s just another one of those unique experiences in Kenya that you’re unlikely to get anywhere else in the world!

As soon as you set foot in the door, and enter the low lit, exotic interior you’ll see the massive open fire and tribal spears packed full of meat. If you visit for a lunch time meal, you will be more likely to eat in the restaurant’s beautiful gardens and soak up the fresh air and African sunshine.

You start your meal by indicating to the waiters that you want to try their delicacies! To do this you raise a small flag on your table and throughout the meal, the waiters walk around offering variety different kinds of meat. In the past, the Carnivore was famous for its exotic game meat; however, this isn't allowed anymore due to stricter laws. Farmed crocodile and ostrich is available now, together with a wide variety of conventional meats. Just in case you found the crocodile a little too chewy for your taste! There are plenty of other delicious offerings to temp you. If, meat is definitely not your thing, there is also an excellent selection of vegetarian options available and also a set menu, which also has a good selection of meals.

Carvers will slice the meat directly onto your plate alongside a healthy serving of traditional of salads, veggies and so on. But it doesn’t end there – it’s an all you can eat affair, and carvers will keep offering you their exotic delicacies throughout the meal until you eventually decide to surrender! When you finally do, you can lower the flag to signal your defeat. Until you’re ready for dessert, that is.

The Carnivore offers locals and tourists a great African eating experience, Twice voted amongst the world’s 50 best restaurants by an expert panel in ‘Restaurant ‘ magazine, the Carnivore is described as ‘amazing’

The Carnivore restaurant is only a part of this large conglomerate of entertainment venues. 

Entertainment and nightclub:
In the evening large open air concerts are sometimes held, with local and internationally known performers. These events are able to hold up to 20,000 people!
From Wednesday to Sunday the Carnivore nightclub operates, hosting themed nights to cater for fans of contemporary African music, rock, soul, jazz and the latest hits.

Business travelers & conferences:
For businesses and companies who are looking to host a large gathering, the large 450-seater Simba Salon, is able to organize such events.

Children’s activities:
the Simba Salon is a bar and burger style restaurant found to the side of the main Carnivore restaurant. There’s a fairly large and fun play area for children so they can swing, jump and climb while you relax with a drink!

Other activities 

Next door to this is a popular go-carting track and “Splash” which is a swimming pool with slides, camel rides.

The Carnivore and the Simba Saloon can be combined to create the most spectacular 'gala events like the Carnivore African Experience or Carnival parties for more than 1000 persons where the mood is one of complete fiesta complemented with bands, traditional entertainment, fire eaters, stilt walkers, food streets, or whatever the theme preference may be.

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Mzima Springs - The saviour of the Tsavo

Mzima, The word means “alive.” Yet the life of Kenya’s Mzima Springs is largely born of ash and dung. In the neighboring Chyulu Range stand porous peaks of volcanic ash, whose youngest cones formed about 500 years ago.
Mzima Springs are a series of four natural springs in Tsavo National Park, Kenya. They are located in the west of the Park, around 48km from Mtito Andei one of the most known places in Kenya. 

The source of the springs is a natural reservoir under the Chyulu Hills to the north. The Chyulu range is composed of volcanic lava rock and ash, which is too porous to allow rivers to flow. Instead, rain water percolates through the rock, and may spend 25 years underground before emerging 50 kilometres away at Mzima. The natural filtration process gives rise to Mzima's famously clear stream, which flows through a series of pools and rapids. Two kilometres downstream from the springs, the stream is blocked by a solidified lava flow and disappears below the surface again.

Mzima is one of Tsavo's most popular wildlife attractions owing to its resident populations of hippos and Nile crocodiles. Mzima's isolation makes both species are dependent on its waters: other sources are too distant for them to reach by overland travel. The hippos also sustain an entire food chain. They browse the surrounding savannah by night and return to Mzima's pools by day, where their dung fertilises the water. Fruiting trees such as date and raffia palms, waterberrys and figs grow beside the water, using their submerged roots to absorb nutrients. Their fruits are a source of food for vervet monkeys and a variety of birds. Below the water's surface, the invertebrates which feed on the hippo dung are preyed on by fish and cormorants.

In 2009, a prolonged drought proved catastrophic for Mzima's wildlife. Starving game animals were driven to permanent water sources in their thousands, bringing them into competition with the resident hippos. The grassland surrounding the spring turned to desert and hippos began starving to death. In September 2009, only five remained, down from 70 in 2003 and journalists reported seeing carcasses floating in the pools.

Mzima Springs produces around 190 million litres of water a day and thanks to it the animals of Tsavo are always quenched.

ETT- Kenya safaris Desk

Etton Travel and Tours