Announcement: New Park Fees
Unveiled
News: Nairobi-Atlanta
Flights to Start
Natural History: Teaching a Baby
Giraffe to Suckle
Last Word: Barack Obama - A Kenyan
Perspective
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SAFARI IN 2009
New Park Fees Take Effect
The Kenya
Wildlife Service, the national body managing Kenya's national parks and some
reserves, will effect new park entrance fees starting January 2009. The revised
fees were slated for July 2008 but the service put them on hold after recession
hit the industry due to post election crisis early 2008.
Among the
highlights is slightly new fragmentation that puts Lake Nakuru
and Amboseli in one "Premium" category whose new entrance is 60 USD per person
per day. Aberdares, Tsavo East and West, Meru, Chyulu Hills and Kora now fall
under "Wilderness" category at 40 USD. "Scenic and Special Interest" category
covers Hell's Gate, Mt Elgon, Shimba Hills, Arabuko Sokoke, Tana Primate and Kakamega Forest with entrance fee at 25 USD. Nairobi National Park falls alone under "Urban"
category whose entrance fee is 40 USD.
Another
highlight is granting nationals of Rwanda
and Burundi
citizen status with respect to park entrance fees in the spirit of East African
Cooperation.
The KWS has
promised to invest more in infrastructures in the national parks to improve
visitor experience
The Editor hopes KWS, as a first priority, will
upgrade all the toilets at the national park gates and campsites into
internationally accepted standard of clean washrooms with flush loos.
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Travel Quote "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for
travel's sake. The great affair is to move."
Robert Louis
Stevenson (Scottish Author, 1850-1894)
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SNAP SHOT
Breeding Like Rabbits
South
Africa's Robben
Island closed for two
weeks last month to facilitate culling of rabbits which have reportedly overrun
the historical isle. This is the place where South Africa's first popularly
elected President and world's most famous political prisoner and global icon,
Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned for 18 years under the apartheid rule.
The rabbits are
said to be so numerous that they "threaten to permanently damage the islands
sensitive vegetation, and poses a serious threat to other fauna species" said
an official of the Robben
Island Museum.
The island is World heritage Site and one of the country's most famous tourist
attractions.
Who coined the term:
breeding like rabbits!!
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Did Darwin Receive Apology from Church?
The Church of
England has conceded that it was over- defensive and over-emotional in
dismissing Darwin's
theory of evolution. This coming nearly 150 years after Darwin published his most famous work "Origin
of Species by Natural Selection" was very earthshaking to the church that still
believe in creationism and still find evolution principles completely
antagonistic to Christian faith.
The apology was
written by the rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the church's director of mission and
public affairs who said that in their response to Darwin's theory, Christians repeated the
mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy in 17th Century. Reads the
apology:
Making Amends
"Charles Darwin:
200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for
misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging
others to misunderstand you still. We try to practices the old virtues of
"faith and understanding" and hope that makes amends"
Your lazy editor was unable to confirm whether indeed this
posthumous apology was officially given by the church.
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HOTEL NEWS
Global Honours for Mara Safari Club
Readers of
Travel + Leisure magazine have voted for the 13th Annual World's Best Awards. Fairmont's Mara Safari
Club in Maasai Mara was ranked third overall for hotels worldwide. The Mount
Kenya Safari Club in Mount Kenya and The Norfolk in Nairobi
were also included in the Top 25 Hotels listing for Africa and the Middle East.
Fairview Leads the Herd
Trip Advisor, a
site that receives over 10,000,000 travellers' reviews & opinions of hotels
and vacations worldwide, has ranked the Fairview Hotel as one of the most
popular hotels in Nairobi. Read more
Porini Wins Responsible Tourism Award
Porini Camps won
an international conservation award in London
at the World Travel market last month. The exclusive and prestigious camps were
singled out for their support for conservation of endangered species and
protected areas and ensuring their enterprise benefits the local Maasai
communities.
Karen Blixen "Stirs" the Scene
Karen Blixen Camp, one of the newest luxury properties in
the Maasai Mara is already getting noticed internationally and The Good Safari Guide, 2008 has
nominated the camp among the "Best
New Safari Property in Africa" - runners up and "Best Safari Property
in Eastern Africa."
Congratulations to
all facilities that continue to fly the Kenyan flag in hospitality and
excellence.
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Funny Quote
"A
diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers
her age."
Robert Frost (American
poet, 1874-1963)
Look
out for more funny quotes in chitchat page of our forthcoming new-look website.
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NEWS WATCH
Delta Air Lines Launches Nairobi
- Atlanta Services
Delta Air Lines
- the only major U.S.
carrier to operate scheduled services to Africa - has announced it will launch
direct flights between Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport
and Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International
Airport with effect from
3 June 2009. The four-times weekly flight will be the only service to the
United States from Kenya operated by a U.S. carrier and will offer passengers
convenient connections via Delta's Atlanta hub to around 150 business and
leisure destinations throughout the United States including Washington, Boston,
Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, as well as destinations throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean.
Convenience for Tourists
Speaking about
the new service, Bobby Bryan, Delta's commercial manager for West and East Africa said: "We are excited to pioneer new routes
that expand our global reach and add convenience to the lives of our
customers. The new direct service will offer many important travel
options for business and leisure travellers, thanks to the convenience of
Delta's connections via Atlanta and will also
serve to increase commercial ties between Kenya
and the United States by
providing a convenient travel option for the thousands of American tourists
wanting to discover the beauty of Kenya each year..."
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Elephant Census in Northern
Kenya
Northern
Kenya's expansive rangeland has reportedly recorded a 5% rise in
elephant population in the last 4 years according to census survey released
last week by Kenya Wildlife Service. The 28,000 square kilometre ecosystem
covers Laikipia, Samburu and Isiolo.
The survey was
conducted in the first week of December and covered the area between Solio
Ranch to the south and Marsabit and Lake Turkana
to the north. The KWS report hails community ranches fro playing a critical
role in conservation of wildlife in the country especially for maintaining
viability of populations in national parks.
Also counted in
the same survey was the unique Gravy's Zebra whose range is highly confined to
the Northern Kenya. Its population now stands
at about 2,600 from the previous 2000 three years ago.
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Ivory Sales
Southern Africa
countries last week auctioned more than 100 tones of ivory to buyers in China and Japan. This is the first officially
sanctioned sale of ivory for more than a decade after the countries
successfully lobbied CITES in the last conference of parties to sell off the
stockpiles to raise money for conservation.
Conservative
environmentalists in conjunction with mainstream conservation agencies in East Africa have always fiercely contested against any
legal sale of ivory. They insist that such sales encourage poachers elsewhere
in Africa to kill elephants for ivory which
can then be fed into the legal market. Indeed this argument has always carried
the day at the CITES meetings thanks to powerful lobbying by giant animal
rights bodies who mostly underwrite conservation programs in Kenya.
It was an
interesting coincidence that Kenyan authorities reported poaching incidents
just prior to this sale and naturally attributed it to the ivory sales in South Africa.
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SAFARI BOOKINGS
Revised Website
We wish to inform our readers that we are soon unveiling a new website.
Look out for 2009 safaris, sign up for free post cards and order for African
crafts from any part of the world. Coming soon.
Easter Holidays 2009
If you are already planning your 2009 Holidays, you are most welcome to Kenya during
the Green Season - April - June. We offer great discounts on all our Lodge
Safaris in Kenya and Tanzania.
Drop us a note: info@menengaiholidays.com
Weekend Packages
Contact us for great ideas and weekend safari and family outings to Ol
Donyo Sabuk, Nairobi National Park, Nakuru National Park,
Hell's Gate and private sanctuaries and campsites across the country.
Include articles on topics of interest to your readers, relevant news and events. If you find an interesting article on the Web, you can easily ask the author's permission to summarize the article and link to it from your newsletter. Drive traffic to your website by entering teaser text for the article with a link to your website for readers to view the full text.
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CHIT CHAT
Is Lamu the Place Time Forgot?
"With ancient
dhows fishing offshore, an absence of cars, and astoundingly vast and empty
beaches, the Indian Ocean port
of Lamu seems a bit like
The Land That Time Forgot. But it wasn't until my daughter, Lissa, rode a
donkey down the main thoroughfare that we truly appreciated the enchantingly
weird charm of the place..."
Say Steve
Goldstein, our past customer and Editorial Director at Conservation
International in the US,
in a recent article entitled "Laid-Back in Lamu" in Philadelphia Inquirer
Read this
thrilling article - click here
Any reader or
customer with a post-safari story is invited to contribute to this safari
memoirs column of "chit chat," a new interactive page soon coming on our new
look website. |
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NATURAL HISTORY
Teaching a Baby Giraffe Old Tricks
In the previous
edition, we focused on the giraffe - the tallest animal that confidently graces
African savannas which is a subject of several myths and mysteries.
An interesting
giraffe story has sprung out from the unexpected quarters. A baby calf was born
last week at Kristian and Dyre Park in South Norway
but lacks interest, any interest that is, in mother's milk. Handlers finally
managed to feed the week-old calve from a bottle - by ramming the bottle down
its neck!
Public Appeal
So desperate was
the park authorities to entice the giraffe to its mother's milk that a local
newspaper called for public suggestions. But, judging from the response, one
can easily deduce there are not many giraffe experts in that part of the world.
Sample these suggestions:
Smear the
mother's teats with honey;
Pour half a
litre of cooking oil down the baby's throat - a farmer said that this works
with new-born calves whose digestive systems are blocked;
Try to get it
suck the finger of one of the park staff to get it used to the idea;
Put a TV screen
in the pen showing films of other young giraffes eating
Zoo Keepers Sleeping on the Job?
In response to
the story in Reuter's website, a reader sums it up: "many zoos bottle feed
babies. I say let the zookeepers earn their pay. They brought this animal into
the world and they are responsible for it".
Well we find it
a pity that no help is forthcoming from the tropics where ecologists and
wildlife vets would be expected to shed more scientific insight.
Why Save "Wayward" Genes?
However in the
editor's view this is great abnormality since "interest" in a mother's milk
should be a natural instinct and no tricks are required to ignite it. This
gives rise to this philosophical question: Is it worth saving such an animal
which cannot do the most basic of life's instincts; that is to be alive? Are
such genes worth the effort or should they not be allowed to just perish? A
proverb in Kikuyu language roughly translates: "a calf that refuses the mother
never survives." We doubt if this one will.
Tell us your
views.
Share with us
further observations and comments about the giraffes:
info@menengaiholidays.com
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LAST WORD
The Obama Sensation
After one of the
longest campaigns in US history, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, son of a Kenyan father, was elected to the white
house as America's 44th President. He effectively made history as the first
African-American president since the US won independence 232 years ago.
There is so much
news about the new president and the hope and expectations of American people
and the world, it would be superfluous to pretend to "report" anything to our
readers.
Kenyan Perspective
Suffice to say
there was extravagant jubilation over Obama's victory here in Kenya, thanks
to his ancestral linkage with us.
But as always
the "unofficial side" of important events tends to be more hilarious and
Obama's election was no different. The President elect's paternal roots are in Western Kenya's hitherto insignificant village called
Kogelo in Siaya District.
To start with,
within hours of Obama's victory announcement, Kogelo village and specifically
the home of Mama Sarah, Obama's grand mother, had electricity connections and the
road gravelled. It was not clear for whom this was done - for Obama or her
grandmother - and why it was done now. These are some of the foolish ironies of
poor governance in Africa. So if there were
resources to extend such services to Kogelo and environs why did it have to
wait for an American election?
But that is
beside the point. While the whole of Kenya
celebrated Obama's victory, the particular community where Obama senior hailed
was even more excited judging from celebrations in Kisumu city and Nairobi's Langata
constituency. So naturally there are
several jokes doing the rounds some quite entertaining.
Excuse me, its Luo-American
For instance it
is said the Luo community are unhappy with reference to Obama as
Africa-American. The correct term, they say should be Luo -American. The Luo, famous
for their flamboyance and intellect, want to make it clear that Obama's roots
are not just African; not just Kenyan but Luo. Though they don't say!!
Also posters and
calendars immediately flooded the streets from the mills of enterprising
publishers cashing in on Obama sensation. The ones appealing most in Kisumu
have Obama's picture with the slogan: "from Kisumu to President of United
States." But a finer version immediately sprung up: "From UK to USA". UK in this case refers to United
Kisumu, as Luos have always petted their flagship city.
Following more
on this, its now joked in Kenya
that US embassy in Nairobi will soon be staffed by Luo security personnel and
that Luos will no longer require visas to visit America. How hilarious!
And finally...
Just before the
elections, American comedian Chris Rock was interviewed by a local infotainment
program. Asked who he thought would win the US presidency, he unhesitatingly
answered it was Obama. "Why do you think he will win" asked the interviewer, to
which Rock replied:
"This guy is
from Kenya.
Have you ever run a race with a Kenyan and won?"
Ahaa....
We dare ask: Could Barack Obama be Kenya's best
export product?
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Who Said So?
"...Nothing costs more than that which
we are given"
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