Have a great trip Patty! Can't wait for another report. Travel safe and have fun.
Aloha!

Have a wonderful time Patty.

If you are already there, then happy arrival!

I haven't even finished packing yet! Planning to leave for the airport in about 2 hours. Thanks everyone!

Have an absolutely great time. As soon as that first flight takes off, all concerns will be gone.

Kenya Airways just canceled our CDG-NBO flight in the last hour Supposedly we've been protected on CDG-AMS-NBO flights but they can't re-issue our tickets over the phone so we're on our way to the airport right now. The connections are tight so I hope we make it!

What a nightmare! I just spent an hour at the AF check-in counter and no one here can re-issue my ticket because AF in CDG printed the CDG-NBO portion so that part of my ticket is no longer electronic. AF here checked us in for LAX-CDG and tagged our bags to NBO. Somewhere in CDG there's a paper ticket waiting for us which we'll need before we can continue. AF LAX is sending a telex to AF CDG to request that an agent meet us at the gate on arrival. I hope someone is there because I don't have time to run around the airport looking for our tickets! If we miss our flight to AMS, the next flight won't get us there in time to catch the AMS-NBO flight.

We're also taking the NBO-CDG flight on our return and I bet we'll be going through the same fun scenario!

Sorry this is happening Patty!! Hope it all works out and you'll be in Afree-kah as scheduled. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Patty, I'm so sorry you're having trouble with your flights -- hopefully this will be the one rough spot in an otherwise perfect trip!

Enjoy your safari... can't wait to hear about it. Wishing you safe and happy travels.

Thanks, Dennis!

Thanks to you too, MyDogKyle!

The good thing is no one said a thing about my lithium batteries

And now our flight to Paris is delayed

I must be tired! I left my bag with my camera, video camera and GPS right in the gate area as we boarded. Luckily someone must have noticed it and a flight attendant just brought it to us on board. I didn't even realize I left it (where's that embarrassed smiley?).

We're still boarding. I'm pretty sure our first night in Afreekah is turning into a night in AMS

Just click your heels together 3 times while imagining sweet African thoughts and you will get there.

Have a wonderful trip!

I can't believe it! We just boarded the flight from AMS to NBO!!!!

We arrived Paris an hour late and there was no one waiting at the gate for us. We literally sprinted from S3 through passport control, security and to our gate at 2F1 in 15 minutes They hand wrote a ticket for us at the gate and we were the last ones to board. Luckily our aircraft parked at a jetway (vs a remote bus stand) at CDG, we were some of the first passengers off and had access to fast track lanes at both passport control and security. If all of those factors hadn't fallen in place, I doubt we'd be here now.

At AMS, again we ran through the terminal, cleared passport control, picked up our boarding passes and just boarded.

This has been like an episode of the Amazing Race

Good! Now you’ll sleep in Tsavo tomorrow night! As I don’t want to appear ignorant, I will not ask how you can post on Fodors when on a plane.

Hope all is going well for you now Patty, have a GREAT rest of trip - this is going to be some good trip report, I can tell!

I was wondering too, Nyamera.....

Her "berry" - goes where Patty goes!

Aha, a blackberry! I’ve heard about them, but never seen one in real life and wasn’t sure what you used them for. Now I’ll have to google. How much do they cost?

Ah yes, I thought of that about 10 min after I posted, I've never used one though so wasn't sure if they did work 'up there'. But I guess they would, that's where the satelite is.....

Beam me up, Scotty....

pretty sure she only uses the blackberry on the ground

joyce

Patty, I missed this thread but want to wish you and Mark another excellent adventure.

Good for you guys!! I was thinking "Amazing Race" even before you mentioned it...

Hopefully it will all be smooth sailing from here on out.

Rotten luck, Patty, but I'm sure things got better. I've also learned the hard way (en route to NBO) that e-tickets can sometimes be a major hassle!

Cheers from Bangkok,

Jambo from Afreekah!

We arrived yesterday sans luggage (we didn't really expect our bags to make it anyway) but they caught up to us this morning. Had no problem getting cash from the Barclays ATM and Safaricom airtime credit at NBO. Had a nice, relaxing day at Swara and are now on our way to Galdessa. Nothing out of the ordinary on our route except less traffic and lorries than usual on the Mombasa hwy. There's an 80km stretch starting from NBO that has construction going on which is pretty rough going but after that it's fine.

My TO did mention that they would avoid Nakuru/Naivaisha at the moment.

That's all I have to report for now!

BTW the same rules apply to Blackberries as ordinary cell phones in that basically they can only be used when the aircraft is parked on the ground.

Patty

Have a nice trip and hope can hear the latest information from you!

Patty,
You went to Swara! This will be an interesting report.

Hi Patty,

Can you tell me if your blackberry works for email downloads? Are you using the local sim card for the blackberry or roaming with your US network? I'm trying to get the bb/email info so husband doesn't come home to 1,000+ emails after being gone a month!

Thanks and have a great time!

Yes, I have email wherever there is data service and I'm using my US AT&T SIM which has a roaming agreement with Safaricom in Kenya. I had data service in NBO, Swara, all major roads, some areas in Tsavo East but not right at Galdessa or Satao Rock.

Right now I'm on my way to Lion Rock and just passed Voi. Someone asked on another thread about the Tsavo area. Things are quiet and we haven't noticed any tensions in any towns along our route. There was rain before we arrived and it's very green. There is scheduled service to Tsavo West and charter elsewhere for those who don't want to drive but the drives have been fine so far.

We're having a wonderful time. We were the only guests at Galdessa and there was 1 other guest at Satao Rock.

Looking forward to meeting another Fodorite at Ndolwa tomorrow.

Forgot to say happy belated birthday, Nyamera and Leely!

Also anyone booked on KQ CDG flights should be aware that there have been some cancellations (like 2 out of 3 flights) on this route for 3 consecutive weeks now. It seems they're routing pax via AMS but this could lead to possble delays if you misconnect. I fully expect we'll be on flights other than what we booked on our return.

Thanks Patty!

I saw a pangolin this morning! And an aardwolf!

I have data service at Lion Rock.

Pangolin and aardwolf the same morning! Where are the dogs?

Pangolin, pangolin! Hurrah!

And aardwolf too.

Faryl & Zoie saw the dogs but we missed them. Pack of around 16 near Maktau. Look forward to their photos.

Flew to Wilson today, did some shopping in Nairobi, said a quick hello to Serah and are on our way to Sandai right now.

No problems in the city except heavier police presence than usual.

Only 16 dogs? Anyway, I’m green with envy. I suppose Faryl and Zoie are Local2542?

Patty, thanks for being a diligent updater! This is better use than making jam of them. Have a wonderful stay at Sandai!

Everything was fine through the towns enroute to Sandai (Thika, Nyeri, Mweiga, etc).

We saw 2 black rhinos in Aberdare NP today. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along

It started raining heavily and we got stuck at 5:00pm. Got rescued at 7:00pm and went on an hour long unofficial night drive. Saw elephants and 2 spotted hyena. Tomorrow we have to go back and try to get Petra's Land Rover out of the park.

I'm having a blast!

I understand. There's nothing better than being stuck in Kenya.

Glad everything is going well for you Patty! You've had some great sightings, can't wait for the report and pics. How can you forget your camera on a game drive?
Have fun on the rest of your trip!

Dennis, I'm just lucky I still have a camera

The drive back to Nairobi yesterday was uneventful. We had a nice stay with Joyce's SIL in Runda. Went to a play at the International School and had dinner in Village Market.

I can only speak for the places we visited, but if we didn't watch the news, we'd have no idea anything unusual was going on here.

I'm at the airport waiting for our flight to Mahe.

The weather forecast for the Seychelles looks pretty good, I hope you will have a great time snorkeling and enjoying the beautiful scenery of these islands.

Patty, the Seychelles sound like a perfect place for sitting on the beach writing a trip report on your Blackberry!

We're back in NBO. Had a great, relaxing time in the Seychelles.

Our flight from NBO to CDG is canceled (no surprise) but we're rebooked on the KL flight to AMS tonight and then AMS-CDG-LAX.

Patty, wonderful to know that u had a great time in kenya.... good now fodorites should start planning thier trip and not think of cancelling thier trip to kenya...I am tied down with a couple of things...but would have loved to have managed a short vacation to kenya

keep us posted on your experiences in detail

Sonali

Patty, will the report be ready tomorrow?

Good thinking, Sonali!

Hope it was wonderful!

Patty -- I'm glad you had a great time. I can only thank my stars that my NBO-CDG flight on KL was three hours late.

Oops, I meant KQ - Kenya Airways. (My KL flight was right on time.)

Made all of our connections home and arrived LAX Friday afternoon at the same time as originally scheduled. Bags came on a later flight and were delivered yesterday.

Will try to get photos uploaded sometime this week.

Do I still need to write a trip report?

YES you do Patty! Welcome home!

Welcome home! I imagine you'll get a lot of pestering from this board if you don't write a trip report, so you'd better not try to get out of it...

Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Karibu nyumbani! Dennis answered your question and there’s nothing to add.

yes, please, a trip report. welcome back.