HildeV

I would like to know if anyone has experience with visiting Diani Beach (4 nights)and Tsavo East and West(2 nights at Voi) at the end of november - beginning of december.

I'll be guiding a group of first time Africa visitors and would like to know what to expect regarding weather and animals .

Any tips to visit something unique with a group of 40 people ???
Maybe some primary school, a farm...

thank you.

sandi

November into beginning December is the short rain season... something to keep in mind. But temps are mild as are the evenings and mornings. Rates are low at most places and less tourists.

kerikeri

i was just there in august, but if you say what type of group, i could be more helpful?

students?

children?

adults?

mixed?

HildeV

the group conxists of all adults (40 - 60 y)
I know about the short rains, but how much will these affect a safari in Tsavo?
Did anyone yet take the eco Colobus tour at the Colobus trust (cottage?) at Diani Beach?
Is Shimba Hills worth a visit?
Fort Jezus and sailing a dhow might be the obvious excursions, but are there any less known places that are worth while a visit?

HildeV

any information on Tsavo November-December?

kimburu

I looked into this a while ago (including asking the same question here) and believe that it is probably the worst time to be in Tsavo because November tends to be the main rains there - "short" or not - and so the animals will move away from the river and the waterholes. They are still there or nearby but it will be more difficult to find them (it's a big place). My impression is that this applies particularly to Tsavo East which is the drier half.

I don't have any reliable information apart from that but Patty went to Tsavo West in November once and seemed to enjoy it very much, so don't be too down about it. I'm sure you would see animals; just if you had a choice those months would be 11 and 12 on the months to visit Tsavo East.

I also believe that Tasvo East can get quite boggy in the rains, so if it is a good year (for the animals and farmers, not the tourists) it may be a very "interesting" experience. However, Voi is road (apparently very BAD road) all the way...but if you mean Voi Safari Lodge that is probably the worst bet in those months because it is a game viewing lodge next to a permanent waterhole and most of the animals simply won't bother coming if there is lots of water elsewhere.

Having said all that it's a very arid area and it may not rain much at all this year, meaning that it would be a great time to visit. A risk.

My suggestion, if you are flying into Nairobi and only want to do two days (boo..hiss) would be to travel to Lake Nakuru National Park (which is small and fenced)or try one of the salt lick lodges (the Ark or Serena Mountain Lodge) because they are in high rainfall areas and so the animals actually tend to come down from the mountains to where the lodges are in the wet (not in a great migration unfortunately, but at least they're coming towards you rather than going away) and the salt licks are a year-round attraction.

For the info on the more "touristy" beach areas and day trips from there Tripadvisor.com's forum may be a better place to ask. I've noticed that there are a lot of similar questions there.

Patty

Correction, I was in Tsavo West in February. You're getting my trips mixed up, Paul!

I agree that the Tripadvisor forum would be a good place to post this. The majority of the posters there take beach holidays in Kenya and do day trips and short safaris (usually to Tsavo East/West and Amboseli) from the coast.

Nyamera

Hi Hilde,
I've been to Shimba Hills and it's worth visiting, but I'd rather spend another day in Tsavo. Though, as Kimburu says, the animals in Tsavo tend to do a disappearing act when it rains. As my stay was unplanned and I wasn't left alone to plan while there I missed the Colobus Trust when in Diani. Though I saw colobus monkey swishing through the trees surrounding the pool at the hotel where I was staying and the morning I was leaving I saw a mother with a small completely white baby.

HildeV

thank you for the replies.
I guess I will have to take it as it comes.
I am only guiding (in the meaning of accompanying) a group on an incentive holiday.
I know 25nov - 5dec won't be the best time of yeart to visit Tsavo, I was wondering how much the rain would affect seeing the animals . What animals to expect except from buffalo and elephant. Are cheetah often seen in Tsavo?
We will be doing a 3 day/ 2 night trip.
Staying both nights at the Voi Safari Lodge.
1st day : driving up to Tsavo from Mombasa . Safari in Tsavo East
2nd day : driving through Taita Hills, safari in Tsavo West, sleeping in Voi safari Lodge
3rd day : morning game drive, then heading back to Momabasa South.

One positive thing about visiting the Mombasa area that time of year :
the Whale Sharks will (or might) be around, so I think I will try to go snorkeling with them.

Patty

We saw 4 cheetah cubs in Tsavo West but I don't believe cheetahs are a common sighting there.

Nyamera

I saw one cheetah and at a distance in Tsavo East in June 2004. Apart from big herds of elephants and buffaloes I saw lion, grant's, gerenuk, fringed-eared oryx, zebra, fleeting glimpses of lesser kudu, waterbuck, impala, yellow baboon, hartebeest, jackal, giraffe, dik-dik, eland and others.

In March Tuskerdave saw almost no animals at all in Tsavo East.

Does “incentive holiday” mean that the company you're working for is paying the trip? In that case I'm speechless.

HildeV

Nyamera,

yes, the company is paying my whole trip!
Just by being enthousiastic about travelling to Africa and telling about that made the travel agent decide he wanted me as a 'guide'.
I'm thrilled to finally be able to travel to Africa and even being payed for it (only tips)!

Nyamera

Why do things like that never happen to me?

kimburu

You have to offer yourself to travel agents Nyamera. The travel agents put together packages to offer to companies as incentive trips for their managment or "top performers". A lot of travel agants put together proposals and if you can find a travel agent who wants to propose a Kenya incentive trip but doesn't have the personal experience to do it, you can offer to help put it together (it needs to be both as attractive and as competitively priced as possible so you may need to be slightly economical with the truth... like don't mention that November is the worst time to go to Tsavo) provided they will let you get the "free spot" on the trip if their proposal is the "winning" one. Any travel agent can do it and has a chance of winning, so there is an opportunity for an "africa consultant" here - especially one who is willing to work only for the possibility of getting that "free" place.

kimburu

And oops, Patty! quot;>

Nyamera

Interesting idea Kimburu. I'd need a lot of preparation before walking into the office of a travel agent to make a proposal. “Top performers” sounds like people who would be Arielle style travellers, but it would certainly be worth it anyway.

HildeV

Nyamera,

This is how it worked for me :
I'm taking these evening courses to become a 'travel agent'. (I'm 43y old). Mostly the destinations we have to learn about are within Europe, I live in Belgium. Not that interesting to me.
One of the teachers is that travel agent who offered me the job. He knows how passionate I am about Africa. So now he is offering me this 'job' so I can proove that I am worth his trust in me.
So maybe , once a year I can get a 'free' trip to Africa guiding a group (my group now will consist of 75 people !!).
Maybe you should try it too !
If it worked for me, ...

kimburu

You only need to do the proposal on paper when they want it and be clearly enthusiastic beforehand - like Hilde said. You'd be looking at the lower end of the market where they'd be impressed rather than scared that you didn't need to be paid. And I think there they will mostly be high-flying insurance and secondhand car sales people and the like, rather than the high-flyers who you had in mind.

Keep it in mind.... I'll think of another scheme soon

Have you made any progress on the hero front?

Nyamera

Hilde, I’d take evening courses to become a travel agent. The problem is that even if I spent the entire course talking about Kenya, if an opportunity arose it would be given to someone not even participating in the course that happened to mention a desire to see a zebra in the wild. Not to mention what would happen with real job opportunities that would allow me to do my own trips without insurance and second-hand car sales people. At least, that’s been my experience of how things work. I’ve actually asked a “business advisor” about starting my own Kenya travel business, but he said I’d need a lot of money to do that. And he didn’t have any useful advice for the “curio business” I already have either.

Kimburu, I’m looking forward to your next scheme and I’ve been looking at Muindi Mbingu for a possible hero. I don’t know how he dressed though.

kimburu

Hmm..I'll look into that Nyamers. Thank you.

You are so cynical about opportunitites though - I would blame your business advisor for the gloomy outlook rather than your ideas. You need some blind Asian business optimism. ;-) I know you will soon be nearly without sunlight and everyone will secretly want to kill their neighbour, or sleep with them (.. or both int he worst cases) and this seems like the perfect time to start talking to Swedes about herds of antelope on wide open plains in bright sunlight.. preferably while they are still shivering from scraping the ice from their car windows or from teh shock of their murderous urges... or is it only me who gets like that druing those long winters?