Well just reading this baord made me get off my rear and update my web site a little. Not with all the photos, but there is one out there.
www.waynehazle.com/eastafrica/

I put up there the latest edition of the Hazle Journal, this time of course it being my East Africa trip. For those who are interested and have the time (and bandwidth) I would be honored if you could read it and give any feedback. It is still in beta, but I would say 95% complete. You can contact me privately if you would like me to email you a copy instead. It is in PDF format.

Showoff!

Just kidding...what an incredible trip report you have put together, like nothing I have ever seen before. This will provide great reading and given that I leave for Tanzania in 62 days, it is very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Thanks for the great trip report! I especially like the way you've put everything together - interspersing pictures with text.

I'll need to open it from home (where I have a cable modem). We have a T1 in the office and it looks like it will take 10 minutes to open it. 22MB, wow!

Wayne

Have downloaded and printed this off but even before I read it I had to post to let you know this is an incredible effort and looks fantastic. Skimming through has really inspired me to try to go produce my own from our South Africa trip (although I don't have half the DTP skills you must have!). I currently am just typing it up in word but the style of yours adds so much colour and so I hope to read and learn from you.
Once again congratulations and can't wait to read through it in detail.

John

Emailed you for the pdf version - thanks so much for taking the time to share.

Actually, I tried a second time and it opened quickly (a minute or so). I'm am amazed -- that's better than any trip report I have seen on any operator's sight. Its a tremendous achievement and an incredible family treasure. Fantastic!

Michael

Many thanks for sharing the report Wayne - that's a labour of love you've created there!

I enjoyed the images and also reading about both highs and lows. I must admit I think I'd be a little less calm than you were able to be about all the problems with your vehicles - certainly I will avoid this operator when I'm planning our next trip to the region! But it's great that you could mostly focus on the highs of the experience.

BTW it's Daphne Sheldrick not Delphine Sheldrick as per your Nairobi report.

Best wishes to you, Mary Ellen and to your parents.

Kavey

Hey Wayne,

Tell me more about the Naivasha Sopa Resort. Where (on the lake) is it and what's it like?

And which tented camp did you stay at in the mara?

First thing... on the breakdowns... I really don't want to fault AfricaPoint, because their service was so great otherwise and people were wonderful. In fact I would travel with them again tomorrow because I know that they will be superattentive to their vehicles from this point on.

Thanks for the correction on the animal center. Wow, someone is actually reading it

on the Naivasha Sopa, unfortunately we got there late at night & left about 10AM so we didn't get to enjoy it enough.

The big claim to fame at this place is that they are real close to the lake and that the hippos often come out and eat the grass. Your room has a viewing area in front of floor to ceiling windows where you should be able to sit and watch the hippos. I got up several times in the night and those hippos didn't come out at night.

As for the Mara. We stayed at the Ilkena Tented Lodge and it was AWESOME. They whole thing is solar powered so power is on 6-10Am and 6-10PM. Masai guard your tents at night will walk you around.

I woke up the first morning, opened the tent door and saw three giraffes walking on the other side of the river. By the way the camp is right by a river's edge and you can hear hippos in the river at night. Other people told me they heard lions not to far away. It was what I dreamed of in coming to Africa.

I read the whole lot!

I know you're happy with AfricaPoint but my feeling is that the vehicle problems were clearly not an isolated incident occuring to just one of their vehicles - the kind of thing that could be put down to bad luck. Even with the horrendous roads, the impression I'm left with is that they simply aren't investing enough in new vehicles/ maintenance.

But I do take on board that you were happy with their service overall...

I am in the process of reading this journal right now, but I wanted to say that it must have been incredible to share a trip like this with your parents.

And, wow, what an impressive report.

Thanks, Wayne. And congrats to you and the whole family on your excellent adventure.

I haven't had a chance to read your report yet but just wanted to say that the correct name of the Mara camp is Ilkeliani (if it's the same camp where we stayed). I believe ilkeliani is the young apprentice warrior stage for Masai boys before they become ilmorani.

I'm looking forward to reading your report later!

Okay. I'm supposed to be working but I've slowly made it to page 8. I am loving this trip report and can't wait to go home and read it through!

Thanks for posting the link here, Wayne.

Ilkeliani

I had to respond to this because I am laughing my head off in my office. The reason I never could find any info on this place is because I was spelling it WRONG!

When you go to their site http://www.ilkeliani.com/ the music from Out of Africa plays.

Wayne
You are probably thinking - she surely cannot have read it all in that short time - just thought I'd let you know that even my husband thinks I'm some kind of freak for the speed I read and some of my friends actually insist I must be reading only every 10th word!
BTW I really liked the professional layout with the little teaser quotes in coloured boxes (I know there's a name for these but it's slipped my mind) and the clear columns and indexing.

Wayne, I’ve managed to open (it took a looong time) and read your report. It looks very professional and it describes an amazing trip. I had no idea that the Tanzanian Kenya bashing was that bad. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention Tanzania in Kenya. Thanks for sharing.