Friends

If you have Google Earth and a few minutes, can I ask you a huge favor? Please test the videos on the Masai Mara map!

1. Load the latest Masa Mara file into GE from here: http://www.go-safari.com/Masai%20Mara/masaimarai.htm

2. On the Masai Mara map in Google Earth, find the Musiara Airstrip (near Governor's Camp and doubleclick. You should see the link to the video. Click on that and now you will experience the thrill of coming in to land at Musiara! You fly right over Governors' Main camp! This is the real thing!

3. Now find Little Governors and do the same. The video will take you on a tour of the camp.

4. There are also videos of the Crater Lodge on the NCA map as well as the Hippo Pool inside the Ngorongoro Crater!

Please let me know if you think the quality is bearable as well as the download speed! I'm also trying to see which Media Players work and which don't. Windows Media Player v9 and v10 should work good.

Thanks a bunch! Eben

Eben:
I can find the videos but when I go to open them I get a message from Real Player that it needs to download an update and when I click that I get a message "There is no software update from Real to support this content." Should I be doing something else?

I took a look at the Crater Lodge video and it worked fine for me. I'm using an iBook with Mac OS 10.4.2 and Windows Media Player 9.0. Obviously, I couldn't access the video through Google Earth, so I just went directly to the movie through the website links.

The quality is fine. The transition between clips is a bit abrupt. I downloaded over a broadband connection (via wireless) and the download speed was fine. The movie started up within 10 seconds of downloading.

Eben-

Both videos worked like a charm for me. I just clicked on the link, Windows Media Player v9 opened up, and the video was playing before I knew it.

I am so grateful for the Mara Map. I know that Patty has asked about Kicheche's location before, but do you or anyone else have a sense for where it is relative to the other lodges? Is it even farther out than Mara Safari Club?

-Matt

Matt,
On the map in my Bradt Kenya guide, it shows Kicheche as being somewhat northeast (more east than north) of Mara Safari Club. I don't know how accurate this map is but their other camp locations seem to be correctly placed for the most part when compared with Eben's map.

Eben, all videos work very well with cable and Media Player v.10.00.00.3646 -- Speed and quality are excellent!

Thank you! Thank you!

I will look into the Real Player issue. Windows Media seems to work fine. Now it is up to me to produce better quality videos

I finally got a chance to test the videos. I watched the Il Moran, Crater Lodge and Hippo Pool clips on Windows Media Player v10 and they worked fine. Download speed was quick over a DSL connection.

I downloaded a new copy of your MM file today and couldn't find the links to the Little Governors or Musiara Airstrip video clips. Did you remove them? Actually I couldn't find an airstrip named Musiara near Governors camp.

The video quality is fine. One small suggestion - maybe slow down a bit when you're panning - I got a little dizzy watching some of them

An unrelated question, do you have any information or the location of some of the other Kirurumu seasonal camps besides Loliondo? I noticed on their website they also list Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tamarind, and West Kilimanjaro camps.