African Safari Vacation

Renowned for being the best safari destination, East Africa has proven to hold the most remarkable wildlife in the world with most of the parks being named world heritage sites. Out of the numerous parks found in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, 5 stand out from the rest and they include: Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Amboseli National Park, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and the Impenetrable Bwindi National park. Read the rest of this entry »

Measuring 8,288km2 Ngorongoro conservation area comprises Ngorongoro crater, Olduvai Gorge, and huge expanses of highland plains, scrub bush, water falls and mountain forests. The area was originally part of the Serengeti National Park during its first gazzettment by the British in 1951 but continued conflict between the Maasai who were still living in the park and the park authorities over land use led to the creation of the Ngorongoro conservation area in 1959 where both wildlife and human co-exist beautifully. Read the rest of this entry »

Updates on British Airways, Kenya Airways, Precision Air and Delta

British Airways will two more flights between London and Entebbe
Starting in late 2009 BA will add later in the year two more weekly flights between London Heathrow and Entebbe to a total of 5 connections each week. Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the big five, elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard, the symbols of the country’s wildlife diversity, could soon be gone. Data from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) shows the population of four of the big five has reduced to a trifle, down from hundreds of thousands back in the 1960s.

According to KWS Kenya had more than 20,000 African lions in 1963. It dropped to 2,749 in 2002 and stood at 1,970 last year, showing the danger facing the proverbial king of the jungle.

The African elephant is also not safe. Their number stood at 167,000 in 1963 before dropping to an all-time low of 16,000 in 1989. It now stands at 32,000.

Black rhinos too have declined drastically. Their population stood at about 20,000 in 1970 but had reduced to 391 in 1997. Today the number stands at 603. Leopards have not been spared either and are today reeling from the devastation of the 1980s and 1990s, when they were widely poached for their valuable skin and body parts.

Kenya has also been famed as a haven for cheetahs and wild dogs, which roamed the bushland in tens of thousands in the 1980s. But today, according to KWS, there are only 1,160 cheetahs and 800 wild dogs.

And that is not all. Various antelopes are also walking the extinction line. The KWS data shows the country has only 100 roan antelopes, which are confined at Ruma National Park in Nyanza Province. The number has dropped from more than 20,000 in the 1980s. Sable antelopes have also been reduced from 10,000 in the same period to less than 200 today, while the population of the Hirola antelope has fallen from 14,000 in 1970 to 600 today. Sable antelopes are now only found at Shimba Hills while the Hirola are almost exclusively found in Ijara District. The Grevy’s Zebra, only found in Kenya and Ethiopia, could soon be rendered extinct.

Human encroachment in wildlife areas and poaching are to blame for this development. KWS blames the upsurge in poaching on the recent partial lifting of ivory trade that allowed South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to sell their ivory to Japan and China in 2007.

Murchison Falls National Park, in Uganda, East Africa has the magnificent Murchison Falls that have rendered many a tourist breathless when they catch sight of the stunning Falls. At Murchison Falls is where the world’s longest river – River Nile - explodes violently through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment to plunge into a frothing pool 122 metres below. Read the rest of this entry »