Adventure Outdoor Gear

A Camping Kenya safari means a tented camp with no fence or wall, and is a much better part of an in Kenya safari than sleeping in a lodge. Of course in a camp with no fence the animals you have come to see, do come into the camp especially at night. Close encounters with an elephant browsing three feet from your tent is what a camping Kenya safari is all about.

As a family our first experience of an in Kenya safari was at the famous Galdessa Camp in Tsavo East. With two small children and apprehensive parents we felt that a fixed camp was going to be about as close to the wilderness as we could cope with, and so in the purest sense of the word it wasn’t a camping Kenya safari, but Galdessa is a camp with no fences or walls. The ‘tents’ were thatched bandas and a great deal more civilized than we expected with electricity, running water, and comfortable beds. Most important of all we were sealed in, zipped up at night with good well fitting mosquito nets.

On he way to Galdessa, and by the way we had our own family vehicle and driver arranged hrough the Manager at Hemingways. He wisely said that for our first in Kenya Safari it was the best way, because we could stop when we wanted and view as long as we wanted, and how right he was.

The few vehicles we saw were mainly like mini buses crammed with tourists, which looked no fun at all.

He aso said that if a luxury african safari was our ideal, then to start at Galdessa would be best, and how right he was again.

On our six hour drive from Malindi we had already seen several giraffes, elephants, but several hundred yards away, a lioness looking for her cubs, and a whole variety of bambi like creatures, water buffalo, and then very close to Galdessa two very large bull elephants, one of whom we passed at about fifteen yards, and exciting that was too.

We hardly passed a vehicle, and whilst our journey was just before the long rains arrived in April, the weather was clear and warm. The rains howver came a few days later, and even overnight this was seen by a considerable rise in the water level in the river due to rain up country.

We duly arrived at Galdess for our first night ever on a Kenya safari, nd were led to our banda, being shown on the way, elephant tracks, lion footprints, and hippo prints as well, all on the path inside the camp. We were told in no uncertain terms that on a camping kenya safari site like Galdessa, we were not under any circumstances, even in daylight to leave our banda unless we were with a member of staff, because of the high chance of an encounter with an animal.

After dark, we had to get into a safari vehicle to go the the dining area, because there was a bull elephant in the camp, and indeed on returning to our banda later by vehicle the bll elephant was browsing outside our back door, an we crept past about 10 feet away to the safety of our tent.

A visiting hippo in the middle of the night, right next to the tent, and the early morning evidence that a lion had been within touching distance of the tent really made our stay at Galdessa.

The food at lunch and dinner was spectacularly good, the views of the river from the central lounge/dining hut was excellent, and the surprisingly hot shower in our ten all adde to make the first night of our first in Kenya safari a memorable one.

Galdessa is a must on any Kenya safari tour, and a definite stop on a luxury african safari.

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Wall tents are much more comfortable than the other tents, and give the impression of being roomier than sloping wall tents, just because the ‘walls’ are straight just affording an additional space for the campers to live in. You don’t have to bend downwards or ward off the tent before lying down, or getting up!

These tents are a little more heavy on the pocket, but when you have a family of three or four, wall tents provide enough space for everyone.

Unlike other tenting, wall tents are for designed for all seasons, and not only for the summer. These tents are designed for all kinds of weather, including severe variations in temperature. A wall tent must be able to provide protection from extremes like rain, snow and high winds outside. It should be able to provide wood cooking, and use heat appliances inside. A stove also indicates that the occupants have a warm atmosphere to sleep in, especially after a stint outside. If you are planning to cook inside the tent, you need to ensure that the tent is made of fire retardant material, not only for the side walls, but also for the flooring. Some of the wall tents come with a small area specially meant for that inside the tent in a corner. Others too come with retractable wall, which allows you to raise the walls a bit so that there is enough ventilation inside.

Just like other tenting equipment wall tents come in different sizes and styles. They do require a little more in having them up and usable, and need a little more poles and pegs to set up. It would be a good idea for you to practice it once or twice before you set out for your first camping trip.

To make your camping trip a good one, you need to have with you good sleeping mats, sleeping bags and lighting, which can be in the form of gas lanterns that could be hung inside the ten. A sleeping cot could be worthwhile because then you would be protected from the elements, the uneven surface and the moisture in the early hours of the morning. These additional equipment are worth it, even though it may add to your costs.

One of the many other advantages that a wall tent has is that you can invite your camping neightbors to your tent for a meal, a drink, or even just to gossip. Of course, you might be thinking that you need a table, but that is not so. A simple large mat, or a combination of floor mats, are enough to make your guests/invitees comfortable. You can even organise a pot-luck lunch or dinner with them! That would make for good camaradrie amongst your fellow campers, and it can be good entertainment not only for yourself, but also for your children. These kind of events help you to make friends, learn from their camping experiences, and probably one of them could also possibly show you some of the sights that might have escaped your attention.

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The first thing you need to do is select the tent that is right for you. This may seem like a simple task, but it is a very important one that will make sure that your tent camping trip is an enjoyable one.

Make sure you pick out a tent that is well made and will stand up to years of use and will stand up to harsh weather conditions in case the weather should turn bad.

The size of the tent should be big enough to hold everyone that will be using it along with your clothing and any other gear you may want to keep in the tent. When the tent manufacturer states that the tent will sleep 4 people, it usually means that it is big enough for 2 people and their gear. It all depends on the level of comfort you would like to have.

Almost everyone when they first start out camping, start out tent camping. Here are some tent camping tips to help you get the most out of your tent camping trip.

Lets face it, if you have ever been camping in the dead of the summer, in a tent, then you know how hot it can be to sleep at night. Yes camping is great fun but, when it is 90 degrees outside at night, it can be hard to sleep with the humidity and the heat. Thankfully there is an alternative to the sweltering sleepless nights. Now you can get air conditioning for camping in a tent.

There are many tents that offer great ventilation, where the tent has many windows; to allow the air to flow freely through the unit. This works well if there is a breeze to cool things off but, what if the air is still and it is humid? Cooling the tent, to make the night comfortable is a breeze. There are many compact air conditioners that can cool the tent for hours, allowing you to have a relaxing nights sleep.

Many have an attractive compact design, which offers a whisper quiet fan with low power usage for an economical alternative to many portable air conditioners; that can cost hundreds of dollars. Some brands are portable such as the KoolerAire, with its 12-volt air conditioner that is not tied down with hoses, pumps or pads. This type of air conditioning for tent camping is very inexpensive making it affordable for most any camper.

When challenged with the task to beat the heat while tent camping, you have two options: evaporating cooling systems and air conditioning units. Most air conditioners for tent camping, remove moisture which is a common choice in the areas of the country that have a high humidity. A refrigerant model will cool room temperature in a tent by 30 to 40 degrees. When cooling a tent, you will want to follow a common rule of thumb: one ton of cooling (or 12,000 BTU) for every 25 to 150 square feet of space.

Here are some other factors that you may want to consider when making your choice for a tent camping air conditioner, in addition to the square footage of the tent to be cooled: where will the tent be placed, what time of year will you be camping and what time of the day will you be spending in the tent. For example, if you are camping in the middle of August on an asphalt parking lot, in between two buildings, you will need more cooling units then if you were camping on a grassy clearing in the evening in May. Full stand up tents can make a difference, as well as there is more room to cool, verses the tents that are shorter.

The second option for air conditioners for tent camping is the Evaporative cooling systems, which blow out a cool mist that will evaporate when it hits hot skin. These type of cooling units use ice to cool the air and they can put out more air then the typical air conditioners at a distance of 60 to 80 feet. This alone makes this a very cost effective unit to have. They are very inexpensive to use as they require less units to cool an area. These types of air conditioners can lower the room temperature, at best, down 10 to 15 degrees.

Camping in tent is a great way to get back to basics, but you dont have to suffer in the heat as well. Investing in an inexpensive air conditioner can make a world of difference for you and your family when camping. Just imagine being able to go back to the nice cooled off tent after a day of hiking and playing in the great out doors. You will feel more refreshed after a good night sleep and be ready to take on the next adventure.

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If you are looking for a delightful and adventurous way to spend your vacations in Kenya, it would be fun to choose tented camping sites which are pitched on specific grounds with nice scenic views of grasslands and mountaneous ranges. You will watch game streaming around watering holes at night as you enjoy Lavish dinner and entertainment. There are several tented campsites scattered all over the game reserves and parks, along rivers, cliffs, hills and mountain tops. These tented camps have good beds, bathrooms and shower blocks, while others are so luxurious they will offer furniture, hot showers, and Beds rivilling only a five star hotel. I wish to list here the various places you can enjoy the comfort of tented camps. My list may not be exhaustive but it can serve as a guide to those who would wish to live in tented camps while on vacation in Kenya.

The Amboseli National Park has tented camps and cottages where you can have un-interrupted view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The wildlife are kept off by a fence running around the camp site, making it safe to watch game and walk around in the night. These tented camps are a complete contrast to the more luxurious cottages at the Amboseli Lodge, Tortilis Camp, Amboseli Serena Lodge and the Ol Tukai Lodge Where you will be treated to well kept gardens, wonderful views of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Swimming pools and enough amenities making your stay very comfortable and spiritually rewarding. But of course if you are traveling on a budget, you could try the Namanga River Hotel, Campi ya Kazi, or the Nyati Safari camp, all with nice tented camps erected under acacia trees, giving you the advantage of the nice scenic view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The Tsavo National Park offers a wide range of wild life and birds within the dense vegetation, swamps, remarkable rolling hills, volcanic caves and huge rocks. Here you will find tented camps with basic amenities like running water, bathrooms, mosquito nets, bedding and toilet facilities. Unlike in the Amboseli, one will have to make arrangement for lunch and dinner at nearby lodges and hotels. However a few of them have luxurious tented camps but are a bit more costly to rent. There are good places where you can arrange for tented camps like the Severin Safari Camp in Mombasa, the Voyager Safari Camp at the Zimani Gate, the Finch Hatton’s Safari Camp lacated on the western side of the Tsavo National Park and the Satao Camp on the banks of the Voi River

This list would not be complete without reference to the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. This town is home to the Simba Hills National park where you can watch elephants, antelopes and zebras grazing on the grasslands, the sandy beaches of Malindi, the Watamu marine National Park and the age old Lamu town. You are sure to be treated to the best tented camps at the Makurumuji Tented Camping site at the Simba hills National Park, the Shompole Camping site on Lake Magadi which offers a Jacuzzi to keep you cool From the warm breezes.

One thing about tented camping sites is the amount of backpacking one has to carry, which is a little cumbersome but this should not undermine the benefits that accrue from tented camping sites. You will definitely be able to save lots of money that you can invest in many ways like either in eating at a five star or shopping for yourself antique Masai Lingerie, traditional artifacts and the like. It should also be important to appreciate the fact that life at tented camping sites teaches you and makes you self-dependent. Its very interesting to see men and women who do not do any household work at all cleaning plates while in camping sites.

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A Kenya safari should include stays at lodges and tented camps, and one place you should consider is Ol Kanjau Tented Camp adjacent to Amboseli National Park.

Ol Kanjau is very close to Mount Kilimanjaro and around this area in Amboseli National Park are a growing number of elephant, so much so there are now 52 known matriarchal families and over 1000 elephants.

To reach Ol Kanjau you can fly in to Amboseli by schedule flights every day, or by private charter to Lilimanjaro Buffalo Airstrip. It is a four hour drive from Nairobi or two hours from the Tanzanian border.

A Kenya safari isn’t just about seeing game it should also be about the culture of the local tribes, and one of the great things about Ol Kanjau Camp is that you get the opportunity to visit nearby Maasai Settlements and understand their culture. The large area of bush around the camp is owned by the Kisongo Maasai pastoralists, and they receive a direct benefit from your stay at Ol Kanjau.

At Ol Kanjau you will learn a great deal about the animals themselves particularly the elephants, their habits and movements to build up a far bigger picture of what makes them tick. Even more than that, Ol Kanjau is known as the Camp of the Elephant and you will be given a unique opportunity for a close encounter with some of these utterly magnificent animals, and even an introduction to several of the families and this is something you will never forget.

Ol Kanjau is a very traditional camp consisting of six very spacious twin tents made of lightweight pale brown canvas with large and very comfortable beds. The bathrooms are safari style with hot bucket showers, with ample hot water whenever you need it. The tents also include a dressing table and somewhere to hang your clothes.

Privacy is taken care of by the positioning of the tents, and because there is of course no electricity lanterns are used at night to light the tents and this creates a really old fashioned romantic Kenya safari feel to the place.

The fact that there are only six tents of course means there are never more than twelve guests, and so the attention at all times is very personal.

Everything at Ol Kanjau is kept as simple as possible which only adds to the wilderness feel. You can sit out at night around the fire and count the stars unspoiled by pollution, and listen to to the wildlife of Kenya as it goes about its business.

In the middle of the camp is the tent which acts as the dining area, and included with your three course meals are freshly baked breads. Accommodation naturally enough is full board to include soft drinks beer and wine.

Ol Kanjau is described as a mobile tented safari camp, and this is because the tents are tents and not a permanent structure. In this way your Kenya safari is somehow much closer to the natural world than a permanent lodge, and because of that the quality and quantity of the game is much much better because there is so much less disturbance to their way of life. You will also discover almost immediately that the pace of life here is totally unhurried but the access to game viewing is almost unsurpassed anywhere else. You will meet few if any other people, but lots of animals, and that surely is what a Kenya safari should be all about, so Ol Kanjau succeeds totally in this respect.

For more information on In Kenya safaris go to http://www.in-kenyasafari.com/pages/Site-Map.html

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