Kenia 2012

 

 

Our holiday in 2012 took us to Kenia...

This time we spent two weeks at a very remote hotel further down from Diani beach, directly at the boarder to Tansania. 

After first week we spend some nights at the Amboseli National Park, which was a remarkable experience!!!

 

The Sands at Chale Island:

We have selected a small and cozy hotel far down in Kenias south part, close to Tanzania already.
The hotel is called "The Sands at Chale Island".
A hotel with 60 rooms, located on a small island close to the Kenia cost, hosting Kenias first water bungalows.
The hotel is very nice, operated by an Italian hotel chain, guests are therefore mainly coming from Italy, but also all other nations from central Europe can be fund there.
The hotel itself was opened in 2006, the rooms, especially the superior bandas with direct view on the Indian Ocean are big and comfortable.
If you come the hotel you should know that despite the hotel being a four star hotels there is no TV in every room category and the hotel needs to switch down the power supply during the day (electricity comes from generators). However, minibar, split AC, looker and safe (at the lobby) is available. Have a look at the pictures that we are posting on our Gallery page to get a feeling about the island and the hotel.
In any case, if you are looking for relaxed holidays on Kenias coasts. not too much of disturbance from the local salesman’s (being very active on Diani and Galu Beach) and nice places for snorkeling and diving The Sands at Chale Island is the place to go....
Thanks to all the people working at The Sands, you guys made our stay

 

Diving:

Perfect diving, not more to be added. Eric as instructor and the Diving the Crab team down there makes the day... The dive spots close to Chale Island are so very much better than all dive spots I have seen close to Diani or Galu beach (also south coast, but closer to Mombasa). Visibility was astonishing for Kenia, some days close to diving in the Red Sea. Unfortunately there are not that many fishes to be found in Kenia anymore, especially the chances to spot Wale Sharks, Manta Rays, Turtles or Dolphins are very much less than back in 2007 or 2008. It looks like the water is getting colder and the plankton is moving more towards the south, and the big fishes are about to follow.
However, reefs and corals are nice in the far south of Kenia, worthwile doing some dives there....
Have a look at the pictures we where shooting during our stay there and get your own impression...

PS: During your stay at Chale Island there are good chances to see turtles at the beach... During our two weeks of stay there was once a female turtle active at the hotel beach digging some holes for laying down the eggs and during one night and morning (unfortunately we could not see that) baby turtles hatched out of the eggs... During there way to the ocean they where supported and protected (from the crabs) by Eric and Marco...

 

Information about our Amboseli Safari:

We also took the chance to go on safari.
Hence we wanted to see Mount Kilimanjaro we decided to go to Amboseli National Park, in fact not to go but to fly...
We took a one hour flight with a small turboprop aircraft from Diani Airfiled right into Amboseli National Park. Over there we where picked up by George, a Masai who was driving us around during the following three days...
The safari and the game drives there are quite nice, if you want to meet friendly elephants (by the way, the also come close to the water hole of the camp where we stayed, giraffes, buffalos, zebras, gazelles, hippos and other nice animals Amboseli National Park is a place to go... During dry time it might get a bid dusty there, but all in all it is very nice and climate and temperature is very comfortable. There are lions and cheetahs to see as well, but they are very rare. Unfortunately there are no more rhinos is the park. Hence the where shot down all the rhinos that were left over in Amboseli and Masai Mara where taken away to a protected area in Tsavo National Park. Let's hope that they recover there and will be spread again over all the parks...
While we have been there in Amboseli we have been extremely lucky with the weather conditions. First of all there was no rain while we stayed there but rain the days before and -even more important- rain at the mountains. The water in the park comes is fed by the underground rivers running off the mountain. And Mount Kilimanjaro looks so much nicer where the top of it is covered with snow...
Our lodge "Satao Elerai" is located outside of the park, in an area called "Conservancy Area". Bid further towards Tanzania and Mount Kilimanjaro, nice area at the highlands where lots of animals from the National Park are heading to grab some leaves from the trees there. Satao Elerai is located in a quiet, unspoilt, unique setting on a 5000 acre private conservation area 10km’s south east of Amboseli National Park on the foot of Africa’s largest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. The land is leased from the local Elerai Maasai community and together we help protect this land from poachers, charcoal burners and encroachment from agriculture and development.
The hotel is small and very cozy. Called Satao Elerai (Statao stand for Giraffe)
The camp currently has 9 luxury en suite mountain facing tents and 5 large luxurious lodge style suites. Both the tents and the suites are en suite with the suites also having luxurious baths. The facilities are supplied with hot running water provided by eco friendly solar units.
One of the biggest advantages of Satao Elerai Camp is that being located on its own private conservation area clients have the chance to view wildlife in private surroundings. In addition we also offer clients the chance to enjoy spectacular bush sundowners, night game drives and game walks on the conservancy, activities that are not available to the lodges located within the park (source partially from satao elerai homepage).

 

 

Below you can find some pictures of the hotel, the national park and diving pictures. 

Have fun looking at the pictures and share with us our nice memories.