Diani Reef An Exclusive, Luxurious Beach Resort & Spa

Nestled in the pristine white sands of the South Kenyan coastline overlooking the turquoise blue Indian Ocean, the luxurious and exclusive Diani Reef Beach Resort & Spa is all set to welcome all. From the discerning American and European tourists along with the upwardly mobile (as they are know here) long haul overseas traveller from Asia.

The Resort and Spa provides the ideal getaway to the luxury traveller looking for a unique enchanting experience that most Kenya holiday and vacation visitors seek. Serene beaches and traditional wildlife game. Read more

Responsible tourism- Eco tourism

An African beach holiday/vacation can do more bad than good to the environment and the locals. As with anything when profits come before anything else including the environment then it is easy to see how some places that have been created as tourist areas can do more damage to the environment than good.

For starters some African governments have been selling prime beachside locations to foreigners, sometime displacing the communities nearby and other time affecting even their livelihoods by making some beaches exclusive. In some areas of Africa virtually all the infrastructure is foreign owned from the shopping centres to the restaurants, hotels and curio shops. Read more

Kenya beach and Cultural Tour in Lamu

Travelers to Lamu can expect a cultural tour and experience from a town rich in culture and heritage.
Lamu consists of seven islands and numerous islets. Pate Island, Manda Island and Lamu Island are the largest of the Islands. Smaller islands include Kiwayu Island and Manda Toto. The largest town in the Lamu archipelago is Lamu town. Lamu town is a historic town with a rich history and feel.

As Kenya’s most archaic living town it has reserved all the charisma, allure and spirit accumulated over centuries of hosting various colonisers from Portuguese to Arabs. The holiday beach on Lamu Island is 12 kilometres of immaculate sands stretching out towards the Indian Ocean. Dense mangrove forests make the perimeter of mainland Lamu and the inland sides of the islands. The seaward sides are fringed by reefs and lined with dunes. Lamu is detached from the mainland at its narrowest part by a channel just a few metres wide. All over Lamu there are various historical sites that bear testament to the centuries of rich and fascinating existence that Lamu has enjoyed. Read more

Chale Island - South Coast

For those looking for a romatic gateaway, Chale Island is a small island south of Galu Beach and about 600 meters from the mainland and 10 km south of Diani on the Kenya coast.

Measuring 1,2 km long and 0,8 km wide with north-south orientation, Chale Island is divided into two parts: the hotel, main beach and immediate surrounds and the forest and wildlife (reserve). Wildlife abounds throughout the island:- troops of monkeys and baboons, nocturnal bush babies, many species of birdlife, small antelope, butterflies, to name but a few… Read more

Africa’s Great Cuisines

If you are like most people, then Africa is perhaps known to you more for it’s African Safaris and white sandy beaches but when it comes to food and drink in Africa, african food is generally quite gentle of course the likes of snails and rodents in west africa, snakes in central africa, monkeys, cats and dogs eaten in Ghana, termites, or even locusts eaten in Uganda are exceptions.You will often find foods like pizza, burgers (or at least attemps at pizzas and burgers) chicken and fries in most towns in Africa.

Should you want a taste of the local cuisine you will often find a lot and a variety depending on where you are in Africa. By far the best known of Africa’s finest traditional dishes are Moroccan, Ethiopian and Swahili dishes. Morocco offers tajines, couscous (possibly getting its insipation from West Africa, where it’s traditionally steamed in baobab leaves), great tasting soups and scrumptious sweets. In East Africa and along the coast Swahili cooking rules supreme, making loving use of herds and spices introduced into Africa from Arabia, India and the Far East, with seafood being especially good.

Ethiopian cuisine is in a class of its own: injera as it is known is the staple and is a large pancake from which diners which they use to scoop up dollops of highly spiced stews.Seafood is prepared differently in different regions. In Zanzibar it is prepared spicy, in coconut sauce or steffed with vegetables and cooked in tomato, in Senegal. In South Africa, Brits can truly feel at home with fish and chips off course minus the newspaper. In many parts of Africa especially in the countryside it’s best to eat fish close to the places where they are caught.For the meat eaters or carnivores as they like to be called, Kenya’s carnivore restaurant in Nairobi is a great place to indulge. Here you can try game meat from impala steaks, hippo, ostrich to crocodile burgers which by the way taste either like fish or chicken depending on what the crocodiles which are often breed on crocodile farms were feed on.

In southern africa namely South Africa, Namibia and Botswana popular barbecues feature all kinds of meat and Boerwurst sausages which are often washed down with good beer.

In rural Kenya smoked wild birds are also a popular snack.

Mara Sopa Lodge masai Mara

Nestled within the Ngama Hills in the verdant Oloolaimutia Valley sits
the Masai Mara Sopa Lodge.

The word sopa comes from the maasai word meaning “Welcome” The lodge is located in the eastern side of the masai mara. Outside the masai mara game reserve it is about 2 kilometers from the Oloolaimutia gate as you can see from the masai mara map.

The location of the lodge gives it warm days and cool evenings.

Masai Mara sopa lodge has 77 rooms and 12 suites with one presidential suite, all of which have en-suite bathroom facilities with hairdryers and shaving sockets for those who may want to shave.

Every room and suite has a private, elevated verandah with splendid

views across the valley and on which guests can relax, sunbathe as they

watch the wildlife that are also found in the reserves surroundings

Each rooms also have mini bars. As with most lodges in masai mara, the lodge has direct-dial telephone and also satellite television.

Water supply to the lodge comes from the nearby springs.

African Food Mystery Meals

Even though you are not likely to be offered most of these meals in a five star hotel or a resturant in down town Africa, these meals indeed are traditionally eaten in the countryside. In central Africa snakes and especially vipers which locals consider very tasty are eaten.

Gorillas and Monkeys

If you care to sample your closest relative then Guinea-Bissay is the place to be for a taste of monkey brain. Gorilla hands are also eaten in the Congo However eating your close relative is never a good idea from a conservation point of view and also if you care for your health. Monkeys have been known to transmit all kinds of diseases including ebola.

Cats and Dogs

One man’s pet is another man’s meal. Ghana’s Volta Region is the place to eat pussy (tastes like chicken) In Nigeria dog meat which is roasted like beef is also belived to improve your sex life.In fact Nigerians have dog meat terminology

404: A dog is also called 404 after the French-built Peugeot pick-up van, a tribute to a dog’s ability to run fast.

Headlights: A dish with the eyes of a dog as the most prominent component.

Gear Box: Dog’s liver, heart and kidneys (usually more expensive than ordinary meat)

Tyre: A dog’s legs. Some claim that eating a ‘tyre’ makes you a fast runner

Telephone: A dog’s tail

Sentencing: The act of clubbing a dog to death rather than slaughtering it.

Termites

In some parts of Kenya, cameroon, uganda and Malawi termites are a favourite especially during the rainy season when young boys and girls will often light kerosene lamps to attract winged termites which are then collected and either pan -fried or eaten alive with a little salt or chilli to taste and a bottle of beer to wash it down.

Locusts and Grasshoppers

The tought of eating locusts isn’t that bad when you think terrestrial prawns and they are quite tasty when fried in butter.

Rodents

There is a west African dish called akrante or “grasscutter” a giant size rat like creature. Its meat is particularly fine, but it’s the fur that is contained in it’s sauces and stews which make it an unforgettable dish. Further South there exists a fragile balance between man and rodent where occasionally mice populations reach plague like numbers eating grain and local are left with nothing much to eat but the rats and mice. In Malawi and Mozambique you could be treated to barbecued mice.

Mopane worms

These giant grubs also known as macimbe are eaten in Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa. Deep fry or roast then add a bit of salt to taste and you are good to go.

Bugs insects and Other crawlies

For fried beetles head to Zimbabwe hard on the outside gooey in the inside. cooked grubs and giant grilled rhinoceros beetles are eaten in Congo, butterful larve in Burkina Faso, and millipedes in Namibia.

Kevin Richardson The Lion Whisperer

Kevin Richardson, a zoologist and animal behaviouralist, has raised and trained some of the most dangerous animals known to man.The Kind of Animals most people come to see on African wildlife safaris are what Kevin refers to as playmates.

To do this he does not use the common methods of breaking the animal’s spirit with sticks and chains, instead he uses love, understanding and trust. With this unusual method of training he has developed some exceptionally personal bonds with his students. He sleeps with lions, cuddles newborn hyenas, swims with lionesses.Kevin can confidently look into their eyes, crouch to the their level and even lie down with them - all taboos in the normal world of wild animal handling - yet he doesn’t get  mauled or attacked. Some people call him crazy; others shake their heads at his unique method of interacting with the animals.To others he is a hero because he has been able to tame and handle beasts that haunt our imagination, triggering our deepest fears.This has earned Kevin the name the Lion whisperer.The Lion whisperer’s secret - get to know the particular personality of each animal, what makes them angry, happy, upset, irritated - just like a mother with a child.

Kevin’s interaction with these animals has raised questions, and dispelled certain myths.Kevin goes to show that animals do have individual characters, they do show feelings and most of all they can develop a special bond with a man.Not only does the whisperer get them to do things but he makes these dangerous creatures to show their playful side.The relationship Kevin has with  these creatures is that of respect. Both man and animal have great respect for one another. Kevin treats each individual differently, speaking to them, caressing them and, above all, treating them with respect.Richardson who has been working with the animals for the last ten years , has had his share of close encounters. This in the early days of his work when a four-year-old male lion  gave him a lesson he will never forget.He says the beast put him to the ground and bit him until something in his passive attitude stopped the lion.Honestly i don’t understand what he means by that. Maybe the lion wasn’t just interested in having him for lunch.I mean how do you put sense in a lion that is about to turn you into a snack?

Having learnt his lesson early on the lion whisperer says he relays on his instincts to gauge situations and will not just approach a creature especially if it doesn’t feel right.He is also more confident with animals he has known since birth.

Seychelles Islands

An island nation, the Seychelles is located in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar and about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) east of Kenya. The number of islands in the archipelago is often given as 115 but the Constitution of the Republic of Seychelles lists 155. Of these islands 83 are named and 46 are permanently uninhabited. Mahé is the principal island comprising of 142 sq km, with the islands of Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette being the next important . Situated about 1,600 km off the east coast of Africa, Mahe extends 27 km north to south and 11 km east to west and has a beautiful coastline of 127 km. Read more

Kenya cultural safaris

Kenya is an enchanting country and few places in the world can better its varied tourist attractions. The region has been crossed by the paths of a long and complex history. From the prehistoric records of early man to the present day, Kenya has been a land of unending change, contrasts and diversity.

The early tribal states saw cycles of migration and shifting power, with Kenya as a meeting place for peoples from the plainlands of the south, the forests of the West and the deserts of the North. Read more

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