Kenya is a world-class destination to suit all your business
travel needs including incentive travel, conferencing, company
training, meetings and events.
If you live in Kenya, then you don't have to go far for the
perfect holiday. Discover the breathtaking beauty and exciting
activities that Travel Associates limited can offer to you.
Moments in Mara
The sun dapples the golden Savannah grasses. A cheetah crouches
hidden, watching, silently stalking the gazelle. It moves, stops
and then in a burst of speed springs after the gazelle. The gazelle
cannot escape the cheetah and exhausted it falls prey to the
spotted cat. This is life in the wild, of the hunters and the
hunted.
The rich grassland of the Maasai Mara are home to a host of
animals and it is these grasslands which bring in almost a million
wildebeest from the Serengeti into the Mara following the grass
route. It is perhaps one of the last migrations of a large animal
to go on intact from thousands of years ago.
Serenading in Samburu
The crocodile has not moved for many months. Buried in the sand by
the edge of the river bed, it shows no sign of life. The elephants
in the middle of the dry river, dig shallow wells to reach the
water buried deep. Satisfied they move on and a herd of zebras try
to savour what is left behind. The rains have not come for many
months but the animals of the dry north know their survival
tactics. The elegant swala twiga or the giraffe necked giraffe
called the gerenuk reaches for the leaves standing on its hindlegs
to lick off the morning dew. The beisa oryx with its long sharp
horns will raise its body temperature to conserve its body fluids.
A baby elephant too weak to keep up with the herd, lies dead by the
roadside, killed by a pride of lioness.
Samburu is harsh yet yet stunning. The finely patterned
reticulated giraffe and the grevy's zebra are more elegant than
their commoner southern cousins. The generuk and the beisa orynx
prefer the drylands. The pastoral Samburu, cousins of the Maasai in
the south share the land with the wildlife.
- Tales of Tsavo
Huge herds of elephants cross the road from east to west. Tsavo is
like a huge country with a tarmac road dividing it in two. In their
constant search for food, the elephants criss-cross the
Nairobi-Mombasa highway, occasionally forcing the motorist to give
way to the mighty. Tsavo has one of the most fascinating histories
in Africa.
In 1948, Tsavo became the second national park in Kenya to protect
its vast herds of elephants, antelopes, hippos and crocodiles and
prides of lions, the shy cheetah and the lonely leopard and all the
other animals.
Tsavo east covers an area of 11,747 sq. kms and Tsavo West covers
an area of 9065 sq.kms. The park has two permanent rivers, Tsavo
and Athi. Interesting sites to visit are the Lugard Falls on Galana
River with its water-eroded rocks & Mzima Springs with an
underwater viewing hide to watch the hippo and the crocodile and
the fish swimming past. The world's longest lava flow the Yatta
Plateau dominates the eastern side.
Meru National Park
This is 'Born Free' country where Joy Adamson and Elsa the lioness
lived and where Joy later brought Pippa the cheetah. Set in the low
lands, flanked by the Nyambene Hills, the park is fed by 18 streams
from the hills. This easy availability of water and large tracts of
savanna grasslands have been home to big herds of elephants and
other animals. Hippos wallow in the many waterpools coming out to
graze at night. Meru is also famous because you are quite assured
of seeing the beautiful lesser kudu antelope with its lyrical horns
rarely seen in other parks, the narrow stripped grevy's zebras, the
fine patterned reticulated giraffes and sometimes the cats like the
lions, cheetahs and leopards. You may even come across Pippa's
grave.
AMBOSELI.
Ambling in Amboseli. In twilight, just as the sun is about to slip
under the horizon, it fires the sky one last time. The rays catch
the vast expanse of the dry salt lake, tinting it copper-bronze.
The mighty Kilimanjaro stands tall and imposing watching the flat
lands below. Its snow clad peak holds the magic that gives Amboseli
life. The rain and the snow soak into the porous volcanic mountain
and drain into the numerous rivers and springs which surface in
Amboseli. The plains animals come to quench their thirsts and in
the marsh full of green grasses, the mighty elephants of Amboseli
soak themselves. The elephants of Amboseli are special; they are
the longest studied elephants in the world. They have revealed some
fascinating insight into the elephant world - that they can
communicate with each other over ten kilometres - sounds which are
inaudible to the human ear but loud and clear to the world's
largest land mammal.
Mt. Kenya and the Aberdares
In the early days the people who lived around Mt. Kenya, the
Gikuyu believed that god lived in the mountain. Only god could live
on high where the jagged tooth of the mountain was always covered
with snow and impossible to reach. And from this mountain, Mumbi
had nine daughters fro whom the nine tribes living around the
mountain descend from. Mt. Kenya is Kenya's tallest mountain at
17,058 ft and it is now declared a world heritage site because of
its immense diversity in flora and fauna. On its slopes, lies the
world famous Mt. Kenya Safari Club. It is one place where you can
see the shy bongo, a beautiful antelope with ivory tipped horns.
Almost exterminated in the wild, they have successfully bred in the
sanctuary of Mt. Kenya and perhaps will be released at some point
back into the old forests. Surrounded by forest lies another lodge
built on stilts called the Mountain Lodge where the animals of the
wild come to lick the salt off the ground and wallow in the muddy
pools. If you are so lucky you may be staring at an elephants trunk
or toe only inches away from the underground view point.
The Aberdares lie not so far from the Mt.Kenya. Mt. Kenya and the
Aberdares have long been the range of the elephant migration. Deep
in the forest, is a famous lodge built on stilts like Noah's ark.
Some nights the rhino will come and spend hours below and sometimes
the elephants and the rhino will fight for the right to the
watering hole. Sometimes the traffic is heavy and sometimes low.
But there's always someone hanging around the watering hole and you
can watch them from the comfort of your armchair.