Off to Kenya! Starting our 2014 safari adventure

Adventure begins! On Monday November 17th 2014, 3 guys set off from Oslo at 4:20 for Oslo Airport to embark on this 10-day safari trip to Kenya.

Overloaded with cameragear, computergear, safarigear, and any other gear you can think of, we amazingly made it past check-in and gate on our way to KL1140 for Amsterdam. As I pass the boarding desk at the gate on my way down the tunnel to the Embraer, I hear the woman behind the desk offer to check in my camera roller bag “at no extra cost”. I pretend to not hear her and hurry on. Turns out the Monday morning plane is pretty full of commuters. Note to self: Next time leave on Fridays as before. The flight is smooth and we land in Amsterdam in time for sunrise.

Watching the sun rise before we land in Amsterdam on the way to Nairobi

Once we arrive in Amsterdam we have a pretty comfortable 1:40 minutes before the next flight, but the KL0565 for Nairobi departs at the other end of Schiphol and one passport control away, so the net time extra is not all that much. Once on board the 747-400 we can relax and try to make the next 10 hours pass as quickly at possible. The plane lands as scheduled around 20:15 local time (18:15 CET).

After an exhausting hour (!) in immigration queue we gathered up our luggage and headed out where we were met by Steve and Peter (I think). Due to the long delay in immigration, they had nearly given up on waiting for us

Steve took us to EKA hotel which is located right next to Ole Sereni which I’ve stayed at before. While the weather when we came out of the airport was warm and pleasant, on the short drive to the hotel we drove through several proper african showers. I have to say the EKA Hotel was a pleasant overnight location. It’s a modern and inviting looking hotel, with at least as nice rooms as the Ole Sereni, and we got them at a better price.

As I went to bed I hoped the weather would improve soon…