Stephane’s thoughts corner…

Stephane Bailliez's thoughts on everything

Finally, after multiple problems, it looks like I’m one step closer to vacation. I’ll be going to Tanzania for 2 weeks on Feb. 17. I’ll try to summit Kilimanjaro (5,895m) the first week and the second week will be a safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Living in the Netherlands at sea level (or below sea level) is not the best preparation and working in a startup is not either but fingers crossed…

My colleague @ Joost, Allan, is joining me for the trip, so we’ll be doing a private safari just to try to make the most out of it and have all the time we want photography-wise.

We’ll be joining a group for the Kili climb as it’s a bit more fun to be with people.

The preparation was a bit unfortunate as I was initially planning to go for 3 weeks through Nairobi and stay a third week by myself to do another safari in Kenya through Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru. I was in contact with the new owners of the Wildebeest Camp in Nairobi (which are actually taking over Nairobi Backpackers) and had everything sorted out…and the next day after the problems in Kenya started, communication went silent.

After waiting patiently 10 days, I had to restart from zero. So the best option for us was to fly to Moshi (JRO airport) directly. It is unfortunately much more expensive than NBO, especially when you book it so late, the flight price is now outrageously expensive.

I think I’ll try to do another trip to Kenya at the end of this year or next year. I’d like to cumulate that with Uganda to see gorillas.. I went about 20 years ago see them at the border of Congo (ex-Zaire) and Rwanda, while I was living in Burundi and this was an incredible moment. Now I’d like to take pictures of those incredible animals.