{"id":4004,"date":"2011-04-11T22:01:50","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T02:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/?p=4004"},"modified":"2011-04-23T00:33:42","modified_gmt":"2011-04-23T04:33:42","slug":"on-safari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2011\/04\/on-safari\/","title":{"rendered":"On Safari"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Land<\/a><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I told you about our summer sojourn to Kenya<\/a>. As you might suspect, we did not go solely to look at cars. About a week of our trip was spent on safari.<\/p>\n

We started with a top-down view, wild animals as seen from a hot air balloon<\/a>. Rising before dawn, we were collected in a Land Rover<\/a> and driven to the launch site in the Masai Mara reserve, whence we ascended at daybreak<\/a>, thanks to plenty of hot air<\/a>. We<\/a> were not alone, as three other balloon parties<\/a> drifted with us. During the hour-long flight we spied wilbebeests<\/a>, elephants<\/a>, impalas<\/a> and zebras<\/a>. The excursion ended with a terrestrial champagne breakfast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once earthbound, we went in search of animals close-up, happening upon an accommodating cheetah<\/a>, who posed for a photo op. On our day we met ostrich<\/a>, zebra<\/a>, baboon<\/a>, elephants<\/a>, sun-bathing hippos<\/a>, giraffes<\/a>, more impalas<\/a> and a pride of lions<\/a>. Wildebeests hobnobbed with the zebras<\/a> when not making their own migration<\/a>. Despite the sage advice<\/a> not to venture on foot, we alighted briefly<\/a> at a pillar marking the Tanzanian border.<\/p>\n

The Land Rover is, of course, the quintessential safari vehicle. Outfitted<\/a> for animal-spotting<\/a>, they are ubiquitous in the bush, though increasingly being supplanted by Toyota Land Cruisers<\/a>. Some safari operators take a less expensive route, with sightseeing adaptations<\/a> of the familiar matatus<\/a>, the Toyota vans used as communal taxis<\/a> in towns. Long-haul safari cars are called “overlanders.” These are heavy trucks outfitted for passengers<\/a>. At night they pull into campgrounds<\/a> and disgorge their passengers<\/a> for supper<\/a> and, eventually, sleep<\/a>. We shared a campground with several overlanders, though in more comfortable-looking huts<\/a> that concealed rustic tents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our safari car<\/a> was our daughter and son-in-law’s Toyota Land Cruiser Prado<\/a>, a sport utility not sold as such in the United States (a less rugged V8 version is sold as the Lexus GX470<\/a>). With all creature comforts and a 4-liter turbo diesel it conveyed us throughout the preserve, while GPS<\/a> kep us from getting lost. Even in the bush, Kenya is tech-savvy, with cell towers aplenty<\/a>, albeit sometimes in disguise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A sure tip-off to the presence of wildlife is a gaggle of matatus<\/a>. By waiting our turn<\/a> we were able to move into position to snap some awesome photos<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, I told you about our summer sojourn to Kenya. As you might suspect, we did not go solely to look at cars. About a week of our trip was spent on safari. We started with a top-down view, wild animals as seen from a hot air balloon. Rising before dawn, we….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,17,121,5],"tags":[155,154,158,156,157,124],"class_list":["post-4004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-cars","category-japanese-cars","category-journeys","category-trucks","tag-hot-air-balloon","tag-land-rover","tag-lexus","tag-matatus","tag-scania","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4004"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4053,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions\/4053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}