Highlights of Kenya, Dubai and Victoria Falls

[frenchy_84]

McKay falls, milford track, milford is the place for waterfalls right next to the track....

Yet what does that have to do about a photo gallery from a trip to Africa...

BTW thanks for the gallery Eggs, great photos

[wayno]

sorry wrong post, i deleted it as soon as i noticed.. too may windows open....

[eggs]

Thanks again for the kind comments

Yes - thats funny frenchy - no doubt a cross over from having too many pages up at once.

wayno - I was using a Pentax K7 with 18-135 and 55-300mm zoom lens. Most photos have been tweeked a bit with post processing, but it is pretty good.
On the flight out through Singapore airport I discussed with my wife and had the indulgence to pick up a Pentax Q with a prime and a zoom lens.
It produced Fantastic HD video, and was about the right size for discrete use around Nairobi.
It lacks narrow depth of focus due to an effective small aperature, but has very good image stabilisation for slow speeds and low light.
I believe it is the smallest interchangeable lens camera in the world.
I am investigating if it is good enough for extended walks.
[kit is about 350g vs ~2.5kg for the K7 - though I am getting an adapter that will turn my 55-300mm lens into a super zoom on the Q]
However, mostly used for city shots on this trip - a couple of examples:

Sunset over Castle Peak near our accomodation in Hong Kong. Pentax Q at f8, 1/15 sec, IOS800 - 5mm and -1.0 exposure

Mathare Slum in Nairobi - where my sister started her work. Pentax Q at f4.5, 1/200 sec, ISO125 - 15mm

john
We were very cautious about altitude sickness. We took diamox as a preventative medicine, and took 3 days to get to the base camp.
The doc said we should rise no more than 300m per day above the 3000m mark. But ours was a gain to campsite of 690m from the gate, 650m and 250m a day respectively.
But this is still a lot better than those who tackle Kilimanjaro.
The party of 40 school kids had about 5 retire on the second day, and we also met a young fit man returning from Shiptons with altitude sickness. He had planned to go up the main peaks, but was quite sick.
He put it down to a 900m rise in one day [missing the camp we had in between] - but the other 3 in his party continued on and we were watching them on the rock faces next day.
So there is no rule as it can strike anyone at any time. We also met a Kenyan man and his very young daughter who got to the top in a little over 1 day from the gate. They had planned a 3 day trip - but elephants on the track had turned them back on day 1. Being from Nairobi, his home altitude is 1600m high.
For ourselves, I suffered a bit of shortness of breath for the first 30 min walking each day - but it came good after that.
My wife said the day we summitted was worse for her, but that shortness of breath was manageable without being serious enough to turn around.

Cheers
Brian

[Tortoise]

Just stunning, Brian! Brilliant images. Thanks for taking the time to give us a taste of your trip.

[frenchy_84]

Mt Kenya is on sbs at the moment on wildest Africa