1 comments about Kenya: The Bradt Travel Guide.

1. Claire Foottit's Bradt travel guide to Kenya pales in comparison with its competition. The book runs 160 pages before reaching Part Two, which is the actual guide and comprises less than 59% of the total. This contrasts with 67.9% of "The Rough Guide to Kenya" and 71% of "Footprint Kenya" being devoted to where to go, sleep, and eat. In greater Nairobi, the Rough Guide reviews 60 accommodations and Footprint 37 against 27 by the Bradt guide. Foottit's reviews do include Nairobi accommodations, such as Aero Club of East Africa and Macushla House, overlooked by the others. For the small town of Kitale, the Bradt guide reviews a single accommodation versus four by Footprint and 11 by the Rough Guide. Published in 2004 and reprinted February 2006, the Bradt guide compares unfavorably with the 1st Footprint edition, published November 2005, and the 8th Rough Guide edition, published September 2006, in timeliness by including the defunct Mara River Camp among accommodations in the greater Maasai Mara area. Foottit's description of Amboseli Serena Lodge's restaurant as serving "buffet-style meals with an excellent choice of food" contradicts my experience of September 2006 when we had to select a main course from a limited menu and wait for sometimes slow service to present an entree that may have been passed over or sampled sparingly on a buffet. Despite numerous shortcomings, the Bradt guide rises above its competitors by consistently including rates in dollars for accommodations and restaurants, thus facilitating comparisons.

No comments about In the Eyes of Horus.

No comments about South Africa: Paradise at Continent's End.

No comments about An Intrepid Scot: William Lithgow of Lanark's Travels in the Ottoman Lands, North Africa And Central Europe, 1609ÃÂ21.

No comments about Traveler's Companion Kenya, 2nd.

No comments about Sierra Leone (Bradt Travel Guide).

No comments about Siberian Pictures: Edited, from the Polish, by Major Szulczewski. Volume 2.

No comments about Fodor's See It South Africa, 2nd Edition (Fodor's See It).

No comments about Egypt, 4th (Footprint - Travel Guides).

4 comments about Smara, the Forbidden City: Being the Journal of Michel Vieuchange While Travelling Among the Independent Tribes of South Morocco and Rio De Oro (Ecco Travels).

1. An amazingly real account from the journals. Steeped in the romantic tradition of solo travel, the account begins in hope and ends in the still silence of illness where no words can be written, though the flicker of hope undoubtedly held on in this man's breast till the end. It is as honest and immediate account of a personal adventure of great risk and pain as can be found in the twentieth century. All travelers should read and admire.... though none should follow.



2. Stumbled onto this small work on a back shelf and bought it for a quick read 15 years ago. I have never stopped thinking about it. It is the personal journal of a young romantic on a personal quest seeking a rumored city lost in the desert of Morocco. The danger, pain and ultimate loss of his life to illness far from home is punctuated by his momentary view of the ruins, which to the true romantic, overshadowed all else. You can put yourself in his place on every page and feel his pain and exhiliration. The book is testimony to his brother who followed his trail to find the truth after his failure to return, and found the journal with the nuns who nursed him till his death. It is truly a gem in the travel book genre.



3. The experiences described by Vieuchange are somehow so tangible, that they become like one's own memories or dreams. It could be viewed as a futile, insignificant story, however, there is something in the way Vieuchange throws himself into oblivion for a dream that sleeps in a corner of all of us.



4. ...over the past three decades I have traveled to some of the cities listed in the book. I found it great reference reading, and a lot of fun, as I passed through the region. Well worth the price and adding to your North African library. BTW - at least one of the grandchildren of an important Moroccan named in the book was to be found in a Smara house referenced. He'll spin a great yarn, to two, over some mint tea that will add to your understanding of the book.
   
   Enjoy!