Lions: Another on the Endangered Animals List

I would love to start of by thanking Mshatch from  Mainewords blog for the "One Lovely Blog Award"  I am so gratefully. You really made my day!

Moving on to a touchy topic, I feel that this is not a new topic to us, many animals are nowadays finding themselves on the endangered species list. It is as though the animals are competing for who will be the first to become extinct! It is a rather very sad, considering we have so many animals on this endangered list already!

Lions are well known for their beauty, majesty and prestige with many hit films such us Africa Disney Cats or The Lion King, portraying the image of a lion as should.... a strong, confident and brave creature, like depicted, the king of the jungle.

Lions vary in colour but commonly are those that sport a light yellow-brown coat. Mature male lions are unique among big cats due the thick brown or black manes that encircle their necks and protect them while fighting, whereas the mature female lions are the pride's primary hunters, often working together to prey upon antelopes, Zebras, wildebeest and other animals in the naked wild.

Lions population in Africa has rapidly reduced to approximately 21,000. They face an indirect threat from climate change called co-infection and periodically face outbreaks of the disease distemper though this causes few death with an exemption of the period 1994 - 2001 which caused massive die-offs with researchers saying the epidemic was due to the occurrence of a server drought. Drought which is caused by humans due to deforestation with more human threats such as population growth and agricultural expansion, resulting in loss of natural habitat, hunting, poisoning and poaching just to name but a few.

Animal protection and conservation groups are continually trying to curb the factors contributing to the Lion's endangerment but they also need you help to spread the word! This is my plea  to you, spread the word, lets save the lion!! 

Techy Travel - The Introduction

An interesting topic because until recently I was not a technology infatuated kind of person. When I was growing up, somehow I was led to believe that or rather I made myself believe that technology was only for those intellectual in that kind of area. I always shied away from any "technological'' stuff for my liking and up until three years ago when I was introduced to Facebook! I thought Facebook was cool, then at one point I lost interest then gained it back and over the period I went from just having mixed emotions about Facebook but at the same time, joining more social sites such as twitter, linked in and I even got to fall i love with blogger!

Ipad 2..on my Christmas wish list! :)

At the time, most people viewed social networks as a negative influence in the world by saying things such as - if you are an employee, you will spend more time on these sites thus affecting your work productivity in a negative way etc. Be honest, did you not hear of companies that actually blocked sites such as Facebook and twitter? However, this did not stop people because mobile internet became more popular! Basically the more people run away from social media the more it gained popularity, reaching heights that were unimaginable and creating waves that I never saw coming! This year we saw political revolutions arising and changing governments, Egypt and Libya being great examples and it is this same year that saw my job in the tourism industry take a turn with I being put in charge of our companies social media and ecommerce. A field that if three years ago you would have told me I would be working in, I would probably have laughed hysterically at your thoughts!

We (tourism company) felt that whether we wanted it or not, we had to keep up or keep out of business. In the recently concluded World Travel Market in London, it came out quite clearly that social media was and is a determining factor to travel trends all over the world, with at least 40% of the people booking holidays across the globe having referred to social sites before taking up the trip. The truth is, like it or not, to stay in business means doing the necessary! As the old saying goes, if you can't beat them, then join them.

In Kenya, we have seen our tourism board put fourth their thoughts about our tourism through social media amongst others, especially with all the negative media reports that were/are being portrayed due to the War on Terror in Somalia. I believe it has so far worked well, with the buzz around the networks reassuring people and tourists that Kenya is a lovely destination and proving all the "negative research “that had prophesised doom on the Kenyan tourism sector as a result of the government political decision to go on war with Somalia.

In conclusion, what I am trying to say is let us embrace technology in the tourism sector and in all life aspects because in the first place I would not even be writing this article if blogger did not exist.

Note to self: Maybe I should have a page about the techy travel, writing about travel and technology?...what do you think fellow blogger or reader?

Tana River - The longest river in Kenya

Images courtesy of Google

Seychelles is part of Africa

When I was growing up, I was convinced that Africa was only the countries found within the continent Africa. Confusing as that statement is, I was a rather an inquisitive child who had questions after questions and with every answer a whole new chapter of questions would be formed. I remember my grandfather had a world map on a globe mostly found in geography classrooms or libraries and he would explain to me using the globe every time he traveled and during these times i would always enquire about the small tiny maps on the globe which he would tell me were known as  islands.

I used to think how lonely those people on the islands would feel with all the water surrounding them as opposed to we "the lucky ones" who had other countries surrounding us! These thoughts recently had an occurrence thus the inspiration to write this post. I was browsing the net and i came across a football conversation discussing Kenya's next footie match against Seychelles and someone in the conversation was asking why we would be facing Seychelles in the world cup qualifier group stages, yet Seychelles are not an African country!

I was bewildered that there were people who thought like the six years old me! How ignorant could one get,  I thought to myself! Trying to control my mind not to judge, I promised to write at least some pointers about Seychelles, one of the lonely perceived land, by the six year old me.

Facts about Seychelles Islands 

• The Republic of Seychelles comprises 115 islands, an Exclusive Economic Zone of 1.4 km² in the western Indian Ocean. It represents an archipelago of legendary beauty that extends from between 4 and 10 degrees south of the equator and which lies between 480km and 1,600km from the east coast of Africa. Of these 115 islands, 41 constitute the oldest mid-oceanic granite islands on earth while a further 74 form the low-lying coral atolls and reef islands of the Outer Islands. 

• The granitic islands of the Seychelles archipelago cluster around the main island of Mahé, home to the international airport and the capital, Victoria, and its satellites Praslin and La Digue.  Together, these Inner Islands form the cultural and economic hub of the nation and contain the majority of Seychelles’ tourism facilities as well as its most stunning beaches. 

• The Islands heavily depend on tourism and have built their economy around the pillar of tourism, with economic strong holds being felt from sectors such as fishing and sea food exports.

• It is a great holiday getaway, especially for honeymoon or romantic getaways!
• Last but not least, it is considered as part of Africa, especially because of it's georaphical proximity to the African continent.

So don't you think this should be your next holiday destination? 

Images courtesy of  http://www.seychelles.travel.net