I have blogged previously about cheap flights with Air Asia into Kuala Lumpur from UK and they are at it again – so anyone about to come on a Gap trip or pondering whether to do it but worried about price of flights, please go check out Air Asia – sale on for only next few days and be aware flexibility is limited if want to change ticket – but there are some pretty good deals to be had on here – happy hunting!!
Anyone that chooses to be a responsible traveler is by nature a unique and special type of person. Perhaps the fact that they are unique is unfortunate because if everyone was a responsible traveler, I doubt we would have as many problems in this world as we do.
Anyways…here’s the deal. Diani, where our home is (yes, that’s what others would call “the office”) home to lots of unique and special people too, and yes, that includes a very special clothing brand called Lalesso which even the great names like Sienna Miller have worn. Set up by Olivia Kennaway, (one of our own from Diani!) and Alice Heusser, the Lalesso brand was inspired by the intrinsic patterns and vibrant colours of the Kenya’s coastal traditional attire, the kanga. This little story told by Olivia has so much synergy with us – not just because one of our gappers is the star. Lalesso is not just another fashion brand but like Camps International, is one that is based on social responsibilities…Hat tip to Mill!
The Diani weekend beach bar hang out, Forty Thieves, is many things, but a model scouting hot spot, who would have thought? I managed to persuade my good friend Leo to ask Mill Levy, who would later transpire to be a Camp Kenya volunteer, if she was a: A model and b: Be interested in modeling for Lalesso (a clothing brand that she had clearing never heard
of). As I watched from afar I realised the situation that my good friend Leo had gotten himself into and that no matter how genuine one might be, a guy asking a hot girl in a bar if she is a model just doesn’t fair lightly! So I stepped in and apparently managed to convince her that we were a legitimate and genuine company and so the ball got rolling…
The rest of the Lalesso shoot crew arrived from South Africa, VC the photographer, Ernstly his assistant and Alice, the other half of Lalesso. With Camp Kenya fully committed and ever helpful assistance, Mill arrived at the final hour, quite literally. Mill is from Melbourne, Australia and has been with Camp Kenya for nearly 2 months. During the dates of the shoot her group was out in their camp in Tsavo, so we had to get her back to Diani, about a 4 hour drive away. A long story short but she missed the first bus coming back from Tsavo and finally arrived back in Diani at midnight. We were to start shooting at 6:30am the next day! So straight to bed for some not so much needed beauty sleep and we were all up at dawn to catch a boat to the sand bar at the reef for the first shoot location. Mill settled in really well and we were all delighted with the first set of pictures.
Back to land and straight in a car off to the next shoot location at The Funzi Keys, an island about an hour south of Diani. Some more fantastic pictures including a great sunset scene on the islands airstrip with the owners little cesna aeroplane as a ‘prop’ in the background. Back to Diani for a much needed good nights sleep and ready for another early start the next day.
Day 2 saw us all head off to Mombasa. The first location was the beautiful old town where reminiscences of old Arabic trading and culture is rich amongst the architecture and life within the streets. All the locals were totally unphased by this bizarre group hauling around big white screens and making a girl walk backwards and forwards hundreds of times. We captured
the African cultural essence that lies within the Lalesso brand with the great rustic backgrounds that Mombasa old town boasts. Next was the old Mombasa train station, which despite it’s appearance is still very much in use. Again, both the authorities and by standers were hugely hospitable and let us get on with our work.
Day 3 was beach beach beach and there really is no better location than Diani Beach. Sun, sea, blue sky and sand… not to mention the postcard perfect palm trees that frill out along the vast coastline. Just as the sun settled on the horizon on day 3 we got our final great shot at the Tiwi River Mouth, a magical little destination where the Tiwi river mouth meets the ocean and you get one of the most magical sunsets that I have ever seen anywhere in the world. It was a wrap and the champagne cork was popped!
Mill went back to join her group a couple of days later after a bit of R&R and left us with some fantastic images to start our spring summer 2011 launch campaign. She was an absolute super star and whilst she has done a little bit of modeling previously we hope this job has given her the support and encouragement to pursue a very promising talent that she has… so, you never know what possibilities await for you in Kenya!
(The images shown will be available in Australia at the end of this year and in Europe/USA next summer. Please visit the Lalesso website at www.lalesso.com or shop online at www.lalesso.com/onlinstore or to receive updates of where we are and what we’re up to Subscribe to our newsletter by clicking HERE
In preparation for the arrival of school teams at our wonderful camp Borneo this summer, Anna and I have the laborious task of visiting Malaysia ourselves- it’s a hard life!
5 days in and it feels we have been here forever and we never want to leave- I am officially in love with Sabah! Although it has been a real whistle stop tour I have been nothing but enamoured with not only the culture, people, landscapes and wildlife, but also of course the incredible work being undertaken by our volunteers over here!
Sabah really is a stunning place with such diversity between the hustle of towns such as Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu compared with the tranquil settings of the hilltops, mountain and jungle, there really is so much to see here and so much great project work to be done to help the amazing, friendly and welcoming people of Sabah, Borneo.
So far this week we have been to visit all of our camps across Sabah in the preparation for our school teams who start to arrive today!!!! We have been to Bongkud- our brand new team camp where we also got to try our hand at their traditional bamboo dance- nice try Anna, at least we were able to give the locals a good giggle- Anna however is now convinced that she is a pro!?
Following Bongkud we headed out to Batu Puteh- our amazing jungle camp which is accessible via a boat ride along the incredible Kinabatangan river- where we were extremely lucky to spot an Orang-utan in the wild!!!! We were so excited I’m surprised we didn’t capsize the boat!
We have also been to visit Sabah Tea plantation and had spectacular views of mount Kinabalu along the way- this is no M25 journey!
A quick boat ride over to the stunning island of Mantanani enabled us to visit the community, the school for whom we are building a pre-school and the camp and project sites- all lovingly overseen by Aida, our camp manager. Of course we couldn’t leave without taking a quick dip in the beautiful turquoise waters to cool off- jealous anyone?
Everyone here is really excited to welcome our teams in and get stuck in to the project work! Bring on the shovels!
Hannah Cambridge, Alice Agnew, Lucy Smith, Jordan Williams and Ben Colonna have been in Tanzania for one month. Lucy, a fervent diarist gives us a glimpse of what happens in Camp Tanzania. Thanks for sharing! Mothercamp (Mbokomu) We arrived at Camps International, Mbokomu on the first day of our tour and were immediately greeted with [...]
Until recently, I was never one to follow sports, especially motorsports. This was all to change when I find out that last year Camp Kenya hosted the first national motocross championship in our backyard and that we were going to do it again. I had never watched a motocross race on television, let alone in real life and now we were about to organise one!
As with all events, be it concerts, festivals or sports days, the success all depends on the planning and preparation. We are very fortunate to have a dedicated team of staff that are well versed in handling hundreds of students at a time so this event was a breeze for them and thankfully everyone else was a lot more relaxed than I was.
The two-day event spoke for itself where we had 22 bikes flying over hills including and a bunch of little ones on their 50cc bikes whizzing around the bend with their parents cheering them on. The race day on October 19th attracted hundreds of local spectators from surrounding villages in Muhaka which is just 12kms 
south of Ukunda. Personally, this was one of the greatest rewards for me in being part of such an event: that is the fact that a full day of entertainment is free for people from all walks of life, especially since the majority of the people we share the environment with don’t have the luxuries we do. It was all smiles, laughs and cheering from every side of the sand quarry which is rented from 13 different landowners for the two day occasion which again makes the event very special: so many people from the local community stand to benefit not just from the entertainment but financially to as scores of young men are hired for over a week to help prepare the track, the land is rented and so many more bring their wears and tears, samosas and soft drinks to sell on the occasion.
For those with cash to spare, a section is available which you pay an entrance fee of 500/- which gives you access to the well-stocked bar and restaurant run by Ngiri’s restaurant and a perfect view of the entire track. And of course a bouncy castle and DJ kept all ages dancing through the day. Thanks to all the sponsors and ticket sales, we were able to raise approximately Ksh 90,000/- which will all go towards the Camp Kenya Trust projects in Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary.
The humble young National Motocross Champion, Shivam Vinayak stole the day and the hearts of the spectators with his impressive jumps and speed but all racers put up a really good race. Talking to several of the riders individually made me realise we have something really special to offer motor sports in Diani. Not only do they love the challenging sand track but its also another excuse to spend some time on our golden beaches so it’s a win win for all!
A special thanks to all our supporters from across Diani, everybody that contributed to the event and the Camp Kenya volunteers who spent the day in the sun as marshals!
As the summer season comes to an end and our school teams bid us farewell, we like to hold on to the memories and smiles. It’s been an amazing season and so much achieved. So when we sat and listened to young Keiran Hewkin from Godalming read his farewell poem, we could not help but ask Keiran to let his words live on through our blog…I hope you enjoy this as much as we did and thanks Keiran…
A few words from me, it won’t take a mo
This trip has been cool, I hope you all know.
Our hard work is done, all our endevour.
So I wrote this down to help remember!
Let us not forget that Luch is crazy,
And remember Ben T, oh so lazy.
Goodbye Ben Ward, you antisocial chump,
Or quiet little Amy, subdued till drunk.
Sam Tucker with his confectory treats,
Charlie Eglington ever so sweet.
Best wishes to Izzie who braved the diving,
Friendly Jessica forever smiling.
Ellie the hermit now out of her shell
Will Erin grow up? Its so hard to tell.
You never would guess that Jack’s such a lad,
Or Kate for that matter…Oh just a tad.
Tata there to Cat, just so well spoken
Goodbye to Gammy who’s so very broken.
He ho to Imo, good luck with ur dance,
The same goes for Hector? There’s every chance!
Bi bumbling Craig so graceful in fins
Farewell Caroline, just don’t say they’re twins!
Lock up your sisters, run away it’s Mac
Or as Josh would say its windows in fact.
So long Sarah M so full of fun,
So long Sarah P the ditzzier one.
Bibi Fiona with needle and thread,
Gemma no teacher, more a friend instead.
We will all miss Charlie, despite the frowns,
Goodbye to Scampi’s shouting sessions sounds.
Harry and Hattie, like tweedle and dum
But between the two they’re so full of fun.
Best wishes to Katie our local giraffe,
Goodbye to Josie the worlds slowest laugh.
Kwaheri to cat – coffee’s biggest fan
We will all miss Ken the scorpion man.
Lucy’s hair was an intresting trend,
Nice to meet Hattie out thirty fourth friend.
But lets not forget to give Shedi a word,
For he was a friend, for this rest assured.
An end to Kenya, so much has been done
With blood sweat and tears, but hey its been fun.
From Tsavo to forest, mountains and beach
And to others your knowledge please do teach!
