with your flashlight to see the
glowing eyes looking back at you!
Day 7: Awake to another most
excellent situation in the middle of the Serengeti. Plan on early
morning game drives atdawn, with return to camp for breakfast.
After breakfast on this first morning we will prepare for a
journey along the
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Wildlife Adventure Safari Daily
Diary
This is a description of a 9-day
African Journey through the northern ecosystems of Serengeti and
Ngorongoro Crater, with an optional 5-day trip to the tropical
beaches of Zanzibar Island.
The safari is a combination
lodge and camping safari designed as a group exploration of
wildlife, culture and environment, combining a bit of adventure
with a bit of luxury and a whole lot of fun.
Safari
Style
This safari is designed
for active people of any age who are interested in an in-depth
group safari experience. The safari’s emphasis is on being close
to the land, close to the people and close to the culture, as this
is what a true African safari is all about. For adventurous
people, there are no disadvantages to this approach, only
advantages. Although our safaris are comfortable and at times
“luxurious,” they are planned and designed to emphasize the
quality and depth of the experience rather than simply to maximize
luxury.
“This safari style
is not the Love Boat, but neither is it
Survivor
...it's more like Gilligan's
Island
This safari will involve both accommodations
in first-class lodges as well as classic African camping in
beautiful, wild and pristine locations. Camping will be in
full-size classic African tents, with beds, hot showers and
sit-down toilets.
Transportation will be primarily by
well-equipped four wheel drive Land Rover or Land Cruiser safari
vehicles, with on-board radio communication. The road conditions,
although generally good and constantly improving, can sometimes be
rough, dusty, muddy or even underwater. We provide enough vehicles
so that no more than four persons have to fit in a vehicle. This
ensures everyone has a window seat and enough room to be
comfortable.
We will often spend a good deal of time
together in our safari vehicles, especially when changing
locations. While in a particular location however, we are
generally free to relax on our own, and in fact, all activities
described in this itinerary should be considered optional. Anyone
who wants to take a break from the group to kick back and read a
book under a tree while the camp crew makes some popcorn is
welcome.
The nature of this safari will require us to
be together as a group for an extended period, and participants
should enjoy being part of, and contributing to, a group
experience. If you are a “people person” and have an easy going
and adventurous spirit, we can almost guarantee the trip of a
lifetime - if not, you should consider such options as a private
safari, which we can also
provide.
When we do have to make a certain fixed
schedule, we rely on the group to help things go smoothly. We can
expect, however, that in spite of the best teamwork and planning,
there will inevitably be times when things don't go according to
schedule. For example, a safari vehicle may get a flat, or road or
weather conditions may force a delay in schedule. In these
situations it is even more important to keep a relaxed, positive
attitude - after all, this is
Africa!
As you may have gathered this will not be a
standard tour bus safari. We will show you what we truly believe
are the most incredible places we know with the time, budget and
logistics we have available. What we make of it then, depends on
each of us. Therefore, each member of the group should consider
themselves an active participant in this adventure. A positive
attitude and the ability to adapt are the keys to a great
experience on this safari.
“Now, being in Africa, I was hungry for more of it, the
changes of the seasons...the discomforts that you paid to make it
real, the names of the trees, of the small animals, and all the
birds, to know the language and have time to be in it and move
slowly.”
Ernest Hemmingway
Costs and Group
Size
The
9-day safari is $3,250 per person with a $400 single
supplement. The cost is based on a group size of 8-15 and
does not include international airfare. The cut-off is 15, and
will need a minimum group size of 8 for the trip to go.
Reservations are made with a $500 deposit.
Often people are interested in
remaining in-country a few extra days to explore on their own
after the safari, and/or to stop off in Europe on the way back.
This is easily arranged, and changes can be made in either tou
outbound or return flights to allow extra time in Europe of
Africa. For those wishing to stay on for a while in Tanzania, we
can also arrange hotels, lodges, additional excursions or even
homestays with African families.
Since most people like to book their
trips in combination with other travel, the international airfare
is booked separately. The current round-trip fare from San
francisco to Kilimanjaro International Airport in Tanzania is
about $1,500. We can, and will, help you with those
arrangements.
Safari Schedule and
Description
Day
1 : The flight
arrives into Kilimanjaro Airport at in the morning or at 9:30 p.m.
and is met by our
staff.
We will go to the Moivaro
Coffee Plantation or the KIA Lodge, where you will find a charming
atmosphere together with every comfort: an ideal spot to enjoy the
impressive flora and fauna of East Africa. The Lodges aresituated
right in the heart of beautiful, natural scenery at the foot of
Mt. Meru, sister to Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Day 2: HAve a
relaxing breakfast and spend some time getting use to being in a
different continent and time zone. Walk around the grounds or go
into town for a little while or visit
to the Cultural Heritage Center if you're interested in looking at
or purchasing African art. We will arrive at Tarangire Park for a
late afternoon game drive on our way to the Tarangire Safari Lodge
where we'll spend the night overlooking the Tarangire River.
For
those that don't mind an early start, there is an optional trip to
Arusha National Park (ANP). It creates for a rather long day, but
there
is a lot to see in ANP and we will be on foot for most of it. We
would arrive at ANP after about a two hour drive through a
dry landscape that gives way to lush fields and forest. In the
park, a ranger will lead us up the slopes of
Mt.
Meru
through a mostly alpine environment which includes open glens,
canopied forests, water falls and elephant grass. This place is
reminiscent of Jurassic
Park,
with African big game taking the place of dinosaurs. You can
either go slow and spend time observing a few locations in detail
or go more quickly and cover more ground. We will have lunch on
the trail and head back to the gate. On
past trips people have said this was one of the highlights of the
trip -- walking through a meadow with giraffe, buffalo and other
wildlife all around us. On the trail we will likely also see
elephant, colobus monkey, baboons, warthog and evon leopard if we
are lucky!
Once
back at the gate, if time allows, we will head to the other half
of the park. Expect
to see large flocks of flamingos grazing in the shallow lake.
Small antelope called dik-dik and guinea fowl (kanga) are also
common. We also might get to see Mt. Kilimanjaro peeking out of
the clouds a short distance to the East.
Around
three o'clock, we
will head to Tarangire National Park which is a good three hour
drive from the park. While Arusha Park is a gem, many people
prefer not to make the day quite so long and also prefer to spend
more time in Tarangire Park. It is a hard call as there is just
not enough time to see and do everything and some things are
missed. The good news is you can wait to see how you're feeling
and decide then. Often, people prefer to stay in Arusha for a
couple of days before or after the safari and can go to Arusha
National Park then.
Regardless
of how people decide to spend the day, sitting on the deck
overlooking the Tarangire River with a cold one in hand is a
wonderful way to end the day.
Day 3: Waken to the sound of hundreds of
birds singing the sun up. We can go on a game drive before
breakfast or take a liesurely morning listening to the birds while
sipping coffee or tea.
Tarangire
is absolutely our favorite park in East
Africa.
There is just something about it. It’s laid back, wild and it
always makes you feel like we are the only ones there. Big fat
baobob trees dot the landscape, elephants roll in the mud down at
the river and prides of lions swagger around like they own the
place…and they
do!
For
lunch, we can have our choice of a picnic lunch or lunch back at
the lodge. After lunch, it's good to relax a bit
around the pool or sitting in the lobby looking out over the
river. We will resume
our safari adventure with an afternoon/early evening game drive.
(Wildlife are usually the least active during mid-day, so this is
our time to relax also.) We have the rest of the day to explore
this amazing park that straddles the
Tarangire
River.
During the dry season it is the main water source for the
wildlife, so prides of lions take up residence near the river and
wait for lunch “on-the-hoof” to come to them. There are also lots
of elephants, giraffe, wildebeest, baboons, zebra and hyenas to be
seen here, in addition to an amazing array of bird
life.
We
will have to be at our destination by sunset, so as the sun begins
to descend we will trundle out of the park in our trusty,
dusty Land Rovers, and head across the Great Rift Valley to
Kirurumu Tented Lodge for dinner and the
night.
Kirurumu
Lodge is real rustic elegance. Accommodations are in spacious
classic safari tents with all the modern conveniences, and decks
looking out over Lake
Manyara
and the Rift Valley. This location is ideal for local cultural
excursions and walking tours in the surrounding communities. The
lodge is a 20-minute walk from the town center of Mto wa Mbu. There is a bustling market
there, and lots of things to see, do and buy. This is also perhaps
the best place in the world to buy bananas…red ones, yellow ones,
green ones; short, long, fat or thin. They got‘em all. Try the
ones called ice cream bananas!
Day 4: Mto wa Mbu is
nestled on the north shore of
Lake
Manyara.
We will spend the morning walking through parts of it with a guide
who will show us how the diverse people of this area live, how
they farm banana, the medicines they use, the schools the children
go to, and even have a chance to try some of the banana beer. The
Masai Market is in town and it's a great opportunity to by some of
those gifts everybody expects you to come home
with.
We
can have lunch in town or back up at the lodge. In the late
afternoon, we we head off to our next safari adventures in
Ngorongoro Crater,
a World Heritage site with what is estimated to have the highest
concentration of predators in the world. To get to the crater, we
will travel west up the Rift Valley escarpment wall and climb to
an altitude of 6,000 -7,000 feet to the Ngorongoro Highlands. This
is a fascinating area with unique flora and avian fauna. The
Serengeti always seems to have a mystical, reverent quality to it.
In contrast Ngorongoro seems like one big animal playground --
even the name sounds comical!
The
Crater rim is only an hour or two away from Kirurumu Lodge and we
will stay at the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge with a
deck overlooking the crater 2,000 feet below. Now these people
know decks and it is a wonderful place to watch the sunset
from.
Day
5: Early
morning breakfast and
we will descend to the floor of the 100-square-km caldera for all
day game drives, birding and a picnic lunch by a small lake in the
crater. Although there are lots of bird species, including
flamingos, vultures, marabouk stork, secretary birds, etc, the
kites that hang out at the lake where we stop for a picnic can
steal the show with their acrobatic skills. These birds are a joy
to watch even for a neophyte birder. They are also brazen thieves
and we will do well to watch our lunches closely, as they are so
agile and quick that they can swoop down and pick a morsel of food
out of your hand before it reaches your
mouth.
Ngorongoro
crater also hosts a small population of extremely rare black
rhino. These creatures were hunted mercilessly throughout the ’80s
for their horns, but now conservation efforts have tentatively
begun to turn the tide. We don’t always get to see rhino here, but
when we do it is an inspiring sight.
We
will spend the night again at the Wildlife Lodge. Sunset on the
deck with a gin & tonic, watching a herd of elephants grazing
2,000 feet below is a most excellent way to end an African
day!
Day 6:
Sunrise
peeks over the crater wall at about 6
am
so if you are an early riser, grab your coffee and a warm sweater
and come outside on the deck for the dawning of a new day. After
breakfast, we pack up and continue west, down into the Ndutu short
grass plains of the southern Serengeti. On the way we will stop at
Olduvai
Gorge
to visit the archeological site there. This is another fascinating
place and we could easily spend a couple of days in the rugged
countryside around the site. Depending on the group’s interests we
can spend some time there or proceed more directly across the
plains through the Serengeti.
The
Serengeti is about the size of a New
England
state, and in contrast to Ngorongoro, has no permanent human
habitation other than some small park facilities. At any given
time there are perhaps less than a couple hundred humans in the
whole place. On the short grass plains, land birds such as
ostrich, cory bustard and secretary birds are very common. There
are also several species of vulture, which can amazingly appear in
large numbers out of a clear empty blue sky within minutes of a
kill. Cheetah, lion, leopard, hyena and other major predators rule
the plains here.
Our
camp will be at a private special campsite in a rock formation
(called a Kopje) in an edge habitat between the grasslands
and savannah forests. We will camp here in our “island in the
plains” for three nights. There are lots of animals here and we
humanoids will be vastly outnumbered. Depending on the weather we
may see the vast herds of wildebeest on the plains or we will look
for them farther north.
Our
transit across the plains to our camp will take all day, so we
will arrive at camp at sunset. Our trusty camp crew will have gone
ahead of us to set up a comfortable camp. We should arrive to a
nice camp, shower, cold drinks, and a hot
dinner.
Dinner
will be elegant dining under the eternal stars of the Serengeti.
Look out around the camp perimeter
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