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Published: August 11th 2012
zebra crossing
ngorogoro craterTanzania & Zanzibar, the stereotypical 2 weeks vacation, especially popular with honey mooners, families and rich white old people. Why did I go? Tanzania offers the most diverse wild life and a safari trip was still on my bucket list. Besides I have never been to Africa before, expect from Tunesia, if that counts. So here we go ...
Summary Overal seeing all the wild animals you usually only get to see on national geographic is amazing and worth the trip. However, once done I can take it of my list and don't feel the urge to do it again. After approximately 3 days I have seen enough elephants and zebras. We were not so used to pre-organized trips and missed the culutural experience a bit. You basically sit 7 hours a day in a jeep on bumpy roads checking out animals and are then brought back to your luxurious resort, where you get served European
food. Most lodges are quite isolated, so you cannot really walk around or check out some local villages, especially not in Serengeti or Ngorogoro. Lake Eyasi is the positive exception where we can freely move walk into nearby villages without a guide. For us this was one of the best experiences of the trip. For the rest we also visited tribes and did 'cultural sight seeing' but as part of the program, which was quite toursity. Just walking round randomly and seeing what happens is much more enjoyable and what we missed for most of this trip.
Anyone interested in doing a safari in east africa, should also finish off at Zanzibar, a great relaxed island full of stunning beaches, great diving and friendly locals. At least we did that bit on our own without guide and not in an all in resort.
More details....
Planning The two weeks trip costed me approximately the same as I spent travelling 3 months through south east asia. That explains why the average age of tourists is considerably higher than in other countries I visted and why you don't see many backpackers in Tanzania. It is possible to arrange
the lion king
ngorogoro crater travelling including safari trips on the spot, however this would have required us to spend much more time in the country and in the peak season (July/August) this would have been risky as well, as accomodations can get fully booked then.
With limited time we decide to plan the whole trip upfront. Arranging the safari upfront directly via mail with local agencies does not save us that much, so we book via a Dutch travel agency specialised on safaris (www.Jambo.nl) who work with the biggest local safari company (www.leopard-tours.com). We go for a private safari with our own driver/ guide. This adds additional costs, but gives us the freedom to tailor make our program and enables us to stop whereever we want, instead of depending on the consensus or a whole group (usually a safari jeep would carry 5-7 people).
Our program We fly straight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport and from there check into our first lodge in Arusha.
Day1 -
Lake Manyana: game drive safari: we see elephants, giraffes, monkeys and the specialty: lions chilling out on trees. Lake Manyana is very close to Arusha and was recommended to use to cut the travel
between Arusha and the other destinations. However considering that Arusha - Ngorogoro driving distance is only 4 hours, we could have gone there straight, as the game drive at lake Manyana is nothing special compared to the ones at Serengeti or Ngorogoro. We stay at Kirumumu Tented Lodge, pretty ok place, great food (http://www.kirurumu.net/kirurumu_manyara_lodge.html).
Day 2,3 -
Lake Eyasi: most standard safari programs leave out this location, hence it is less touristy as the other destinations and for us the personal highlight of the trip. As part of our pre-arranged program, we visit the local datoga tribe to check out how people live and go hunting with the Hadzabe tribe. The latter feels a bit arranged for tourists, however it's still impressive to see how the tribe men live their life. The head of the tribe, an old dude, who has eigth women, smokes his weed pipe already at 7am in the morning when we arrive. The young boys go hunting to bring him and the others food. What a life! We also visit the onion plantations and a local school, as a local guide there happens to teach and asked us if we were interested in his work
village
ngorogoro place.
At day two, our program allows us to have 'leisure time' in the afternoon. As our tented lodge is situated close to a village, we decide to leave the touristic trail and enjoy a walk on our own. However as the staff see us leaving the lodge, they tell our guide, who follows us with his car short after checking on us being concerned that we left on our own. Apparently the usual safari tourists wouldn't be interested in doing anything on their own without their guide. We comfort him not to worry: all super safe, easy way to find back. We continue. On the way school kids check us out, walk with us, the ones having had English already ask us questions. We have a stop at some small shop to buy a drink and immediately are surrounded by all kids who are eager to touch the white people. At first that seemed scary with only one brave one to take the first step. Then the rest followed, everyone wants to see how it feels to touch a white person's skin. We should have charged them money if they had any.
Although our tourist brochure only
rates the lodge we stay in with 2 stars, as compared to the other posh 5 star accomodations, for us this one is by far the best one after the Soroi Lodge at Serengeti: The Tindiga tented lodge is a real tent with the luxury of a real bathroom with hot water and a Western toilet, all neat and clean. The place is much smaller (only approx 8 lodges) and hence much more personal than the other places we stay at. We do some great star gazing every night in front of our tent before going to bed. We highly recommend to include this location in your schedule and staying at this place: http://www.tanzania-adventure.com/tindiga-tented-lodge.htm.
Day 4,5 -
Serengeti: two days of game drives: we see everything and plenty, all the big 5, except the rhino, which we would see later at Ngorogoro. We stay at one of the coolest places and most luxurious ones I' ve ever been to: the Soroi Serengeti Lodge situated on a view point overlooking the great serengeti landscape. It has a huge terrace with an outdoor shower and a bathroom with view on the Serengeti. You see the sunrise from your bed, there are
no curtains, the sun is your natural wake up light. I highly recommend this place: http://www.safarinow.com/go/SoroiSerengetiLodge.
Day 6,7 -
Ngorgoro crater: two more days of game drive safaris in the crater. We see the same animals again in a smaller area, so more condensed and less driving. Here we see also two rhinos from a long distance. On the second day we do a hiking safari with an armed ranger at the rim of the crater. This turns out to be a rip-of. It's a short walk through some bushes, no view, no animals, the guide doesn't speak English, but expected 50 USD for this 60min walk in the park tour. We stay at the Ngorogoro Sopa Lodge at the top of the crater. It's a huge place, with a huge dining table radiating a cruise ship flair: way too big, too many people, too many waiters rushing around. The accomodations are concrete buildings with no style. There is a swiming pool which is way too cold at Ngorogoro it cools down quite a bit in the morning and evening. The best thing about the place is its view on the crater. However in the early morning
and evening when you are at the hotel, it is usually extremely misty, so there's no view. You might have guessed it already: we don't recommend this place.
After this one week program we return to Arusha, from which we fly to Zanzibar to spend some quality time on the beach.
To be continued...
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