African Safari

I have been on safari in Kenya and Uganda. Kenya was the better of the two locations as it had better lodges at the parks and more variety of animals.

I visited Kenya in January 1984 during the dry season when it is easier to find the animals (wet season is November and March - May). I flew into Mombasa from Munich (talk about climate change!), and immediately departed on an organized tour to Tsavo East (which I believe the final scene of Out of Africa was filmed), and West (stayed at Salt Lick Lodge) and Amboseli (at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro which is in Tanzania). I would strongly recommend a package tour (which you can arrannge when you get there), as doing it on your own will be difficult and a security risk. Upon returning to Mombasa, after a day on the beach in the blazing sun, I signed up for a flight to and tour of Masai Mara. I was able to see the Big Five and many other animals. This was one of the best vacations I have ever had, as it was purely nature; not man made sights as with most destinations. I have been around the world ten times and to over 100 countries, so I have been on a lot of vacations.

In Uganda I went to Murchison Falls about 5 hours north of Kampala. The lodging was primitive, and I only saw a few animals. Even though they had lions, the grass was so tall that I didn't see any. The grass was short in Kenya. The best thing about this park was the cruise up the Nile to the Murchison Falls gorge where the Nile narros to about 6 meters. I blogged about this safari in October 2008. Someday I'll get around to entering blogs for my other trips prior to 2007.

You will have to hear from others regarding parks in western Uganda (the mountain gorrila tours are very expensive), Northern Kenya, and other African countries. Reply to this

I've just come back from my second trip to East Africa and the two parks you must visit are the Mara/Serengeti Kenya/Tanzania and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.

The Mara/Serengeti is the finest place to see African animals on the whole continent - I was in the Mara in August for the Great Migration and the amount of animals was astonishing. I met a chap who told me that he witnessed more animals in four days at the Mara during the Great Migration then he did on 12 visits to South Africa. Ngorongoro is great to visit because of the beautiful scenery.

If you have the cash, doing the gorilla experience - I did mine in Rwanda and would rate it as one of the most amazing days of all my travels.

Timing is important in East Africa and different seasons are in play in different areas. However, the month of April is generally considered a bad time in Kenya to see animals due to the rains (in fact, many lodges and tented safari places close). Ngorongoro is important because of the beautiful scenery.

The two things I did differently on my second visit to East Africa were as follows: One was to choose a provider who had a customised and/or larger off-road vehicle as viewing from this is far superior than from any smaller versions. Second was to chose a provider that gave me more hours on safari instead of the usual two/three hours at dawn and at dusk. Reply to this

Hello again Dave and Merry-Jo - I never went on a tour for the gorillas, but organised my US$500 permit with the ORTPN directly. After that I made my way by public transport to Ruhengeri (return was no more than US$10-20) where I collected my permit from the difficult to find ORTPN office. The office organised a driver and helped to find accommodation, for which I was extremely thankful.

To give you an idea of 2008 prices when sharing with 3 other people, I remember only paying about US$60 for 2 nights accommodation (shared room with 3 others), and then about US$40 dollars for transport - so really not much at all. On my own, the accommodation price would have been the same, but the car would have been US$120 dollars.

If you are sharing and go on a tour (and taking out the cost of the permit) instead of paying approximately US$240 for the transport and accommodation, you are likely to pay triple that price or higher.

Some of the practical aspects of gorilla trekking is located on this thread, Gorilla Trekking: Ask and answer questions and chat about gorilla trekking here. Reply to this

Shane and Peter-- thank you very much for sharing your information. MJ Reply to this

Have been travelling through kenya and it has been fun seeing the beauty on alocals perspective,living with the locals and getting up close with the wild world. Reply to this

Tim, thanks for the tip. Reply to this

Hey African safari is best and I think Nov and Dec is the best time to go. Reply to this