Welcome back Traveller!

Inquiring minds want to know...when can we expect a trip report?

-doo

I'd also love to read a trip report, if you want to write one. (I need to do the same, but am still trying to process all my pictures and finish my journal...) We just got back from our safari with Green Footprint a few weeks ago and had a great experience too. Who was your guide?

Welcome back! Where did you stay?

Hello, I am going to serengeti in a few days,
Which lodges/camps did u stay at in serengeti, how many nights did u spend in serengeti, and in which areas did u see the migration of wildebeest.


Moni

Great to hear you had such a wonderful experience using Green Footprint. I am using them for my trip in March and would love to hear more.

Who was your guide? We did a day trip to Arusha with GF and had Herman. We really liked him and hope he's doing well.

Elisa was our guide. He was fantastic - was very polite and super professional, was very knowledgeable and experienced and we felt very safe in his hands since it was obvious that he was a safe and experienced driver (which is something that we noticed was not always the case with other tour drivers on the road); he said that prefers to work with smaller/boutique operators as they pay better attention to their clients. When we were driving through the national parks, he pointed out certain larger mass safari outfitters who pack several sets of guests into their jeeps and drive more aggressively or who are less considerate to other jeep drivers in their vicinity or break national park rules by driving off the trails. The larger mass tour operators also tend to pack their guests into large mass lodges - Green Footprints tends to suggest smaller more intimate camps and lodges. At first, we didn't really understand what the difference would be, but after sitting by a camp fireside under the stars with 10 other guests whilst the guests shared stories about their sightings during the day and the camp attendants sang Swahili songs and played a guitar, I totally understood the value of being in the bush (middle of no where) at a small tented camp.


In Arusha, we stayed at Onsea House. I can understand why everyone says that it's the best guesthouse to stay at in Arusha. The chef (Axel) is very talented. He does not have a menu but cooks whatever comes up to mind and is based on whatever is fresh from the markets on any given day. His food was amazing and the view from the terrace is beautiful (since the guesthouse is perched on the side of a hill). The pool is also very nice and the service is tailored to each guest. The food is so good at this lodge that many UN officers/employees come to the guest lodge just for dinner.

We stayed at Tarangire Safari Lodge in Tarangire National PArk. The lodge is so-so and the food isn't very good, but the view of the gorge teeming with animals moving across the river bed and the numerous animals climbing up over the gorge past our tent was incredibly memorable! On our first night, we had a pride of lions pass by our tent and we could hear them panting and growling. On the second night, a herd of elephants also hung out around our tent. My husband opened the tent flap to see the elephants through the mesh window and a baby elephant was literally 2 feet from our window! We could see the family of elephants moving past our tent and muching on some leaves. They stayed around our tent for about an hour. One of the larger elephants even broke the fresh water pipe to a neighbouring cabin so that they could drink from it!

We stayed at Olakira Camp in the Central Seregenti for 2 nights - perhaps the best service we received was at this camp. Attendants waited for our arrival and as soon as we stepped out of the jeep, one person offered us some juice off of a tray, whilst another attendant gave us damp cloths to wipe ourselves. Two other attendants quickly pulled our luggage out of the jeep and carried our bags to our tent.

In the Northern Serengeti, we stayed at Sayari Camp (owned by the same people that own Olakira Camp) for 2 nights. This location cannot be beat during the months of September and October (when the wildebeest migration has moved up north to the Mara River). When we arrived at this camp, we were surrounded by thousands of wildebeest and watched giraffe and wildebeest move in massive herds from our tent (they were literally 25 metres from our tent. It was an awesome sight. And in the evening, the herds of wildebeest literally moved (for about an hour) right past our tent on all sides.

In Ngorongoro Crater, we stayed at Plantation Lodge. It's very close to the entrance of Ngorongoro Crater (about 15 minutes away) and it's a very nice respite from the business of the crater. It's a plantation style lodge and the service was also amazing. On one of the days, we came back to find some of our dirty clothes missing. We had left them on the bed and on the chairs. The hotel staff collected all of our dirty clothing and hand washed and folded (and pressed our linen clothing!) and brought it back to us. We didn't even request this (and there was no additional charge). It's a very initimate lodge (so you don't feel like you're surrounded by lots of tourists). The dining rooms are also very initimate and there are several of them so there are a maximum of approx. 10 guests eating in one room at any given time.

I will try to post some photos soon.

Traveller88,

Thanks for reporting on your positive experience. I was glad to learn Olakira went well. I had seen some negative comments.

We are staying at Onsea House for 2 nights and Olakira for 3 nights in March, so I'm now really getting excited about our trip after reading your positive comments. Did you visit Arusha National Park and canoe?

Thanks for the additional information. It sounds like a wonderful trip, and I'm looking forward to the photos.

I was so excited to read your first post and ask about Herman that I neglected to say: Welcome HOME!!!

Raelond

Yes, we visited Arusha National Park (it's a nice park to start a safari - sort of like an introductory experience before visiting some of the other larger parks. The canoe safari was nice but to be honest, we didn't see a lot of animals. It was just nice to get out on the water and to be off the road for a change. We did see some hippos in the lake, but they were quite far away as the canoe guides wanted to make sure that we didn't enter into hostile hippo territory.

Herman was our guide for the Green Footprints canoe outing at Arusha National Park, and he indeed was very charming. We also had a wonderful stay at Olakira, but in March it was in the Ndutu area. Glad you had a wonderful trip, looking forward to hearing more about it.

I finally have my safari photos posted. Here's the website (you will likely need to cut and paste the URL address into the address bar):

http://www.flickr.com/gp/72615539@N00/51a53Q

I must be doing something wrong as I cannot access the pictures.

Percy

We're planning our trip for Aug/Sep 08 and also plan to stay at Plantation and Sayari. We had also planned to stay at the Crater, but I'm curious that you stayed at Plantation and visited the Crater from there. Did you do anything cultural around Plantation? Also what were the drive times between the Plantation or the Crater and Olakira (We're looking at Mbuzi Mawe) and then Sayari, or did you fly between.

Would love to hear more details re: that aspect of your journey, as that's the part we're struggling with now - travel time between locations, whether or not it's too long, or just part of the trip in order to see vistas and animals. Thanks.

Hymjr:

We decided to stay at the Plantation Lodge because we were wait listed for Serena Lodge and didn't want to wait any later and just wanted to book something so we ended up with the Plantation Lodge. In hindsight, we're really glad that we chose to stay at the Plantation Lodge as it was a very intimate experience. The view of the crater is spectacular, but the lodges on the rim of the crater are pretty isolated and you cannot really walk outside of the crater lodges to see the vicinity. In addition, I understand that the lodges on the crater rim hold more guests so some of the lodges like the Serena lodge feel more touristy.
Staying at the Plantation Lodge felt very much like staying at someone's plantation - the owners would regularly hang out in the bar/lounge area hosting their friends and the dining rooms were very quaint (so you only end up eating with 3 or 4 other couples in the room and not surrounded by 40 or 50 other tourists). However, the view of the crater is definitely spectacular but I would suggest that the view of the gorge at Tarangire is actually better in terms of seeing animals from your tented deck since the crater isn't as large and the animals are relatively close up. The animals are much harder to see at the Ngorongoro Crater rim since you're very far up and chances are, you can only see herds and not individual animals.

In terms of the time of the drive, the Plantation Lodge was 15 minutes away from the entrance of the Ngorongoro Crater rim. It takes approximately 45 minutes to descend into the crater to the crater floor from the entrance because the road is quite difficult to traverse.

We drove from Ngorongoro Crater through the Ngorongoro Highlands to the Central Serengeti. The view of the highlands was spectacular and well worth the drive as the landscape is different enough from the rest of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro landscape. We also drove from the Central Serengeti to the Northern Serengeti where Sayari Camp is located. This was a very very long drive. In hindsight, I would suggest flying from the Central Serengeti to the Northern Serengeti; particularly during that time of year since most of the wildebeest have already migrated up to the North so there aren't a tonne of animals between the Central Serengeti and the Northern Serengeti (but you might want to check this with your agent as you are planning to go earlier in the year than we went).

I believe our drive between Ngorongoro to Olakira was 5 hours and it was worth it to see the change in landscape (from the crater to the highlands to the flat plains of the Serengeti). You also see a number of massai people and villages along the way. We really enjoyed this part of our journey, however, as explained above, I think the journey from Central Serengeti to the Northern Serengeti is better flown as it will save you an entire day of driving (about 7 hours I believe).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Oh, just one more response to your question re: cultural things to do near Plantation Lodge. We didn't really venture outside of the lodge as we preferred to stay by the poolside or rest in the plantation gardens when we finished our day safaris. I'm not sure if there is anything to do near the lodge as it's located off a small road that comes off of the main highway. In any case, I think you will likely want to relax at the lodge after a day of safari-ing since it's quite tiring being the jeep all day.

The Ngorongoro Farmhouse is closest to the crater and that drive to the descent road can take about 45/min. The Plantation Lodge is in Karatu, which is farther east of the Farmhouse so I'd add another 45/min.

It's nice to hear that Traveler88 felt it was only a 15/min drive, but it can actually take way more than that to get out of the NCA to the main road.

After an afternoon on the crater floor, you're not likely going to feel the need for something cultural. Just a shower, cool drink, relaxing conversation, good meal and off to sleep.

If you're doing a morning crater tour next day, you have to consider this drive time if you want to be at the crater early. If, instead you're driving direct to the Central Serengeti, then just get going as soon after breakfast.

The Plantation Lodge is lovely.

Yes, as mentioned in my previous email, the Plantation Lodge is 15 minutes to the entrance of the Ngorongoro Crater Rim and then it's another 45 mins to descend to the crater floor.

Glad to hear about the drive from the Crater to the Central Serengeti. We'll trying for either the Serena or Sopa at the Crater, but will be at Plantation the night before. So we'll have the better part of a day at th Crater (I know they limit your time)

Because of the long drive from the Central to Northern Serengeti, we've decided to add an extra night at Sayari, as per Sandi and Patty's suggestions (operator has checked they have availability) and will just bite the bullet with an early morning start north to Sayari from Mbuzi Mawe. We'll now have 2 full days there below flying off to Nairobi via Arusha. And I'm looking forward to some down time at Plantation. Looks wonderful.

the Plantation Lodge is 15 minutes to the entrance of the Ngorongoro Crater Rim and then it's another 45 mins to descend to the crater floor.

This doesn't sound right ... 15 minutes to the end of the paved road and the start of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where you'll be stuck for a while paying entrance fees ... then maybe 30 minutes uphill on a steep road to the rim (30 minutes if you don't get stuck behind a big slow truck) ... then at least 20 more minutes (or was it 40 minutes ... I forgot) driving on the rim road to the descent road ... then 45 minutes on this steep road to the crater floor ...

So almost two hours to reach the Crater floor from Karatu area lodges ... on the return trip it's a bit faster because the ascent road comes out close to the road down to the entrance.

Bill

On second thought, perhaps that's right. It was 15 mins to the entrance of Ngorongoro Conservation Area and then another drive to the entrance of the rim. We only went to the crater for 1 full day so we only did the drive once and didn't mind it. I would say that 1 day at the crater is sufficient, but others may disagree. We saw some wildlife in the Crater but didn't see as many animals as we did in many of the other parks (nor did we get as close to the animals as we did in other national parks).

Also just back from a brilliant trip arranged by Green Footprint with Elisa as our guide as well. Thanks to digital photo records I can verify that it does take 20 minutes to get from Plantation Lodge to the park gate. No lines at 6:28 am when we arrived. By 7:45 am, after following behind many supply lorries on the foggy rim road, we were on the floor of the crater. So a little more than 1 1/2 hours total.
Our "cultural experience" at Plantation Lodge was having nice massages to sooth away the aches from horrible roads in the crater area and Lake Eyasi.
Traveller88, I too cannot get your photos to open & would love to compare our experiences!

I will try to repost my photos this weekend and I have been experiencing some technical glitches.

Wasn't Elisa great?! He is apparently getting married soon (like over the next week or so).