Keep it coming!!

Thanks for starting your report!

Looking forward to more!

Great start! Good point on the binocs. Sixteen hours of lessons means your husband was serious about his photos!

Surgical scrub suit--what an idea.

Welcome back Dr. Elizabeth.

TORONTO TO ARUSHA

We left Toronto late in the day on January 15th - connected through Paris in the morning and then onto Cairo, where we had a 5 hour layover. Regular readers know that we had a wonderful time with a Cairo based guide (Ahmed Hamed Yousif) 2 years ago, and we were very excited at the thought of having dinner with Ahmed - given our long layover

Wrong.

We arrived in Cairo and made our way to the regular visa area - texted Ahmed that we had landed and he advised he was standing by on the "other side" to greet us. We asked a ground agent to advise us as to where we should go to make our transfer from Air France to Kenya Air.....oh, wait over there.

I won't go into the nitty gritty detail - but suffice to say that the next 2 hours were similar to Alice in Wonderland....people kept showing up to transport us (just us) to various buildings, in various undergrounds, to stare at various security guards (all of whom wanted tips to check our luggage through the scanners....think about that). We didn't tip them.....and later wondered whether we should have.

About an hour in we realized we weren't seeing Ahmed - another flurry of texts confirmed that but he was so sweet and insisted on staying at the airport while we were being moved along the process (if that's what you can call it) so he knew we were safe.

At the end of the ridiculous gauntlet we arrived in Terminal 2 (I think). A small terminal with a few shops/etc. All we wanted was a cold beer - so we found our way to a small bar, where all the airport staff had assembled to watch Egypt in an Africa Cup of Nations match. Within a few minutes we were as into the game as everyone else - and cheered the win. It was a lovely moment.

Then - onto the plane for Nairobi (with an unscheduled stop in Khartoum at 3 in the morning - I watched while they frisked the cleaning staff before they entered the plane....sobering). And finally landed at Nairobi at 7am. We watched as 2 of our 4 bags came off the carousel. And then...nothing. (should have tipped that guy in Cairo, evidently). Richard went to the missing baggage office and found a really helpful fellow who was convinced he knew where our bags were.....he disappeared for about 30 minutes and returned with the missing luggage!

In the meantime I had connected with our driver Mutua - who was patiently waiting outside of customs. The best I could do was my version of charades as I attempted to describe the fact we were waiting for more luggage - Mutua understood my lame sign language and waited for us.

(I should mention how we found Mutua. The agent we used to book Nomad Tanzania had provided costs for transportation from the Nairobi airport to the hotel and back again. The transportation costs were more than a hotel room - literally hundreds of dollars. When asked he said - "well, you need to be safe". That sounded a bit over the top to me so I posted on Fodors and Trip Advisor. One of the "Destination Experts" on TA PMed me and said she would be happy to help by organizing her regular JATCO cab driver for our airport transfers. For $25 each way Mutua was always there when scheduled and very helpful. Better yet, we had a lovely time with the TA Expert when we met up with her at the end of our stay in East Africa when she met us at the Holiday Inn. I have Mutua's contact information for those who would like it)

So...we arrived at the Holiday Inn. The Trip Advisor reviews were good - for the most part - and we had saved a lot of money using points (for two nights - another one on our return from Rwanda...but I'm getting ahead of myself).

From start to finish - both nights - we had a really great experience at the HI. Staff was terrific, room was fine, food was good - it was everything we needed at that moment. A bit of a "bubble" - yes...but we were happy to ease into our trip. And the fact we could check tons of luggage (at no charge) for 2 weeks endeared them to us.

So it was early to bed with all our luggage rearranged - and off to Tanzania in the morning. Mutua picked us up at the hour I designated, and off to the airport we went.

I should comment that I do all the travel planning in our family. Richard is wonderful when I ask for his involvement and opinions, but for the most part I run the show. (he does a million other things in our weird sharing of duties relationship - actually he does most things, but I digress)

So....we arrive at Jomo Kenyatta airport for our 8am flight to Kilimanjaro - there is a long line outside the terminal at the xray equipment so it is about 7:10am when we get to the check in agent.
Richard has gone over to have our walking sticks covered in plastic (we need them for our Rwanda trek) so I'm alone when the agent says "you are checking in too late - you cannot make this flight - the next one is at 6pm".

Gobsmacked. The Brits have the best word for how I felt. I asked her to speak to her supervisor and she went off for a few minutes. Upon her return she said, no, there was nothing that could be done. It was now about 7:25am - I asked to speak to the supervisor and she pointed him out to me.....over I went. (I could see Richard returning to the check in agent and watched his face as she told him we could not make the flight...ouch)

With the supervisor I used that most deadly of weapons.

The truth.

It was my fault, I told him. I was too cavalier with the timing to the airport; had failed to realize we would have to do the security screening before we got to the check in counter, etc. Could he please help.

He looked at me as though it was first time anybody had actually taken personal responsibility for their problem. And then he smiled. And then he picked up the phone.

He personally escorted us through Passport Control (after he had purloined another staff member to carry our bags - since it was too late to check them) to the gate - and wished us a happy and safe journey.

Never underestimate the value of the truth.

And then we land - and Felix awaits us. Little do we know what a great time we're about to have.

Can't wait for the next installment. Don't regret deciding not to buy the Flip - it is very unreliable. Both my son-in-law and I have gotten free replacements from the manufacturer and both our replacements work sporadically.

To say that I obsess about our guides is an absolute understatement.

As mentioned, we chose Nomad due to their reputation for great guides...and before we left I did everything I could to ensure we would get the best guide...for us.

About 3 months before our departure I emailed the agent to clearly outline our requirements (not the least of which was a vehicle with a good suspension for Richard's dodgy back). At that time I also described our past relationships with guides....how they have become our friends....and attempted to impress upon the agent how important the guide was to us. He replied that he would do the best he could but that it was pretty much the luck of the draw.

Coincidentally I had struck up a conversation with the MD of Nomad (via Trip Advisor) so I shamelessly sent him a similar email.

We struck gold.

Felix Mollel is a senior guide who.... has a great sense of humour, speaks great English, has a great vehicle (which is really important), and - most importantly - can see animals in the next country.

Within 5 minutes we knew we were going to have a great time with him...and become great friends.

Pics of Felix and his vehicle here

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/arrival-in-tanzania.html

Elizabeth,

This trip reports are invaluable to those of us still planning. Many thanks indeed for including the level of detail that you have.

I'm 6'2'' and have the same issues so was reading that bit with particular interest.

Looking forward to the next installment
Thanks

I have always enjoyed Liz and Richard's Great Adventures. You have not disappointed once again.
Looking forward to more!

Moneyburns

Very entertaining and detailed ! I'd love to have that gift and patience!

I am looking forward to reading about the NOMAD experience (particularly as some of their camps have not "decent" toilets but rather long-drop).

Maybe for any reader who wants to exclude an experience which Liz describes at Nairobi Intl. - SAFARI LINK flies WILSON-Kilimanjaro with much smaller aircrafts, Wilson is much more intimate for all procedures and arrival at JRO is pleasantly uncrowded - also regarding VISA procedure on site.

SV

Hi Liz, welcome back! I have been following your adventures on your blog. Very nicely done.

"SAFARI LINK flies WILSON-Kilimanjaro"

... as does Air Kenya, but these flights don't depart till 12:40pm or 1pm. If you want an early flight it's out of JKIA with the 8am in high demand; depending on day of week, there's another flght mid-morning.

Elizabeth,

I am really enjoying your trip report as I did the blog. Looking forward to more,

Pol.

Thanks all for the nice comments!

Forgot one other essential thing we took (for us, anyway) - itty bitty booklights as we both like to read at night and some of the bedside lighting was too dim.

Trying to keep to travel details and not just rewrite the blog here, but that's tough!

So we left Kilimanjaro for our 4+ hour drive to Plantation Lodge (first wildlife spotting about 2 hours into the drive - a giraffe! About a hundred miles away but still exciting)

A comment here about our itinerary - as you can see we spent 4 nights at Plantation Lodge before going to the Serengeti, traveling from the Lodge to Lake Manyara, the Crater, etc. This is an unusual length of stay but worked for us for several reasons:

• We do not like to change hotels everyday and have always accepted a 90 minute drive morning/afternoon to see sites rather than change hotels. (Also, and this might just be because I'm parsimonious, but at the price of some of this accommodation it doesn't make sense to me to check in late in the day and check out early the next morning....if I'm going to pay the rate I want to enjoy the experience)
• I couldn't get excited about the Crater accommodation options (Crater Lodge wasn't a contender), particularly given we'd have to spend two nights there due to driving to the Serengeti after the Crater. I suppose I came closest to booking Sopa Lodge (mainly due to the access road) although I did fret about not being on the crater for sunrise/sunset (which happily I did not regret later)
• Richard has a dodgy back and I always try to have one flexible day early on after a long travel period - we had plans for 2 of the 3 days at Plantation Lodge - the other was in reserve in case he needed to just relax (happily not needed so we could do other things)

We were very happy with the Plantation Lodge - a nice upgrade to a suite ("4 nights?" asked the manager) and lots of time to poke around and experience the Lodge (do visit the vegetable garden). Food was good (especially the soups) and very friendly staff. One criticism is they don't allow guides to dine with guests - I can perhaps understand that when they are full but that wasn't the case when we were there (obviously I don't think the guide should have to dine with the guests but we would have appreciated the option). Blog entry here

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/off-to-the-plantation-lodge-outside-karatu.html

Off early the next morning to Lake Manyara - I had read some debate about whether Manyara is "worth" visiting (and the TA who booked Nomad for us certainly didn't think so) but we had a great day and were very happy we did. (it should also be noted the TA didn't think the Crater was any raving hell, either - too crowded, he thought) Blog entry here (warning - sad picture of feral dog with porcupine quills)

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/lake-manyara.html

One comment re safari vehicles - Felix has a converted Toyota Land Cruiser which he owns but is outfitted to Nomad specs. We really liked the style and configuration - the roof pieces lift over and back and are not in the way of photo taking and the built in frig meant there was always cold beer! And Felix has a great folding table and chairs kit (complete with a variety of tablecloths) for our many bush breakfasts and lunches.

Day 2 we were off to the Crater - when I started planning our trip to Africa over 2 years ago I asked Richard if there was anything in particular he wanted to see. "Ngorongoro" he answered immediately - "I've wanted to see it since I was 10 years old". Well that pretty much sealed it, didn't it? We left early from Plantation Lodge (before 6am) to get to the park as the gates opened and then took the Sopa Road. Almost immediately upon turning right onto the Sopa Road we had one of our best game viewings of the entire 2 month trip - a family of 9 lions, less than 3 metres from the vehicle. (pics on blog). We were one of the first cars in and were alone for most of the day - which was a very magical one. Hard for something to deliver after all those years of waiting - but it was everything Richard had hoped for, and more. 2 links to the blog

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/ngorongoro-crater-part-1.html

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/ngorongoro-crater-part-2.html

Then finally our unscheduled day - on the drive back from the Crater we professed our desire to get out of the "bubble" and see some local sites. So we developed a plan to visit a school/orphanage, a local farmer's market, a local restaurant (Felix revised that to a local bar) and then a visit to land he owns near Karatu - the site of his future B&B. It was a really great day - sweet and sad - not many pics though. We also bought a few pieces that day - really incredibly awkwardly sized and heavy things that Felix took back to Arusha with him and miraculously wrapped and shipped to us for about $100 (they arrived in 3 weeks all intact - will post separate pics).

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/a-day-of-rest-well-sort-of.html

Well...better stop here - next installment will be the Serengeti and I promise SV an explanation about long drop toilets! We're off to our neighbours for our welcome home party - pity them as we're taking our laptop and we have about a million pictures of elephants from Chobe (and about that many of sand from Namibia!)

Hi Elizabeth. This is certainly a small world! I emailed you as you were about to leave for Rwanda to ask you about Ahmed.
I did not land up using him for my trip to Egypt in May-He sent me back a e=mail saying that he was busy, so I worked with a lovely TA in Cairo
Of course, now I am thinking of my next trip -which could be South or East Africa- I cannot do them both as I probably will take 2-3 weeks. I likely will do 2 separate holidays-so I look forward to your reports. As you recall, I live in Montreal Regards Sandy

Love your photos. What kind of camera and lenses did you use. The pictures of the lioness in the tree are AMAZING!

Sorry, I re-read and now see you used a Sony CyberShot.

mrscherry2000 - the lioness pics were taken with our new Sony A-300 DSLR - although Richard still loves the Cybershot.

Going to finish this today - shouldn't have started it before it was finished!

Glad you're still writing this--very enjoyable. During your trip I wanted to post "So you didn't end up wearing jeans!" on the Rwanda portion of your blog.

I'll check out the blogs and photos, but I'm glad for you and Richard that the crater came through.

I still have not gotten to the crater, but your account of telling the truth to the supervisor (the truth?? what a concept!) is great. Whew!

I hope the poor dog with the quills did not suffer too much. At the moment you snapped the picture there was a whole continent and world of suffering going on, but it's the dog photo that made it into the blog. Poor thing.

There was that Manyara greeter that everyone runs into. I wonder if it is the same elephant since they live a long time. Great ele shots, especially that eyeball one. The baboons were out in force, as usual, in Manyara.

Hello Elizabeth S

Sounds like a fantastic trip so far. A stupid question for you...what is a TA? Where can I find one for Tanzania (Serengeti; Ngorogoro Crater; and Singati Grumeti Reserves)?

Thanks a bunch and looking forward to your next installment!

Darryl

Dmiclat,
Until Elizabeth gets back here, a TA is a travel agent.

"Find one" means you are looking for a trip? Any TA that specializes in Africa can put together a trip with those locations or others.

SERENGETI SAFARI CAMP

I'm not going to stop until I finish the Tanzania portion!

We left Plantation Lodge at 8am for the drive to Nomad's Serengeti Safari Camp; with a planned stop at Olduvai Gorge on the way. This was a real highlight for Richard as he is a voracious reader of all things archaeological and remembers well the Leakeys 1959 discovery of the hominid fossils at Olduvai Gorge.

We sat through the short presentation and visited the museum there - but the highlight was when Felix turned off the main road and we drove through the gorge. From that point until we arrived at the Safari Camp we were well off the beaten track and virtually alone for 4 hours.

Felix drove us past the Shifting Sands - fascinating barkan dunes that move about 17 metres a year - and we spent a long time watching a hyena and vultures with a zebra kill - pics and video on these two blog links....

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/into-the-serengeti.html

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/c-tanzania---serengeti-safari-camp/

About 4pm we arrived at the Safari Camp (near Ndutu Lodge).
In my initial planning I had assumed we would stay at Ndutu Lodge - lots of good reviews. I discovered that it is very common to end up on a waiting list for Ndutu , and while you usually get a room (after the provisional group bookings are shed) I wasn't comfortable with that uncertainty. In addition, as I've said, our primary reason for choosing Nomad was the quality of their guides and so I looked at their accommodation at Ndutu (and outside of Serengeti at Loliondo).

We are not campers. Period. Full Stop. Serengeti Safari Camp is a mobile camp - it moves a few times during the migration to maximize the game experience so it is less luxurious than other tented camps. What does that mean? Well, the tents have canvas floors (not raised wood floors at permanent tented camps such as Kirawira) and no crystal chandeliers! But otherwise the accommodation was comfortable and fun.

There are lots of pics and a description on the blog - here

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/serengeti-camping-not-your-fathers-boy-scout-memories.html

The biggest nod to "camping" is the shower and toilet facilities. The tents are ensuite and quite cleverly designed with various sections that close off via zippered walls. The shower is a bucket shower (approx 20 litres of perfect temperature water) - there was enough water to wash and condition longish hair, as long as you turned the water off between actions. And the bucket toilet (my bete noire) was just fine. You'll see in the pic on the blog that it is a toilet seat on a large wooden box and below (quite a long way) is a large sand filled bucket. After use you toss a ladle full of sand into the bucket and close the lid - no odour or bugs. And the bucket was swapped out with great frequency (accomplished privately due to all the separate zippered compartments in the tent.

Otherwise the tent was large, with a double bed and turndown service, complete with hot water bottles! Light was solar powered although we were happy to have our itty bitty booklights for reading at night.

We were the only guests for the duration of our stay (3 nights) - this was the case for most of our African holiday. There was a Nomad consultant in camp (the food consultant) and we had a great time with her. (and later in Loliondo as she preceded us there by a day).

The staff were terrific, food was very good - quite impressive offerings considering where we were, and at night we went to sleep to the sound of Zebra munching on the grass outside our tent.

We fell into a nice rhythm of an early start (left camp by 6:30am) and went where the game took us. A bush breakfast at 9:30 or so (complete with french press coffee - Liz was in heaven) and then more game viewing - following are 3 blog links - the elephants were stunning and the 90 minutes we spent under a lioness in a tree were incredibly memorable

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/game-drives.html

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/elephants.html

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/lions-in-bushes-and-in-trees.html

Back to camp about 1pm for a 2pm lunch and then a siesta until 4:30 or 5:00 - back out for a shorter game drive...back to camp about 7:00 and then drinks around a fire and dinner. Yes, all we did was sit on our butts and eat!

One of the reasons we prefer to travel with a private guide is that Richard has a bad back and if we have our own vehicle then we can make changes if necessary (delay a departure time or come back early, etc). We were both concerned about how his back would hold up to the rough driving conditions and rougher suspension of the safari vehicles. To say we were traveling with a drugstore full of pain meds is an understatement and Felix was especially solicitous as I had contacted Nomad about this issue well in advance.

Day 2 at Serengeti Safari Camp, the first thing Richard said to me at 6:00am was

"I have no pain".

Not a manageable amount of pain...not the usual amount of pain...No pain.

This after 5 days in "the truck" (as we affectionately call it) - bouncing across the Serengeti and pulling ourselves up and down at frequent intervals. And his back was to remain that way for the rest of our 8 weeks in Africa, which offered up lots of other (ordinarily) challenging back issues such as trekking to see the gorillas, bouncing all across Namibia and changing a couple of tires (see, bouncing across Namibia). This is the most wonderful thing, because now we know it is possible for Richard to be pain free - we just have to figure out how to replicate it (sorry - digression there but it is just the best thing for him!)

We had a great time at Serengeti Safari Camp and highly recommend it. We returned to the area a few days later to fly to Arusha and stopped at Ndutu Lodge for a bathroom break - it did look very nice as well if you don't want the tented experience.

OFF TO LOLIONDO

Loliondo is Nomad's camp northeast of Ndutu - outside the Serengeti National Park. The main reasons to go there is to do a bush walk, night drive and visit a Maasai Village - and we thought the yurts looked fun (and they were!). We stayed there 2 nights.

Really lovely drive from Ndutu - about 5 hours but we were taking our time. I think we saw 3 or 4 trucks that whole time.
Re the bush walk and night game drive - we enjoyed both of them very much - the latter more than the former due mainly to the pocked nature of the ground (you don't realize how many holes there are when you're driving in the truck). As it was we both had our eyes glued to the ground as we walked - we're both clumsy and didn't want a broken ankle! The night drive was fun (and the sundowner that preceded it) but makes for terrible pics.

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/off-to-loliondo.html

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/more-loliondo-a-night-drive-and-masai-visit.html

The highlight of our stay at Loliondo was dinner with all of the staff - once again it was just Richard and I and Sarah, the food consultant, and we cooked up a plan to meet everyone (it involved us buying a goat - and graciously declining the honour of killing it)....

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/africa/2010/02/the-last-supper-in-loliondo-and-a-flight-over-the-crater.html

Up early the next morning for a 7:30am departure to get to the Ndutu airstrip for our noon flight to Arusha. When we got to the airport we realized we should have just planned to drive back to Arusha with Felix (he lives there) because we didn't want to leave him!

But it was a great flight over the crater - and we know we will keep in touch with him (after all he and I share the same birthday)

Picked up in Arusha by Nomad and taken to Rivertrees for one night (very short night as we had to leave at 4am for our flight to Kigali). Rivertrees was fine - nice big room, free wi-fi and very helpful staff (especially considering it was our waiter at dinner who had to get up to get us out at 4am!).

I'll finish this portion of our trip report slightly out of order - we went on to Rwanda to trek to see the gorillas and I'll do a separate trip report for that.

Ultimately we ended the East Africa portion of our holiday back at the Holiday Inn in Nairobi (the "bubble") reunited with the luggage we had checked two weeks earlier. An even nicer room the second visit (overlooking the fish pond and with air conditioning - we didn't need it but can imagine there are times you would - the air conditioning, not the fish pond!). As mentioned we met up with our Trip Advisor friend which was very interesting and enjoyed the dinner buffet. The service was really excellent at the hotel - as soon as we asked for an early wake up call (4:30am) they offered to bring a continental breakfast to the room as the restaurant didn't open until 5:00am.

Obviously we didn't spend any real time in Nairobi so can't really comment on it - but we did find it tense. There had been a major demonstration the day before we arrived with several deaths, and the security at the Holiday Inn was very high - Richard walked out the front door during the middle of the day to have a look around and the doorman and security guard followed an inch behind him.

We had a 7am flight to South Africa so had to be at the airport early (after almost missing the flight to Tanzania at the same airport 2 weeks earlier you can imagine how we over compensated!) so we left the hotel at 5am with our lovely cab driver Mutua. I had read in many places that one should not drive at night in some of the cities we were visiting - Nairobi being one - but had overlooked the fact that our 7am flight meant leaving the hotel in darkness. Mutua took a main road near the Holiday Inn and within about 200 metres there was a major traffic jam, with dozens of people spilling out of what looked to be a nightclub. Within another few metres we would have been stuck in a crowd that wasn't looking very happy. Mutua did a masterful 3 point turn with his Corolla and booted down a side street. It wasn't a lot better - but a short run to a much larger street. We could tell he was very concerned.

Arrived with plenty of time to spare - Mutua was terrific and we're happy to provide his contact information. We were back onto our Delta points tickets for the flight to Jo-Berg so we crammed ourselves into Kenya Airways Biz Class lounge for an hour or so and then had a really nice flight to Jo-Berg and connected onto Cape Town for 3 weeks in a rental house in Simon's Town (to be the subject of a separate trip report).

SUMMARY OF THE TANZANIA PORTION OF OUR TRIP REPORT

We had a spectacular time - for two primary reasons:

• we understood our own weird way of traveling and spent 4 nights in one place at the beginning, contrary to many standard itineraries and some advice we received. These first 4 days really grounded us for the trip and made the whole experience comfortable and relaxing

• we had a wonderful guide, who made the whole trip for us

Early on in my research I posted a question on Fodors:

"How many game drives is enough?"

I had some great responses to that - people really worked hard to understand us and how we travel and what would be of interest to us.
In the end the answer for us is - never enough.

We had 9 days of game drives in/around the Serengeti - many of them very long ... 5/6+ hours. And then later in the trip we drove for 16 days through Namibia (much of that being just one big game drive) and then spent 4 days in Botswana (Chobe) with a combination of driving and boat cruises.

I found the game drives to be incredibly relaxing (a description I had not read)....especially the Tanzania portion. We'd just drive along, find something interesting (big or small) and just enjoy life. We didn't have a list of animals we were desperate to see - big, small, whatever - we were happy (and we really loved the birds).

We preferred the Tanzania/Serengeti safari drive to the Botswana one (this is only a slight preference, though) - we found the Serengeti was just more.....random....if that's the right word. Few obvious roads, few other vehicles - just the 3 of us, having fun. The Chobe/Botswana portion had more of an organized feel to it (even though we were in a private vehicle) - obvious roads/routes that all follow. (Don't misunderstand me - we loved Chobe - saw a million elephants!) .... but the Serengeti stole our hearts.

How much of that was due to Felix? - a great deal, we believe. For those planning a trip with Nomad Tanzania we recommend you request him as your guide. If you are not using Nomad Tanzania, Felix can work with you directly to plan and book an Arusha/Crater/Serengeti trip using all of the local lodges, and he can handle financial transactions electronically.

If you would like Felix's contact information, please email me at

eseibertca AT yahoo DOT ca

Once again thanks to everyone here who helped us with our planning - we would not have had this trip without you.

Now - onto the South Africa Trip Report - not posting it until I've fully written it!

Thanks

Liz

Aloha Liz, I don't know what I enjoy most about your trip report--the pictures or your wonderful sense of humor and dialogue. Thanks so much for sharing--what a fantastic experience you had!

Now I saw the crater. Adorable lion cubs and good job on the rhino! The mud spa looked attractive, especially if you are a hyena.

Thanks for your post. I finally had a chance to start reading your report, and I'm really enjoying it. We had a nice stay at Plantation Lodge too, when we were visiting the Crater. Nice to see such pretty pictures of it.

Looking forward to reading about your adventures in South Africa...

A good guide such as Felix will turn those stones into cheetah cubs, just like magic.

Saw your honey badger and African Wildcat in the Serengeti. Great finds! The wild cat is such a rarity, but looks so much like the common housecat. I never get over that.

Liz

Thanks for the fantastic trip reports. We just left you an email re: Felix's contact information. We are planning our mid-August 2011 Tanzanian Safari. We would welcome any and all additional guidance you can provide. Please let us know how the SA trip goes - we are considering visiting Cape Town for 2-3 nights after our safari before we depart for the home.

Thanks!
dmiclat

dmiclat - just replied to your email.

Lynn - the honey badger and wildcat were real highlights for us....and Felix. I guess you can tell when something is rare when the guide also takes a picture!

Coming in a bit late to your report, but wanted to add my 2 pennies to your husband's "no back pain" comment. We were in TZ last year in August - a trip planned a year in advance, and then what happens to me in Feb? A rather bad disc herniation! The trip involved trekking (in Mahale)+ the usual rough roads elsewhere. I had been hobbling for months & praying daily that the chimps would come to camp instead of us having to climb the mountains. I even did my back exercises during the Swiss flight to Dar, much to the astonishment of the stewards and passengers. Anyway, to cut a long story short, on about our 4th day in country, the pain vanished - just like that. Ended up hiking and bumping over rutted roads with nary a twinge! I thought I was a strange one, but was amazed to read about your husband.

Moral of the story for people with back problems - just plan a trip to Africa.

Sangeeta, I second your advice! I was in southern and western Tanzania last September and left the US with a frozen shoulder. Several months of physical therapy hadn't made much of a difference. When I returned from the safari, the therapist was amazed to discover that my shoulder was perfectly fine! I attribute that to all those bumpy game drives... works wonders on shoulder adhesions.

BTW, where did you stay at Mahale? We were at Kungwe. August should have been a perfect time to be there.

We used Flycatcher for that trip, ShayTay. We "floated" past Kungwe on the Flycatcher dhow and waved to some people on shore - perhaps it was you?
And that makes three cures so far! How amazing is that?

We saw the Flycatcher camps at Mahale and Katavi. Our group was probably there after you were (mid/late September.)Great places! We were also at Ruaha and Mikumi.

Great report!I really enjoy it and hopefully i will go there soon.Thanks!

Liz - Great report! May I ask you how many P-M's you brought with you? One use only?

tinydancer - thanks - there are 5 P-Ms to the pack. While they are billed as single use they are slightly plasticized so I did re-use (whoa - way too much information!)

sangeeta - well there is something to this! Maybe we can get a "prescription" for Africa

Thanks Liz! That's what I needed to hear.

Wouldn't that be wonderful, Liz? And little a tax deduction on top? Would go a long way towards funding some of these trips
Very much enjoyed your report & pics. I'm in the process of trying to organize a Serengeti mobile for July 2011, so your report was particularly welcome.
Thanks.

What a great report!
Goes on my wish list.
Was Tanzania very hot in February? Was it in the 80s during the day, or did it climb into the 90s or above?

Wow - nice to see this pop up!

We were there in late January and it was never higher than the 80s - it might have been a bit warmer in the crater but not high in humidity. We didn't have AC in the truck and didn't need it.

Night was cool - we had hot water bottles in our beds.

Thanks, Elizabeth-
Happy travels!

We are probably going to follow you to Africa in a couple of years, so I'm bookmarking this report. It's my brother-in-law's dream trip and hubby and I will tag along. But I'll do the planning or rather, copy what Liz did, relax, and enjoy! (like we did for Egypt with Ahmed).

Cheers, and happy travels!

nola - we had such a great time with Felix you could just replicate the whole thing and be delighted I'm sure!

Hi Elizabeth, I read your report some while back, and I don't remember how you got back to Arusha at the end of Tanzania safari. Did you fly or drive all the way across the plain. what do you think about the drive? I am unsure of this option, but if i choose fly, i will have to pay for the relocation of vehicle as much as the airfare.

daisyznite - we flew from Ndutu to Arusha although we should have just driven back with our driver as we were having so much fun! Virtually the whole drive is a game drive of sorts, and we loved our guide so much would rather have spent the time with him.