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Don't know if there'll be much interest in these but I thought i'd link some photos from a trip to Tanzania a few years ago...I've been scanning some old film pictures to digital. I'm certainly no pro and scanning is not ideal but to anyone interested, here they are...
My dad, sister and I made the trip to Tanzania flying into Dar es Salaam which has a dearth of nice hotels (if dearth means lack of)...we took a small plane to Zanzibar and stayed at a nice beach resort of the other side of the island...for me (we're from Florida), you can stay at beautiful tropical beach resorts all over the Carribean etc so I would probably stay in Old Town, Zanzibar next time for the experience...we were just removed from the cultural side of things on the other side of the island...and the road at the time was not fully paved so it took a long time to go back and forth...still, the beaches were beautiful if that's what you're after (there are many other beautiful beach spots on the island besides the one we were staying)...from there we flew back to Dar to Arusha to begin our safari....to the Crater....which is always filled with great photo ops...have been twice and while it is a bit zoo-like, my sister loved seeing everything there. It's actually much more restricted now than the first time I visited in 92 (probably good for the wildlife) but as a result when we saw rhino at a long distance, we were not able to get any closer...after that we drove through Olduvai Gorge and visited Lucy...then to the Serengeti for a mobile safari...great lion sightings, more than 50...we visited the spot where the wildebeest cross en masse and the crocs pic them off but our timing was a bit off. The crocs were there...and some of the wildebeest carcasses...but we did not see the actual crossing (this was at the Grumeti River)...we did see some long lines of wildebeest and zebras in migratory mode but not the millions pictured that you sometimes see on tv...we drove on bumpy roads back to Arusha to catch a plane to Mahale...this was one of the most dramatic camps we've ever visited....the flight over arid, brown Tanzania to the brilliant blue/green of Lake Tanganyika....a short runway between the mountains and the lake shore....and then a dhow ride even further to the park. When you reach camp, you round this corner to a stunning sight....this tent (the architecture of the camp has changed and is now is quite different and even more spectacular) set up on the beach with the greenest, lushest jungle spilling over the mountains behind it. And those mountains are full of chimps...we had a shorter than average stay but it was great. Such a stunning setting and the chimps are fascinating....we followed along for a couple hours as they groomed, played, hunted for colobus monkeys, every now and then they broke out into thunderous hoots and shouts....on our way back we visited Ujiji where Stanley met up with Dr. Livingstone (the little curator/guide was worth the trip alone!) and on to Kigoma ( a place where many of the Congo refugees resided). So I hope you enjoy:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35149&id=610038487&l=7e749ee814
Tanzania: Zanzibar, The Crater, the Serengeti and Mahale Mtns (photos)
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Great pictures. It looks like a very magical trip. Thank you for sharing them
Thanks for posting! I'm always interested in hearing about trips to the Mahale area, and enjoyed seeing your pictures (I wish I could get my dad to go on a trip like that with us!). Would you mind posting a bit more about your itinerary -- how many days did you stay in each place, and where did you stay? Did you use a tour operator? It looks like you had a great itinerary, and that information could be really helpful to people planning trips to Tanzania (which I hope to visit again... someday!).
Sure...it was a few years back so this is from memory...we had been on an India trip and used Rare Earth Explorations...she's out of NY and used to organize Africa as well so we used her again. It was a custom trip (we are Africaphiles and have been 9 times now lol) but it was my sisters first trip and my dad had been to Kenya with me but not to Tanzania...so the idea was to cover the traditional plains wildlife, check out the exotic Indian Ocean coast (Zanzibar) and also get the Tarzan's Africa bit by exploring Mahale Mountains NP. I think the breakout was something like:
US to Dar via Joburg (we did a Soweto tour on the layover which was cool to see)
1 night Dar
2 nights Zanzibar
2 nights Crater via Arusha
3 nights mobile tents Serengeti
2 nights MahaleNP
1 night Kigoma
1 night Dar and then home...
I must be missing a day or two in that itinerary...I wanted so badly to see Mahale and the expense can be high so we worked it by hopping a plane in Arusha that was heading to pick up a group from Mahale...then Roland Purcell, the camp owner flew us up the lake on a tiny plane to Kigoma where we caught Air TZ back to Dar...it was a bit of a logistics nightmare but it worked for us...more typical would be several nights in Mahale for multiple chimp visits (one a day I think is the limit) and then perhaps visit their sister camp at Katavi...that would likely make it more economically feasible....but nonetheless we made it work...I was sort of on a mission : )
Since beaches are so common where i'm from, I would stay in one of those nice boutique deals in Old Town and soak up the atmosphere...hard to do when staying across the island...but the beaches are definitely nicer on the other side...and if the beach is the main thing...then one of those resorts would be up your alley...
The Serengeti was the Serengeti....just magnificent... definitely a lion trip with dozens of sightings, some on the hunt for zebra...some munching on a buffalo...lions all around...funny when I think back though...very few elephants...we've had "elephant" trips before where we've seens hundreds it seems, but this one was loaded up with lions...crocs of course too...
Hope that helps some...
Another point--I have a much better camera now---chimps are not the easiest camera subjects....they just seem to absorb all light and appeared in most our pictures as black blobs...I had to manipulate the fill light to see their details...I've definitely done much better photography than these blurry images...I don't really know why but forest light is especially tricky...
Thanks, gator. We went to Tanzania 2 years ago in combination with Kenya, so of the destinations you mention we made it to Zanzibar and the Crater but not the Serengeti or Mahale. I'm hoping to plan another trip back someday to visit those places and return to some favorites.
No worries about the chimp photos, I totally understand. We went chimp trekking in Uganda last year and even with a good camera we didn't get very good shots. We had better luck in Budongo Forest when it was a brighter day and the chimps were up in the trees (and still, backlighting was a pain in the neck!), but down on the dark forest floor in Kibale Forest on a stormy day... forget it! We ended up with a sort of "Monet goes chimp trekking" impressionistic thing.
Your one chimp visit was a success! What time of year did you go?
It was in August---we only got one visit as our time was so short but we had a good couple and a half hours following the various chimp groups...great fun!
added a few more grooming chimp pics...the coolest part would be when they started calling and hooting...I think it was explained it was sort of notifying the other chimp groups of their whereabouts...those are the pics I added. I had a film camera at the time so I've slowly over time converted some to digital..