ruby_sage

Greetings! While I wasn't too active in posting on this board, I found it very useful over the past year in planning our safari. We just returned (this evening), and I wanted to recap (partly b/c I can't sleep due to let lag!)

Itinerary:
12/27: SFO to AMS
12/29: AMS to Kilimanjaro, overnight at Serena Mt. Village
12/30 - 12/31: Tarangire Safari Lodge
1/1: Game drive in Manyara, overnight at E Unoto Retreat
1/2: Serengeti Sopa
1/3 - 1/5: Migration Camp
1/5: Serengeti Sopa
1/6: Ngorongoro Sopa
1/7: Serena Mt. Village, Arusha
1/8: Kilimanjaro to AMS, AMS to SFO (arrive 1/9).

We traveled by vehicle between each location.

Operator:
Good Earth Safari & Tours (www.goodearthtours.com). We had a wonderful experience with Good Earth. I would highly recommend the company, and especially our guide Joseph. We did a private tour with Good Earth. There were four of us in a nice Toyota LandCruiser (1999) with a hard pop-top. I was very comfortable during the journey…and we spent a lot of time driving!

Background:
I am trained as a wildlife biologist, and have dreamed of visiting Tanzania for as long as I can remember. I had a fixed window of time for which I could travel, and a fairly tight budget (grad student). Of the highest priority was observing as much of the wildlife (including birds), as possible.

Highlights:
1. MUD! Because of the late rains, the roads were an adventure (to say the least). Joseph was an amazing driver (I emphasize amazing). We did not get stuck once, and we saw plenty of vehicles that did. Our driver, and vehicle aided in several vehicle rescues. Many of the game circuits in the northern Serengeti were impassable, and the road to Migration Camp was pretty much non-existent at certain points (we were re-routed through the woodland). It was certainly an adventure!
2.Rain: The rain in Africa was amazing. Each night we were treated to the most spectacular thunder and lightening show. It rained 3 or 4 days of our trip, but I don’t think the rain lasted for more than 1 or 2 hours on each day. I was amazed at just how quickly a storm could roll in, and roll out.
3.Birds: I love birding, and it was important that I was able to do a bit of this on safari. I tried to keep a running list of each bird that we identified (via sight or sound). Joseph was great at spotting game (both bird and other animal). My bird list is at least 70 species long. I think the ‘prettiest’ bird I saw was a malachite kingfisher.
4. Wildlife Viewing: We had excellent luck in Tarangire, and it was my favorite park of the trip. The highlight of that park was witnessing a mother cheetah, and her three cubs (nearly full grown) swim across a swollen river to reach a herd of impala, and then make two kills. The cubs caught a young impala, and so did the mother. I never thought I would see a cheetah swim! Other wildlife highlights: (1) watching a male lion guard a giraffe carcass, (2) watching two crocodiles munch on a hippo carcass, (3) seeing four black rhinos in Ngorongoro, (4) being surrounded by a herd of zebra in Ngorongoro, (5) watching a dung beetle in action (it is so cool how they maneuver those large dung balls), (6) observing the social interactions in a baboon troop, (7) seeing a leopard, (8) watching elephants splash and play in the Tarangire River (for hours!), such an amazing change from seeing them at the zoo, (9) seeing thousands of wildebeest in the South Serengeti/NCA…the list could go on and on!

Lodges:
1. Serena Mt. Village (Arusha): I really enjoyed this lodge, and it was a great place to begin, and end our safari. On the last day we did the canoe safari around Lake Duluti, and really enjoyed it. We observed cormorants, several species of kingfisher, and two large water monitor lizards.
2. Tarangire Safari Lodge: We stayed in the tented rooms, and I really enjoyed this lodge. It was actually my favorite of the trip. It is rustic and low-key (which I like in my accommodations). The lodge sits on a bluff overlooking the Tarangire River, and the view couldn’t be beat. The staff was incredible friendly, and there was wildlife everywhere! We saw elephants, giraffes, baboons, vervet monkeys, and hyena.
3. E Unoto Retreat (outside of Mtu Wa Mbo, near Lake Manyara): E Unoto was beautiful, and the service was excellent. Our room was perched up on a hillside overlooking the Rift Valley. E Unoto directly supports the local Maasai community, and offers several cultural trips, but due to time we were not able to take any. My favorite part of the resort was the dining area (an open thatched roof patio that had the most amazing view), and the performance that evening by local Maasai villagers.
4. Serengeti Sopa: My least favorite of our accommodations. After staying at Tarangire (and being so close to nature), and E Unoto (with its focus on Maasai culture) I felt that the Sopa was a bit of a disappointment. The rooms were fine, the food was fine, but it kind of felt like I was staying at a Holiday Inn stuck in the middle of the wilderness. Compared to Tarangire, and E Unoto it was huge, and I always felt like there were herds of tourists around. But, I knew upfront that we would have to stay at Sopas (at least 2 nights) to make the rest of our trip possible on our budget.
5. Migration Camp, Northern Serengeti: Amazing luxury. From the minute we arrived we were blown away. The setting, the ‘tents,’ the lounge, and the restaurant were all exquisite. Peter and Anita were fabulous hosts, and I thoroughly enjoyed our 2 nights here. The food at Migration Camp was the best that we had on the entire trip. (I would say that E Unoto was second for best food).
6. Ngorongoro Sopa: In my opinion it was much better than the Serengeti Sopa. I liked the bar/lounge, and the incredible view of the crater below.

Lessons Learned:
1. I learned that I prefer the tented-camps, and the smaller lodges better. The Sopas were not bad, and did not negatively affect the trip, they just didn’t enhance the experience like the other accommodations (hopefully that makes sense).
2. Next time I visit E. Africa, I will make sure that I try to spend 2 nights at each accommodation (or fly to the Serengeti). During our trip we were able to cover a lot of ground, but it was tiring. We spent most days in a vehicle for 8-10 hours.
3. Shop around for your safari tour operator. We talked with several individuals that were taking almost identical trips, and some paid nearly double.

Books:
I spent a lot of time researching, and evaluating which field books to purchase, and bring on safari. I ended up purchasing “Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania” by Peterson Field Guides, and “The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals” by Robert Estes. I would highly, highly recommend both. I found the Safari Companion to be a great read. It does not focus on how to identify an animal, it focuses on their behavior, and interpreting what it means (based on years of in-field research). It was fascinating to watch the accounts in the book carried out in ‘real-life’ by the animals I observed.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Erica

ruby_sage

Here is my running list of what we observed. I still have a dozen or so more species to add...

elephant, cheetah, lion, warthog, buffalo, impala, hippos, zebra, giraffe, thompson's gazelle, grant's gazelle, wildebeest, silver or black-backed jackal, banded mongoose, dik-dik, vervet monkey, baboon, blue monkey, masked weaver, white-headed buffalo weaver, fish eagle, red-headed bishop, ground hornbill, red-billed hornbill, silver-cheeked hornbill, lilac-breasted roller, helmeted guineafowl, yellow-necked spurfowl, superb starling, white-bellied go-away bird, flamingos, marabou stork, abdim's stork, great white pelicans, red-and-yellow barbet, grey-headed kingfisher, ostrich, long-crested eagle, kori bustard, white stork, africa white-backed vulture, lappet-faced vulture, secretary bird, denham's bustard, topi, bat-eared fox, white-bellied bustard, african goshawk, nile crocodile, leopard, hyrax, bare-faced go-away bird, african green pigeon, african wattled plover, agama lizard, klipspringer, hammerhead, fischer's lovebird, blue-capped cordon-bleu, crowned crane, dark chanting goshawk, tawny eagle, white-headed vulture, augur buzzard, eland, cerval cat, blacksmith plover, black rhino, spur-winged goose, malachite kingfisher, pied kingfisher, giant kingfisher, white-chested cormorant, red-breated cuckoo, water monitor... (that is where I left off).

VDB

Oh so very exciting. Thank you for sharing your terrific experience. We will be there in less than a week and also on a private Good Earth tour. I think there is hope for some slowing on the rains, but I see there were no complaining comments from you. Can't even believe the trip is almost here.

I also have purchased the Safari companion and hope to give it a good read on the plane.

Thanks again and good to read of your happiness with Good Earth

kimburu

Swimming cheetah is really something Erica. I live in hope.

Wistman

This is just to thank you for your wonderful report. When we went on basically the same trip in October (although with a different operator and staying at different places), Northern Tanzania was pretty-well bone-dry. Our guide kept telling us that the roads we were on would be virtually impassible a few weeks later but this was hard to believe at the time.

Like you I love the Estes book and like you my top park was Tarangire.

mollymich

Sounds like you had agreat time - that '2 night' comment makes sense. Which safari outfitter did you use? Any you heard weren't,well, goo?

Molly

waynehazle

Yes that "stay 2 nights in every place" is great advice. These long driving days are killer and then getting up the next morning and checking out again is hard to take.

Leely

Glad you had such a good trip, Erica. And what luck you had in Tarangire! Cheetahs in the river. Like kimburu, I live in hope.

Patty

Thanks for your report, Erica. Swimming cheetahs, wow!

Have a great trip, VDB!

sreuland

MUD is right. I had been on Safari from Dec 19 through Dec 26 on the same Tanzania circuit of Tarangire,Manyara,Ngorongoro and Serengeti.

Our driver had 30 years of experience(20 as a park ranger in Manyara and 10 as a guide) and he said he's never seen that much standing water on the plains. We got stuck inside Seronera circuit within Serengeti Park on xmas day. Maybe somebody else on here was there that day also? Both roads out of the circuit were completely flooded over, the hippo pool had overflowed and was raging over the top of the road.

This was about 4pm'ish, so, all the safari vehicles just parked on either side of the flooding and waited for waters to drop. Everyone got out of vehicles and were just hanging out on the roads and in the grasses chatting and exchanging stories with other folks. The hippos we're in heaven.

It finally got dark and waters were getting even higher, so, we punted and went to Seronera Wildlife Lodge and had xmas dinner there. It was then about 9:30pm that our guide re-checked the waters and they had dropped. We drove from Seronera to Ndutu lodge, through the serengeti bush at night for 2 hours to get back to Ndutu by midnight.

Talk about a nite game drive! Haeyena and big Hawks everywhere. It had a totally different feel than daytime, and I woulda been freaked out if our guide had shown any sign of indecision, because at nite you lose all bearings as you can only see as far as the headlights and there are very few landmarks to guide by other than the trail that's in front of you. Our guide was awesome tho, and was able to keep on the trail at nite even with all the secondary trails due to flooding of main trail in areas. Two other nites in other parks we were delayed into the nite time as well before finally getting to our lodging. It just took alot of detouring and muddy 4x4'ing to get around.

One things for sure - the migration was pumping in the general area of Ndutu in Serengeti, wildebeest and zebra stacked to the horizon in the short grass plains, and all sorts of giraffe, elephant, lion, cheetah in the bordering woodlands. Ndutu lodge was right in it, and we had herds walking right by our front porch.

At end of trip, we were supposed to fly out of seronera back to arusha but the airstrip was no-go(initally due to mainenance, but then delayed big time by rains), Ndutu has an airstrip also, which would have been awesome, but the plane(AirExcel) wasn't certified to land there, so we had to drive from Ndutu back to Lake Manyara on final morning to catch a flight to arusha. The tour operator said the rains were easily the heaviest the region has seen in at least ten years.

atravelynn

You had some outstanding game viewing and with your background, I know you really appreciated it. I wonder if the bountiful rains will have an effect on wildlife numbers a few years into the future.

dhruvgupta

A question - did you fly KLM from SFO? I'm facing a decision - use BA to fly into NBO ($1300) or use KLM to fly into JRO ($1900).... My itinerary will be similar - the savings is tempting, but then the overheads in transportation from NBO to JRO might equalize the amount..

Any thoughts?

ruby_sage

Yes, we took KLM the entire way. My only input is that traveling on one airline was convenient, and we had great service on KLM.

good luck with the decision.

dhruvgupta

what kind of fares did you get? Did you book directly from KLM or some consolidator/website?

allycb

My advice would be to fly into JRO. We flew into NBO, had to get a visa and stay overnight in Nairobi and got the shuttle bus to Arusha the next day. If you are planning on just doing the Northern Circuit in Tanzania, I am sure you will feel the 600 dollars are worth it!

ruby_sage

I think we paid $1800 per person, so very similar to your price.

ruby_sage

Forgot to mention: we booked through the northwest website.

dhruvgupta

Thanks! That helps..

Right now, NW website has fares for 2100. I'm told by my travel agent that I should wait a little - its too early to book.

Do you remember when you booked to get that lower fares?

Leely

dhruvgupta, the lower fares always appear right after you've purchased your tickets.

First time we went to TZ we flew into NBO, spent the night at an...atmospheric...hotel and took the shuttle bus. No problem, but I'm not sure we ended up saving much. On the other hand, we got to go to the Sheldrick, "adopt" elephants, meet Kennedy, and see some of Kenya on the drive to Arusha. So I enjoyed it.

We flew from Zanzibar to NBO on Precision to catch our flight home.

Second trip, SFO-JRO. Significantly more expensive flight. Both times we went June/July, so you should be able to do better in December.

Wait a bit and see if things come down.

ruby_sage

hi dhruvgupta,
I believe we booked in March or April of last year, so 8-9 months in advance.

I did peek at the prices again in September, and they had jumped to almost $3000...so I wouldn't wait that long!