Thanks for all the advice
Oct 17th, 2007, 05:00 PM
#21
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Hi guys!
We just returned yesterday from a fantastic 3 weeks in Kenya and Tanzania! I'm sure none of you who've been there will be surprised to hear that we had an even more amazing trip than we ever expected, and are still stunned by all the things we saw and the wonderful people we met along the way. I promise I will write a trip report as soon as I can get back on my feet at work and at home. But first I have to finish up my own trip journal, and I'll then abbreviate that to share here (I am at well over 100 pages in my journal and still have about a week's left to catch up on! So you can see why I need to abbreviate...). We also have 1800 photos and 10 hours of video to sort through, so we will continue to enjoy this trip for many months to come.
Please be patient with me.
Very quickly, I highly recommend Eastern & Southern Safaris in Kenya, and our guide James in particular. For Tanzania, we were also very happy with Green Footprint Adventures (even though the vehicle had some issues... more on that in my trip report), and absolutely loved our guide Jackson.
Coming soon... elephants surrounding our tent at night, baby animals everywhere, an aardvark crossing the road, hyena referees at an impala fight, a birthday cake in the bush, hundreds and hundreds of dead wildebeest in the river and a mass zebra brawl in the Crater.
Thanks again for all you Fodors friends did to help make our dream trip come true!
We just returned yesterday from a fantastic 3 weeks in Kenya and Tanzania! I'm sure none of you who've been there will be surprised to hear that we had an even more amazing trip than we ever expected, and are still stunned by all the things we saw and the wonderful people we met along the way. I promise I will write a trip report as soon as I can get back on my feet at work and at home. But first I have to finish up my own trip journal, and I'll then abbreviate that to share here (I am at well over 100 pages in my journal and still have about a week's left to catch up on! So you can see why I need to abbreviate...). We also have 1800 photos and 10 hours of video to sort through, so we will continue to enjoy this trip for many months to come.
Please be patient with me.Very quickly, I highly recommend Eastern & Southern Safaris in Kenya, and our guide James in particular. For Tanzania, we were also very happy with Green Footprint Adventures (even though the vehicle had some issues... more on that in my trip report), and absolutely loved our guide Jackson.
Coming soon... elephants surrounding our tent at night, baby animals everywhere, an aardvark crossing the road, hyena referees at an impala fight, a birthday cake in the bush, hundreds and hundreds of dead wildebeest in the river and a mass zebra brawl in the Crater.
Thanks again for all you Fodors friends did to help make our dream trip come true!
Oct 17th, 2007, 05:10 PM
#22
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Missed you on the way out, so welcome back!
Can't wait for the report (yeh, I know mine is dribbling in)... especially Elephant Bedroom which is new - about a year. It's looks lovely and yes is an upgrade and a smaller camp.
When you've had time to catch up.
lala salama!
Can't wait for the report (yeh, I know mine is dribbling in)... especially Elephant Bedroom which is new - about a year. It's looks lovely and yes is an upgrade and a smaller camp.
When you've had time to catch up.
lala salama!
Oct 19th, 2007, 10:55 AM
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Hi guys,
Thanks for all the replies! I'm hoping to have some time this weekend to hammer away at my journal, and then start posting here soon. I loved reading everyone's trip reports, so I'm looking forward to returning the favor. (Plus, I know you guys won't get bored if I go on and on about Africa!)
Just wanted to quickly elaborate on our vehicle issues in Tanzania with Green Footprint, for those who are wondering. (I wanted to wait to post anything here until I'd sent feedback to GF.) I didn't want anyone to infer that we'd had a disaster -- it's just that we had two different vehicles with GF and one of them was pretty worn-out and had some mechanical problems that had us sitting around in Mto Wa Mbu for part of an afternoon. There were so many goofy little things wrong with the windows and doors and locks and -- um -- the clutch on that car, that by the end of the trip we were happy to never see it again. BUT, overall we had a wonderful time in Tanzania, loved our guide, saw oodles of animals, and would be really hard pressed to say whether Kenya or Tanzania was our favorite part of the trip. I just thought it was interesting that with all the bad-mouthing of the Kenyan minibuses I've heard, our real problems were with the Land Rover! Go figure. If I were planning another trip, I would certainly use GF again because we loved our guide so much, but I would specifically ask to not have that particular Land Rover.
We went to Africa expecting to have some car troubles and other mishaps along the way, not expecting things to be perfect, and in the grand scheme of things this was pretty minor. I'm sorry if I implied otherwise. Because, hey, it's not about the vehicle... it's about those baby lions learning to cross a bridge! (More on that later...)
Thanks for all the replies! I'm hoping to have some time this weekend to hammer away at my journal, and then start posting here soon. I loved reading everyone's trip reports, so I'm looking forward to returning the favor. (Plus, I know you guys won't get bored if I go on and on about Africa!)
Just wanted to quickly elaborate on our vehicle issues in Tanzania with Green Footprint, for those who are wondering. (I wanted to wait to post anything here until I'd sent feedback to GF.) I didn't want anyone to infer that we'd had a disaster -- it's just that we had two different vehicles with GF and one of them was pretty worn-out and had some mechanical problems that had us sitting around in Mto Wa Mbu for part of an afternoon. There were so many goofy little things wrong with the windows and doors and locks and -- um -- the clutch on that car, that by the end of the trip we were happy to never see it again. BUT, overall we had a wonderful time in Tanzania, loved our guide, saw oodles of animals, and would be really hard pressed to say whether Kenya or Tanzania was our favorite part of the trip. I just thought it was interesting that with all the bad-mouthing of the Kenyan minibuses I've heard, our real problems were with the Land Rover! Go figure. If I were planning another trip, I would certainly use GF again because we loved our guide so much, but I would specifically ask to not have that particular Land Rover.
We went to Africa expecting to have some car troubles and other mishaps along the way, not expecting things to be perfect, and in the grand scheme of things this was pretty minor. I'm sorry if I implied otherwise. Because, hey, it's not about the vehicle... it's about those baby lions learning to cross a bridge! (More on that later...)
Oct 26th, 2007, 10:57 AM
#31
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OK, so I still am not ready to start my "real" report, but I just heard back from Mary at Green Footprint re: the feedback I sent them, and thought I would post information about her reply, to give updated news for anyone searching through these boards and considering Green Footprint. As I mentioned above, we loved everything about this company except one of the vehicles we had toward the end of our trip. Mary wrote back to me that they've decided to get rid of that problematic Land Rover, so any of you traveling with GF in the future (after December, anyway) should not need to worry about it.
Here's what she wrote: "We decided yesterday to sell the car in December. Landrovers often have these small issues like doors not opening correctly etc, but we are spending a lot of time on this car before and after each safari and we are getting to a point where even with all these check ups the car is not working well enough on a safari, reading your points proves it again. Too many problems with this car lately, and since we want to offer outstanding safaris we will take action and sell the car."
I was happy to hear that, and do want to emphasize here that we would definitely travel with GF again, especially with Jackson as our guide. They have a wonderful philosophy about travel and about experiencing Tanzania outside the confines of your vehicle, and everyone we dealt with on their staff was just terrific.
I also have nothing but high praise for Eastern & Southern in Kenya. For anyone worrying about setting up a trip using different tour operators in each country, I can say that we had no problems doing that and I would do it again.
Okay, enough from me on this thread... I'll work on finishing my journal this weekend and getting started on that trip report!
Here's what she wrote: "We decided yesterday to sell the car in December. Landrovers often have these small issues like doors not opening correctly etc, but we are spending a lot of time on this car before and after each safari and we are getting to a point where even with all these check ups the car is not working well enough on a safari, reading your points proves it again. Too many problems with this car lately, and since we want to offer outstanding safaris we will take action and sell the car."
I was happy to hear that, and do want to emphasize here that we would definitely travel with GF again, especially with Jackson as our guide. They have a wonderful philosophy about travel and about experiencing Tanzania outside the confines of your vehicle, and everyone we dealt with on their staff was just terrific.
I also have nothing but high praise for Eastern & Southern in Kenya. For anyone worrying about setting up a trip using different tour operators in each country, I can say that we had no problems doing that and I would do it again.
Okay, enough from me on this thread... I'll work on finishing my journal this weekend and getting started on that trip report!
Oct 26th, 2007, 09:12 PM
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Thanks for the update. I feel better knowing that I will not have this vehicle when going with Green Footprint in March. Would you suggest that I ask for Jackson as our guide? I really like a guide with a sense of humour.
Oct 27th, 2007, 08:46 AM
#33
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Hi Raelond,
Yes, I would absolutely recommend requesting Jackson Mbise! I'm sure GF has other good guides as well, but I know from spending time with him (both on safari and hanging out together at meal times) that he has a wonderful personality and sense of humor. He really knows his stuff -- we had great conversations about wildlife, local cultures, music, politics, etc. -- and he is one of the nicest, friendliest people I've met in our travels. He handled everything for our safari really well, including the car problems, and it was a lot of fun spending the day with him in Mto Wa Mbu. From the very start, he was wonderful about listening to us and finding out what we wanted from our safari. If he's available for your trip, I'm sure he would do a terrific job.
Yes, I would absolutely recommend requesting Jackson Mbise! I'm sure GF has other good guides as well, but I know from spending time with him (both on safari and hanging out together at meal times) that he has a wonderful personality and sense of humor. He really knows his stuff -- we had great conversations about wildlife, local cultures, music, politics, etc. -- and he is one of the nicest, friendliest people I've met in our travels. He handled everything for our safari really well, including the car problems, and it was a lot of fun spending the day with him in Mto Wa Mbu. From the very start, he was wonderful about listening to us and finding out what we wanted from our safari. If he's available for your trip, I'm sure he would do a terrific job.
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