Thumbs up for Thomson Safaris
 

My wife and I took our first trip to Tanzania in October 2010 with Thomson Safaris as our safari operator.
We couldn't have been more pleased. Everything was absolutely perfect. The nyumbas, the staff, the guide, the food, heck even the Land Rover was cool. We did the Highlights of Tanzania safari which is 12 days door to door.
Is Thomson more expensive than some of the others? Sure. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not! Thomson never let us down. Not once. They were always very responsive and helpful when we had questions and concerns. In fact, one of the major reasons we chose Thomson was that they did respond so quickly to our questions when other companies did not. If I'm going to spend a large chunk of our income on something, I'm going to need exceptional customer service. They never failed to provide it.
I won't bore you all with a blow by blow of our trip as it seems like there are far more experienced travelers here than us but definitely feel free to ask us any questions you may have about our trip with Thomson. With people asking a lot of questions about who to travel with, Thomson Safaris needs to be on your list of options.

They are a great company to work with.

Some of the photos I managed to get during the trip can be found here:
http://www.kezerphotography.com/africa

Regards,
Chris

Some very nice shots there. I particularly like those of the serval.

Omg, amazing serval photos, im so jealous ;). And leopard as well, you have been fortunate!

Thanks! We were very lucky on that trip.We saw 3 leopards and 3 Servals. Lots of lions, a Kudu and a bunch of everything else.

3 servals?! omg.. you're killing me hehe
where did you go? looks like mara/northern serengeti?

You have the photos to back up the serval claim! Nice hyenas too. Great job with the rollers.

Servals??!!! WOW! Where?

Chris-

Welcome back! Yes, isn't Thomson Safaris the best? I am glad you had a great time with Kileo, who is a trusted friend and my head guide. Wonderful photos, and thanks so much for sharing.

Andy

Chris, I forgot to say a huge congratulations for your recent wedding and honeymoon!

Pongezi kwa wewe, picha kubwa !

We saw two Servals in Ngorongoro Crater and one in the southern Serengeti near Robanda (?). The first one was a fair distance away and heading away from us near Round Table in the Crater. The second one was hunting mice kind of in the middle area. Quick little buggers. The third was lounging around in some tall grass. It was the one time I saw something before our guide, Kileo, did. :)

Thank you for the kind words, everyone! I'm not new to photography but this was my first foray into nature and wildlife shooting. I can't wait until the next opportunity.

Hey Andy! Thomson is a great organization, and I love talking about them and the trip they set us up with. Thanks for the congrats and also for your awesome Kiboko bag. The bag kicks butt.

Asante sana, Tiger!

(yeah, still a newbie to Swahili,I had to look up what you said.)

Love those Serval Cats.

You got better pictures then I did for sure.

Mine were half hiding in the grass.

Like the others I am jealous. :)

Nice photos - enjoyed looking and of course especially those cats.... but do you get 1 cent every time you mention THOMSON SAFARIS? or something? ;-) I think everyone got the message guys..... thank you, and sincerely sorry for the interruption.... maybe you are just baiting Nyamera? Talk about the trip, why don't you?

kimburu, to each their own but I, for one, believe in promoting companies or services that treat me well. Word of mouth is a big part of my business (sales) and Thomson did right by us.
I don't know who Nyamera is and with all due respect, I don't really care. This forum is about sharing information about travel destinations, yes? I'm not here to get paid by or bait anyone into anything.

Want to hear about our trip? I'd be happy to share!
The trip was 12 days total, door to door.
We arrived in Arusha and went to the RiverTrees (?) Lodge where we spent the night. Very nice, quiet, little place that was very welcome after such a long flight.
The next morning we took off for Tarangire National Park and did our first game drive before heading to the Nyumba for the evening. We spent the next day driving around Tarangire. Saw lots of animals and even watched a failed hunt by a lioness. Back to the camp for showers, a quick nap, dinner and sitting by the campfire.
From there we went to Ngorongoro Crater, drove up this crazy, windy little road to the ridge and saw one of the most incredible landscapes I've ever laid eyes on. The Maasai were doing a controlled burn of some of the grasslands in the crater which was neat to watch. We hit the Nyumba, got cleaned up and then went to visit one of the Maasai Bomas. I felt a little weird about the visit as it seemed a little too touristy. I didn't want to treat people like an attraction but they did not seem to mind and we actually had some good conversations with them. It was a better experience than I thought it was going to be. The next morning we drove down into the crater nice and early and immediately came up on the big male lion with his mate. No other vehicles anywhere near us. It was pretty awesome!
We left for the Serengeti the next morning. Funny story, I had to charge my camera batteries by that point and I had been waiting for that day since we had been informed it was going to be a long drive. That was one heck of a bumpy road and I spent a good portion of it holding my charger into the powerstrip (mounted to the roof) in the Land Rover. I lost all feeling in my hands but I'm pretty stubborn and it was worth it. Kileo, our guide, kept laughing at me. Next time I'm packing some duct tape to hold the charger up there without me having to hold onto it. :)
Anyway, we had a quick stop at Olduvai (Oldupai) Gorge and got back on the road.
We had a quick game drive before heading to one of the coolest camps I've ever seen. Before we went off to take showers we were asked if we'd be interested in going for a walk around the camp after cleaning up. Heck yeah! We start walking with a couple of the camp staff and eventually they led us to a table covered in snacks and a small variety of drinks...and two chairs. This was out in the middle of a good sized clearing and it was facing a perfect view of the sunset. Completely unexpected. It was absolutely incredible.
Next day we went out searching for more animals, visited the Hippo Pool and even got to see a leopard hunting a gazelle.
After that, we moved up into to the northern Serengeti, played in a bunch of lion-filled rock infestations and got to watch a whole boat load of wildebeest cross the Mara river. Oh, crocodiles are big. Really big.
There were so many things going on during the entire trip. There was never a boring part. Even when we were just driving from one place to another, looking out the windows at the scenery kept us completely entranced. The food was excellent, the accommodations comfortable (very) and the staff exceedingly friendly. The land, the animals, the people... neither one of us wanted to come home.

Thanks for the writeup, Chris. I remember that first feeling when I visited Ngorongoro, and it took my breath away as well.

Keezer,

Thank for sharing. We went on a trip to Tanzania with Thomson Safarisin 2007 and had a wonderful time. Reading your comments makes me "homesick". They were a bit more expensive but they did a flawless job and infected my wife and I with the Africa bug!

Cheers,

PT123

Glad to hear it, PT!
We can't wait to go back and see our friends again. :)

KeezerP.... I agree with "to each their own" and I am sure Thomson Safaris treated you right - they have a good reputation in so far as running safaris goes. This forum has a sad history of people going too far in pushing products, even (especially) their own. You may think that is okay, but as you said yourself the forum is really about sharing information about travel destinations. That can certainly include sharing information about certain products or services, but if the objective of your and Andy's posts is to promote products, to me that is fundamentally different from "sharing".

Again, sorry for the interruption - I am just explaining where I am coming from, and not lecturing (even if it sounds like that - some things just aren't going to come out the way you intend in writing). I don't want you to think I am incredibly rude. It's just a point of view.

You can "Nyamera + Thomsons" search if you like - or not. Andy knows, but indeed it does not really matter.

Thanks for the mini-report - sounds like you had a great time and (as we knew from the pictures) some fantastic sightings. It's no wonder you're happy. The charging story is a funny one. :-) I normally charge at the camps in East Africa, but I guess not possible in this case? Also, I guess the power strip is running off the car engine and is for convenience when there are multiple people in the vehicle? Could someone take their own car charger along if they were on their own, to avoid the cramp (as an alternative to duct tape)?

Paul, do you know how many people post trip reports and mention the company they went with? Pretty much everybody (that's the point). Chris had a good experience and posted them on the forum. Chris had contacted me independently a while back with some photography related questions.

I read your trip report from your latest trip to Botswana. Maybe you shouldn't mention your own experiences with your safari outfitters, or we will start to accuse you of earning money under the table, similar to how you accused Chris earlier in the thread.

Of course, my own reply warrants a nice smile to end. :-)

Andy, I deserve a nice smile. Ended. :-)

Kimburu,
I'm actually not entirely sure if I could have charged my batteries in the camps. In all of the discussions we had with Thomson, they kept saying that all of their vehicles had inverters and that I would be able to charge things in them. The particular Land Rover that we were in had a power strip mounted upside down on the roof. It was some kind of universal charger that accepted a variety of plug types and I think that's why my plug didn't want to stay put (well, that and gravity.) If I remember correctly, it had room for 5 or 6 chargers. I merely mentioned bringing tape next time to thwart the evil effects of Newton's First Law of Motion not due to there being a lack of space. :)

Kezer - you got some really nice photos! I'm glad to hear Thomson was a good company for you. They were my "runner up" when I went to Tanzania last year. I chose Kiliwarriors and had a great trip too (no servals though!) - said this in my trip report, which generated no comments about plugging a certain company. I definitely like to hear about people's experiences with tour operators, as it helps everyone as they contemplate their own trips.

This calls for drastic measures. Here's a little something I learned from David Copperfield... Misdirection and distraction.

Oooh, look at the elephants mating!
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...3/elephant.jpg

We saw this on our trip. In Tanzania. On Safari.

Hi Cateyes!
I looked at Kiliwarriors' website but didn't get much beyond that. A big part of why we went with who we did was the fact that their office is about an hour from where we live. We were able to go meet them in person first to get a feel for how they ran things. We were originally looking at another operator not based out of the US and even though their price was substantially lower I just didn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from them.
I'll have to see if I can find your trip report but I'm glad you had a good time. Tanzania is a cool place, right?!

Chris, that photo is awesome. You are the man.

Leely2, Yup! Very first time on the African continent. I had never even heard of a Serval cat until we came across the first one. After the leopards we saw, they rate a close second.

Lamai Wedge...

Looking at a map I think TS has a camp in Mugumu, which is just south of that area, don't they? I can never remember the names.
I think we were in the general area on out last couple of days. We couldn't cross the river because the bridges were washed out.

Chris, the TS camp is inside of the park, south of the Mara River, about 12km south. I can send you GPS coordinates.

Those coordinates would be greatly appreciated, Andy. Thanks!

Do you find that you do most of your shooting in the mornings or is it more of a take the opportunity when you get it kind of thing?
I know the light is better and that the animals are more active and all that but I found that I couldn't not take photos even during the harsh mid day lighting because I didn't know if I'd see anything else after that.
I could see if I lived there or even spent a significant amount of time there to accumulate enough morning sessions but what do you tell the average safari goer for shooting when the great morning light has disappeared?

"....shooting when the great morning light has disappeared?"

There's more good light in the late afternoon, around the last two hours before sunset.
The problem is, many safari camps go out too late in the afternoon. That is, they leave camp at 4pm, and finally find a good sighting about 5pm when the light is becoming marginal especially in shaded areas. Some times if your vehicle mates agree you can get your guide to go out maybe an hour earlier. You're likely doing nothing in camp anyway at 3pm (well except maybe taking a nap :) ).

regards - tom

Oh, should add, one of the many advantages of going on photo safari with someone like Andy is that his vehicles go out at anytime. So you will be out on drives anytime the light is good including early/late afternoon.

regards - tom

Cupcakes!

Oh, sorry. I thought we were still trying to derail the topic and wasn't prepared for an on topic response. :)

Hey Tom, Thanks. Yeah I was pretty much talking about the time between say 10am-4pm ish. The light may not be great but I certainly don't want to sit around camp. There's the obvious get the sun behind or off to the side whenever possible but... Oh I don't know what I'm trying to say. You completely threw me off my game be responding in an appropriate manner (thanks, by the way.)
Have you participated in one of Andy's tours?

Cheesecake...cannoli...tiramisu! :-D

Chris, I'm like you, I don't like sitting around, napping or anything of the sort. I get my fill of that at home.

Some camps will take you out on a midday drive. And some will also take you out in the early morning and bring you back for a late lunch so you can have breakfast out in the bush. Or take you out all day if you so request. Or some will take you out as early as 3:00-3:30 in the afternoon.

My rule of thumb is first one out, last one in.

Usually camps and guides/drivers will accommodate if everyone in the jeep agrees. So, it does pay to make your requests known to camp managers upon your arrival so they can try to match you with others who want to do the same.

Also, you can sometimes request to go on a short bush walk with a guide midday, on occasion. That's kinda fun to do once in while, too.

Tiramisu? Blech! :(

Almost every day we were there we were out by 7am and didn't come back until about 5-6pm. There was always a nap involved upon getting back.
We had the picnic lunches so we didn't have to go back to camp and could maximize the animal/landscape viewing. Those box lunches were awesome. I don't think we were able to finish a single one of them in one sitting.

We did a private tour so we had the guide all to ourselves. No need to compromise with other guests. I don't think I mentioned it before but we stayed at 4 different camps over 9 nights (10?) and only had other people in camp one evening. That's right, we had the whole place to ourselves! I must admit that it was completely, totally WICKED AWESOME (give me a break,I'm from New England.) We kept asking if there were going to be any others at camp with us and kept getting "nope,just you!" except for that one night when a group had just come back from a Kili climb.

"Have you participated in one of Andy's tours?"
No, but would sure like to!! When my budget allows me to fly business/first class I'll be signing on with Andy.

About game drives earlier than the camp policy, it often works out. But many times there is turn over in your vehicle mates, e.g. new ones coming on board. So the camp is reluctant to change things right away with new guests. And if it is the guests first safari, they (camp and guests) are reluctant to change any camp guidelines.

10am-4pm, down time. Guess you did not have much of that on your driving trip to/through Tanzania? But working out of one safari camp (for several nights) you are not transferring between camps during that time. So you will typically have two meals during that time frame. Breakfast after the morning drive and lunch about 1:30pm. So there goes a couple hours eating :) . Toss in another hour fiddling with down loading camera cards, batteries, etc. and an hour (or so) nap and it's 3pm and time for tea and biscuits, or if lucky go out on a game drive.

But my next safari coming up in three weeks, -my- first time to Tanzania will be very different for me. Six of us, four being photographers in three vehicles. With the emphasis on spending the maximum time out on game drive. 18 days until take-off <):)

regards - tom

Tom, I don't think I'll ever be flying business/first class. That's stupid expensive. I'm ok with suffering for half a day or so but I'm right there with ya. Some day. ;)
Congrats on the upcoming adventure. Here's to wishing you a great trip! What's your itinerary look like?

-Chris

Regarding being out all day, we typically use the late morning and early afternoon light to tee up our late afternoon golden light shoots. It wears you out, but the payoff is worth it, IMHO.

Oops, I forgot to. Mention this is for Tanzania safaris. Southern Africa requires a different approach.

How so? Is there a big difference in animal viewing between the two locations?