Has "50" come back from her trip with Warrior Trails? Considering using them in upcoming safari and would love feedback from anyone who has used them recently.

Hi 296. Not gone yet. Leaving on the 15th August and we will definately report back. When are you planning to go? We found Clamian very accomodating and came up with good itinerary, we are looking forward to our trip.

LyndaS is currently over there doing last bit of the safari with Warrior Trails. Hopefully Lynda will post her trip report soon. Good luck with your planning. I will post my itinerary here soon.

Here is a link to Calo's WT trip report -

http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...-july-2008.cfm

Enjoy,


Pol

Hi again, thanks to both of you for responding! I guess my issue is that I can ONLY find stuff about Claiman -- all very good of course -- but the odds of getting him as a guide are pretty remote now that he owns the company. (Some background - I'm going alone, over the Christmas holidays, so I'd venture to say if he goes at all, it would be with more "premium" groups than just a solo traveller, in high season, where presumably many people would be asking for him). So I was wanting to find out what his guides are like, etc. I have to make a decision soon because the lodges are filling up fast. Any ideas?

Two years ago I'm pretty sure it was just Clamian with one used jeep when he started out (my trips have been with the company that Clamian used to work for before striking out on his own, and our guide is one of his best friends, so I heard a lot about Clamian and his venture).

Now it sounds like he has expanded but I doubt they have very many jeeps yet (maybe 2-3? I doubt as many as five, but dunno for sure), so it should be easy for him to get good guides. It's the very large companies like Ranger and Leopard that have 125-150 jeeps that have a wide variation in guiding quality, from what I've seen in my four trips to Tanzania. So maybe ask for references on the other WT guide(s) and read them carefully.

Should be OK.

Hi Just to clarify, although Clamian corresponded with us with all our travel arrangements, he actually is not going to be our guide as he has prior arrangement. I am hoping that all the guides he hires are like him, we are only going by his reputation. So far all seems to be going OK and reading from comments here about WT no one has anything bad to say. Bill it is a good idea to obtain references of our guide. I will see what I can do.

Claiman was formerly with Roy Safaris who have been in the business about 20/years with positive reviews. They have outstanding guides, so you might want to contact them and see what they can offer; have a back-up plan especially as a solo traveler. Good luck!

Hi Bill, 50, Sandi - thanks for your thoughtful responses! sorry I haven't checked in for a couple of days... Bill, what you said about Ranger and Leopard is quite true, and so you make a good point about the smaller operations having -I guess- more control over their product. Actually, they were 2 of more than a dozen or so operators that I eliminated from my list of options. 50, thanks for the clarification; that's good to know. I haven't heard anything bad either. If you do receive references about other guides I'd love if you'd bounce them onto me.

Will do 296.

Anybody can answer this. How can you send a private email to the contributor of this forum?
Thanks

<b>Anybody can answer this. How can you send a private email to the contributor of this forum?</b>

There's an option to include your email address, but few people do this because spam bots pick it up and soon the address gets a lot of spam.

You could create a throw-away email address using gmail or yahoo or google-mail or similar and ask the contributor to email you at this temporary address, then move over to your normal addess once you correspond with them, if they are willing.

I'm back!

Just checking the board quickly and thought I could answer this one for 296vancouver. (from one Vancouverite to another?)

Warrior Trails was AMAZING! Daniel Kikemu, who owns DK Grand Safaris (local company in Nairobi) arranged our TZ portion through Clamian at Warrior Trails. Clamian had a travel & tourism show to attend to in Arusha during the time we were in TZ, but we did meet up with him in Lake Manyara. I must say that him, his company, the vehicle and the guide that we had were all TOP NOTCH as far as we were concerned! Jackson was out guide/driver, and he is a VERY good guide - I would highly recommend him. He was funny, knowledgable, friendly, easy to understand, a good spotter - and the vehicle was very comfortable - it was a large Land Crusier, but had only 5 seats in the back - TONS of leg room, very comfy indeed.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Clamian, Warrior Trails & Jackson.

Many more details to come in my report which I will probably start tonight as soon as I finish a set of statements that is due to my crankiest client.

Hi Lynda!
Just found your reply AFTER replying to your trip report asking for a reply Oooops! I'm so happy to hear WT were awesome. I just finalized my trip this morning with Emmanuel at their office. I forgot to ask him how payment goes...can you tell me how you arranged the payment, or I guess you paid one lump sum to DK then? Glad you had such a remarkably great time. I tell you, my trip is months away and it's still all I think about! Cheers, Lynda

Hi again Lynda, just thought of something -- since we both live in Vancouver, I wonder if it's convenient to meet you for coffee or something and chat about the trip? I'm buying!

296, I'd LOVE to meet you for coffee - email me at
lynda d swain at telus dot net (no spaces or underscores). I am also in the midst of arranging a GTG night for Afree-kah enthusiasts in the Vancouver area that you would be welcome to - more than likely will be a Sat towards the end of August, I am just co-ordinating with Calo and Safarimama and hopefully Raelond is still hanging around the boards! And of course anyone else is in the Lower Mainland area - or elsewhere if they want to travel!

I did make one lump payment to DK Grand Safaris which included the amount for Warrior Trails, but have no fear in sending payment to their office by wire. Saves on credit card fees both ways that way too. And the fx rate is really good at the moment, I got caught in the 28% fx conversion upcharge. Oh well, can't win them all, right?

Hey Lynda, thanks so much ... I'm emailing you in a second. In the subject line I put 296vancouver so hopefully I don't get spam blocked