“We used Kilimanjaro Tanzanite Safari for our northern circuit safari in Tanzania. What a disaster! Andrew, the managing director, totally screwed up our trip, promising everything and delivering nothing. We didn’t even have blankets (which we specificially asked whether we should bring our sleeping bags) in our tents!

I would NOT recommend this company!!!! Stay away. There are too many other good operators out there to waste your time and money. He almost destroyed our whole trip to Tanzania! We even had to cut our safari short by a day because he did not book our flight out of Arusha till 2 days before the end of the safari. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY!”

Whenever I organize a safari or climb up Kilimanjaro, I usually preface it with this:

PLEASE NOTE:
While we strive to make your trip the best possible, and pride ourselves on trying to cover every detail of your trips, it’s important to understand that Tanzanian business, time and culture operate in a different manner throughout East Africa. With an adventure trip this long and of this magnitude, you are bound to encounter a multitude of problems, which could effect your itinerary: bad weather happens, vehicles break down, people get sick, etc. While we have back up plans for all of these instances, it’s important to understand that is part of the adventure in Tanzania.

But even this is no excuse for over promising and under delivering…

Here is the personal response from Jan Moshi, the Director of Sales & Marketing of Kili Treks & Safaris, on why her company is unique. Kili Treks is based in Tanzania.

“While we offer the standard mountain, safari and Zanzibar packages, the directors, myself and Alex are completely hands on, which gives us a degree of flexibility to provide as much of a personal service to our clients as is humanely possible. There is no agent, no ‘middle man’ and we oversee everything from our Moshi based office.

Alex (Tanzanian) is a licensed safari driver and a Kilimanjaro TANAPA guide trainer with extensive East African mountain experience. Part of his role is on-the-job training for the Kilitreks mountain and safari teams, which means he may be accompanying the clients.

I (British) battle away on the web site and answer the emails. My job is to untangle the email requests to ensure that what has been requested is what we can provide at a reasonable price and I make sure they get enough information to prepare themselves. Then I hand over to Alex and his teams for the practical stuff. Kilimanjaro climbing has become more expensive in recent times due to the increase in National Park fees. We are keeping our prices in the lower regions for 2007 to encourage all kinds of climbers to fulfill their dream (or madness). For this reason we have set departure dates for Marangu, Rongai and Machame routes with minimum group numbers (6 climbers). This means we can keep the prices reasonable. We also have a price for ‘private’ bookings which can start on any date and any route.

We like to encourage travellers to try different activities off the beaten track when they visit Tanzania. Not so many are brave enough. We offer a 3 day bush safari into the Massai Steppe to climb Lendenia mountain (in Simanjiro – the green bit in the middle of travel guide maps which is devoid of any location details). Climbing usually involves a Massai morani armed with a panga to cut a path to the top. There are no tourists, just Massai going about their business, donkeys, cows and Chagga merchants. What we spend goes directly to the community (puncture repairs included). The travelling and accommodation options are very basic but it is just a wonderful experience. We are still a small company developing our client base, but I think we do a good job.”

Now that I look at Jan’s response, I think she has really brought forward an issue that most people don’t do. That’s REALLY getting off the beaten path and trying to do something new. Everybody wants to climb Kilimanjaro and go to the Serengeti, but will 300,000+ tourists coming to Tanzania each year, it’s becoming increasingly hard to find an authentic experience. 95 percent of the people do the SAME thing. However, like Jan mentioned about climbing the Lendenia mountain with a Masai, that’s probably an amazing experience, and pretty much as authentic as you can get. I personally wouldn’t use Kili Treks & Safaris for climbing Kilimanjaro, until I really knew the guide and his experience, but I would probably use them for a safari in the bush – and definitely check out their off the beaten path tours. Good luck Jan!

I think it’s best to read of this type of experience before you travel half way around the world. It’s really tough – and could be tougher than you imagined.

Quote from Madduck blog:
“Suffering from low blood pressure and weak circulation, no amounts of water or sugar could counter the increasing headache, and the feeling of dizziness that would chase every slip, every misstep, and every unexpected stone on the way. At the same time, the temperature, estimated between -15 and -20 degrees Celsius was finding its way to my toes, despite the two pairs of socks I wore.”

I would require this as mandatory reading before going up on the mountain.

Here is a funny video of a traveler in Tanzania. This will most likely be the water you drink while on safari in the Serengetti and on your first day on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Unfortunately, Kilimanjaro water in owned by Coca Cola.

Every year, over one million wildebeest move through the Serengeti plains in search of food and water. The phenomenon of these animals moving en mass through the African savanna is known as the Migration. The seasonal rains that water the grazing pastures drive their movement. It is impossible to predict in advance exactly how or when this progression will take place, but there is a pattern.

Generally from mid-December through May the herds are feeding in the southern Serengeti. During February thousands of calves appear on the plains. Between June and July, the wildebeest begin their annual migration north reaching the Mara River that marks the Kenyan border sometime between the end of July and beginning of August. After the first short rains, usually in the beginning of November, the herds move back into Tanzania’s Serengeti and make their way to the southern pastures where they rest and feed through the rains until their search for better grazing leads them to begin their annual migration once again.

Even when the “migration” moves into Kenya for the summer months, there are many resident herds in the Serengeti and there is always an incredible array of wildlife to experience there. Also, in the summer months, which are the height of the dry season, thousands of elephant congregate around the Tarangire River. This park is at it’s prime during these months.

The 3-day safari was included as a part of our Kilimanjaro climb, so the morning after returning from Kili Bob, Julie, Kristen and I all piled back into the landcruiser and set off for the Tarangire National Park. This safari was organized by BootsnAll Travel Network. The plan was to camp at a campground just outside the park, and we arrived at the campground in the early afternoon. We stopped long enough to drop off our cook, Hamisi, and unload our gear, and then headed off into the park for a few hours of game viewing. Once inside the park it wasn’t long before we saw our first wildlife, spotting some zebras and elephants at a watering hole off in the distance. We were excited to find these animals so quickly, but little did we know that this was just the beginning.

We continued on into the park, and the wildlife just kept coming. We saw Wildebeest (also called Gnus, and Bob and I spent the next three days coming up with as many bad “gnus/news” puns as we could. Evening Gnus, Breaking Gnus, No Gnus is Good Gnus, etc, etc, etc…), Impala, and a variety of birds. Almost everywhere we looked we found wildlife. But we were in search of the Big Five, and really wanted to see them up close and personal. Our best prospects in Tarangire were the elephants, and it wasn’t too long before we spotted a herd of elephants feeding across a river. We drove around to where they were, and were able to get within about 20 meters of them. We stopped to watch and take photos, and it wasn’t long before mama and her baby were right in front of us. Mama came over to check us out, and walked right up to the vehicle. Elephants will charge a vehicle, so our driver, Michael, kept one hand on the ignition and one eye on the side view mirror the whole time. After we’d had our fill of the elephants, we continued on around the park but didn’t see much more that evening. But the elephants were a great start, so we headed back to camp for dinner.

Once again, the food that was provided was amazing, and Hamisi cooked up a great dinner. After dinner, a group of local young guys who worked at the camp came out to the dining area and performed for us. Dressed in matching outfits that were a cross between an NBA uniform and a breakdancing costume, they played drums and another instrument similar to a small marimba, sang songs, and performed acrobatics. It was pretty fun, and interesting to say the least.

We were up early the next morning for another trip through the park. The early morning viewing got off to an even better start than the day before when we spotted a group of giraffes feeding on the roadside trees. Further into the park, we saw some vultures circling above and eventually came upon the site of a recent lion’s kill, but the lions had since wandered off (we could barely make them out in the distance) and the kill was left for a jackal to scavenge what he could off of it. We continued on driving, seeing several more zebra and wildebeest (the morning gnus), and another herd of elephants. But mostly we just enjoyed the park and it’s scenery. After a few hours we went back to camp for lunch, then packed up and headed off to the Ngorogoro Conservation Area where we camped that night before heading down into the Ngorogoro Crater the next morning.

The Ngorogoro Crater is the world’s largest caldera (A caldera is a large depression at the top of a volcano, caused by the collapse of a volcano into itself), and home to hundreds of animals. It was here where we hoped to find the rest of the Big Five. It wasn’t long before we were rewarded, coming upon another lion’s kill, this time a little closer up and with the lions still in attendance. Waiting for the lions to finish were a pack of hyena and a few jackals as well. We parked and watched and waited. Eventually, the lions had eaten their fill, and it wasn’t long before they decided to move on. We held our breath as they slowly started coming our way, and soon they were right in front of us. It was awesome and amazing.

After seeing the lions up close, we were pretty jacked since a lion spotting isn’t an everyday occurence. Lions only feed every three days or so, and so seeing a kill is pretty lucky. We watched the hyenas fight over the remains for a while, and then set off to see what else we could find. We stopped by the hippo pool and saw several hippo sleeping in the cool pond. (The hippo photos turned out great, highlighting a spectacular contrast of colors between the pool and the surrounding landscape.) Shortly after visiting the hippos, we heard word of a rhino in the park and went off to try and get a look. We spotted the rhino in the distance, and decided to drive around to opposite road to try and get a better look. There were a few other vehicles there when we arrived, and it wasn’t long before there were 20-30 trucks there all angling for a look. The rhino was still aways off in the distance, and we al tried to get some photos. Unfortunately, my camera is too old and has very limited range, but Bob told me about a trick with the binoculars where I could take the picture through the lens of the binoculars and use the binoculars to zoom in the subject. I tried this a couple of times and it actually worked quite well. However, it turned out to be unneccesary after all, as once again our patience paid off and soon the rhino was heading right for us, and crossed the road right between the long line of vehicles.

After the rhino sighting we kept driving to the far edge of the park, and it wasn’t long before we came upon even more lions who had just finished breakfast. This spotting was even more exciting, however, because by now the morning clouds had cleared and it was getting quite hot in the crater. The lions had attracted yet another large line of vehicles, and since these vehicles provided shade, the lions would waltz right up to the side of the vehicles and lay down in the shade. If a vehicle a lion was laying by drove off, the lion would simply get up and move to the next vehicle in line. It was absolutely amazing.

After getting our turn with the lions, we drove off toward the picnic area for lunch. On the way we saw some buffalo, and more elephants off in the distance, resulting in us seeing four of the Big Five in a single morning. Unfortunately, no leopards were around in the crater that day to complete the group, but we were still extremely happy with the morning’s sightings. After lunch, it was time head back to camp and pack up for the trip home. We drove all afternoon, stopping on the way at a Masai Cultural Center for a tour and some souvenirs, and arrived back in Moshi late that evening where we checked back into the Zebra Hotel for a hot shower and good night’s sleep on the final evening of our adventure.

I would like to stress that all my years with seeing elephants most have been gentle creatures. Only when they are provoked (like driving your LandRover super close to them or getting close to their children), do they tend to get a bit pissed off.

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I guarantee these guys are probably going to wake up the next day with an awful sunburn. They are English, sitting under a cloud for 10 months and now exposing themselves to the punishing sun. Speaking of the sun, it’s not to be messed with in Africa. You can get wicked sunburns even with your clothes. They also might find a slew of bites from mosquitoes which you should avoid while on safari. The more you cover yourself, the better.