TR: Tanzania

[criscam]

Took the fam and joined another on a trip to Tanzania over Christmas. 8 of us w 4 kids ranging from 10-15 yo. Wives did most of the planning and things couldn't have worked out much better especially with all the logistics. 18 days mostly split between safari and island beach time. 9 different lodging accommodations ranging from boutique hotels to tented camps (glamping style). We're not dentists by any means but did end up splurging on certain parts of the trip as it's likely a once in a lifetime experience. i have an older canon 40d that i rarely use but on the advice of others here, ended up renting a 70-300 lens and pics are from that as well as some iphone thrown in.

After a quick 24 layover in Amsterdam, we arrived at Kili airport and transferred to Moshi where we stayed a couple nights at a small place w a pool deck overlooking Kilimanjaro.


When in Rome...


Day one we visited a local village and took part in learning how they make their own coffee.


Followed by a rainy hike to a 70m waterfall.


The next day we transferred to Arusha while stopping at a hot (warm) spring along the way in the middle of nowhere. My youngest loved the little fish who would come over and eat the dead skin off your feet when you put them in the water. Arrived at another boutique hotel and spent the afternoon by the pool drinking cocktails. The following morning were we greeted by our guides, Sedate and Savio, who were to be with us for the next 7 days. We were happy to ditch the cramped van for two, 8 person land rovers with raisable roofs.


After about a 4 hour drive we arrived at Tarangire National Park and started to get a glimpse of our first animals.






Accommodations that night were at the Tarangire Safari Lodge. Great location in the park w a huge patio overlooking a river delta, thatched roof tents and a pool.




That night we did a game drive in an open aired jeep. The 8 of us, a driver/guide and ranger. About 10 min in the jeep broke down and temporarily caught fire. So there we were, standing outside in the dark with an armed ranger who, come to find out the next day, was drunk. Another jeep came along about 15 minutes later and we were able to continue the night drive. Our ranger ended up passing out, rifle in hand, in the front seat shortly after.


I woke up early the following morning to catch the sun rising over the delta. Shortly after i heard my oldest son (who i was sharing a tent with) say "hey, get outta here. shoo!" Apparently as he was getting dressed he noticed a monkey in the corner of the tent. No idea how it got in but no harm no foul.

Next up, off to the Serengeti.
To be continued...

[criscam]

We left the lodge early the next morning as we had a long drive ahead to get to our next destination, Serengeti National Park. We spent about 10 hours in the jeeps that day transferring to our lodging over in the Serengeti but the drive was broken up w animal viewings and a picnic lunch along the way. Once we hit the park, we still had some daylight left to try and find some more animals and were not disappointed.





An added bonus was spotting this endangered black rhino way off in the distance. Could still get a good glimpse of its horns though.


We drove around for a bit trying to find our next tented camp (our guides had never been there and there are all kind of back roads leading everywhere) but eventually rolled up to Nyumbani Lodge right at dusk. As i stepped out of the jeep we were greeted w hot towels for our faces and the lodge host pointing to 3 hyena about 50 yards away trouncing on the outskirts of camp!
The camp consisted of 2 main tents w a dining area and lounge equipped w a full bar. A short walk led us to our sleeping quarters which were giant canvas tents equipped w showers, toilets and sinks.
We were given a debriefing and told that no one is allowed to walk from their tent to the main area without an escort. Each room had a radio and when we called for an escort, a member of the Maasai tribe would come to our door and walk us to the main tent.


The food and hospitality for the 3 nights we were at Nyumbani were top notch. Dinner consisted of 3 course meals and always had a bottle of wine on hand.


That first night in the tent was pretty surreal. Sometime in the night i heard some rumblings right outside the walls of our tent followed by some kind of screeching. Woke up the next morning to footprints of several different animals. Come to find out they were hyenas scavenging around for some of the bigger insects that had lay waist on the ground. The following nights as we lay in bed we could hear the roar of lions less than a half mile away.

Coming up...3 days game driving the Serengeti...

[byates1]

Incredible. Thx!

[criscam]

We spent the next 2-1/2" days driving around the Serengeti. Guided jeeps pretty much rule the area and all jeeps have a cb radio. there is constant chatter on the radio's (in Swahili) with the guides sharing info on location of animals etc so it seemed like we were always on the run. Within the first hour of our first day we found a pride of lions that had just killed a buffalo the night before and were all ready for a nap. Then shortly after we found a male pride snoozing on the plains.






after that it seemed non-stop for the next couple days. More lions, leopards napping in trees, elephants, giraffe, cheetahs, thousands of herds of migrating wildabeast, etc. Some pics...












Rare to see lions hanging in the trees. We witnessed one of the cubs just fall out and didn't see it return.




We'd pick a random spot to stop for lunch and the guides would set up tables and chairs and serve tims of beef, chicken, rice, veggies and usually a bottle of wine. Here are some spoiled kids getting ready to eat lunch in front of a few hundred wildebeest.


Serengeti roach coach.




We came upon another fresh kill one day and witnessed a big pride including babies feasting on a zebra and old wildebeest.






Only found a couple watering holes but there were always a bunch of hippos and spotted a few crocs as well.




The last night at our camp we sat by a fire drinking cocktails and watched a mama and baby giraffe stroll by less than 30 yards away. Surreal.


Next up...Ngorongoro crater.

[Doremite]

Awesome, Chris, keep it coming.

[zion zig zag]

Right on, really cool trip!


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[criscam]

We left the Serengeti and started our journey back the way we came toward the Ngorongoro crater. on our way out of the park, our jeeps got separated by a few minutes. Next thing i know, Savio is making a u-turn and high tailing it back toward the other jeep. "what's up?" i ask. he replied that a cheetah has jumped onto the other jeep! sure enough, we get back to our friends and a cheetah is sitting atop the rear spare tire taking the high ground and looking for food. we roll up, take some pics and next thing you know it jumps off, walks around for a minute, then proceeds to jump on our back tire. it's literally 3' away and yet almost oblivious to us. a minute later it hops off and head to a nearby termite hill to scout for more prey. holy crap!






after the encounter, we headed back toward the crater and did an afternoon hike on a portion of the rim. We then made our way toward another tented camp nearby. despite some heavy rain as we rolled in, we were once again greeted w smiles and warm towels. this was a day or two before christmas and turns out we were the only ones there that night. got treated to a special dinner which included singing and dancing from the Maasai staff.
the next day we made our way to the Ngorongoro Crater and descended down a couple thousand feet into a 17 mile diameter old volcano with it's own ecosystem. monkeys, lions, zebra, ostrich, warthogs, wildebeest, buffalo, vultures, and even a serval cat to name but a few.


















As we were driving along the bottom of the crater we noticed several lions traveling alongside the road we were on that had a ditch on one side. Turns out they were on a hunt. We got to witness a chess match between a half dozen lions and herds of zebras and wildebeest. A few lions off to our left were apparently the decoys and job was to move the herds toward the lion(s) creeping up in the ditch to our right. We did see one lion break toward a zebra but was a little too late. Once the zebra hunt failed, we witnessed the same group head toward a group cape buffalo off in the distance. We hung out for awhile and witnessed a bit of a standown with one of the buffalo giving a charge toward a lion. We waited around awhile but nothing ever materialized. Despite that, it was one of the most adrenaline packed part of the trip. Here's a pic of one of the lions with everyone around making sure they have their eye on her.



That afternoon we transferred to the Escarpment Luxury Lodge and spent the afternoon by another pool with a view while watching a family of baboons make their way across the pool deck.



Christmas morning we made our way to Mto wa Mbu village where we picked up some montain bikes and made our way thru the village and towards Lake Manyara. Unfortunately the last 1/2 mile toward the lake was a mudbog and we never made it. Despite that, it was a nice change from riding around in the jeeps all day and we got to check out the local markets.





On our way out of town we stopped by a local Maasai tribe village and the kids got to participate in some of the local customs.



Back to another quaint hotel w a pool and we said goodbye to our extraordinary guides.

On to the islands...

[Ottime]

What an amazing trip, and great shots. Would love to do something like this some day with our family.

[DeathVan]

Rad!

[criscam]

I'm not necessarily one to just chill on a beach but looked forward to a a few days of relaxation after a week or so of driving and constantly being on the go. Took a couple of 12 seater planes to the small island off Pemba of the Tanzania coast. We made our way to a remote resort on the north side of the island. The tides on Pemba varied greatly (more than 12' at times) and during low tide, the locals would come out and harvest the seaweed beds to make hand lotion and soap. Unfortunately, this meant swimming at low tide was almost impossible.



However, the low tide also exposed a giant sandbar that was accessible by boat. We took a trip out to it and had the whole place to ourselves as we relaxed and swam in the Indian ocean.


The sunsets were probably the highlight of the day and either enjoyed them on the beach w a cocktail or on a sunset cruise in a wooden handmade catamaran.








New years eve we flew over to the larger island of Zanzibar and spent a couple nights in the old slave trade town of Stonetown. Celebrated New Years w a party on the roof Ddck of our hotel overlooking the city. Spent the next day on a slave trade tour (interesting yet sobering), walking around the city bartering for souvenirs and enjoying another great dinner on the water.
The next day we started our loooong journy home which consisted of a short flight to the mainland, 6 hour layover, 10 hour flight to AMS, 3 hour layover and another 10 hr flight to SLC.

Some takeaways:
For the most part, the locals on both the mainland and island were super friendly. Especially the children who would always come out and wave at the "white people".

Like i mentioned, the food, especially on the mainland was generally quite good. Most of the time you weren't given a choice but never really left a meal hungry. Cocktails were more abound than i expected and needed a detox after 21 straight days (including travel) of drinking.

I was blown away by the amount of animals we saw. Kids counted over 100 diff species of animals and the last count i heard on lion sightings was 75. Maybe we were lucky but was also surprised how close we were able to get. The animals were truly used to the jeeps as well and didn't flinch when we rolled up to a kill or leopard sleeping in a tree.

Our guides were top notch. Especially with the kids. It felt like we were one big family for a week and was hard to say goodbye.

There was ALOT of driving during the week on the mainland. Granted, a lot of the jeep time was spent on game drives but some of the transfers were long and alot of the roads are dirt and pretty rough. Our guides called it the African massage. Despite this, everyone, esp the kids, did great. There was minimal complaing although toward the end, more "screens' were being looked at than normally allowed.

The weather was fairly pleasant on the mainalnd. Prob mid 70's to 80 during the day. Some nights were a little cool/refreshing. It was the tail end of the monsoon season. We only got a few sprinkles during the day and a good downpour one night as we arrived at a tented camp in the jungle. The islands, on the other hand, were hot and humid. Needed to be in the shade or in the water for the most part. fortunately our rooms had AC for sleeping.

Everyone, at one point or another on the trip, felt a little "off". Usually a case of not being "regular" as is somewhat normal when traveling to places where you can't drink the water. My buddy got a fever the first day in the Serengeti and was laid up for about 36 hours. We all had various shots beforehand and had to take malaria pills daily. That said, i imagine it could've been a lot worse. Along those lines, the bugs/flies were not bad at all. A few bites here and there but nothing that really bothered you much.

Well, that's about it. It was truly a once in a lifetime trip and would def recommend to families willing to go outside their comfort zone a little (although we were mostly quite comfortable). Happy to answer any questions ya'll may have.
Asante!

[climberevan]

Very nice. An old friend (also not a dentist, but he is an anesthesiologist so....) has just started planning a trip to do safaris and climb Kilimanjaro with his family, so I'll forward this to him. Ms CE lived in Kenya for about 10 years and yours looks like the stories of safaris she went on. Wild!

[DannyVezun]

Hello! Thank you for sharing this info!!

[hutash]

Some amazing photos, thanks for the TR. It brings back memories of a trip we did in 2017. what an amazing place. You know it's going to be cool, and it is likely going to be cooler then you imagine it, and then you get there and it is way cooler then you could even imagine.

[rudy]

Looks incredible. Thanks for taking the time to put together the TR. Maybe someday...

[garyfromterrace]

Wow!
What a trip, thanks so much for posting this up.
Jealousy meter pinned. Would you consider adopting me?

[Buzzworthy]

Well that was a hell of a TR. What a cool thing to do with your family! Just wow.

[spanky]

Some amazing photos, thanks for the TR. It brings back memories of a trip we did in 2017. what an amazing place. You know it's going to be cool, and it is likely going to be cooler then you imagine it, and then you get there and it is way cooler then you could even imagine.

Same here. Mrs. spanky and I went to Kenya and Tanzania in ‘06. Definitely a trip of a lifetime!

I was originally hesitant to go because of the cost. My thinking being, “if I’m going to spend that kind of money on a vacation, I’m going heli skiing.” Well, I agreed to go on safari only after my wife said, “let’s go to Africa and then you can go heli skiing.” Needless to say, I was the fool (and a bit childish) and realized I had no argument to go heli skiing after having such an amazing time on safari. A year or so later, she says, “are you ever going to book the heli trip?” Damn, I love this woman.

[mcski]

Amazing photos and really evocative descriptions of your travels. Well done. Safari has always been somewhere on a future list but these pics may move it up a few notches.

[leftfield]

Appreciated this TR, brought back lots of fond memories from when i backpacked through these areas for five months in 2011. Best thing i've ever done, itching to get back.

[TonyC]

Those are very impressive pictures. I've had one trip to southern Africa with some safari time but it was in 2002 pre digital camera with only the Zimbabwe part posted online so far: https://bestsnow.net/TRsFTO/20021204...weEclipse.html

A friend did an East Africa trip similar to yours in 2003. Pemba Island is a top scuba destination, though I don't recall whether that's the one they visited.

[criscam]

^^^Nice! We were hoping to include Victoria Falls but just not in the cards this trip.


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[BCR]

Very awesome. We safari'd last year and are taking the 4 kiddos later this year it was so amazing. Sounds like a great experience.