Safari in Tanzania

Following our two week trip to Scotland (June 2022), my family and I spent two weeks in Tanzania, Africa. For our trip to Tanzania, we booked through Timbuktu travel agency in the U.S. which utilized the Albatross Travel company in Tanzania. All of our reservations and such were booked for us, and my dad worked with Timbuktu to come up with an itinerary that fit our needs as a family and what we wanted to see. He highly recommends using them as they set up a great itinerary. Jeffi was the agent with Timbuktu that he worked with.

Day 1: (overnight in Arusha at Rivertrees BB) 

          -Arrive at Kilimanjaro airport in the late evening, drive to Arusha 

Day 2: (overnight at Honeyguide Tarangire Camp, Tarangire National Park) 

           -drive to camp in Tarangire National Park, have hot lunch 

           -afternoon game drive 

Day 3: (overnight at Honeyguide Tarangire Camp, Tarangire National Park)

          -full game drive in Tarangire National Park

          -night game drive in Tarangire National Park

Day 4: (overnight at Honeyguide Tarangire Camp, Tarangire National Park)

          -rest day at camp with evening game drive 

          -dinner in the bush 

Day 5: (overnight at The Manor, Ngorongoro)

          -Lake Manyara National Park

-visited a souvenir shopping center

Day 6: (overnight at The Manor, Ngorongoro)

-Ngorongoro Conservation Area, game drive into caldera

Day 7: (overnight at Mara Under Canvas camp, Serengeti National Park)

  -flight from Arusha to Grumeti Airstrip, about 1 hour 

  -flight from Grumeti Airstip to Kohatende Airstrip, about 30 minutes

  -drive to Mara Under Canvas camp, have hot lunch 

  -afternoon game drive 

Day 8: (overnight at Mara Under Canvas camp, Serengeti National Park)

  -full game drive in Serengeti National Park

Day 9: (overnight at Mara Under Canvas camp, Serengeti National Park)

  -morning game drive, lunch at camp, evening game drive

Day 10: fly to Zanzibar, Tanzania (see next post to read about that portion of my trip)

We flew from Glasgow to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro airport, Tanzania. Both flights were through KLM (Dutch airlines). The first flight was about 2 hours and the second was around 8 hours in length. 

Once we made it through customs at the airport in Tanzania, we were picked up by our driver and taken to the city of Arusha (pop. 1.5 million) to stay at Rivertrees Country Inn. We stayed in bungalow type buildings, complete with large mosquito nets encompassing our beds. 

Tanzania

Below are some facts about the country of Tanzania:

-There are around 120 different tribes in Tanzania and most of them have their own language. The most commonly known are the Masai people, unfortunately we were not able to visit a Masai village as originally planned. 

-The hottest time in Tanzania is September & October, while the Rainy season is December- March + June. 

-According to our safari guide about 55% of the people of Tanzania are Catholic, 35% are Muslim, and the rest are Hindu, other Christian, or Masai. 

-The currency in Tanzania is the “Tanzanian Shilling”. $1 is about 2330.87 Tanzanian Shillings. 

-Water buffalo, lions, rhinos, elephants, and leopards are known as The Big Five, because they are the 5 most poached animal and the most dangerous. 

Safari

Game drives are when we would drive around the park just looking for animals. Sometimes our guides/drivers would get a call on their radio that a certain animal had been spotted and we would then drive to see it. While we drove, the roof of the truck would be popped up, so that we were able to stand inside the truck and put our heads through the roof to look for animals as we drove. It was quite fun as it was windy and the road was frequently riddled with potholes. Most mornings, we left by 6:00am and came back around 4:00pm.

Whenever we came back from a drive either to one of the camps or The Manor, we were brought either a hot or cold washcloth to wash our face and hands. While on a safari I would recommend wearing a hat or a headband that covers the top part of your head. As you drive, dust gets kicked up and after driving around all day, you can most definitely feel all that dirt in your hair. 

The rules at the parks included staying on the roads, being back at the camps by 7:00pm, and not leaving before 6:00am. Once it got dark at the camps, we walked everywhere with an escort that had a flashlight.  The flashlight was used to scan the surrounding area for the reflecting eyes of a predator. A select number of mammals, including but not limited to lions, hyenas, and leopards, have eyes that reflect light, making them easier to spot with a flashlight.

Usually, in the evening there would be a campfire at the camp we were staying at. A host at one of the camps we stayed at referred to it as “Bush Television”. 🙂 

At both Tarangire National Park and Serengeti National Park, we stayed in tents. Now, these weren’t your ordinary camping tents; they both had toilets and running water. It was more along the lines of glamping rather than camping. While the Tarangire camp was much nicer than the one in the Serengeti, we greatly enjoyed our time at both. The beds were covered with suspended mosquito nets to keep the bugs away at night. Several times at both camps, we were awakened in the middle of the night by animals outside our tents.

Food & Restrooms

On a game drive day, we would wake up early, eat breakfast, and hop in our Toyota Land Cruiser safari truck. We would drive all day, with a short lunch stop and an occasional bathroom break. Usually for the lunch break we would find a lunch site with picnic tables and a restroom. Other than those lunch bathrooms, we went in the bush during the rest of the day. 

When the itinerary lists a “hot lunch” what I mean by that is that the camp staff cooked food for us and it was hot when we were served, as opposed to our game drive day lunches where the food had been made previously and put in tins for later consumption. The field lunches; however, were wonderful!

Some of the food we ate during the safari is listed below: 

-Haloumi cheese

-fish & pea cakes

-mango & avocado juice

-coconut rice

-dahl

-bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar 

-beef curry

-fruit

-eggs & bacon

-pancakes (which were more like crepes)

-tomato soup

-lamp chops

-mashed pumpkin 

-butterscotch pudding 

-butternut squash soup

-ginger beer (not alcoholic)

-muffins

-roasted peanuts 

-rice 

-potatoes

Bugs & Insects

Seven days before we flew to Tanzania, we started taking Malaria medication for the mosquitoes. However, the mosquitoes were not an issue at all. I think I saw a total of maybe 10 mosquitoes on the entire trip. As for the  Tsetse flies, they were another matter.  There were quite a few of them and they did bite, but they still weren’t nearly as bad as our mosquitoes in Alaska.  In order to not attract Tsetse flies, we wore tan and green clothing.  The goal is to stay away from solid dark colors like black and dark blue, as those attract the flies.  The camps we stayed at generally had flags that were tied to bushes.  The flags, which were black and navy blue, move in the wind and are meant to attract the flies away from the camp. 

We did see several stick bugs in the parks, which was neat. There were quite a few large spiders in some of the tents we stayed in, which was not fun. During the safari portion of the trip we did have to do tick checks. While none of us kids did, both of my parents found ticks on themselves after a game drive one day. 

Animals

Down below, I am going to list some of the animals we saw on our safari. I mention certain animals that are seen in certain parks later in this post, either because those animals are special to particular parks, or they are rarely seen at all. Here are just a few of the main animals we saw, but we saw many other kinds as well.

-elephants

-lions

-wildebeest

-zebras

-antelopes (several different kinds)

-gazelles (several different kinds)

-crocodiles

-giraffes

-so many types of birds

Tarangire National Park

When we visited Tarangire National Park, we stayed in the park itself. We stayed at “Honeyguide Tarangire Camp”, one of the many camps in the park. We were fortunate enough to have the camp to ourselves the entire time, as tourist season had just started and we were lucky enough to be there alone in between bookings, just before it got real busy. 

As mentioned in the itinerary, on one of the days we did a night game drive. We got picked up in an old school safari truck with a fully open top from probably 50-60 years ago. In order to be able to do this, we had to have a park ranger who had an AK-47 rifle with us in the vehicle. The ranger had a huge spotlight that he would shine around while we drove in order to look for animals.  During this drive we saw hyenas, elephants, warthogs, and even a porcupine, which is very rare to see. Once it got completely dark, the stars were absolutely incredible! Since the area is mainly grasslands and is flat, you could see the stars from one horizon to the other. If you ever go on a safari, I recommend that you do a night game drive.  

On a few of the mornings in Tarangire National Park, we had wake up calls. This consisted of a man bringing us hot chocolate/tea/coffee/juice and a couple of cookies to our tents. It was definitely an interesting experience.

Some neat things we saw at this park included hundreds of pelicans landing on a lake, seeing a leopard in a tree with her kill (they drag it up the tree to keep other animals from eating it), and getting within a few yards of a lion. 

As it says in our itinerary, we had a dinner in the bush one of the nights. Our guide drove us to a table set up in the bush. They had a row of tables set with food, a fire, and everything we’d need. It was pretty neat to eat under the stars. After dinner we were driven back to the camp and were escorted to our tents by the “crazy dude” as our host called him. Apparently, whenever he is told to stay at the camp when the others go into town, he runs through the wilderness via a shortcut and beats them there. He also walks alone in the bush at night. 

Lake Manyara National Park & souvenir shopping center

On one of our days in Tanzania, we did a day trip to Lake Manyara National Park. We learned some interesting things about the park. The lake has no outgoing source, so the water has been building up and destroying some of the surrounding land. The park itself is made up of 2/3 water and only 1/3 land. Due to the fact that the land portion of the park is so small it is much easier to get up close to some of the animals. 

After we had our packed lunch in the park, we drove a little ways to a touristy shopping centre. While the employees of the store did not harass us as much as they did in Egypt, they were still a bit annoying, continually asking if you needed help or assistance. We did learn a bit about Ebony while we were there though. Ebony is the most expensive wood in Africa and is the national tree of Tanzania. It is used as a local medicine for several illnesses including pneumonia and dermatitis. Locally it is known as Mpingo and unlike normal wood, it doesn’t float in water, it sinks. 

The Manor, Ngorongoro

The Manor is a very fancy hotel and is Dutch inspired. Originally, we were supposed to stay in another lodge on the edge of Ngorongoro Crater; however, they had to do some untimely renovations, and so we were booked at The Manor. The rooms were very nice and even had bathtubs. There was a swimming pool (too cool to swim since this was at elevation), croquet, a movie theater, and stables on the grounds of the hotel.

Dinner was served every night at 7:00pm and you could either choose to have the tasting menu and try all 5 courses or you could pick which ones you wanted. It was all very fancy even down to the portion sizes which were usually about 2-3 bites per course. The dessert we had one night was really good though, it was a sort of custard with honeycomb and lavender honey. 

On our second evening there, instead of being seated in the dining room as we had the previous night, we were seated in the basement next to a pool table with people playing pool. It was very odd, especially as they gave us no explanation as to why we were sitting in the basement.  

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

We did a day trip from The Manor to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It took about an hour and a half of driving to get there. First we had to check in at the main gate, then we had to drive down around 600 meters in height into the crater/caldera. Here are some facts about the crater:

-There are approximately 32 rhinos in the crater

-There are 5 lion prides, the largest has 46 lions, while the average has 18. 

-The lake in the middle of the caldera is saltwater, but incoming streams provide freshwater for the animals to drink. 

-British conservation started here in 1959

-The caldera is approximately 3,600 square kilometers in size. 

-There are only three roads into the caldera, (only one was open when we were visiting and it took three years to build). 

In the crater, we saw hippos, flamingos, a rhino (from very far away, with binoculars), and a serval. Servals look kind of like house cats, but with the pattern of a leopard on their hide. It is extremely rare to see them during the day, as they are usually nocturnal. In addition, we saw an “undertaker stork”.

Serengeti National Park

As mentioned in our itinerary, we flew from Arusha to Grumeti Airstrip and then from Grumeti Airstip to Kohatende Airstrip.

It was definitely a lot hotter in Serengeti National Park than any of the other parks we stayed in or visited. Serengeti National Park is right on the edge of the Kenya border, so we were able to see Kenya off in the distance. 

A bit of the time, some views and roads were blocked because of smoke. The rangers do controlled burning of some of the brush every year in July, in hopes to be done by the time the great wildebeest migration comes through. However, that was not the case this year.

During our time in Serengeti National Park, we were lucky enough to be able to see the annual wildebeest migration. Usually the migration comes in August/September, but they turned up about a month early this year. We hadn’t planned our trip around getting to see this, it was just an added bonus. Wildebeests are pretty stupid creatures though. We were driving down a road, then the wildebeests ran across the road to the left to avoid our car, then they promptly ran back across the road to the right. Then once they got there, they turned around and ran back to the left side again and then to the right again. This all happened within the span of a few minutes all while our car was just stopped on the road just watching them. 

The wildebeest have to cross the river as they migrate, so we were watching one group cross and we got to see a Nile crocodile take down a wildebeest. It was pretty neat to watch. We saw the crocodile slowly inching toward the moving wildebeest and it was incredible that the crocodile didn’t get stepped on by the wildebeest crossing the river. It was almost in slow motion when the crocodile made a grab for the wildebeest and then dragged it underwater. It was like watching a Planet Earth video.

We also got to see to hippos fighting each other in the river. They were full-on growling and opening their mouths. Serengeti was the only park that we got to see cheetahs in as well. Black Rhinos live in this park and they are closely followed by rangers to make sure poachers don’t get to them. We were able to see 2 Black Rhinos moving pretty fast and the rangers tracking them. 

 

While this was the end of our safari portion of the trip, we next flew to the Island of Zanzibar in Tanzania. I had a lot of fun on the safari and hope to one day go back again.