I just spent close to three weeks in Tanzania, on my latest trip of a lifetime. My travelling partner is a really good planner, but we opted to go with a National Geographic guided tour this time. It was pretty amazing.
We flew into Arusha a few days early, in part because we wanted time to recover from the flight, and in part because it was waaay cheaper than flying in just in time. We were on Qatar Air, business class. (Did I mention it was my friend’s 50th birthday? Gotta do things in style for that!)
We actually had a 14 hour layover in Doha on the way there, so we were able to get out of the airport and see the city a bit. Unfortunately, it was their holy day, and there wasn’t much activity. Still ,we had a very nice dinner at a museum, and wandered around a bit. Ended up going back to the airport and hung out in the lounge for a cocktail, then up to our hotel room for a few hours of rest. Showered, then got back on a plane.
Our first day, we decided to climb the lower part of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Just to the first base camp. We were really lucky with weather - no rain, great visibility. We also did a town tour, and spent some quality time lounging by the pool watching the monkeys play.
Then we met up with the tour group and got started. We went to Lake Manyara, and saw dozens of elephants. Ngorogoro Crater, where we started seeing a few lions, and lots of zebras and wildebeasts. Then the Serengeti with more and more of everything. Giraffes. Jackals. Cheetas. Elons. Impalas. Dikdiks. And so much more.
One particularly muddy day, the trucks kept getting stuck. We were able to get two free and out of danger, and the trip leaders decided that we would leave the third behind. So we had to walk about a quarter of a mile, through the mud, in the Serengeti, to reach the other trucks. I’m glad my friend had her camera handy and got video of it.
The NatGeo tour also includes lectures. We learned about efforts to prevent human/wildlife conflict. We met members of a local Maasai tribe. We met Dr. Louise Leakey, who talked about the fossil history at Olduvai Gorge. We also visited the Gorge.
At the end of the trip, we spent four days in Zanzibar, because we could. Visited the Freddie Mercury house. And beaches. And generally just relaxed.
I’m still organizing my pictures, but once I have them on a good host, I’ll try to post some here.
Happy to answer any questions, for those considering a similar trip or just curious!