# Recommend an African Birding Tour! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541 "2019-03-04T18:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541/41 "2019-12-17T19:49:04Z")
In Nairobi, do the Sheldrick elephant adoption and visit (SCHEDULE IT NOW! and make sure your cab comes back to pick you up as it is a long walk out to find another cab). It is truly amazing experience and a lot of fun. My suggestion- elephants love to be scratched HARD especially behind the ears. They would lean into the fence and even life/shake a leg like a dog when we would get a good spot. The natural history museum is also good for two hours and the guide is free and supplied. I recommend it before you head out to give you a flavor of more to see. The giraffe feeding is not worth it- do the elephants twice instead. It looks like you will have an amazing time and a great itinerary! So I am just leaving my advice for future people/birders. Walking tours are fine, but not really worth the time/$$$. If you get a good guide, we had the most fun finding things on the ground. Identifying scat and the original food, footprints, insects, dung beetles. The walks just don’t cover that much distance to really greatly expand upon what we could see. We saw far more birds sitting in our camps along the Mara River or the Luangwa River, and just spending hours at dawn and dusk watching the different birds come in and depart. We really got tired of fish eagles, marabou storks, egrets, and guinea fowl, but only because we wanted more!!! I highly, highly recommend South Luangwa in Zambia. We did the Mara Triangle for 4 nights, Tanzania for 2, but we had an absolutely spectacular time at Wildlife Camp in South Luangwa. We extended from 4-6 days in order to do some more drives and walks and just to sit around. Some highlights beyond the African standard from our time there: Purple Crested Turaco (a pair) 10+ species of hornbills including 20 Southern ground hornbills in one flock 5 vulture species (50-100 total birds) fighting a lion and feasting on an elephant carcass Kori bustard spoonbills Martial eagle (either two or one may have been a crowned eagle- distance and lighting made positive ID difficult for 2nd) saddle-billed storks and 3 separate packs of wild dogs and 6 leopards The only thing missing from our time in Africa that were needed (and thus our reason for going back soon): a rhino in the wild, flamingo, penguins, gorillas and chimpanzees. The latter three are unlikely as we’d do the exact itinerary again! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541/42 "2019-12-17T20:37:32Z")
> [@FloatyGimpy](#): > > Days 8 and 9! > > Day 8: Serengeti - Ngorongoro Conservation – WALKING EMPAKAI CRATER. In the morning at 0830hrs depart Serengeti with picnic lunch box and drive to arrive Ngorongoro Crater conservation with stops at some viewpoints to see the Great Rift Valley, wonderful landscape, the vegetation and the highlands. Continue to Empakaai crater Rim where you will have your lunch served. After lunch, trek down from the East rim to the crater floor accompanied by an Armed ranger guide. It is a pristine forested crater with no roads; take an easy walk to the lake where sometimes-huge flocks of flamingo birds can be seen. -A caved in volcanic caldera, Empakaai Crater stands at 300metres in height and more than six kilometers in width. Rippling at its heart is Empakaai Lake, an 85metre deep alkaline pool that envelops three quarters of the crater’s floor. Standing at Empakai Crater’s imposing rim, you can see landmarks, such as the distant fleecy snows of Kilimanjaro far on the eastern side of the Valley, the Great Rift Valley, and Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano. -Along your hiking sojourn, while taking in the glorious sights, you are sure to spot a profusion of animals including blue monkeys, buffalo, bush bucks, water bucks, and an extensive array of kaleidoscopic bird life. The guide will advise time to leave the crater and drive to the lodge for dinner and overnight booked on full board basis, FB > > Day 9: Full day Ngorongoro Crater tour. After your early breakfast, at 0630hrs drive to Ngorongoro Crater Rim and descend for a full day tour of the crater. The drive commences with the 600 m descent to the crater floor, a magnificent natural amphitheater. Covering 260 sq. km, the crater is an attraction in its own right and is one of the wonders of the natural world. The crater supports a year round resident population of a variety of wildlife. You will have no trouble spotting the BIG FIVE lion, leopard, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo and many other species of plain animals- wildebeest, zebra, reedbuck, Thompson gazelle and many more. You will have picnic lunch in the Crater, Sounds really great; we didn’t go to Empakai and it sounds beautiful. Ngorongoro Crater is full of wildlife, but walking where there is tall grass and predators is a really bad idea. I’m assuming that you’ll also stop at Oldupai Gorge on the way to Serengeti or on the way back out? Not much to see there, but a good visitor center. What about Lake Manyara, near the Rift Valley escarpment? ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541/43 "2019-12-17T21:03:48Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Sounds really great; we didn’t go to Empakai and it sounds beautiful. Ngorongoro Crater is full of wildlife, but walking where there is tall grass and predators is a really bad idea. I’m assuming that you’ll also stop at Oldupai Gorge on the way to Serengeti or on the way back out? Not much to see there, but a good visitor center. What about Lake Manyara, near the Rift Valley escarpment? You’re welcome to see the full itinerary, if you’d like! Just pm me your email and I’ll send it off. I’d still welcome feedback as it’s a private safari so we’re able to make small changes to the schedule. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541/44 "2019-12-17T22:28:29Z")
> [@FloatyGimpy](#): > > You’re welcome to see the full itinerary, if you’d like! Just pm me your email and I’ll send it off. I’d still welcome feedback as it’s a private safari so we’re able to make small changes to the schedule. The key to it all is having a really knowledgeable guide who is interested in showing you the best to be seen. We had one who just drove around and every so often muttered “guinea fowl”, which is sort of like driving around a farm and saying “chicken”. But all the others were top notch, knew every bird that flew and every animal that walked or slithered. Don’t forget to tip him at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541/45 "2019-12-17T23:11:18Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The key to it all is having a really knowledgeable guide who is interested in showing you the best to be seen. We had one who just drove around and every so often muttered “guinea fowl”, which is sort of like driving around a farm and saying “chicken”. But all the others were top notch, knew every bird that flew and every animal that walked or slithered. Don’t forget to tip him at the end. This is a good point. Our guides fed off of our excitement and asked which animals we wanted to see. When we stated on our first day, that we were very interested in seeing dung beetles, sitting in the middle of the wildebeest herd, and watching the series of scavengers and events at a lion kill for a longer time, our guides responded by not just driving to see the cheetahs, lions, etc. sequentially, but they instead went to places to allow us to see other smaller creatures and ecosystem participants. We even got some discussion on the medicinal plants. They will give you the tour you want, you just need to ask! We once drove toward a herd of other tour trucks and we said, “don’t stop” as we preferred being alone with the herbivores over another close up of a sleeping lion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-an-african-birding-tour/830541.md?page=2)