Travelogue from Tanzania: A once-in-a-lifetime experience

Read the travelogue our colleague Richard, who was in Tanzania in 2016

If you want to go on an awesome safari in Afrika, I can recommend the 9 day safari tour Africasafari.co.uk offers.

This tour brought me along Tarangire NP, Serengeti NP, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara NP and exceeded all my expectations.

One of the most exciting days on my tour was the day we went from the Highview Hotel to Ikoma Wild Camp. On this day we visited the local children’s home, had a look over the Ngorongoro Crater from the viewpoint, visited a Masai village and had a short game drive in Serengeti NP.

The first stop of the day was at the local children’s home Shalom, a children’s home where 68 children reside in the age from 8 months to 18 years. The children’s home is well organized and is built on a big lot where the children have lots of room to play. All children are going to school and the children’s home is working on being completely self-sufficient (they grow vegetables, have lots of chickens and 7 milking cows). It was awesome to see that there are great children’s homes out there. If you ever plan a trip like me and plan on visiting a children’s home, please make a donation for the children. Think of clothes, shoes, candy, toys, food (like milk powder) etc.
This is always a great gift for a children’s home and the children and can always be used.

Masais, safari and lion cubs

After our short stay we moved on to the Ngorongoro Crater viewpoint (fantastic view over the crater) and Masai village.

I was always curious about how the Masai people live in their small village and huts. After a welcome ceremony with sang and dance we went into the village and got a tour from one of the Masai men. It is impressive to see how they built their little huts, how it looks from the inside, how they sleep and also cook in these small tiny huts. Off course I had to buy some handcrafted bracelets from beads. They off course set the price very high and I had to put all my bargain skills into play (which actually are not that great). But I succeeded in getting the price down to the price I had set in my mind. I had to be pretty tough without insulting the Masai. I think the Masai was also happy at the end.

Our visit at the Masai village lasted an hour and then we moved on to Serengeti NP for our first game drive in the park. This was the cherry on the cake of that day. I did not have set any expectations for the first game drive as it was a relatively short one of 2 hours, but wow, I am still amazed by that game drive. I think we were at the right place at the right time that day. Not only I saw a pride of lions with cubs at the side of the road, but also spotted a leopard up in a tree, also close to the road, so you really had a great view of them and could take some awesome pics and films. The feeling that gave me, I will cherish the rest of my life.

My top 5 on the tour

After this day of complete excitement, we drove to the Ikoma Wild Camp, an awesome camp right outside the Serengeti NP where I could load myself up for some more amazing days.

This tour is just amazing; you never can predict what to expect. The feelings you get on a trip like this is very hard to express in words.

I can only tell that it is an experience for life!!!

My top 5:

• Serengeti NP
• Ngorongoro Crater
• Tarangire NP
• Masai Village visit
• The Big 5

Richard, TourCompass