Customer Review - Mr & Mrs Donner in East Africa
We went on a month's holiday to Kenya and Tanzania from mid-November to mid-December 2007. Overall the holiday was a great success. We thoroughly enjoyed it and Isabel did a good job planning our itinerary and putting up with our frequent suggestions for changes to get it just right.
On arrival at Nairobi Airport, we were met by Nkala, our driver/guide and the holiday commenced immediately, which was great! We didn't need another long list of what we were going to do. He turned out to be a trained ornithologist taking specialist bird groups on tour from time to time. This was great for us as he was able to teach us about the various bird families as we went along and identify species at great distances. Naivasha was a wonderful start. The Lodge was superb and our personalised boat trip meant we could spend time where we wanted and not be at the beck and call of a group. The boatman also had excellent local knowledge.
Lake Nakuru was also a wonderful choice. Lion Hill Lodge was more basic but supplied all our needs comfortably. Having a soda lake meant that the wildlife was totally different. We were amazingly lucky to include white rhino and leopard in our sightings here. The guides had a great radio system and informed each other of where they found things of interest--and in fact their licences depended on their exchanging such information. This was true all over Kenya.
The road the next day to the Masai Mara was horrendous as it was being dug up along its total length to build a new road--don't hold your breath as to when that would be finished! Nkala coped magnificently.
Our stay in the Masai Mara was superb. We saw an incredible variety of both birds and animals. Because of the dry weather, huge numbers of zebra and wildebeest were still there. We gather the migration was much more spread out this year. The Mara Serena Lodge was also excellent. We were amazed at the friendliness of al the people we met in Kenya and Tanzania and how quickly they were willing to talk about their backgrounds, education, jobs and life in general, even politics. They have a great sense of humour and would banter with us happily.
The flight to Arusha was perfectly comfortable (and by the way, no one queried our 10% overweight on any of the flights - as in many things, being friendly and open paid off. We saw other more aggressive people being charged.)
Because the arrival was in the evening, we were met by a driver from Ranger Safari Ltd and were taken to Mountain Village. This was fine but the driver had no idea who would meet us the next day or at what time. In fact, a greeter turned up at about 9:00 am and proceeded to go through our itinerary with us (whcih we already knew). He said our driver/guide would be with us in a couple of hours. We pointed out that we didn't wish to waste this much time so we persuaded him (reluctantly) to walk us round the gardens and the lake and tell us a little about the plants and trees there. Mountain Village itself was excellent except for the taps in Room 3 which both poured boiling water, also the shower! (no cold)
When we finally got under way, we were delighted to find that our driver/guide, Muhanga, was every bit as nice as Nkala and also very very knowledgeable. Because he had never taken anyone on tour for two weeks before, he was a little nervous and had brought lots of field guides with him whcih proved very useful, particularly as many birds in Tanzania have different local names in English from those in the official guidebooks. We were relieved to have someone like Muhanga after the "jobsworths" we had met so far from Ranger. Again we became good friends and a complete team in the course of our journey and were delighted when he gave us both a big hug when we left.
Our visit to Tarangire was a great success. It was our first experience of tented camps and Carol, our hostess at Tarangire River Camp, looked after us very well. We had various midnight visitors outside our tent such as hyena and buffalo, but our Masai escorts had warned us and there was no danger.
Again the terrain was very different from what we'd seen in Kenya, particularly the giant baobob trees and there was a Masai village very near the camp which we passed everyday. Muhanga answered all our questions about how they lived and what they ate and drank. Someone should definitely start a charity which provides a bicycle to every village so that they can collect water more easily--this village was one of the few we saw that had a bike.
Our next visit was to Lake Manyara and Kirurumu Tented Lodge where we had magnificent views over the Rift Valley. In the park we saw everthing except the tree-climbing lions. This was the only place in Tanzania that offered night safaris but the price was horrendous. We wished we'd taken up the offer in the Masai Mara but we thought such tours would be available everywhere. A good warning for future travellers.
We then continued to the Serengeti. We were delighted to find that the roads in Tanzania were much better than in Kenya and we made good progress. We saw very few animals on the way in as the Park was unbelieveably dry. Mbuzi Mawe is halfway between the main crossroads in the park and the northern border. It is not on any of the maps so guests might like to know its location. The first two days we explored almost all the safari tracks.
Compared to the other parks,there are very few kilometers of safari tracks. We would definitely not have chosen to stay here for five days had we known this. We therefore phoned Ranger Safaris and spoke to a man called Mohammet and suggested that we leave two days early, bring the rest of the trip forward two days and book a day or two at the end in the Arusha Park.
He immediately agreed that the changes in accommodation were possible at no extra charge but that we would have to pay for the day entry to the Arusha Park. We agreed to this and he promised to arrange it and leave confirmation at Mbuzi Mawe for us by the time we got back in that day.
We genuinely believed that he could do this and was willing to do this. However when we got back, there was no message. We and the Lodge manager, James, phoned the Ranger office at least four times that evening but were stonewalled by all staff members saying they needed much higher authority to do this and that Mohammet was not in the office. We were told to ring again at 8:00 the next morning. Three calls later at 9:30 am we finally got to talk to someone who said they were not willing to do this unless we wrote a letter to you in UK exonerating all of them and agreeing to pay ANY cost they cared to apply. Of course we refused and said we would stick to the original schedule.
Luckily the next day vast numbers of animals started to appear from the North so we revisited our previous locations very profitably. Throughout this episode both Muhanga and the hotel management were very helpful and supportive and we made it clear that we felt that they were in no way to blame either for our request or for the way it was handled.
On the last day we also went to the Serengeti Visitor Centre. We wished we had gone at the beginning as it told us so much about the geology, the flora and fauna and the peoples of the area.
On our last evening all the hotel staff gave us a party with a special dinner, a cake and a special table set out on the terrace and they sang and played music for us. We were incredibly touched. By that time we were on first name terms with most of them--such lovely people. They said that they very rarely had anyone stay five nights and felt we were now one of the family. By the way, that reminds us, all the camps and hotels had a tip box by the reception desk and we found out early in our our trip that it was far better to use this than to hand out a dollar here and a dollar there and risk missing out people who had done work for us but whom we had not seen. We always told the first porters on our arrival that we would use the tip box so they wouldn't be disappointed.
On the way back it rained. The animals must have known it was coming. Our visit to Olduvai Gorge and the little museum there was an absolute must. The mere proof that people like us walked the earth four and a half million years ago is thrilling and the reconstruction of very modern-day-like animals amazing.
Our visit to the nearby Masai village was also excellent. We met and talked to nearly everyone in the village, some, but not many, through an interpreter. The chief was a great character and we had lots of laughs together. The nursery school children sang for us. It was horrifying to think that the nearest doctor was 40-50 miles away, a journey made on foot only on behalf of the very very sick.
Ngorongoro Crater was spectacular, like finding a fertile microworld on the moon. Muhanga finally found us our black rhino, the last missing diurnal animal for our list. The hotel was excellent.
The next night at the Ngorongoro Farmhouse was a bit of a disappointment. To call it a family run coffee plantation is a complete misnomer. It had been taken over by a holiday company two years ago and they now only have half an acre of slightly organic vegetables and an acre of coffee bushes. Otherwise it is a quite nice lodge with little bungalows for accommodation and the main building used for conferences. We gather Gibbs Farm has gone the same way. We would rather have had a second night at the Serena. The safari vans used in both Kenya and Tanzania were ideal for the job.
The next day we were summoned to the Ranger office where we were not even invited in. Another greeter came out to our safari van and asked us about our idea to change the schedule. He tried to make out that Mohammet had messed it up, but by now it was obvious to us that that was not true. He had gone to his boss who had turned his request for our changes down flat. Presumably it wouldn't have looked good on his record, or it was all just too much trouble. The greeter said he'd have to submit a written report.
We said it was a waste of time as they would only bin it. Finally the greeter grinned and said he knew someone to give it to who would not bin it, so we told him the whole of the above saga. I wonder what happened to his report. He then told us that our flight had been delayed and we were going on a different airline to Zanaibar two hours later. We went to lunch at Mountain Village with a man who was just a driver. After lunch he came in to say we must leave at once because it took two hours to get to the airport. Having already travelled that road we knew that was nonsense. It turned out he didn't have our tickets or the number or departure time of the flight and was panicking to get us to the airport. When we got there he asked us to wait outside while the tickets arrived.
Half an hour later we'd had enough. We walked into the airport past security and asked to speak to an official of our original carrier Zanair. He rushed over and asked why we hadn't come in much earlier as he had told our driver on the mobile four times to bring us in. He took us through security, got our tickets and rushed us to the departure lounge. From there on all went well. We did find out that our original flight had not been delayed but that Ranger had asked for the change, presumably to have more time to talk to us.
Luckily at Stone Town we had a different tour company, Fisherman, who were friendly and efficient. We enjoyed our stay at the Tembo Hotel by the sea and our tours of the city and the spice farm, both with knowledgeable guides. The next day's transfer to Breezes Beach Resort went smoothly. We did a deal to stop at the Jozani Forest Park to see the red colobus monkeys on the way which worked out well.
Our stay at the Breezes Beach Resort was very relaxing and enjoyable. We were quite surprised at how tired we had become. Our only suggestion for future travellers is to put plenty of waterproof sun lotion on your back and head before snorkelling! We were so engrossed we forgot how long we were exposed to the sun!
Our journey home was uneventful. We got two bonuses you had not told us about despite our asking. Because we came off a Kenya Air flight and were continuing on another Kenya Air flight and had several hours wait in Nairobi, they gave us free use of their transit lounge and vouchers for a three course set meal in their transit restaurant.
We had a fantastic trip. We saw 52 different mammals and reptiles and 286 species of birds and we never encountered a snake or a scorpion. Thank you for organising the whole tour so well.