What to expect on an East African Safari?

This can be a sponsored publish in collaboration with Contiki. All ideas and opinions are mine.

In January 2020 we bought the chance to journey on Contiki’s East Africa Safari, a 12 day journey by means of Kenya and Tanzania. Rising up with the Lion King as one my favorite childhood motion pictures, I at all times dreamed of seeing these animals within the wild and this was the right journey to attain that.

We began off our adventures on the Jacaranda Lodge in Kenya’s Capital and largest metropolis, Nairobi. We flew in two nights earlier since we knew, coming from Western Canada, our jet lag could be fairly tough. We had been appropriate, and really glad we had a pair days to recuperate and chill out earlier than heading out on our tour. It additionally gave us an opportunity to select up a neighborhood sim card (and something we had been lacking) from the Sarit Buying Mall actually throughout the road from the resort. 

For these wanting, Safaricom is the most effective mobile supplier for Kenyan safaris. We bought 4 gigs of information for 1,200 shillings, which is round 12 USD. After testing it, we had a very good sign just about in every single place we went in Kenya, even in the midst of giant parks just like the Maasai Mara. Simply ensure that to deliver your passport as you’ll want it to get a sim card.

The primary day of the tour is left open for people who find themselves nonetheless arriving in Kenya. Later within the night we bought to satisfy the remainder of the group together with our tour supervisor. After introductions our tour supervisor gave us a bit overview on what was to return as a result of the subsequent day we bought proper into the motion!

One factor you’ll notice after the primary day on tour is that Contiki provides top-of-the-line safari automobiles, and these are some very spectacular machines. Every of the modified 4×4 Land Cruisers seats 7 passengers, and each particular person has a window seat. They shut as much as shield you from the weather and the chilly, and in a while the bugs. However when it’s sport drive time, the home windows slide open and the roof lifts as much as offer you 360 diploma views of the animals, even within the entrance seat! They’re a bumpy journey although, and there’s nothing you are able to do about it because you’re on grime roads for almost all of the safari by means of each Kenya and Tanzania. So if you happen to get movement sick, deliver tablets. And you probably have any again points, sit within the entrance seats as I did.

Our first vacation spot was the Maasai Mara Nationwide Reserve, an unimaginable place to start. We had been informed earlier than our first sport drive to arrange ourselves since this might doubtless be one of many highlights of our journey, and he was not flawed. On our first drive within the park we noticed an unimaginable number of animals, together with 4 of the Huge 5 (Lions, Elephants, Leopards and Buffalo), and that was simply the primary day.

Sentrim Mara was a really cool lodging. The rooms are a combination of a lodge and a tent, like a number of others on our journey, which actually made it really feel like we had been sleeping in the midst of the jungle. That is the place having some heat garments got here in helpful because it will get a bit cooler at night time. Being so near wild animals meant that within the morning we’d get up to the sounds of elephants or hyenas. In between sport drives the pool was a giant hit and a well-liked place to hang around and luxuriate in some solar earlier than our subsequent sport drive within the park.

 

Scorching Air Balloon

One of many elective experiences you are able to do is a dawn sizzling air balloon journey. You are able to do this within the Maasai Mara, or the Serengeti in Tanzania. Whereas it’s definitely not low-cost, it was an incredible expertise and nearly everybody in our group did it. All of us determined to do it in Kenya as a result of it’s barely cheaper than in Tanzania, however most significantly, if the new air balloon was cancelled attributable to dangerous climate, you’d nonetheless get 100% of your a reimbursement and you’ve got one other choice to do it in Tanzania. To us it felt like a no brainer. 

That sizzling air balloon journey was price each penny. It’s fingers down one of the crucial unimaginable issues I’ve ever accomplished in my life. Watching the dawn whereas floating over the huge plains and viewing the wildlife from above, simply unimaginable. If you’re on the fence about doing it, bounce that fence, make room in your funds, you gained’t remorse it.

After just a few days within the Maasai Mara and plenty of hours of sport drives, it was very good to spend a chill day stress-free at Lake Elementaita. The lodging and pool right here might be the nicest of the complete journey and also you arrive with an entire afternoon of free time to only hang around. If you’re fortunate, on the proper time of 12 months you may see large flocks of flamingos on the lake, it’s what it’s well-known for! We didn’t fairly have the proper timing, however our keep right here was nonetheless nothing in need of stress-free.

The day that we left Lake Elementaita we drove again by means of Nairobi to make a pair stops at two unimaginable animal conservations. The primary is the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, generally known as the Giraffe Centre. Right here you’ll get a possibility to see, work together with, and study in regards to the endangered Rothschild giraffe and what they’ve been doing to assist help them. One cool reality about the Giraffe Centre is that it’s situated proper beside the Giraffe Manor (the well-known place throughout Instagram the place you may eat breakfast with giraffes) and they’re really the identical giraffes that you simply see! As an alternative of spending over a thousand {dollars} per night time to remain on the manor, you get to see them as a part of your tour.

The second cease is on the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, to see a particular feeding of child elephants! Be certain that to take closed toes sneakers and keep away from white as a result of it may be fairly muddy, however you gained’t actually thoughts when you see the child elephants enjoying within the mud! A little bit tip for the most effective view level, go to the areas the place the branches are positioned on the bottom, as these are the elephant’s favorite. In the course of the hour-long presentation, we watched the elephants feed and realized about what they do within the nursery. On the finish of the presentation you may undertake your individual child elephant and assist help them of their conservation efforts.

Amboseli is the final cease in Kenya. As quickly as you enter the park you’ll notice it’s a really completely different panorama in comparison with the Maasai Mara. Right here’s it’s all in regards to the timber, the elephants, and the views! Amboseli is the premiere spot, and the one probability on the journey, to catch a glimpse of Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. You may even get an opportunity on the well-known shot of elephants grazing with Kilimanjaro within the background. Sadly for us the skies had been cloudy whereas we had been there, but when the climate is nice it appears prefer it’s spectacular. 

The sport drives by means of Amboseli had been shorter, however stuffed with large moments. We had an opportunity to witness over 100 elephants crossing the street proper in entrance of us, it was top-of-the-line moments on the entire journey.

Maasai Village

One of the vital enlightening experiences was our go to to a Maasai Village. The Maasai are a bunch of individuals dwelling in Kenya and Tanzania who’re identified for his or her distinctive customs, apparel, elevating cattle, and for being fierce warriors. We bought to spend a number of hours studying how the Maasai hunt, construct fireplace, milk goats, shield their households, and construct their properties. They even dressed us of their conventional apparel earlier than all of us sang and danced collectively.

We then broke into two separate teams of females and males. This gave us the possibility to ask questions on one another’s life and customs. They had been so open to sharing and really curious to listen to about us simply as a lot as we had been about them. After that we bought a tour of the native college they’re able to fund with assist from our vacationer {dollars} (as you pay to go to the tribe) and from Contiki. 

On the finish of the expertise you’ll get an opportunity to buy amongst their native handmade items, so ensure that to deliver money! We ended up spending heaps on jewellery for our pals and some carved wood gadgets. Simply be sure to purchase from a number of completely different retailers because the income go to the particular person you might be shopping for from straight, since additionally they made it. No center man right here, 100% native.

We crossed the border from Kenya to Tanzania by land, and it’s right here the place we are saying goodbye to our Kenyan tour information and hiya to our Tanzanian information. He was additionally there to assist escort us over the border. We utilized beforehand on-line for each our Kenya and Tanzania e-visas, so we simply had our print out available. Be sure to do that no less than 1 month earlier than you go, as a result of the timelines they listing on their web site will not be 100% correct. You may as well get visas proper on the border, however save your self the stress and simply do it on-line earlier than you go.

That is additionally the time to seize a neighborhood Tanzanian sim card. Vodacom is the most effective supplier in Tanzania and though our first cease was at a grocery store to seize snacks, there was no supplier there. There are some retailers on the border, so simply ask your information if you happen to want one immediately and he might help you type it out. 

Our first cease simply outdoors of Arusha was the superb Shanga Group Mission: a social enterprise which employs folks with disabilities to create distinctive, high-quality, handmade jewellery, glassware and residential wares incorporating recycled supplies. You’re going to need to deliver your wallets alongside for this one, because the merchandise they create are beautiful. After our tour, the place we noticed first hand the work they do, we ended up buying fairly just a few memento presents for our pals. Additionally they have actually good espresso right here, among the better of the entire journey!

Tarangire was our first style of Tanzanian wildlife, and oh boy, it was a wild one. It’s fairly completely different to the earlier parks because it’s stuffed with hills and timber, together with the large Baobab tree. There are additionally numerous very good, sneaky monkeys working round that may seize your lunch!

Our lodging for the night time was Roika Tented Camp which was surrounded by bush with no fences to maintain the animals away. We had been really sleeping within the jungle! We additionally had the chance to be invited into the kitchen to learn to cook dinner Ugali, a really conventional East African dish.

Tarangire was additionally our first expertise with tsetse flies. These are one of the crucial annoying bugs that chew, and it hurts. They’re interested in darkish colors, particularly blues and blacks.

That is the place you’ll be very glad you packed impartial garments, which now is an effective time to say, save your impartial color garments for Tanzania. It’s time to rock the safari look and pull out the bug spray! These flies are additionally identified to hold a parasite which causes African Sleeping Illness and will be fairly harmful. Luckily not one of the tsetse flies within the areas we traveled to are identified to hold this parasite.

Serengeti, wow what can I say, this place simply merely took my breath away. I used to be already amazed at how unimaginable all the opposite parks had been up until now, however the Serengeti was one thing else. It’s about 8 occasions greater than the Maasai Mara and the plains appear to go on ceaselessly. 

To get there from Tarangire we drove up and round Ngorongoro Crater (which I’ll contact on later), down by means of the Ngorongoro Conservation Space, and previous the Cradle of Humankind (oh you understand simply the origin of our species). Then it was the vast open plans of the south Serengeti, which on the time we had been there (finish of January) it was the place the Nice Migration was situated. 

1000’s upon hundreds of wildebeest, zebra and antelope, stretched out so far as the attention can see. It’s onerous to even comprehend what number of animals we noticed. And this was simply our greeting to the Serengeti. 

If I had been to explain our expertise with the remainder of the wildlife there I’d say it was huge herds. We noticed an enormous group of buffalo, an entire delight of lions stroll by our automobiles, and essentially the most unimaginable pair of leopards mating in a tree. Baboons, cheetahs, you title it, we noticed it.

We spent two nights tenting in the midst of the Serengeti which was one other camp that was open to the wildlife. We additionally noticed among the most unimaginable starry skies, though we weren’t too eager on leaving the tents at night time! 

Our final and most unusual park of the journey was Ngorongoro Conservation Space and a sport drive contained in the Ngorongoro Crater. Think about Jurassic Park, however in actual life. You are feeling such as you’re wanting into the misplaced world, a crater stuffed with numerous animals and the elusive rhino. We bought a preview on our drive to the Serengeti as we stopped at a viewpoint of the crater, however now it was time to go down into it. 

Our mission within the crater was to discover a rhino, it was the final of the Huge 5 we hadn’t seen but. This was additionally our greatest probability to see one because the crater is house to roughly 30 black rhinos. And succeed we did, though he was very small and within the distance we nonetheless name that mission full!

Our final lodging to finish our journey was a beautiful little spot simply outdoors of Ngorongoro. Sadly it was time to say goodbye to our new pals, our superb tour guides, and to our East Africa Safari. Now, all that’s left to do is to undergo the hundreds of animal footage we took!

Should you’d prefer to ebook your individual Contiki #EastAfricaSafari, examine it out right here! Plus, be part of me on my Europe Contiki Prepare Journey this June 4-Twelfth!

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