A perfect taiolor made safari – Tanzania safari review
November 2014
Lake Eyasi, Serengeti & the great migration
We have just come back from a fantastic week spent in Tanzania.
We had a similar experience last year (same time, end of January) for 12 days when we visited Manyara, Tarangire,Ngorongoro and Serengeti and Western Kilimanjaro and we had so much fun that we decided to come back again, to visit Lake Eyasi and to go back to the Serengeti, simply the best park I’ve hever been to.
Lake Eyasi is an incredible place, out of time. It is home to the Hadzabe people, the survivors of a civilization that knows nothing of agriculture, livestock, pottery, and metals. They live by hunting with bows and arrows, and gathering wild berries and fruits. They are the last heirs of the homines sapientes who took their first steps right here, along the Rift Valley, about 200,000 years ago.
The young men of the tribe were sitting around the fire, warming up themselves before the morning hunt. They wore colourful beads, baboon skins and were passing each other a pipe made of animal bone in which they smoked spontaneous weed. All in a sudden they stood up, the blond, skinny dogs followed them immediately: the hunt was on. This is all authentic not staged for tourist purposes, it was all real.Meeting the Hadzabe has been the kind of experience that I desperately was hoping my kids would have had in Africa.
The Serengeti ecosystem is, between January and March, simply the best place to be: the plains between Seronera Valley (central Serengeti) and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area become the scene of “the greatest show on earth”: 2,000,000 ungulates congregate in this area, the savannah is covered by wildebeest and zebra as far as the eye can see, it is calving season and the newborns attract many predators who cannot wait to feast on them.
We spent 2 nights at Kati Kati Camp in central Serengeti and 2 nights at Mbugani Camp near Lake Ndutu, in the north-eastern sector of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is actually part of the Serengeti. Seeing the Serengeti migration is just the best you can expect from your safari. After 4 amazing nights spent in the Serengeti we went back to Karatu, the morning after we were back to Arusha.
The tour operator we chose for our safari was simply perfect. Having travelled with them last year we had no doubt about which safari company to book through: Safari Crew Tanzania, and once again they proved to be extremely professional and great value for money.
I had previous experiences with the upscale companies you hear of with fancy brochures and websites that regularly do business in Europe and the U.S. and I can tell that with Safari Crew Tanzania you can get a more personalized service at a much lower price.Our expectations were definitely high after last year’s experience but were fully satisfied. We cannot thank them enough. Everything went like clockwork, thanks to Robert, one of the owners of Safari Crew Tanzania. He worked closely with us to understand what we wanted and offered us several options in terms of itinerary, accommodation and budget. The result was a perfectly tailor made safari for our family. Just like last year, we had the pleasure to be accompanied by Hubert, a gentleman in his 50’s with 25 years spent on the wheel. He was able to spot things beyond the scope of the human eye, he was knowledgable about animal behavior, extremely kind to our children, very conscientious driver and turned to be a great travel companion. His ability to position the jeep for prime location happened time and time again. His ability to find the animals and read their direction was incredible. Overall, a fantastic trip. We hope to be back again next year.
Oliver
