Friday 16 December 2011

Tanzania 2011

I have resorted to blogging my trip report for Tanzania 2011 as the website I got so much help from and I promised a trip report to - months ago, won't accept it as it says there is a 'rude' word in it.

I can't find it and wanted to post my report so this seemed a solution.

Tanzania Trip report

Loos, bugs and drugs.

There are many, many great reports here which go into great detail about the who, what, where and when of animals seen so I wont repeat that, apart from to say we saw everything a few times over and had a truly wonderful time.

Our itinary was :


Tue 25-Jan-11

Wed 26-Jan-11

Thu 27-Jan-11

Fri 28-Jan-11

Sat 29-Jan-11

Sun 30-Jan-11

Mon 31-Jan-11

Tue 01-Feb-11

Wed 02-Feb-11

Thu 03-Feb-11

Fri 04-Feb-11

Sat 05-Feb-11

Sun 06-Feb-11

Mon 07-Feb-11




I booked through Jay at Africa Travel Resource in the UK about a year ago. If I had my time again I’d book exactly the same again as I changed my mind several times over and had millions of questions and all were responded to patiently and methodically.

Private tour for 3 women in 30’s and 40’s

Guide: Nelson

Kia Lodge – situated within the airport boundaries so very quick transfer when arriving late. We were in bed within 40 mins of exiting the airport building.
More than adequate- pleasant surprise when we woke up and looked around and had a lovely breakfast.

Has mosquito nets over beds, I sprayed deet on arrival – perhaps overkill.  I heard the shrill sound of 1 mozzy during the night but no bites for any of us.

Soap, shampoo and body lotion provided.

I would go back there as we all enjoyed the road travel/ bonding time with the guide  the next morning whilst driving through the villages that we would have missed travelling in the dark had we gone to another hotel similar further out as we landed at 10pm. This way we were in bed for 11pm and up raring to go first thing.

We stopped at Arusha which is 40 mins away to change money to shillings, pick up the first of many lunch boxes and to go to a supermarket and stock up on snacks and cans of drinks and pop and individual milks for tea for the next few days and loaded up the front passenger seat.. (This, we and Nelson were most appreciative of many times over)
We were going to go to the market to get beans for photography bean bags but Nelson had rice bags in the jeep already which were fine.
In the jeep there were 2 normal UK style power sockets for charging if you needed them but in all honesty we never used them as there were adequate facilities in each accomodation

Onwards to Tarangire National Park. Great road. Sparkling clean flushing loos at entrance.   Apparently not at its best at this time of year but we went specifically for elephants and found several herds of 40 plus so a great success for us.

Tsetse fly – nothing repels these beasties. Not deet, not citronella, not eucalyptus, not mosiguard.  Worst in woody green areas. Quick to clear from car when moving.

We took an  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Executioner-Swat-Mosquito-Swatter-Zapper/dp/B000MU2MJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1297270592&sr=8-1-spell  which was excellent, stunned and killed them with a satisfying spark. I ended up leaving this with Nelson as he was so impressed and hopefully is still helping other keep tsetse free.

They land, you get a warning tiny pin prick and if you don’t get them off you at this stage then they bite through safari gear, not fussy, but seem to like shoulder blades to land on so we just watched out for each other and none of us actually got a real bite. They disappear at dusk which is great.

We stayed at Mawe Ninga Camp in the national park which is a wonderfully high up (no mozzies) treehouse camp. You rest on cushions on a huge rock, sip G+T, munch on roasted cashews and wait to be fed fabulous food.
The tents are supposed to be bug free- they spray whilst you’re at supper and we never heard or saw bugs in the tents – no bed nets but none needed.
Do take a universal sink plug as none provided in either of our tents and it pongs a bit. No running basin washing water, you have jugs and bowls which they will replenish on request. There are flushing loos in each tent, shower is HOT but not much more than a trickle.
We loved the serenity and fantastic views from here and would happily return. Fabulous food and lovely evening fire pit.
Need a torch/ headlamp as the camp is solar powered and it can but deidn’t run out during the night
Battery charging was all together in the main building – no issues.
Soap provided.

We had lunch the next day in this park at a lovely open (no bugs) picnic area with clean flushing loos and picnic tables overlooking elephants walking back from swamp bath.

On the way to Manyara National park on good tarmac roads we stopped in a village and had a look round the market and bought fresh fruit to take with us. Nelson let us get on with our shopping and exploring but when we were totally surrounded we came to our rescue and dispersed the men. We were asked for UK stamps, pens, maps, any foreign coins and anything with a Union Jack on.

En route Jess wanted pictures of local people in the fields so we stopped along the way. The going rate is 2000 shillings/ dollar for a picture and believe me- where you think there are 3 people, within minutes there’s a crowd, come from nowhere, across fields, over roads, out of bushes. We used to give Nelson the money and he crowd managed for us.

Clean squat loos at entrance to Manyara Park – cold diet coke available.
Good picnic area with an amazing visitors book with clean flush sitting loos. No tsetse fly - wrong type of tree here – no bugs at all

On the way to the crater on a ultra smooth, brand new Chinese built road (in exchange for a pro whaling vote at the UN !! ) We went through Karatu where we visited a pharmacy and stocked up on all those drugs that are useful to have at home and on a voyage but cannot get without a prescription in the UK ie  diclofenac, diazepam, courses of antibiotics, decent steroid cream for not many dollars. You can buy by the tablet – no need to buy a box.. Good pharmacist who let us look things up in his books and a lovely place without much hassle. (There is also a clinic here with 2 US doctors and and a lab facility that they cart tourists off to if sick)

Sopa  lodge at the crater – No bugs at all.  High up - if you get a headache - drink more water. Wow to the view, the place, the engineering and to the logistics of how they make it all work.
We stripped off and sent all our used, outer clothes to the laundry for about a dollar or so an item and washed our smalls ourselves – all was dry by morning. Beautiful, enormous comfy beds and great food. And all mod cons. Battery charging in own rooms
Look out for waiter Joseph with the smile that can melt anyone and who will remember a table of 12 names on the first introduction- we loved him.
Soap, conditioner, shampoo, body lotion provided.
Paid internet- $6 for 32 mins – slow so don’t expect to do much in that time.

Early start into crater – through gates in 2 mins after the mandatory permit granting.
Breakfast boxes  or Lunch at hippo pool – ok flushing loos but ask your guide to get there early or it’s a bus station.
No drinks available other than what you take.
Don’t be tempted to eat out of the jeep in full view, the black kites will swoop down and grab you/food and it hurts and bleeds a lot.

We always made a box up of the things that remained uneaten out of our food boxes and Nelson would give then to the small Masaii shepherd children on the way out of the crater in exchange for photos.

Crater to Ndutu  - long 2.5 - 3 hour drive – dirt road and quite bumpy, but not in  a bone shattering way. If you’re with anyone with a bit of travel sickness get the driver to stop occasionally and rest up. No loos en route but you could get him to stop just about anywhere, just mind the magically appearing children.

Ndutu lodge – what a lovely place. No bugs, daily cheap laundry and lovely food and free internet – tad slow but works eventually.
The actual big migration was still a few miles away but we went to meet it and wow was it worth it. Simply fantastic.
Battery charging in main building – loads of sockets- no issues at all.
Funny slippery water that was strange to wash with but no issues at all.
Soap provided.

Here we did 2 game drives a day – a morning one and an evening one, coming back for lunch which was a pleasant change and gave time to enjoy the surroundings in the day.

Small planes – 15 kgs  strict – well that’s the theory. We had more than that with a full camera kit and noone batted an eyelid on any of our flights. As long as you could fit it in, that was fine. On the airstrip there wasn’t anywhere to weigh it anyway – you loaded your own and just made it look easy and after that we just looked confident and noone challenged it.
 If anyone hasn’t used this method of small plane travel before – it’s bouncy, you feel every air pocket and can be more worrying than other forms of travel but all was well on each trip and it was exhilarating.

Many people don’t go to Zanzibar so I won’t comment on that part of our trip apart from to say how lovely it was.

So – overall , my top tips

  • Wet wipes – we used loads.
  • Zip lok bags – big ones. Useful for just about everything from keeping all chargers together to putting used wetwipes in, to putting stuff in to give to local kids individually.
  • No more than 3 of each clothes item- wear, wash and reserve. We had far too much.
  • I called a week before travelling and asked about the guides family – learnt Nelson had a girl of 4yrs so took her a load of stuff and another load of stationary/ toys/ clothes for Nelson to distribute to families he knew who needed help.

The KLM luggage allowance from UK to Tanzania is  46 kgs

* You may bring 2 pieces of check-in baggage, each max. 23 kg (50.5 lbs),
max. 158 cm (62 inches) l + w + h:
·         on KLM and AIR FRANCE flights to and from:

Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro)
So I took a holdall full just of presents that I gave him on the first day which was very well received.
I had no intention of spending safari days at schools/ Orphanages etc yet wanted to do a bit for the community.
·         Universal sink plug
·         Mobile coverage- I’m on Tmobile with an android smart phone. Good coverage every day- out of range for an hour or so occasionally but in full range at each accommodation. Turn off roaming.
Tmobile said picture messages were the cheapest form of communuication – great until you realize picture messages won’t send from anywhere out there. So normal texts were order of the day @ 40p each.
Airtel was the best local provider to connect to in the Serengeti if your phone gave you a choice.

·         From UK, no power adaptors needed- standard UK sockets throughout.
·         Stock up on cans and snacks before heading out of Arusha – just water gets a bit dismal day after day. We had 3 small bottles a day each provided by Nelson in the jeep who did prompt us to drink and then more in each hotel room.
·         Single dollar bills – we took 150 of them. Shillings do fine but eyes light up at the greenbacks. We were generous with these with porters and kids and general helpers – but didn’t give money if something else like postage stamps, maps of the London underground would suffice !  If in doubt we asked Nelson to advise us on the best approach and he was sensible and helpful.
·         Travelwash
·         Headlamp
·         Medicines/first aid – we ended up helping out people with infected wounds, toothache, bad guts, bad back, wasp stings.
·         Immodium – we all had a day or two of grumbling bad bowels, not through food as none of us were poorly on the same day and mostly it’s a set menu so we all ate the same.
If you need to ’go’ out in the field then you need to go, and the driver will find an open space if you’re not near a picnic area and you go behind the vehicle and your friends keep watch out of each corner. It’s not a big issue. We did take Travel John products and found them very good.
Never put the tap/ jug water anywhere near your mouth, not even to rinse your toothbrush.
·         Personally I would check that your vehicle has a pop top roof. Most do but we did see some around that were just roll back tarpaulin and the people were exposed all day with the sun on their heads. That would have been awfully hot and a sunstroke risk. We never wore any sun screen at all as we were protected by the pop top roof.
·         Buy cashew nuts and mango, papaya, pineapple at the side of the road and enjoy… simply fabulous.
·         Take wide micropore/sticky tape for sealing up holes in mozzy nets.
·         Learn the language a bit. If you know the songs from the Lion King you’re already well on your way.. There are Swahili translation apps for android phones and I had printed out the usual salutations for us which was great at the market and stuff and much appreciated.

If you’d like to see a few pictures – this is Jess’s Facebook photo page.
Do stop by and let us know you’ve had a peek. Just press ‘like’ to be able to comment.
or http://www.jesscalke.com/

Any questions - please just leave a message and I'll attempt to answer it .