Travel stories

Elephant in a tree

Awesome! That is our opinion about Explore Tanzania and Tanzania summarized in one word.

For the people who would like to read a slightly more extensive report: We had a click with them from the first moment. After a first proposal elaborated by them, we would have liked to make some adjustments and these were processed quickly and very adequately, resulting in a perfect route for us. Just before departure, we received everything nicely on paper + the app gave a nice overview.

Once in Tanzania, our travel companion was already waiting for us for the first few weeks: Arnold, our cheerful driver and guide, was waiting for us, just like in the film, with a name sign. From then on we were allowed to leave everything to him for the next two weeks, all we had to do was enjoy, an advice we took to heart.

A visit to a coffee plantation and the Kuringe waterfall later we were also joined by Juma, initially our cook, with a secondary occupation as a devil-does-all and a comedian.

Our safari route went through Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Lake Natron, Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater, where we were able to fully enjoy the ever-changing fauna and flora.

Moments that have stayed with me personally are our first tree lions in Lake Manyara, the flamingos at sunrise at Lake Natron, swimming in the Ngare Sero Waterfall, the ‘elephant in a tree’ (which turned out to be our first leopard of the trip ) and a foretaste of the migration in Northern Serengeti. There are dozens more, I can only recommend going there yourself to see and do all this for yourself)

Juma (renamed by us to Juma Meus (mous), a famous TV chef in Belgium) provided delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and twice made a beautiful cake in his bush kitchen.

Arnold turned out to be a wonderful guide and spotter, his ‘can I have my binoculars please’ has often led to beautiful discoveries (a pride of lions in the long grass that we had never spotted, for example) and above all a pleasant travel companion. ‘Would recommend’ one would say in an internet review.

After two weeks we said goodbye to both our traveling companions, hopefully we will have the pleasure to travel with them through beautiful Tanzania again.

We ended in Zanzibar, a paradise island as you imagine it. Deep blue water, snow-white beaches. Perfect to rest for a while before we had to go back to the ‘real world’. Highlights here were snorkeling in the Lagoon and our last dinner at The Rock.

To end this review I would like to thank the people of Explore Tanzania (in the Netherlands and locally), not only for the wonderful trip, but also for the way they solve unforeseen things. Just to be sure, someone had to stay in a hospital for a day. A phone call to Explore Tanzania later, a ‘don’t worry, we will arrange a stay on site’ and within two hours everything was arranged, for us and for our companions. ‘We don’t leave anyone behind’ is not an empty concept.

So only superlatives for our trip (and no, we didn’t get sponsorship 😉)