Travel stories

Forever in our ‘backpack’

Forever, we will take this with us in our ‘backpack’….

We never thought we would visit Africa, but because our daughter was going to do a study assignment in Tanzania, we also took the opportunity to go. And how glad we are that we did!

Our journey started in Zanzibar where we slept in the Zanzibar Pearl Beach Hotel, a wonderful and hospitable hotel right on the beach. The staff created a Christmas feeling with a real Christmas dinner and a Christmas present.

Very nice to start our holiday in Zanzibar in a relaxed way and to get used to the country. In addition to relaxing on the snow-white beach, we have made fantastic trips. We sailed in a ngalawa (an authentic boat), we went to Prison Island and Stonetown with a guide for a day and we went out to sea with a boat for snorkeling and even swam at 1 meter from dolphins!

After Zanzibar we took a domestic flight to Mwanza, the city where our daughter stayed. A whole different world again. Everyone lives on the street and ‘shopping’ is very intensive. Everyone really wants to sell you something and tourists are special there anyway. The Tilapia hotel on Lake Victoria was again a wonderful place to spend the night and on New Year’s Eve they set off fireworks from a boat on the lake.

In Mwanza, just like in all other places during our holiday, we had a delicious meal. A special place was a meal on a roof terrace under the starry sky with an Indian woman. Also special was the sunset boat trip on Lake Victoria, where we also visited one of the many islands.

After 3 nights in Mwanza we were picked up by James, our guide, for a 5-day safari: first to the Serengeti, then to the Ngorongoro crater and finally to Lake Manyara National Park. We saw an incredible amount of animals in the Serengeti. James therefore called us ‘The Lucky group’. Elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, secretary birds, hippos, hyenas, gazelles, a leopard, ….. and much more. Very special were the cheetah resting from his hunt for a 1-year-old wildebeest, the lions fighting for a female, the lions lying in the shade right next to our jeep, the first baby wildebeest of the year and the immense numbers of wildebeest and zebras on their way south of the Serengeti. James had interesting stories to go with everything.

If you want to feel close to nature, staying in a Green camp in the middle of the various parks is recommended. What an experience: sleeping, eating and living among the animals in the south of the Serengeti. Compliments to the employees who pampered us completely and ensured our safety. How special is it to eat by a campfire and watch the zebras walk by or hear the elephants pass by the camp at night.

On the way to the Ngorongoro crater we saw many Maasai villages. The crater itself is beautifully green. We have again seen many animals, also many young animals. The Big Five could be ticked off. An image that remains on our retina is the image of 3 young cubs who move uncertainly from the shelter into the crater, while mother is nowhere to be seen. Beautiful, but also very dangerous for the cubs….

Outside the crater the rainforest started and at Lake Manyara the groundwater forest. Another totally different vegetation. There we also saw many animals and visited the fantastically located Green camp where we had lunch at a waterfall with a view of drinking elephants and baboons.

That night we slept just outside the park on a real campsite, ‘Migombani campsite‘. From the pool you have a beautiful view of Lake Manyara. The safaris unfortunately were finished and James dropped us off the next day at our hotel in Arusha, Ilboru Safari Lodge. After 2 days of enjoying and relaxing at the pool and after a Swahili cooking workshop in the garden of the hotel, we left for the Netherlands with many wonderful memories and a super good feeling about the organization of our trip by Explore Tanzania.

Our thanks go to you and to James, everything was arranged perfectly. We enjoyed and will never forget this trip! Asante!

Milou, Manouk, Erik & Rita.