” On arrival at Mount Kilimanjaro International Airport ”
May 2015 Great Canadian Travel : Safari in Tanzania
Who would not want to start a story off with a title like that?
We arranged the clothing, the cameras, the visas, the travel books, and received the tour package from Great Canadian.
Now for the trip. Off to Toronto, Amsterdam, Nairobi, and Kilimanjaro. Wow. Great Canadian even arranged a day trip / guide for downtown Amsterdam as we had a long lay-over there and a good deal of Jet lag to work our way through. That was a great idea!
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and we were picked at the airport by one of our guides who took us to our first overnight in Africa – at a resort close by the airport. What a great introduction to the next week and a half.
The next morning we were off to the airport for a short flight to the first of three Safari camps in a commuter size plane with 15 or so passengers and great views of the African landscape.
We arrived to be greeted by our guides and the vehicles we would enjoy for the next week. Thinking we would be whisked off to camp we found, instead, that we were to do our first game tour. We got see many of the animals we had only seen in books and films to that point in our lives, and CLOSE UP to boot. What a great first day.
Our expectations were exceeded! The camps were clean, orderly, the “tents” included queen size beds, couches, chairs, coffee tables, showers, sinks, toilets, and a two way radio if we wanted an escort to the dining table or lounge / bar area! Fully lit by 12-volt solar powered batteries. Our first night was spent sleeping with the “windows” rolled up and the sounds of the African night drifting into the tents.
The rest of the Safari rolled by with early morning wake up calls, breakfast, box lunches, and enjoyable drives with knowledgeable and engaged and friendly guides who would help us, and did help us, in every way possible. We would arrive back at camp with tales to tell and hundreds of photo’s to sift through. We had memorable dinners each evening at sunset.
Overall we saw and photographed virtually all the animals on our check – off lists. A great success aided by the tour staff at the various camps we stayed in and the guides who travelled with us. The food was great and the scenery magnificent. The staff in all our camps were excellent.
Highly recommended!!!