3-day safari in Tanzania
Our trip to wonderful Tanzania lasted 15 days. We would like to share our experience and give you a few recommendations before your journey to this African empire. The travel is divided into three articles in logical and /for us/ chronological order. In this article, we dedicate to Tanzanian safari. In the other ones, we will bring you to the north of Tanzania and island Zanzibar.
Arrival to Tanzania
It was finally the date of our travel. We flew 6 hours to Doha where we were waiting for 3 hours to board on our flight to Dar es Salaam. Qatar sat us down on the “oldest plane they owned”, but we did not mind it because of their extraordinary service in economy class. After landing in Dar es Salaam, we were exposed to dozens of taxi drivers, offering a lift to the city. Their yelling was really irritating. Since we were quite tired and did not feel like searching for a bus, we negotiated an expensive 20 USD taxi drive up to our accommodation. We stayed in a hostel called House of changes which offered a fascinating view on the ocean and the sunrise. If you are planning to book this accommodation, pure the host a shot of your homemade alcohol. He will be happy. 🙂
Region Arusha = region of safari
At 7 am the taxi from the previous day waiting in front of our hostel and taking us to the airport. We were heading to Kilimanjaro airport. Do not be surprised if your baggage is checked more than once. Be prepared that your passports and flight tickets might be seen 5x within ten meters. The flight to the north of Tanzania was quite short. We elevated up to 34 000 feet just for 4 minutes, and suddenly we started to go down. The view from the cabin was stunning. While landing, we glanced the mountain Kilimanjaro for the first time.
Our goal place was a town called Arusha, laying approximately 50 km from the airport. We were supposed to start the safari here. It should be noted that we had booked our safari adventure in advance. You can easily find many companies on the Internet, offering similar safari packages. The most popular are Tanzania Wildlife Safaris and Tanzania experience We nevertheless opted for Decken Safaris recommended by our Tanzanian friend. The price of safari varies in accordance with the type of accommodation and the number of visitors. You should be aware that a 3-day safari with meals and overnight stay will probably cost at least around 1000 euros per person.
Taxi drivers at the airport attempt to transport you for an extremely high price. Therefore, you must negotiate. We found a driver who took us to Arusha just for 15USD. During the journey, he repeated ca a million times that he would not have any profit. But apart from that, the drive was alright. When we reached Arusha, the first issue appeared – we got a fine. I did not have a security belt on. The joke is that there were no belts in the car. I tried to chat with the police to avoid the fine but for nothing. Tanzanian police are, however, very greedy and they may amerce you for anything just so they earn. We finally arrived at the location of our hostel where we spotted problem number 2. The address of our accommodation was wrong on our booking confirmation. There were not even any signs. Luckily, our taxi driver called the motel and found the right street. We learned that anywhere we travel, we should carry the correct address (GPS) and a telephone number of the accommodation to prevent this issue. The motel was comfortable, new and the staff was friendly. In the afternoon we went for a town walk and tasting of traditional local meals. Bananas with meat and typical Ugali. If you travel to Tanzania /or any Muslim country/, we strongly recommend wearing a longer skirt or pants. Otherwise, you will face unfriendly looks from the locals.
Safari - National Park Tarangire
7 am, and a giant Land Cruiser stopped in front of our motel. It was our safari car where we spend the following three amazing days with the guide Abdul. Our first destination was national park Tarangire, known as a park of elephants. The journey from Arusha took around two hours. On the way to the park, we met the first Massai people, Tanzanian aborigines. We were not allowed to take a picture of them because if they saw us, they may have got aggressive.
As soon as we entered the national park, we viewed a bunch of robust baobabs and acacias. We have never seen them before, and the goosebump multiplied our excitement for this adventure. Few kilometres later, we spotted the first bevvy of antelopes, colourful birds and some giraffes quite far from us. After one hour of driving, we saw an elephant family. We bearly breathed and had great respect towards these animals, feeding less than 5 metres from our car. Our guide Abdul was admirable. As soon as he noticed something, he stopped the car, turned the engine off and explained every phenomenon. He was really skilled, and we understood that this job was his calling. Every time we stopped for a while, he opened a book and read about the animals. Thanks to him we saw enormous termitaries, dry river and then, it happened. Several elephants were approaching our car. We became speechless and stared at the beautiful beings. After this experience, we finally found some zebras, monkeys, wild pigs and other animals.
Slowly getting hungry, we reached a place above the national park. We enjoyed both the view and the lunch here. Then, we went to look for leopard. The weather was ideal but did not have enough luck to find it. We were acknowledged that it is rare to see leopard and we hoped to open our eyes better during the next two days. We moved to our camp, had our own chef and slept in a tent. It was a real adventure!
Safari - Conservation area Ngorongoro
The day of Conservation area Ngorongoro, one of the gigantic craters in the world. Belonging to the world heritage UNESCO captures the highest concentration of wild African animals. It is located next to Serengeti national park which is very popular for huge terrestrial migration every year.
The journey from our camp lasted around two hours. As we were coming closer to the crater, we noticed completely different vegetation. The ground was red after volcanic minerals, and the bushes and trees were distinctive. As we arrived at the entrance, we understood that this is one of the most visited places in Tanzania, due to the high amount of tourists. After we passed the entrance gate, we were awarded by a stunning view from the top of the crater. I have not expected anything breathtaking like this. I could spend the whole day watching the valley in the middle of the hole. The conservation area was 610 m deep and the extension of 260 km².
While driving downhill, we observed the first bevvies of black wildebeest, feeding just a few meters from our car. Then we saw hundreds of zebras, hyenas, jackals or buffalos. But what we were the most excited about were lions. After 2 hours of driving, we finally noticed a lion, less than 50 meters from us. Followingly, we moved to “the hippopotamus pool” watching one of the most dangerous animals of Africa. Then the biggest surprise arrived. In Ngorongoro, there are only 20 rhinos and February is usually very hot for rhinos, so they escape to the forests. We were super lucky to spot a pair of them on their way to chill out. After a short observation, we followed them to the park where a group of 5 sleeping lions was inviting us for the afternoon siesta. They were hanging out approximately 10 meters from us, so our fear was stronger than our desire to relax. That is why we continued our Ngorongoro tour and found many kinds of monkeys. The sun started to set when we drove to our camp, enjoyed dinner and prepared for the last day of safari.
Safari - Lake Manyara
Early in the morning, we were heading to national park Lake Manyara. Our camp was pretty close, so the journey lasted just a few minutes. This national park is characteristic by numerous monkeys and birds like flamingos and Silvery-cheeked hornbills.
Right after we entered the national park, our road was blocked by dozens of crazy monkeys. They jumped up on our car, had battles and played together. It was an amusing show. Along our drive, we stopped several times to observe zebras or giraffes. Dangerous malaria mosquitos and flies tsetse were present in this park. Therefore, we had to be careful and must not wear black and dark blue clothes which attract them. Lost in the park, driving across tiny roads and enjoying nature, our guide noticed recent lion´s excrement. Rapidly slowed down and inspected lion. Nothing found. After an hour drive, we reached the large lake Manyara. Half of it was dry and the second part was a home of thousands of flamingos.
Our time was short as we were planning to travel 80 km to town Moshi, being dangerous in darkness. That is why we ended our safari tour on the north of Tanzania. Our balance shows that we were successful. We saw four animals from the well-known “The Big Five” – elephants, buffalos, lions and rhinos. We hold the leopard for the next safari trip someday in the future. Safari was an unforgettable experience! We are pleased that we supported the protection of natural areas and the development of small entrepreneurs in Africa.
African aborigines - Massai ethnic group
We wanted to visit the Tanzanian aborigines’ village, so we stopped there on our way from Manyara national park. They welcomed us with a dance, showed us how they live and presented us with their habits. They also exhibit their handmade products and hope that you purchase the overpriced bowls or necklaces. By the way, the entrance fee to visit the village is around 50 euros per car.
At 3pm, we came to Arusha, got on the local bus called Dala Dala. It was totally crowded with people, which is typical for African public transport. The journey took around two hours and our goal, not to arrive in darkness, was not fulfilled. We were fully packed and had all our documents and money with us. If someone felt like robbing, we were a pretty easy target. Moreover, we encountered a problem. We came to our hostel and found out that it was not located there. A foreigner who was passing by mentioned that the hostel has been moved to another place. He helped us to find the right telephone number of the owner who came to pick us up. We were so unlucky with these African accommodations… However, when we anchored in Kilimanjaro Grand Hostel, we did not feel like in Africa. The hostel was luxurious, our room had air conditioning, a large bathroom, quite fast wifi connection and a stunning view on Kilimanjaro.
Tanzania surprised us with wonderful nature, unique safari, well-spoken English but, unfortunately, also with irritating manners or overpriced products or services for tourists. These are our impressions from Dar es Salaam and Arusha. If you are curious about our feelings from other regions and what activities we did there, read our other articles.
If you have questions about a safari in Tanzania, feel free to contact us at info@davidharing.net