Overland Safari Adventure Trip
| Safari Location: |
Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia,
Malawi and Zimbabwe |
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Company Used: |
Umkulu
Adventures |
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Duration: |
One month in
2005 |
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Traveller Details: |
Daryl Lawrence,
South Africa |
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Rates & Availability: |
Interested in
going on safari yourself?
Make an enquiry |
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Safari
Interview Questions
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You probably stayed in campsites mostly. How was
that? |
Yes. The
campsites were very good.
We always had
ablution blocks where you could shower, and we had flush toilets and 99% of the
time you had hot running water. There was the odd one where you had only cold
water but they were very few and far between. Most of the places you had a pub
you could go to.
I was shocked
for Africa, the campsites were so fantastically organised… even ground to camp
on, always flush toilets, ablution blocks with hot showers, a little pub or an
area where you can socialise and go and have a drink and things like that.
The other thing
they did which I thought was brilliant was like in the Serengeti, they would do
what they called an upgrade. When we got into Serengeti, it was slightly low
season, they had these 4 and 5-star hotels which weren’t full.
The safari
adventure tour
operator would approach this hotel and say “I’ve got 30 people here, your hotel
is empty – would you like us to stay?” Upgrades would cost us 5 or 7 US dollars
– remember you’re paying for your whole tour now.
But if you pay
them 5 or 7 US dollars, you ended up in a 4 or 5-star hotel in the Serengeti
with a dinner, bed and breakfast… with a swish bathroom and bed and everything,
and we did that about 3 times.
We had it in
Serengeti; we had this fantastic hotel on the lip of the Ngorongoro Crater –
absolutely outstanding, we all had drinks on this balcony overlooking the crater
– absolutely, I can’t even tell you, absolutely outstanding.
And they also
did an upgrade in Lake Malawi. That was a nice one because it was this long
building with a wooden structure on stilts, it was like a dorm. There were 8
beds in it and it just had like a canvas thing that rolled up in front so you
would lie in bed, in this dorm, and look at the – we called it the sea, it was
like the sea because there were waves crashing in. That was 2 or 3 US dollars to
upgrade from staying in a tent. So let me tell you, every opportunity to
upgrade, we jumped at it!
And of course
in Zanzibar, there is no camping. It was like a free thing on Zanzibar. They
took you over there on the ferry and said “Knock yourselves out for 3 or 4 days,
do whatever you like… we’ll meet you back at this point in – you know, 3 or 4
days’ time.”
We got together
as a group and in Stone Town we hired this big dorm with 4 or 5 beds in it and
we all shared, we stayed in one dorm, guys and girls you know nobody was
hassled, because then you obviously split the cost for a dorm than have a single
room.
We stayed in
Stone Town for a night and went on a spice tour which was fantastic. We had this
traditional meal in one of the township-like things in one of the towns in
Zanzibar.
The next day we
went up to the north to Nungwe Beach which was like paradise. There you could
hire self-catering little chalet things for US$7 with 2 beds, plus your own bath
and toilet and everything en-suite, and that was US$7 a night and you got bed
and breakfast. I thought that was pretty good.
All you need is
a bed to sleep in, because it’s such a spectacular place, Zanzibar. You just
want to be out on the beach all day, the sand is snow white and the sea is this
turquoise blue… so you don’t really want to be inside. The accommodation – as
nice as it was - was just a place to sleep at the end of the day.
But it was nice
that they offered you those upgrades, especially when you stayed in a tent on
the ground for a few nights, and then you get offered this upgrade for 5 dollars
– brilliant!
Yes, the safari
adventure guys
would stop at the major cities – like Dar es Salaam and all the major areas …
John the truck driver and the tour guide Mishé… they would go and organise all
this food.
There wasn’t a
fridge on the truck so they had to buy fresh every day, basically. I don’t know
how they did it, but I tell you we had the most fantastic food. You could eat
yourself to a standstill!
You had this
full on breakfast… I’m talking about bacon and eggs and toast and cereal and
coffee and the whole business. And this massive lunch with salads and cheeses
and breads and … really, I don’t know how they did the catering. The guys would
just throw the wood down, throw the charcoal down and they would just have this
full-on meal prepared all the time.
Oh, and the
other thing was you got your own cup, plate and bowl and you had to make sure
you washed your own plates and things. You know you can’t expect the guys –
they’ve just cooked this full-on meal for you, now they must still wash up for
you. But I mean, that’s easy – you just wash your own things and put it in the
communal thing and then they pack it back in the truck.
But I thought
for guys that were cooking on barbeques every day – they would throw the
charcoal down with a grid on top, there were no kitchens for them to cook in and
they’d put out tables and they prepare the stuff…. I thought it was outstanding;
I was very impressed with them.
From the
catering side: I said to them I could have kidnapped their cook! They had a
Swahili cook, his name was John, and he was outstanding. He used to stand there
every night and he would read you the menu and would say “Right, for starters
tonight, we’re going to have…” – and it was always a soup.
The first night
he’d tell you it was tomato soup or onion soup or something and then we kind of
clicked that every night it was a different soup. And then we had to guess what
soup it was. Then you’d have a main course and dessert, then coffee and that. I
tell you, he was absolutely outstanding; he made the most brilliant food out.
Excellent, it was really good.
We did see a
lot on this safari adventure. In the Serengeti it was low season, it wasn’t migratory season. Where ever
you looked there were animals. We actually saw a leopard, which they don’t
often see. We were there for about half an hour, looking at this leopard.
But the most
animals, it was like out of National Geographic, were in the Ngorongoro Crater.
The animals go down into the crater, but they don’t come out again, they stay in
the crater.
Bruce, there
were elephants down there with these tusks that looked like those ones from the
ice age with the long tusks… these elephants had massive tusks because they like
really old elephants, they
don’t come out the crater.
And this salt
pan that we went down onto with the Land Rovers, and thousands and thousands and
thousands of pink flamingos – only like something you’d see on
National Geographic. And thousands of wildebeest and zebra and hippo –
everything that you want to see. Rhinos.
The crater for
me was more impressive than the Serengeti. The Serengeti I loved, but when I
went to the Ngorongoro Crater, I thought that was just outstanding. I can
recommend that Ngorongoro Crater to anybody. It was gorgeous! But you have to go
with these guys; it’s only accessible through Land Rovers. You all actually
stand up in the Land Rover, with your head out the sunroof, you know – they open
up the top. So you’re out in the sun and the wind and everything.
It’s so nice;
they drive you round the crater like that. You don’t sit in the Land Rover, you
actually all stand on the seat with the top open and they drive you round.
Absolutely outstanding Bruce – highly, highly recommended.
Everybody on the safari adventure trip got sick.
The guys rented some motorbikes in Zanzibar and they were a bit “macho” and they
fell off these motorbikes. One guy nearly lost his leg, he got blood poisoning.
For some reason when you’re up in Africa, the wounds on these guys wouldn’t
heal.
But they were quite good in that
the guys that hurt themselves badly, they did take them to hospitals up in
Africa. Obviously you can’t expect a first world hospital. I think they did look
after them pretty well.
The problem was, in some cases
you weren’t even allowed to brush your teeth in the water because it was so bad.
And I think what happens as well, because they had this big tank under the
truck. If that water got a little bad, and you got a bug in it, that was the
water you were drinking.
You could buy bottled water at
certain places but because you had access to this water in the truck, you tended
to drink that. I don’t think one person actually escaped getting sick on the
trip.
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I would say don’t rely on the local water that they take
with them; I’d say take extra money and drink bottled water all the time.
And I probably made the mistake in that I was given water
purification tablets but I thought the “water” was pure so I didn’t bother to
put the tablets in, which I should have done.
And people should take quite a comprehensive medical kit.
Take bandages and dressings, anti-diarrhoea medicine, antiseptic ointment,
sterile dressings – which I did, but I probably could have taken more
anti-diarrhoea medicine.
Also, when you go on a safari adventure in Africa you have to have major
injections, and I think maybe also at the end, because I was getting so tired –
remember you’re travelling all the time, and you’re travelling miles and miles
in an open truck basically – you start getting exhausted.
I only started getting sick towards the end of the trip - I
know when I get tired, my whole immune system goes down. And I also got cold in
the truck because I didn’t have enough warm clothing – it got really cold in
parts, one part we were staying it was freezing, I was absolutely freezing the
one night. And it was April, so it wasn’t you know, winter or anything.
So I would advise that people take warm clothing and a
comprehensive medicine kit. And when you start to feel sick, start medicating
yourself as soon as possible. I think I left myself too long and that I also
got exhausted and then everything that was going to attack me, attacked me.
The other thing is, I took my Amex card – beforehand they
said to me worldwide, you could get whatever. I couldn’t get anything out of
Amex in Africa. I put all my money in my Amex but couldn’t touch it.
Luckily I took my Visa card, the only money I got was a few
bucks in my Visa card and eventually the Australians and Americans had to lend
me a few dollars to get by, because the only money I had was all the money I
withdrew from my Visa card. I found Amex completely useless in Africa, and I
wouldn’t recommend anybody taking any Amex cards up Africa. I had a lot of money
in my Amex card and I couldn’t access a cent of it.
So rather take your Visa and MasterCard, then you can go to
the ATMs there. They’ve got Standard Bank Arusha there. There’s a lot of ATMs
you can draw from, but the main thing you could draw from were Visa and
MasterCard…
I thought Amex would be fine, but it wasn’t. Take valid
credit cards, take US dollars and take travellers cheques. That you can use up
there quite happily.
The Ngorongoro crater I’d say was the absolute best part of
the safari adventure trip, followed closely by Zanzibar.
Zanzibar was like an island paradise. White white, clean
beaches with turquoise blue seas. We went and had cocktails on the Roof of
Africa House. And the sun was setting, this gold sun, and you’re all sitting
there, smoking your hookahs and drinking your cocktails and these dhows come
floating by. It’s fantastic.
I lay in that sea for about two hours until I shrivelled up
and I actually had to come out. Very warm. I’ve never actually felt the sea so
warm, like in Zanzibar. And so crystal clear, that you can actually see your
feet when you look down through the water and you could see all these fish
swimming. I mean, for people that snorkel it must be fantastic. And pristine
white beaches, it was beautiful – very, very nice.
And even Lake Malawi was spectacular. You feel like you’re
actually at the sea. You know what was weird? In Zanzibar there are no waves…
the sea is calm, you got these little washes of water but no waves, you just
walk into this crystal blue sea and just lie there in the swell, there’s no
waves. So you’re kind of thinking the sea is like a lake. Then you get to Lake
Malawi and you get these huge waves crashing onto the shore and you keep
thinking that the lake is the sea and the sea is the lake… you know you get
completely confused in your mind!
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So how would you rate your
safari adventure and the safari company you used overall? |
Back to
the Questions |
Very well Bruce, I must say if I had the opportunity to do
another one with this group … I would definitely recommend it.
They do give you warnings, they do tell you what to do and
what not to do, they’re very organised, they got all the tents and set up for
you, take you to good campsites with good facilities and … just a very nice
trip.
But besides getting sick, I’d say highly recommended, I’d
recommend it to anyone. There’s a lot of overland tours going across so you
don’t feel isolated, there’s always these trucks going through Africa. There are
a lot of them. But I found this Umkulu Adventure tours very good, and I would
rate it say 8 or 9 out of 10.
I loved this safari adventure trip and I’d recommend it to anybody.
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