Tanzania Safari 2024
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Leaving Zanzibar we flew to Msembe via Dar es Salam and were met by our guide from the Hodi Hodi Bush camp. Yes, its the same Hodi Hodi where Julia partenered with Rex to create a very special place at the edge of the Ruaha National Park. The park cover 7,809 square miles and is served by a few lodges with a total of 153 rooms.
The Hodi Hodi Lodge has 12 huts on land owned by the local Maassi village….with a 75 year lease. Every detail of the facility was built by local craftsmen using native materials and culminated a life long dream for Rex who was raised and spent his entire career in East Africa. The lodge has an concession from the local village for 75,000 acres of exclusive use.
Our experience here was clearly the highlight of the trip. First, we were the only guests as this was slightly off season. Second, from the moment we were met at the airport, the safari adventure started as we drove to the camp. The Hodi Hodi vehicles are extremely rugged 1990’s Land Rovers where only the essentials work. Our guide had encyclopedic knowledge of the wildlife and the territory. Over the next five days, Marcia kept a list of the wildlife, I think the only one we missed was a rhino.
Ruaha is a very different park than most safari parks in Africa in that the animals are not migratory. This is much more like being with families of animals in their home. It was also a great pleasure to have a personal guide in an area with very few other vehicles. This unique experience is highly recommended.
From Ruaha, we flew to Arusha via Dar es Salaam. We were met by Tanya’s partner Sululu who would be our guide for the next couple of weeks. In Arusha, Dan got a chance to see several of the projects Tanya’s NGO Terrawatu has sponsored. A visit to Arusha National Park gave us a chance to do a walking safari thru this beautiful landscape.
It was then on to the Serengeti arriving at Karibu, Tanzania. We stayed in a tent camp and spent our days guided by Sululu through various parts of the part. As this was still the dry season, we did not experience the great migrations, but got to see every kind of mammal and bird resident in Africa.
We then drove on the the Ngorongoro Crater which provided another aspect of life in wild. This crater is the result of a collapsed mountain as opposed to a caldera. In our safari vehicle, we joined the line of vehicles descending into the crater. The crater is huge, 126 square miles with a huge lake at the center. The wildlife is this crater does not leave the crater similar to what we experienced at Ruaha. We were entertained by the behavior of two mature male lions and three younger males as they played out their dominance within several feet of us.
Leaving Ngorongoro we spent a couple of day at the wonderful coffee plantation Gibbs Farm Hotel in Karatu. Wonderful accommodations surrounded by fabulous gardens. We then drove back to Arusha and stayed in the city before heading back to Zanzibar where we caught our flight back to Venice via Doha.
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