Celeste le Roux prepared a trip for her guests Carl and Beatrice, where they visited Tanzania. Carl and Beatrice had the opportunity of visiting a range of properties which included staying over at Escarpment Luxury Lodge in the Karatu Highlands, Kirurumu under Canvas in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Dunia Camp in the Serengeti National Park, Pakulala Safari Camp in the Ngorongoro Crater and Rivertrees Country Inn in the Ngorongoro Crater. Carl shared the following guest feedback:
“Hi Celeste
Hope you had a great weekend. As promised, please find below some more feedback.
Overall we enjoyed a very nice trip to Tanzania, despite the heavy rains. Nature is also in this respect not predictable…. ;-))
With Nature Discovery you seem to have an excellent partner in Tanzania. We had the pleasure to meet and talk to Alisa Dixon, very nice and competent person. The trip was well organized, nothing to complain about. With Peter we had an excellent and prudent driver, an experienced guide and spotter. Lovely person with whom we had an interesting and fun week.
We saw very nice landscapes and lot’s of wild life. We have never seen so many lions lying or sitting high up in the trees! Quite amazing. Other beautiful moments were a cheetah mom with three baby cubs (3 months), a young leopard mom with her cub, very nice experience as well.
Ndutu is beautiful and the area we enjoyed most, also because the drivers are allowed to go off road. But also in the Serengeti we had good sightings (leopards in the trees). We did see elements of the migration but unfortunately we missed the big herds as they were too far out. We had quite some respect for the rain and were not looking for those long drives when it was pouring and the risk of getting stuck (as many others did….). The Ngorongoro Crater is nice too and we were lucky to see a few black rhinos as well.
The lodges / tented camps where all quite nice. In all places the staff we met were extremely friendly, helpful, service minded and open for chats. The quality of food was very good to excellent. Given where we were, this quite unbelievable. Those cooks all deserve a medal!
Escarpment Lodge: great to start with. Nice location and view, room had lots of space, very nice and clean, quality of food was excellent. Lodge appeared to be half way full.
Kirurumu: location is nice (if dry), given the heavy rains the place was very muddy, we had no boots, nevertheless staff were extremely on their toes to keep to place tidy. Tents were smaller and given that it is a mobile camp you need to be aware and get used to the toilet and shower, which for “older” people, may be a bit challenging (slippery, difficult to stand…). The African showers, like in Kenya, we did enjoy however. Quality of food was very good as well. Camp was almost full. Had lions right in front of the tent!
Dunia: similar comment to above. Very remote place and I’m convinced when dry, this place is outstanding! Because of the heavy rains, we would only recommend that place in drier times. It was very muddy. Don’t want to know what the place is like in March / April (and I understood they intend to be open during all seasons now….). We were a bit unfortunate that our bathroom was flooded (and I mean it….) but the staff were excellent and managed to sort out the problem and clean the bathroom quite quickly. The camp in general is very nice, the tents very spacious and well equipped (with rubber boots…. ;-)) and the quality of food was outstanding. Camp was full. Buffalos in the camp at night.
Pakulala: very nice location on the crater rims with excellent view (when weather is nice…). It was grey when we were there and given the season, it was very green and the bushes quite high, but nevertheless, very nice spot. Given the altitude it was somewhat windy and chilly. Tents were a smaller than in Dunia. We enjoyed the camp a lot also because we were very lucky to be the only guests that evening. The day before and apparently afterwards it was quite busy again. As you mentioned, Spanish owners but management and staff were great. Wonder how it had been with a group of Spanish people though… Any way, we would go there again. Buffalos were grazing right in front of our tent…
River Tree: was good to finish the trip with. Lodge was nice, rooms sizeable, clean and good shower facility ;-)). Food was good. Only negative thing was that the promised wake-up call which did not take place (4.30 am was probably a bit too early for them…) and the promised “breakfast box” was not ready / available.
In summary:
– Overall another great experience, despite the rains. Tanzania is beautiful as well!
– Ndutu is very nice and game viewing is excellent. Next time we would opt for a lodge instead of a tent.
– Kirumuru and Dunia are great places to stay in the dry (or drier) season. Getting to these tented camps (they are off the main roads) is challenging when it is wet and the roads are filled with water with those big wholes, it is not that pleasant for clients and the drivers as well (risk of getting stuck). Maybe other people have less of an issue with that but I think you should be aware of this when advising your clients in the future.
– Bea and I would opt for lodges vs. tented camps should we decide to travel during wetter seasons again…
Many thanks once more to you for organizing another smooth and memorable trip to Africa for us!
Keep well and who knows how soon we plan to be back somewhere in Africa again…. We’ll let you know ;-))
Kind regards,
Carl”
