Trip report
My husband and I spent 27 days in East Africa (May 29-June 24) and came away feeling it was the best trip of our lives (and we’ve been traveling together for almost 40 years.) I planned it with a lot of help from Thorn Tree, so it feels only right to pass on some of the highlights.
They include:
Tracking chimpanzees in Kibale National Park (Uganda) and touring the nearby Bigodi community project
Watching lions lounging in the trees in southern Queen Elizabeth NP
Gorilla-tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Hiking with some of the Batwa people on the Batwa Trail
Mountain biking out of Gisenyi (along and above Lake Kivu) in Rwanda, under the guidance of Tom Tofield (Rwanda Adventures)
Traveling (via lakeboat and taxi, arranged with the help of Tom) to the fabulous Nyungwe Forest Lodge
Exploring Kigali
Learning about every phase of coffee-growing and roasting from Oscar Njau at his family’s farm outside of Moshi (arranged through Pristine Trails)
Hiking on the lower slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro
Spending a day and night in the Olpopongi Maasai village
Hunting with some of the Hadza people near Lake Eyasi
Doing a walking safari on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater
Chasing the wildebeest migration in Serengeti NP
Visiting the Sheldrick Elephant Trust, Giraffe Center, and Marula Studios (all in Karen, not far from downtown Nairobi)
I wrote pretty detailed descriptions of many of these experiences on my blog (Travels Outside San Diego). Posts about this trip begin with: http://travelsoutsidesandiego.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/an-auspicious-beginning/
Details not spelled out there include the fact that I used Gorilla Tours to provide the driver/guide in Uganda, and we were impressed with them. Prices were mid-range, and the organization seemed very solid and reliable.
In Tanzania we used Pristine Trails. They’re small and a few times they seemed stretched too far, most notably when our Land Cruiser’s water pump blew. Pristine got a replacement vehicle to us in about 5 hours, but it would have been nicer had we not lost that time. Still, overall, everything we planned with them worked out.
What we would have done differently: almost nothing. Maybe we could have saved some money by arranging to drive from Gisenyi to Nyungwe, but we heard repeatedly that the road was so bad the trip could not be done in a day. But just two weeks after we made the trip (by boat and taxi), a friend did it in a Land Cruiser and came back reporting that the trip took him just 4-6 hours. Still, if expensive, our boat ride was pleasant, and our stop at the bat island halfway through the ride was great.
Biggest surprise of the trip: the weather. Although we were never more than a degree or two from the equator, we felt really warm on just one day out of the 27! Many days were cool, and in the Ngorongoro Crater area, we were cold. I took a down jacket and wore it more times than I can remember.
One more thing: we made a sentimental pilgrimage in Nairobi to the Stanley Hotel just to see the spot where the original travel-note-pinning thorn tree stood. It felt good to pay our respects.
