My 8th safari adventure with ADS and it keeps getting better! Starting in 2005 with a family trips and the three of us in one vehicle, to groups of friends and up to four vehicles ADS has every safari planned seamlessly. This trip there was 14 of us from Canada – 13 who were experiencing Tanzania for the first time.

When ADS staffer Mataus picked us up at the airport and delivered us to Lake Duluti Lodge outside Arusha our African adventure had truly begun – Where else does your personal cabin have a note reminding you to close your patio door when you go out to keep the monkeys out of your room!

We explored the grounds and resident monkeys with a Massai guide, and the next day our ADS driver picked us up for a visit to the Poli Village and School, and then we visited the cultural center before catching the morning flight the next day into the Serengeti.

When we landed we were greeted by our 3 professional driver guides, and gathered into three custom safari vehicles. They had already picked up lunches for us, and we headed out on our first game drive. On that first day we saw more than a dozen lions, hundreds of zebra and wildebeest, giraffe , herds of cape buffalo, impala, warthogs, elephant, ostrich and more plus dozens of colorful birds.

When we arrived at Mbuzi Mawe Tented Lodge we were welcomed by the Manager and were escorted to a rock outcrop near the camp for cocktails and snacks to watch the baboons frolic in front of our first stunning Tanzanian sunset. It was a fantastic start to our safari, and the most used expression amongst our group was “Best Day Ever! “

It turned out to be an expression used almost EVERYDAY by someone as we progressed through the next 12 days. ADS had planned our custom itinerary to put us near the wildebeest migration, and we managed to see hundreds of thousands on the move as well as huge herds of zebra moving along with them.

In my seven previous safaris I have not seen such large herds of zebra. As we moved through the Central and South Regions of the Serengeti we encountered the migration almost every day. Overall, our guide estimated we had seen 400,000 of the million wildebeest, and 100,000 zebra…simply incredible.

From Lake Masek Tented Lodge we moved to the East, to the Ngorongoro conservation area , stopping along the way at Olduvai Gorge for a guided tour to learn about the “cradle of Mankind” and then visiting a Massai village. Both of which were rich educational cultural experiences enjoyed by everyone.

Once we made our decent into the Crater, and started to game drive, with the guides ever watchful eyes and intuition we headed to an area where several vehicles were just leaving… and to our amazement saw 2 Rhino in the distance.

Any good guide will tell you patience is a must for successful wildlife viewing, so we parked broke out our lunchboxes and waited. We managed to watch and photograph Rhino as they grazed within 30 minutes of entering the crater – a lucky and remarkable sighting.

From there we stopped Maramboi Tented Camp near Tarangire National Park, for a sunset cocktail party on the deck by the pool, a final group dinner and a chance to take turns reflecting on our many amazing experiences. The next day, a game drive and then on to Arusha for a shower, repack and dinner before heading to the airport to begin the flight home.

It might seem hard to imagine that after seven previous safaris that you can be awed and impressed by what you are seeing every day, but believe me – it’s not. I was being restrained, and still took over 7000 photographs, and some members of our group took over 14,000.

Each day is a new experience, and brings something different. We explored the grasslands, toured the kopjes, watched lions mating, cheetah hunting, hyena devour a kill, lion cubs frolic in the grass, and had herds of elephant move right beside our vehicles. We got rained on and watched incredible storm clouds roll across the sky, we plowed through muddy roads, we got stuck, had picnic lunches almost every day,

We were welcomed and entertained by singing and dancing lodge staff, ate wonderful dinners, enjoyed drinks on the deck at sunset, listened to the lions at night from our tents, had hippo zebra and giraffe walk through our camp, had baboons climb on the back of our vehicle, and even had a male lion “mark” one of our vehicles by spraying urine down the side!

Every day on safari is unpredictable and different, the animals change their behavior, the scenery is always in transition and all along the way you see and learn something new. All three of our guides were great, answering hundreds of questions with patience and an amazing amount of detail, about everything from what kind of flower is that, where did you grow up, to how many times a day will those lions mate.

They kept us safe and organized, planning each days game drives, coordinating with the lodge staff to get us early hot breakfasts and lunch boxes so we could leave early and maximize our time for game viewing.

They checked to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind and calmly navigated bumpy and wet muddy roads, gently reminding us to “hold on” when we needed to. No matter how muddy the road might have been the day before, every morning we would climb into clean vehicles, with the fridges re-stocked and be greeted by their smiling faces.

The guides ability to find game is truly remarkable, and to predict animal behavior and get you in the right spot is uncanny. And they are patient… one day calmly waiting while a dozen people take turns watching and photographing a dung beetle rolling his ball of dung on the roadside, then explaining to us why and how they do it.

Most days we didn’t see another vehicle, except when were at a picnic area, stopped for a bathroom break or arrived at our lodge, otherwise it was like the Serengeti was our own private park to explore. Explore we did, covering new areas and finding huge varieties of game and birds every day all along the way.

There were several highlights for me personally. One that stands out is driving up to some lions and watching several cubs frolic around, then having more lions appear and the whole pride move up into a rock outcropping – in the slanting afternoon sun. With two adult males, half a dozen females and almost a dozen cubs it was truly an incredible sight. Like something right out of Lion King!

We watched them gather and settle in, the cubs nurse, the males overseeing the group, all from so close you could hear the cubs growls grunts and purrs all in the warm glow of the African sun. This was a once in a lifetime experience… there was a lot of “Best Day Ever” that day!

There are many other days that come to mind, like the day we were surrounded by elephants watching the young ones try to roll in a very small patch of mud, or the day we followed a cheetah to a fresh kill and watched her cub eat it’s fill close enough to hear it’s chirp and her response.

Parked on the roadside while hundreds of wildebeest streamed past in their single line loping motion and the grunts as they go by. Driving slowly through a herd of zebra larger than I had ever seen in one place, and having to wait for them to get off the road – our driver explaining with a straight face after he had told them to move – “that they don’t speak Swahili.”

Watching two male lions beside their zebra kill put the run on three younger males looking for an easy meal and the primal growls and fur flying that involved. Coming across a large troop of baboon and stopping to watch them only to see one climb onto the back of one of our group’s vehicle, and the expression of the face of the people in that vehicle.

Being surprised by a fancy BBQ bush dinner and campfire one night and a special catered bush breakfast on the crater floor one morning – both complete with tablecloths, linens and cocktails. The tiny baby elephant who tucked in underneath it’s mom as they slowly moved within feet of us as we watched in total silence.

The lioness with her head buried up to her ears in a wildebeest carcass, or the male lion who lovingly licked the severed head of the zebra he was cradling in his paws.

The celebration and joy of the camp staff, as they sang clapped and danced to present a Happy Anniversary cake to one of the couples with us. Returning to one of the lodges and getting a smiling welcome home greeting from the fellow who patrolled the tents each day with a small slingshot to keep the baboons from invading our tents.

The flowers and trees and the skies, the smells of dirt and rain and the sunsets, unlike anywhere else in the world. For me one of the joys of this trip was sharing the excitement and awe of our group and each night at dinner as we talked about the highlights of the day, always hearing the chorus of “Best Day Ever!”

If you are thinking about an African Safari, and wanting to see loads animals of all varieties, while experiencing a unique and memorable trip, there’s no better place on earth to do it than Tanzania, and no company does Tanzania better than Africa Dream Safaris. Custom and private are their specialties no matter if there is two of you or 20, they will help you plan a safari that will blow you away.

A huge shout out to our guides, Ellison, Deeta and George who kept us safe, shared their infinite safari wisdom, their humor, and superb driving skills, and quickly became part of our safari group family.

Big Thanks to the Arusha staff and Mataus who toured us around, looked after us and made sure we got to and from the airport on time and with all our belongings. And a HUGE heartfelt thank you to Michael at ADS , who worked with us for months, planned our trip, guided us through all the preparations and took care of all the dozens of details we didn’t even know about.

Cheryl S.
Regina SK Canada
Safari Dates: April 8, 2024 to April 19, 2024