Our Africa Dream Safari experience far exceeded our expectations and we had very high expectations. From the first meeting at the airport with the VIP service through the last good-bye on the way home we felt very comfortable that Africa Dream Safaris had everything planned. While a safari could have been a stressful experience, since we were far from home and in such a different environment, Africa Dream Safaris made our safari a relaxing enjoyable experience.

Our guide was amazing at spotting animals and he gave us tips on how to spot animals ourselves. Since most animals have a unique silhouette, when we were looking for a certain type of animal our guide would tell what shape to look for. More importantly, our guide had the knowledge that allowed him ot place us in the right place at the right time. I had hoped to be able to see a lion or cheetah kill during our safari. On our first day we saw a lion pride stalk and kill a mother Cape buffalo. When we returned in the morning 15 spotted hyenas surrounded the kill, a few male lions and jackals picked at the scraps. We also watched cheetahs stalk zebras, gazelle and wildebeest. This was very interesting since they failed to get in position to attack the zebras and missed on their first attack on the wildebeest. They were successful with the gazelle and the second wildebeest. It was good to see that the predators don’t always win. Over the course of our safari we saw 5 lion kills, 2 cheetah kills, 1 leopard kill and 2 vulture kills. I was glad that we were able to watch both lions and cheetahs in the complete process of the predator and prey confrontation. It was very interesting and we were able to get very close and get some amazing pictures and video.

My wife is an avid bird watcher and our guide seemed to know every bird we saw. While bird watching was not our primary goal we saw numerous unique bird species while looking for larger animals. During one 3-day period my wife saw over 60 different birds. The variety of bird life in Tanzania is truly amazing.

During our safari my wife and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary. The staff at the private luxury camp was able to bake a cake for us over a campfire. The staff at this camp did an exceptional job. Our guide brought us to a Maasai Boma (village) where some of his friends lived. My wife and I will never forget the experience on being in a Maasai hut with a Maasai warrior on our anniversary. The people were amazing and spent time with us discussing their way of life. In many aspects it was like going back in time, their knowledge of the world was very limited. They asked us where we lived and had no knowledge of America. In order to try an determine how far we had traveled they asked us how long it would take to walk to America. It was a very special anniversary.

We have been on numerous vacations and normally towards the end of a vacation you start to look forward to getting home. On safari we wished we could stay much longer. When asked if we would do it again our immediate response was that we would go back tomorrow. Every day on safari was special and different; you never knew what was waiting just around the corner.

Dennis and Joanne Airoldi
February 2010