Now is as good a time as any for me to express my admiration for the planning that went into the most wonderful trip I have ever taken. Let me give you my impressions. As we were flying to Kilimanjaro we all wondered how we would identify the person picking us up and this is when we realized how fortunate we were. We were met as soon as we disembarked by Pieter and escorted through the customs line as if we were top rated diplomats! He then helped us get our luggage and whipped us off to meet Monika and Charles.

Now Monika and Charles were fantastic. They got us to the hotel, which by the way was amazing, gave us directions and then picked us up the next morning where we went to the Tanzanite store and visited the cultural centre. On the final morning we were again picked up by these two who got us to the regional airport and whisked us through the line ensuring that we got on the right plane.

Upon our arrival in the Serengeti we were met by our guide. I am afraid that there simply are not enough words in the English language to describe this man. Over the 12 days with him he became our friend, our translator, our confidant, our advisor, our driver and of course our guide. Simply put he is AMAZING. Someone should check his eyes. His ability to see wildlife at a distance was amazing. And, he had an innate ability to sense the location of animals and in fact on one occasion I became convinced that he had the ability to speak to the animals. As a consequence we saw 90 lions, 10 leopards and 11 cheetahs, not to mention numerous other species and he identified over 35 species of birds. We saw the big five early on and Erin and I have the most amazing pictures. I am at the moment going through the over 2000 that I took and will send you some in the near future.

In talking with the other guests at each of the lodges we realized that we were allowed to experience Tanzania at a far different level than anyone else. I really hope and in fact ask that you ensure that our guide as well as Monika, Pieter and Charles are all advised of our complete and total satisfaction.

George Filliter, Erin Filliter and Barbara Baird

Fredericton, Canada

September 2011