We Were Surprised At The Number And Close Proximity Of The Animals

My husband and I just recently returned from our safari in Tanzania. Dawn Anderson at African Dream Safari’s put together our itinerary with our guidance on locations we wanted to visit. We travel quite a bit, but this was the best trip we have ever been on.

From the time their greeter met us at the Kilimanjaro airport on our arrival until they took us back to the airport, the trip was flawless. Kudos to Dawn and all her hard work in putting this together for us as this has been our dream trip for several years.

When we flew from Arusha to the Serengeti we were met at the airport by our guide, Patrick. Patrick is awesome. He had already been prepped that we wanted to do photography and was willing to help us get our best shots any way he could. He was extremely patience when we would find something that grabbed our attention and we may have shot photos for an hour while Patrick sat quietly by occasionally asking us if we need to adjust our position for the best shots.

Patrick was a wealth of knowledge and provided us with an extraordinary amount of information on animals, birds, and flora. This was right down to the dung beetle he spotted on the side of the road. (How could he see that to show us since it is less than 2 inches long????)

With Dawn’s guidance we varied our lodging from tent camps to resorts. All of them were good but one deserves extra recognition, Four Seasons. While we were staying there the dining and beverage manager, George, knew every guest by name and room number. After eating at buffets for a few nights at other lodges, I asked George what our options were for dining our last night there. After explaining that I wanted something other than buffet (their specialty restaurant was already booked up) George said he would think of something and call us.

George called later and asked us to meet him at 7:00pm. When we met with George, he took us out to the swimming pool which has a small island in the center with palm trees and plants. He had a table set up for us on the island. Then the treat began. The resort had hired a new French chef two weeks prior. So for that night, our private waiter (Goodluck – yes that is his name) and the new chef brought us a five course French meal. These are dishes that they are thinking about adding to the menu and it was a treat! Besides that, their breakfast and lunch boxes are killer!

We were surprised at the number of animals that we saw while we were there. Not to mention how close the animals were to us. In one instance there was a female lion laying on her back in the grass sunning her belly next to the road. We could have reached out the window and given her a tickle (which we did not do).

We had another unexpected treat. We were there the first week of June and we were able to witness the great migration. The first day on safari we probably saw 10 zebras and 5 wildebeest. The second day on safari we probably saw 200 zebras and 100 wildebeest. By day three, there were thousands of them. Many feeding on the grass and a line migrating to the river. Everywhere you looked as far as you could see there were zebra and wildebeest.

Then it came time to come home. We came home with heavy hearts as the country and it’s people had captured our hearts. My husband and I are working on saving enough money to do our second safari.

Diana and Michael B.
Braselton, Georgia
Safari Dates: June 06, 2018 to June 17, 2018