Tanzania Odyssey

Welcome to the Blog for Tanzania Odyssey

Odyssey — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Welcome to the Blog for www.tanzaniaodyssey.com. Below we are blogging things that we think are new and interesting in Tanzania and Zanzibar. Please read on and feel free to post any comments you like.

For detailed information about Tanzania and Zanzibar please look at our site - www.tanzaniaodyssey.com / look at our videos of the country and the various lodges at http://www.tanzaniaodyssey.com/video-console/tanzania-odyssey-video.htm or better still email or call us in London on 44 (2) 7471 8780 or in the USA on (toll free) 1-866 356 4691

Tanzania Safari: the park that time forgot

Odyssey — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:17:00 +0000

Ruaha National Park in Tanzania is Africa the way it once was. Brian Jackman wonders why he took so long to discover it.

The shadow of our 12-seater bush plane flits over the hot dry heart of Tanzania as we bounce through the midday thermals. But the landscape changes as we draw closer to Msembe airstrip. On its final approach the plane banks sharply, revealing a range of broken hills.

Poachers wreaked havoc on Ruaha elephants during the 1980s - but now the park has the largest elephant population in East Africa
Below the wingtips zebras stampede across a yellow plain. Farther off I can see a mighty sand river bordered by flat-topped acacias, and solemn giraffes standing like markers measuring the yawning distance.

Advert: tanzania safari

This is my first sight of Ruaha, and already one question is running through my head. Why did I wait so long? There is a rawness here I have never seen before. It's the real thing, the unexpurgated Africa of long ago, and I can't wait to explore it.

Waiting to greet me is Chris Fox, a barefoot figure in faded khaki shirt and shorts. Chris is the owner of Mwagusi, the best lodge in the park. "Straight to camp or the scenic route?" he asks. I choose the second option and head for Kimilamatonge Hill, a landmark I will get to know well in the days to come.

It is late September, deep in the dry season. The blue skies are hazy with the smoke of bush fires. The combretum thickets are in flower, and kudu - the males with handsome corkscrew horns - are nibbling at the flame-red blossoms.

Eventually we reach camp: eight spacious bandas on the banks of the bone-dry Mwagusi River. Each one has a high-peaked roof of makuti thatch, giving them the air of Noah's arks left stranded among the rocks, although Noah never lived in such comfort. There are hot showers, a same-day laundry service and a hammock on the veranda where I can chill with a glass of mango juice and watch elephants digging for water in the riverbed.

At lunch I meet a fellow guest, an American called Ed who says he's been all over Africa but doesn't bother to go anywhere else now because nowhere is better than Ruaha. "I've been here only two days and already I have seen three cheetahs, two leopards and God knows how many lions," he says.

Over much of Africa lions are declining, but not in Ruaha. Chris Fox knows of 185 within 20 miles of the camp, and he's not spinning a yarn. I know this because one night five nomadic males pay us a visit. For the next two hours they roar and roar.

They are hell-bent on a pride take-over and their message to the resident males is clear: bring it on. Next morning I find their tracks outside my door - each paw print as big as my outstretched hand.

Ed is right. There is nowhere better, and with each passing day, following its red ochre game trails among the smouldering purple hills, I can feel the Ruaha getting under my skin. Unlike the Serengeti plains, there is nothing gentle about it.

Its beauty is of an altogether harsher kind. The parched plains are littered with granite boulders, and wherever you look grotesque baobabs as old as London stretch their bare branches against the sky as if begging for rain.

By chance my visit has coincided with the arrival of John "Steve" Stephenson, the Ruaha's first game warden. Now in his 80s and living in Dorset, he has come back to see how the park has fared since he helped to establish it in 1962.

Together with Chris we visit the palm grove beside the Mwagusi where he arrived in his beaten-up old Land Rover to set up the park's first HQ. We poke around in the grass, but apart from an overgrown slab of concrete no trace of the original buildings remains. "It's as if those days had never been," he says. But he is overjoyed when we find a lioness suckling two cubs where he used to stroll.

I asked Steve if the park had changed. "There was lots more water in the Ruaha river," he said. "But once you get into the bush it's as wild as ever." Back at camp a bush dinner has been prepared with tables set out in the sandy riverbed.

As we eat under the stars our meal is interrupted by a line of chanting figures coming out of the darkness, each one carrying a lantern that swings in time to the rhythm of their song. Without any prompting, the camp staff are putting on a show to welcome Steve back to the park he put on the map half a century ago.

Next morning we set off on a game drive before the dawn. Elephants cross the road in front of us, led by a matriarch with ragged ears, and as we pass through a grove of baobabs Chris points out a tree with pegs hammered into its bloated trunk by generations of honey-hunters.

On we go, looking for lions along the sand rivers, and with every mile I find myself slipping deeper under Ruaha's spell. In September the landscape is everywhere painted in the muted colours of the dry season, but at this hour everything glows like amber. It's the same in the evening, in the golden hour before sundown when we spot three cats in the grass: a mother cheetah and her two cubs.

Over so much of Africa our covenant with the wild has been broken beyond repair. But not here. Not yet. These Ruaha cheetahs no longer run at the sight of a vehicle. The youngsters are almost full-grown and lie apart from their mother, calling to her with un-cat-like chirrups. When at last she rejoins them they rub against each other in an orgy of affection, then jump down into the riverbed and pose for our cameras on a fallen tree trunk.

By now I have realised how lucky I am to have Chris Fox as my guide. Like so many men who grow up in the wild, he oozes charisma. Over a bush breakfast on the banks of the Mwagusi he tells me about the female leopard that sometimes sleeps on his bedroom floor, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. Apart from schooldays spent in Devon, he has known the Ruaha all his life and his passion for it shines through in everything he says.

When he was a boy he and his family were often the only visitors. He remembers how, as an eight-year-old, he would go hunting on foot with his father in this secret, unheard-of paradise.

"Those were the days when a character known as Old Man Scotty used to hunt crocodiles in the Great Ruaha River," he recalls. "Scotty used an aluminium boat he'd converted from the fuselage of a crashed light aircraft and hunted at night by torchlight, shooting the crocs between the eyes with the same.22 he turned on himself when hunting was banned."

Even after Ruaha was given national park status in 1964 it continued to be overlooked, and in the mid-1970s its very survival was put at risk by a rice-growing scheme on the Usangu plains - the main catchment area for the Great Ruaha River.

Today the river is so starved of water that it ceases to flow for four months of the year, with disastrous effects for the vast buffalo herds that were the main prey for Ruaha's lions. "What a sight it was," says Chris, "to see 1,000 buffaloes, a wall of horns confronting a determined pride.

Often they would bring down five in a single raid. Then the river dried up. The buffs crashed, from 32,000 to 2,000, and those ancient confrontations are history." Then came the 1980s, the dark decade when the ivory poachers moved in and the elephant population fell from 40,000 to just 9,000.

Every dry season the park went up in smoke as the poachers set their bush fires, and on moonlit nights the woodlands echoed to the sound of gunfire and the whooping of hyenas drawn to the carcasses. At its peak, ivory poaching accounted for 1,500 elephants every year, and rumour has it that the railway built by the Chinese was paid for with the blood of Ruaha's elephants.

"I thought I would never see an end to the killing," Fox confesses. But he did. In 1987 a new warden arrived, vowing he would stop the poaching.

"I listened politely but didn't believe him," says Fox. "After all, Ruaha was the punishment posting, Tanzania's most neglected park. But he was true to his word. As the year progressed he drove out the poachers and in 1988 the ivory trade ban ended the killing."

Now, two decades on, things are looking up. Ruaha's elephant population has risen to 30,000 - the largest in East Africa - and when the adjoining Usangu game reserve is added, Ruaha will become second only to Kafue in Zambia as the biggest national park in the whole continent.

Visitors, too, are increasing. Twenty years ago Ruaha attracted little more than 350 tourists a year. Today that number has risen to 6,000 - but not enough to satisfy the Tanzanians.

A new national tourism policy drafted last year contains radical proposals that could change the face of Ruaha forever. These plans would double the size of the park's four existing camps and encourage new ones, bringing mass tourism to what has hitherto been a pristine wilderness.

You might wonder how such an increase could possibly spoil a park twice the size of Belgium. But while the Ruaha looks big on a map, its prime game-viewing circuits are confined to little more than 60 miles of tracks beside the Mwagusi and Ruaha Rivers.

Beyond this stunningly beautiful core area, much of the park consists of monotonous miombo - the crackling-dry woodland of southern Tanzania - where game is sparse and tsetse flies can make life a misery. Far better, urge conservationists, to establish new low-volume, high-yield camps in the Usangu wetlands for the lucrative top-end tourist market.

If ever a park depended upon responsible tourism it is Ruaha. Until now, remoteness has proved its salvation. To fly there from Dar es Salaam still takes the best part of three hours, so it can never hope to compete with easy-to-reach destinations such as the Serengeti or Masai Mara.

These thoughts cast a shadow across my stay, but are set aside next morning when we go out early to look for leopards.

When you have been away from Africa for a long time the eye hungers for the sight of a leopard. Why this should be so is hard to describe, but big cat junkies will know the feeling. It is not just that exquisitely dappled coat, or the leopard's secretive lifestyle. There is something else. Even the unseen presence of this elegant carnivore injects every game drive with an extra frisson of excitement.

So picture the scene at dawn: the baobabs casting long shadows across the road and a big male leopard stalking guinea fowl in the backlit grass. Chris recognises him at once. "His mother is the one that visits my bedroom," he whispers.

As we appear the hunt is aborted. Exit guinea fowl in a clatter of wings; tail held in a graceful curve, the leopard strolls nonchalantly towards us. As he walks past our vehicle I can barely resist this insane desire to reach out and stroke him. Then, with not so much as a backward glance, he is gone, melting into the boundless thickets of the park that time forgot.

Essentials
Brian Jackman travelled with Audley Travel, other safari specialists that feature Ruaha include Tanzania Odyssey (020 7471 8780, tanzania odyssey) .
A four-night stay at Mwagusi in Ruaha, combined with three nights at Beho Beho in the Selous Game Reserve and three nights beside the Indian Ocean at Ras Kutani Beach Lodge, costs from £4,525 per person on a full-board basis, including economy-class flights with BA and all internal flights and transfers.

reprinted from the Telegraph 8 Feb 2008

Grumeti Reserves - Sasakwa Lodge

Odyssey — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:14:00 +0000

Grumeti Reserves - Sasakwa Lodge

Lodges have come a long way since the early days of safaris, says Lisa Grainger as she selects the best high life amid the wildlife.

Looking through the grainy snaps of my grandparents on safari always makes me smile - and not just because of my grandmother's leopard-print culottes and ostrich-skin handbag. It's the absence of comfort: the luggage roped to Land Rovers, the fold-up stools by a fire, the tin mugs, the warm beer, the sausages on sticks.

But then, safari camps in the 1950s were nothing like the African super-camps that have opened in the past year. For a start, they're not really camps. They're boutique hotels in the bush, often featuring spas, interior-designed suites, Michelin-star chefs to cook fresh ingredients flown in by private jet, and butlers to deliver it.

It's not just in South Africa (progenitor of bush glamour) that this sort of safari has evolved. Three months ago in Zambia, two bush houses were opened to accommodate travellers who demand total privacy. In Tanzania, helicopter pads have been built alongside airstrips. In Namibia last year, top American astronomers were flown in to present after-dinner star-talks in the desert. Here are a few of the newest, most exclusive camps on the continent. Prices quoted are per person, per night, on a fully inclusive basis, excluding flights.

Grumeti Reserves, Tanzania

Luxury taken to the utmost. There are just three camps, sleeping a maximum of 56 guests, on this new game reserve and only these visitors have access to the 350,000 acres of grassy plains bordering the Serengeti, the helipad, the 16 polo and thoroughbred horses, the spa, tennis courts, crocquet lawn and the libraries.

Sasakwa Lodge, on the edge of an escarpment, was built in the style of a colonial home - think glossy wooden parquet floors, antiques, grand art, Persian silk carpets and silver, and a private infinity pool with every room. Sabora camp, on the plains, is glam camping taken to extremes. Tents are lined with raw silk, scattered with Persian rugs, and decorated with essentials like wind-up gramophones and silver handmirrors. Beds and baths are adorned with rose petals flown in daily with the seafood.

Reserves of luxury - reproduced from the Telegraph - 21/06/2006 by Lisa Grainger

Olakira movement

Odyssey — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:13:00 +0000

As of the 5th of November Olakira will be in a new location at Rongai in Central Serengeti. While at Olakira’s new location, guests are at the right spot to see lion, elephant, buffalo, cheetah and leopard. If you are especially lucky then also the Rhino. We will also be close to Lake Magadi where there are plenty of hippos lounging around. Balloon Safaris are possible while at Olakira. It is quite spectacular to watch the animals below from your high up position in the balloon!

Tanzania - Top Ten lodges

Odyssey — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:45:00 +0000

No 4) Olivers Camp, Tarangire

Olivers Camp features 8 beautifully furnished tents set in a truly stunning area of Tarangire National Park. Specialising in walking safaris and fly camping within the park, (the only operators capable of doing this) Olivers camp is all about real safari; guides here are some of the best to be found on the Northern Safari Circuit. Obsurdly good for game in August, September and October this camp is a real little gem!

Southern Tanzania

Odyssey — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:09:00 +0000

It was 1am when something caused me to wake up. Perhaps it was the silver light from the brightest moon I've ever seen streaming in through the fly screens. Or maybe the far-off "weeooow" call of a hyena deep in the bush. I decided to get up.

The bed of polished African timber was so big it must have taken me 10 minutes to crawl from the middle to the edge.The smooth floorboards were warm under my feet as I tottered to the rear of my luxurious jungle house.

Squinting through the mosquito mesh towards the lake my view of the water was blocked by a huge boulder. A boulder that I'm sure wasn't there when I went to bed...And then the boulder moved slowly to the left - accompanied by a rhythmic crunching of fresh grass and leaves.

I groped for my torch. Not 30ft from my back door, a two-ton hippopotamus was busy eating the back garden.Well, it's better than having to get the lawnmower out, I thought. And, after all, I was in Tanzania, in the heart of deepest, most mysterious and romantic Africa.

My pet hippo trundled off out of view, pausing only to deposit a gigantic pile of poo under the scrambled egg trees.Scrambled egg trees? That's what the locals call them. And blobs of fluffy scrambled egg is exactly what the tree's clusters of bright-yellow blooms look like.

And you can guess where they grow, can't you? That's right. Near the sausage trees.No, I haven't been smoking some illegal substance. Although sometimes in this almost undiscovered part of Africa, you might think you have.

There were moments on my visit to the game reserves of southern Tanzania that resembled a Disney extravaganza.The plumage of the multicoloured malachite kingfishers, snatching little tilapia fish from the Rafiji river, certainly appeared digitally enhanced.The lilac feathers of the hyacinth rollers looked exquisite as they flitted from bush to bush. The reds and oranges of the bottlebrush plants pure Technicolor.

I was in Selous, the largest game reserve in Tanzania, in South-East Africa. And if you crave romantic adventure, you love the wild and the wilderness, if you want to live like a king and come face-to-face with the world's finest beasts, this is the place.

It's a 10-hour overnight flight from London to the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam. There, I clambered aboard a 10- seater single prop Cessna Caravan.There were no other passengers so the pilot invited me to sit next to him for the 40-minute hop to the Selous Safari Camp.As we taxied down the dirt airstrip in a cloud of red dust, a small herd of giraffe steadily nibbled the fever trees. "They just think we're a big bird," said the pilot. He was only half-joking... Some of the Batteleur eagles you will see in Tanzania have a wing span close to that of a small plane.

The camp was just a short ride from the airstrip in a game-viewing Land Rover. Herds of impala skittered and groups of giraffe cantered to one side as we bounced along to the lodge house.At the safari lodge you can be as busy or as lazy as you like. Ask a guide to take you out on the lake that's teeming with crocodiles and hippos. There's no danger - unless you trail a hand in the water!

If the animals don't actually live in the water they all come there to drink. It's also home to birds, including spoonbill storks and giant fish eagles.Or you could opt for one of the highly civilised Land Rover drives and breakfast in the bush. Your guide will set up a table and director's chair where you can enjoy hot coffee, cereal, ham, eggs and rolls while tuskers and cheeky warthogs rumble by in the distance.Then, in the evening he'll serve gin and tonic sundowners by the shore.

Accommodation is fantastic. Limited to a dozen people at a time, the lodge only sees about 5,000 visitors a year. You stay in a traditional village house, with palm frond eaves that virtually touch the ground. Inside, however, it's like a luxury tent, with floors and furniture made from local hardwoods, and gigantic beds.

There is a limited amount of electricity and the Victorian-style paraffin lamps only add to the romantic atmosphere.Hot water comes courtesy of an outside woodburning stove while dinner is served around a campfire with guests swapping stories around one long table.After four nights, I took a flight two hours north to Jongomero in higher, hillier and more arid terrain.

The camp, a collection of traditional bungalows set around a timber lodge, stands on the banks of a dry river-bed.Game-watching is again by Land Rover but there's also more contact with smaller creatures. Jackals and bat-eared foxes cropped up everywhere as did monkeys, troupes of baboons and Africa's smallest antelopes, little Dikdiks, which are about the size of a spaniel.Early one morning, I had an exceptionally rare sighting of a nocturnal anteater as it scampered back to its burrow after a night's hunting.

Then that evening, as I got ready for dinner, a gennet - one of the smallest of Africa's spotted cats - sauntered past my back balcony.Like Selous, Jongomero is "open" - no fences - so animals can and do stroll by. A herd of four young male elephants put in an appearance so often the staff nicknamed them "The Jongo Boys".

One afternoon, rather than walk an extra mile to the nearest waterhole, they tried to drink the swimming pool!When a small herd of zebra got too close they were seen off with hoots and trunk-waving. Dangerous? Not really.The camp's local guides and guards understand the mood of the animals.

This was demonstrated the following day when my guide Dayo casually announced "We've got a puncture" as we watched 200 buffalo at their favourite drinking spot.While the one-ton beasts - considered to be among the most dangerous and unpredictable in Africa - rumbled past us just 30 yards away, Dayo hopped off the Land Rover, jacked it up and changed the wheel, without batting an eye. Guides like Dayo have grown up in the jungle. They know what you can and can't get away with. I'm astonished how close we get to the lions. But step off the Land Rover and you'd be lunch, for sure.

That was driven home when we came across a boss male, three lionesses and five cubs, faces and whiskers red with the blood of freshly-killed wildebeeste they were feasting on as vultures wheeled overhead.If you fancy a little R&R after your safari adventure the reef island of Zanzibar, once infamous for its slave trade and now better known as one of the world's great "spice islands", is just a few miles offshore.There are plenty of resorts along its eastern coast but I chose the Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel on the remote northern tip.

Guests stay in bungalows with fourposter beds and verandahs, while terraced tropical gardens tumble down to a white sand beach on the edge of a coral reef.Service is top-notch and the restaurant and bars are excellent.

The actual village is a 15-minute stroll along the beach. People are poor but friendly and welcome you to the local bars and restaurants. There's world-class diving and snorkelling and you should check out the Turtle Sanctuary. I went fishing and brought back a 15lb yellowfin tuna which the hotel chef cut into steaks for that night's barbecue.

Zanzibar has a colonial feel. The capital, Stonetown, seems locked in a centuries old timewarp. I'd also recommend a trip to one of the hidden spice farms, where you'll see the island's biggest export - ginger, cinnamon, cardomon, black peppercorns and pungent cloves - being grown.

Ok, this holiday wasn't cheap but definitely comes under the heading of trip of a lifetime. And the bush camps tend to be full-board basis so all you'll need is a little extra cash for your bar bill and modest tips.

Most of the Brits who visit Tanzania head for the world-famous Serengetti park, where you'll rarely be alone. In contrast, at Selous and Jongomero you will rarely see anyone else at all.

Jeff Edwards travelled with Tanzania Odyssey - www.tanzaniaodyssey.com. The company tailor-makes Africa safaris and trips, including three nights at Selous Safari Camp, three nights at Jongomero and, in Zanzibar, four nights at Ras Nungwi Luxury Beach Hotel, and two nights at Beyt al Chai boutique hotel from around £4,000 per person, including all flights. Call 020 7471 8780

Reproduced from the Mirror 27 oct 2007

Tanzania - Top Ten lodges

Odyssey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:57:00 +0000

No 2) Kleins Camp, Serengeti

Situated high on the Kuka Hills in a private concession just beyond the boundaries of the Serengeti Kleins commands superb views over the plains extending up to Kenya. A further joy of Kleins Camps location is that Kleins is not bound by the rules of the Serengeti so the maximum of 16 guests at the camp can enjoy night drives and safaris in open-sided vehicles, and walk in the surrounding bush.

Tanzania - Top Ten lodges

Odyssey — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:45:00 +0000

Over the next ten days we will be reviewing Zambia's best safari lodges...there is no particular order to the list as so many of the countries camps are superb and we cannot decide which ones are the very best!!

So, (in no particular order!)

1) Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

Voted year on year as one of the top ten hotels on the planet, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge is quite rightly the flagship property for the Conservation Corporation and one of the worlds most unique hotels. The rooms and communal areas offer views directly down into an extinct volcano packed with the highest density of game in Africa. The butler service and sumptuous opulence will make sure that you remember the crater for a long time afterwards.

News: Lake Natron's Flamingoes

Odyssey — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:57:00 +0000

The Tanzanian government has been asked to reconsider a proposed soda ash mining project in Lake Natron.
Experts say the project is a threat to the flamingos in Lake Nakuru and other Rift Valley lakes. BirdLife Africa Partnership members and associates from 23 countries meeting in Nairobi warned that the proposal by Tata Chemicals and the Tanzanian government to construct a soda ash extraction plant at the lake in Tanzania would disrupt the breeding of flamingos.
Lake Natron is the World's most important breeding site for the Lesser Flamingo, a bird listed in the World Conservation Union red list of threatened species.
It accounts for 75 per cent of the world's lesser flamingos and is the only site in the region where the flamingos have bred for the last 45 years.
Experts say during breeding, flamingos are sensitive to disturbance.
"Regional extinction of the Lesser Flamingo will in turn have far reaching impacts on national economies and the tourism industry in the region," warned the conservationists. They petitioned the Tanzanian government to reconsider the proposed development, given the potential negative impacts of its implementation.
"We call upon all governments, both in Africa and globally, all organisations concerned, and all people of goodwill who care about biodiversity and the environment and future generations to stand up against the proposed development."
Concerned that the Environmental Impact Assessment process was not participatory enough, the conservationists called upon Tanzania and Tata Chemicals to ensure due process was followed.

Ras Nungwi news

Odyssey — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:29:00 +0000

NEW BROCHURE
Our new sixteen page brochure is hot off the press. Please let us know if you need a stock of these. For a sneak preview please see:
www.rasnungwi.com/RNnewbrochure.pdf

REFURBISHMENT
The hotel has been extensively refurbished including a complete soft refurb of all guest rooms and public areas, general lighting as well as a complete modern redesign of all chalet bathrooms.

NEW PHOTOS
High-resolution photos of Ras Nungwi are available for download here:
www.rasnungwi.com/photogallery

PEPONI SPA
We are pleased to announce the opening of our new custom-built professional spa, which is receiving great feedback and complements the relaxing atmosphere that Ras Nungwi is famous for.
www.rasnungwi.com/peponi_spa

TENNIS COURT
A newly built flood-lit tennis is available from 1 November for guest use on a complimentary basis.

GREAT FOOD AND WINE
Our food has been receiving rave reviews and all menus have been refined and revised. As ever, our wine list is Zanzibar's most comprehensive.

BEHIND THE SCENES
We have not only refurbished the guest and public areas, we have also invested in our infrastructure too. To this end we have imported and fitted a brand new 250 KVA generator from Germany, installed a new laundry and revamped our entire kitchen infrastructure with the inclusion of a specialist cold-room.

Lake Manze Camp

Odyssey — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:39:00 +0000

New camp in the Selous!!

Situated on the banks of Lake Manze, Lake Manze Camp is a tented authentic safari camp that rests under a beautiful shady canopy of vast Doum Palms and Terminalia trees. The twelve tents are spacious and well spread out with good views out over the lake infront. Each tent has an en suite bathroom with flush toilet and hot shower and is furnished with twin or double beds with a comfortable veranda to watch the animals passing by.

Designed with the intention of being a rustic camp that focuses on safari as opposed to luxury, Manze’s communal area is simply a large thatched roof over a sand floor scattered with armchairs and sofas that make up the lounge, the dining area and the bar. Simplicity is the key – there is not even any electricity in camp, just kerosene lamps that are placed on the sand and raised up into the thatch roof.

Situated on an elephant walkway means that game is always in camp and the Lake Manze area is regarded as one of the richest for game in the entire Selous, both in the dry and wet season. Manze offers all the activities that the Selous can offer…walking safari, boating, game drives and fly camping.

Overall: A simply stunning, excellent value real safari camp. Manze is all about the simplicity of safari and the beauty of being in a minimalistic tented safari camp in prime location. For those of us wanting a luxury safari camp or a relaxed retreat for a honeymoon then Manze is not for them….there is no pool and it is certainly not the place to stay in the luxury of your room! However if safari is what you are after (and maybe budget is somewhat tighter) then this camp offers the best value in the whole country. The charm and character is undeniabl; not many places in Africa get you this close to game (elephants such as a great big bull names Boris are literally always passing through camp)…….overall, a true little gem!

On safari in Tanzania

Odyssey — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:50:00 +0000

If I had to survive in the bush, I’d kill a buffalo,” announces my son, Michael, aged 19.
“How?”
“I’d get a huge stone and crash it on his head.”
The young Masai warrior who is with us begins to laugh, long and deep. This is clearly the funniest thing he’s heard in a while. It’s like a Masai telling us he would survive in London by asking a passer-by for £100. “The buffalo weighs two tons,” our guide chortles. He turns the idea over in his head. “Hit a buffalo on the head with a stone...” he repeats delightedly.
Some trips are holidays and some are much more than that – voyages into another way of thinking and feeling. A journey into the Tanzanian bush is a journey into another dimension. From the threadbare airport at Arusha, our small plane wafted Michael and me to Manyara airstrip; from there, we were driven to the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. The first glimpse takes your breath away. Ngorongoro is an 11-mile-wide volcanic caldera with a lake shimmering in the middle. Its 1,600ft walls turn the crater into an amphitheatre, a savage playpen for the animals that gather there to feed, drink – and be eaten.
The lodge is a hobbitlike community of thatched cottages, right on the rim. Step inside, though, and operatic silk curtains sweep down beside french windows overlooking the crater. There are immense beds, opulent in purple; the tissue box is made of porcupine quills; crystal beads hang from a chandelier. And when we returned from our first game drive, my “butler” had run an aromatic bath drenched in rose petals. I sank blissfully into the bubbles.
Down in the crater, the animals are so used to vehicles it was as though we were entirely invisible. Magical, bizarre, deeply luxurious, this is an astounding place. There are hippos, black rhinos, elephants and many thousand zebras, wildebeests and gazelles. We watched two young lions chase each other across the open plain, giving their deep, vibrant, almost comforting roar.
In the evening, after a dinner to make the gods jealous, we sat in leather chairs by an open fire, drank sherry and played poker – easy to feel like a god here. In the early morning I watched a cloud drift over the crater, while all around our cottage the buffaloes grazed.
THE NEXT leg of our safari was a searing contrast. We took a tiny plane out into the Serengeti, 120 miles from the nearest town, to a tented settlement without running water. This is Tanzania Under Canvas, and it moves every few months to chase the great migration of wildebeests and zebras.
My tent was right on the margins of the camp, and it made me uneasy, especially when I was told nobody had a gun. My whistle and torch didn’t feel like much protection from the lions. Not that staying there is a hardship. Like Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, it is run by CC Africa, and the mischievous camp manager, Bruce, welcomed us into the canvas “living room” erected just a week or two before our arrival, with its crystal glasses, leather-bound books and khaki sofas.
But there really are lions in the camp at night. I would have felt safer sharing a tent with Michael, and Bruce conceded that was perfectly reasonable – because then I would be only half as likely to be attacked. “It isn’t that he’d save you – it’s that while the predators munch on one, the other can escape. It’s the principle behind large herds.”
Later, I read from Out of Africa as I tried to sleep. “The views were immensely wide,” Karen Blixen writes. “Everything you saw made for greatness and freedom. Up in this high air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart.” On any trip, the best literature of the place intensifies and enlarges your experience. But for all Blixen’s delicacy of language, I still couldn’t sleep.
EARLY NEXT morning we stepped out into the gentle danger of Africa. A red dawn stained the skies, and I felt the space of a whole continent – at once exhilarated and relaxed by the rising murmur of insects, the famous light. That first day we saw a cheetah, a leopard and a pride of lions with their cubs. Most impressive, though, was the thunder of the wildebeests as they stampeded over a hill, carried by dust clouds like an apocalyptic vision. Watching them, I found myself thinking like a lion: here was a banquet it would be impossible ever to finish. Later we witnessed the fear and despair of baby wildebeests parted from their mothers, as vultures went jauntily about their business nearby.
“Where there’s death there’s life,” said Ivan the ranger, matter-of-factly – yet he helped us to save one youngster by encouraging it to follow our vehicle.
But fear is part of the deal here, as I came to understand. Here you are not gods, as you are at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, and the experience offers a different kind of intensity. Spending all day watching the predators, and most of the night listening to them hunt outside your canvas wall, you soon begin to identify with the primal stimuli of the bush. You forget your wearisome human pride, and lose that sense of difference between man and other animals. I’d expected the worst thing about Tanzania Under Canvas to be the strip of tent separating me and the bush. It turned out to be the best.
From The Sunday TimesJuly 1, 2007; By Sally Emerson

Veiled secrets

Odyssey — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:38:00 +0000

SLAVERY and sultans shadow the East African islands of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanzania, north of Dar es Salaam.

Slavery is the key historical issue, but with domes and minarets piercing the skyline, it is the stone legacy of the sultans that entices visitors. Stone Town, the old part of Zanzibar City, on the western coast of the main island, is the place to discover it all.

Merchant ships from Persia, Arabia and India have traded with Zanzibar for 2000 years, leaving a potent blend of Eastern and African culture. The islands were long owned by the sultans of Oman, who took over from the Portuguese in 1698. By 1840, Zanzibar was so important for Omani trade with East Africa that its capital, Stone Town, became the sultans' headquarters.

Like many places in Africa, Zanzibar has reinvented itself as a tourist destination. Since 1964, when the last sultan was overthrown, Zanzibar has been a separate state within mainland Tanzania. It is made up of two large islands: Unguja (Zanzibar Island) and Pemba, plus several islets. Its capital and only large settlement is Zanzibar City, which embraces New City and Stone Town. I spend time in the pungent, narrow streets of Stone Town, the economic and cultural hub of old Zanzibar and now a World Heritage site.

Outside Stone Town are clove and coconut plantations, long, perfect beaches and coral reefs, rare, long-tailed red colobus monkeys and, on the small island of Nungwi, giant sea turtles, all in a humid tropical climate. But in Stone Town I walk beside carved Arab doorways and slave cells, feel the cobbled streets beneath my feet, look up at cool verandas and experience the potent sense of 2000 years of connections between Africa and the East.

Best monument to the slave trade: After the abolition of the Zanzibar trade in 1873, the Anglicans built a cathedral on Stone Town's Creek Road, where the old slave market used to be. The place where the altar now stands was once the whipping post where slaves were tested for toughness: if they wept, their price went down. The marble around the altar is blood red. Beneath the market are their cramped cells.

Best door: The ornate, studded doors of Stone Town have a clear Persian influence but a distinct style. The maze of alleyways is dotted with these immense, elaborately carved doors. It was a custom in Zanzibar for a builder first to order his doorframe and then build the house around it. In 1857, adventurer Richard Burton commented: "The higher the tenement, the bigger the gateway, the heavier the padlock and the huger the iron studs that nail the door of heavy timber, the greater the owner's dignity." The most interesting door, behind the House of Peace Memorial Museum, dates back more than 300 years, which makes it reputedly the oldest in Zanzibar.

Best social quirk: Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim because of the influence of the Omani sultans. The women are supposed to cover themselves modestly but the gaiety of Zanzibaris is evident in the fun the women have with their cotton wraps, worn over their heads and as skirts. The girls wear a brightly patterned scarf, called a kanga. A Zanzibari girl might wear a kanga with a message on it directed at someone in her social group; one I spot says, "Don't compete with me, you can never beat me." Another girl, realising the message is directed at her, might go home and change into a kanga that says, "A confident person requires no reason to practise envy."

Best-named attraction: Built in 1883, the House of Wonders was originally a royal palace. There is a 3.3m door gilded with texts from the Koran, and 12 other magnificently carved doors, reminders of the vast and showy wealth of the sultans. In one room I see traditional, ornate ebony furniture and, on the other side, European couches in flowery, 1960s kitsch, the influence of the other wives, perhaps.

The climax of Sultan Barghash's flamboyant building spree, it has tiers of balconies, a clock tower, and a grand position on the waterfront behind the Forodhani Gardens between the Palace Museum and the Omani Fort. It houses the dreary-sounding but quirky Zanzibar National Museum of History and Culture.

Best resort: The white sand, azure sea and small pine forest on Mnemba Island, just off the northeast coast of Zanzibar, lead me to suspect Ursula Andress will pop out of the ocean at any minute. The entire island is a resort, and with only 10 evenly spaced villas, it feels as if I own a secret paradise. Apart from the waiter who brings me a drink to accompany the breathtaking sunset, the only disturbance is from the little Suni antelopes that occasionally scamper around my villa. www.mnemba.com.

Best guided tour: If you have ever wondered how nutmeg, ginger, tamarind, guava, carambola, menthol or cloves are grown, a spice tour is for you; such guided tours provide local knowledge you might otherwise miss. Highlights are the lipstick tree, with pods that produce a vibrant red dye, and soapberry trees, with berries that lather like soap when you rub them. Tours from 9am to 2pm include a lunch featuring spices encountered on the tour. Eco & Culture Tours, with an office on Hurumzi Street, offers a genuine medicine man as a guide. More: www.ecoculture-zanzibar.org.

Best drink: Taken in the shade while escaping the tropical midday sun, dawa is mostly vodka and ice but tastes of lime and honey. Dawa means medicine or magic potion in Swahili, for reasons which can rapidly become clear. The top floor of ETC Plaza, at the corner of appropriately named Suicide Alley and Shangani Street, is a good place to try dawa and the bar comes with ocean views; like Zanzibar, this drink is never bland.

Best hangover cure: Everywhere I go, people stand barefoot beside the orange dirt roads, selling sugarcane. I use a knife to slice the raw cane and lick the inside. Taken with a glass of water, it refreshes for the rest of the day. I also recommend corn sold on the streets: it tastes dry and like toffee.

Best mode of transport: A dalla-dalla, or a Zanzibari bus, is a beaten-up Toyota pick-up truck with a wooden roof and wrought-iron sides; these should carry 20 passengers but often 40 pile in, the extras hanging precariously off the sides. A dalla is five Tanzanian shillings, which is what the journey originally cost. They are still very cheap, about 300 shillings (26c) a mile. The No.2 dalla-dalla travels 20km north of Zanzibar town to the Mangapwani slave cave where, after the trade was abolished, slaves who were about to be sold were kept hidden in hollowed-out coral cellars.

Best street food: East Africa's best street market is held every night by the waterfront at Forodhani Gardens in Stone Town. In the twilight, grilled fish and meat on skewers and octopus look and smell enticing. The crowds can be a little pushy, but it is a great place to wander even if you don't buy. I have already eaten, but it is still hard to resist the food, fresh and sizzling in the dark.

Best shopping: Fine Zanzibari wooden chests are not quite as good as a door but are still hammered and studded, and have secret compartments. Some of the finest examples are in the Abeid Curio Shop opposite the cathedral. But how to get one back home? Spears and knives pose a similar problem. For those with less ambitious tastes, watercolours of the Stone Town doors are intense and enchanting. I buy one for about $15 in an art studio in the Omani Fort. The abstract carvings of the Makonde tribe are also eerie and powerful, with columns of interwoven human figures.

Bustling Mchangani Street in Stone Town consists of stalls crammed with kangas of every colour and grade of magnificence. Cathedral Street has some of the opulent furniture hastily left by rich Arabs after the 1964 revolution. I also visit Zanzibar Curio Shop in Changa Bazaar for a taste of pre-1964 wealth. And I return to the night market in the Forodhani Gardens for cheap Masai jewellery and carvings.

Best story: Princess Salme, daughter of the sultan of Oman, was born here in 1844 and shocked her family by converting to Christianity after falling pregnant and eloping with a young German merchant. When she died in 1924 she still had the dress she eloped in and a bag of sand from a Zanzibar beach. Her book Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar (by Emily Ruete, born Sayyida Salme) makes good pre-visit reading.

Best sundowners: Africa House Hotel on the coast in Stone Town was the English club from 1888 onwards and still has a colonial expat feel to it. It is a perfect place to end a walk around Stone Town: you can watch the sun sink into the Indian Ocean, with a dawa in hand.

Best end to the evening: Tower Top Restaurant at Emerson & Green Hotel, 236 Hurumzi St, Stone Town, a five-minute walk from Africa House, is world class. Atop a hotel, in a tower straight out of Arabian Nights, the restaurant seats about 20, most lounging on Arabian-style cushions and eating off low tables. The fixed-price menu includes dishes such as battered pepper shark and curried fishcakes with chutney and yoghurt. Enjoying a five-course meal, I look over Stone Town with all its faiths and facets, at an Anglican church, a minaret and a Muslim temple. There is a warm breeze from the Indian Ocean. Children scramble to collect kangas put out to dry on hot tin roofs. A violinist in a white robe plays eerily beautiful music, as if trying to raise a magic carpet, while his robe moves in the breeze. www.emerson-green.com.

Best last word: Locals greet tourists with jambo and enthusiastic tourists say jambo back, thinking they are saying hello in Swahili. But locals instead say mambo vipi, Swahili slang for "stay cool". Use it to say hello and goodbye and impress the locals.

Reproduced from The Australian - Michael Stothard - August 09, 2007

African monkey trail - by Kate Humble

Odyssey — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:02:00 +0000

The pilot turned and shouted above the noise of the engine. “If those animals start to cross the runway, we’ll need to abort the landing.” My husband Ludo and I could only agree – “the animals” were bigger than our tiny plane. This was our introduction to Ruaha, a little-known national park in southern Tanzania. Those who know it rave, not just about the beauty of its landscapes but about the variety and sheer number of animals that live in and wander through this pristine, unfenced wilderness.

We landed on the mud air-strip, coasting past the herd of feeding elephants. Ruaha, normally bone dry, had received its annual rainfall in just a month, and was lush and verdant. The drive to camp turned into a game drive. Male kudu with corkscrew horns and masked faces peered out at us. A herd of buffalo snorted and stamped. A lone lioness, the remains of a young giraffe beside her, rolled and stretched blissfully in the grass.

Mdonya Old River Camp is just that. Camouflage green tents are set along the banks of what was once the Mdonya River, and a larger tent serves as a dining room. The whole lot could be dismantled in 24 hours, leaving few signs it ever existed. The manager, Nick, showed us to our tent and warned: “Don’t leave anything outside after dark; we’re having a bit of a problem with a hyena. She’ll eat anything. Last night she had a go at one of the kerosene lanterns.” And that really is the beauty of this camp. It doesn’t shut out the wildlife – quite the opposite. A month before, a pride of lions killed a buffalo outside one of the tents. “We didn’t have any guests in that tent at the time,” Nick said. “We just put people in the tents farthest away and left the lions to it. They stayed around for a few days. The guests loved it.”

The rain had brought new life to the bush – newborn impala, baby giraffe and tiny vervet monkeys clinging to their mothers. But it also meant that, with food and water everywhere, the game had dispersed. We were at the mercy of chance and every sighting was a treat. Travelling was challenging: vehicles became stuck in treacly mud, and airstrips became unusable. We flew out of Ruaha, dodging rainclouds, heading west. From the window we saw hills become mountains, the bush become forest and then the grey expanse of Lake Tanganyika, the size of England, separating Tanzania from the Congo.

Related Links
The world’s top safaris
My fright on a bike safari
Western Tanzania is largely inaccessible. Gombe is its best-known reserve. Jane Goodall lived there from the early 1960s, studying and making astonishing discoveries about our closest relatives, chimpanzees. Gombe doesn’t really have facilities for visitors, but 200km (125 miles) south is the larger Mahale National Park, home to several groups of chimps. Kyoto University has had researchers there for more than 40 years. Visitors to Mahale’s few tourist camps have a good, although not guaranteed, chance of seeing chimpanzees in their natural habitat, going about their daily business unconcerned by a human audience. I had only seen chimpanzees in captivity. They are big, powerful, extremely intelligent, human enough to make you think you might understand them, animal enough to make them inscrutable. I was drawn to them as much by fear as by curiosity. But before Ludo and I and John and Diana, two Americans also staying at Greystoke Camp, could venture into their territory, we had to pass a test.

Last summer catastrophe struck the chimps of Mahale.

They started dying in alarming numbers of a flu-like disease. Magdalena, a vet who worked at Gombe for years and now runs Greystoke Camp, was part of the team trying to establish where the disease had originated. There was suspicion that the “flu” had been caught from humans, and strict precautions had been established to prevent any recurrence. Researchers and tourists have to stay at least 10m (33ft) from the chimps, and wear masks. Any hint of a cold and you are not allowed in the forest.

Once the aircraft landed on the shores of the lake, we boarded a boat and sailed south. After about an hour we saw a beach, empty apart from an eccentric-looking thatched building, and a small knot of people – our welcoming party. The rest of the camp was hidden beyond the tree line. Behind the beach, the forest: dark, daunting and for the moment off limits.

We spent the afternoon on the lake with Greystoke’s guide, Safe. Ostensibly there to point out crocodiles, hippos and hundreds of bird species, he was also carefully monitoring us: any sign of a cold and we would not be seeing any chimps. Blissfully unaware of this, we were celebrating the sheer joy of being in such a place with a large gin and tonic, all talking at once, so we barely heard Safe’s shout. “Chimp!” he repeated, pointing towards the bank. Disbelievingly, we turned – and there was a black face peering, a little indignantly at us, from a tree. “It’s a wild one, not one from the habituated group,” Safe said. “You’re very lucky. Hardly anyone sees them.” Silent now, we looked from the chimp to each other and back again, hardly daring to believe what we were seeing. Tears brimmed in Diana’s eyes.

Imagine then how we felt the next morning, when, having been given a clean bill of health, we found ourselves 10m from Alofu, the alpha male, lying on his back, arms flung wide, snoozing with a couple of younger males. Pushing through the undergrowth, we came across another little group, a female catching a nap while her baby was entertained by another young chimp.

On our final morning we abandoned breakfast. The trackers had spotted the chimps obligingly close by. We hadn’t seen them the previous day, despite six exhausting, exhilarating hours tracking through the forest. Now we stood, staring upwards as the canopy shook. Leaping bodies crashing through the branches, hooting calls filled the air and made our hair stand on end. As we climbed reluctantly back on the boat to leave, we were joined by one of the camp’s staff wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “98 per cent chimpanzee”: DNA, we agreed, we could all be proud of.

Kate Humble presents Springwatch on BBC Two. Her website www.stuffyourrucksack.com offers information on what to take on holiday to help local communities.

Need to know

Kate Humble travelled with Tanzania Odyssey (020-7471 8780, www.tanzaniaodyssey.com, which can tailor-make an eight-night safari staying four nights at Mdonya Old River Camp and four nights at Greystoke Camp from £3,710pp (£100pp discount when mentioning this article). The cost includes flights from Heathrow to Dar es Salaam, internal flights and transfers.

Reproduced from the The Times June 16, 2007

Exploring Zanzibar; a Tropical Island Adventure - By Annabel Skinner

Odyssey — Tue, 22 May 2007 09:08:00 +0000

Exploring Zanzibar; a Tropical Island Adventure - By Annabel Skinner

Zanzibar wraps its reality around you like a lingering fairytale. This tiny archipelago of Indian Ocean islands that once lured sailors, Sultans and slavers to its far-distant shores is so charismatic that it sweeps you into its shadowy romantic past and sunlit present all at once, and finally sets you down, all sun-bronzed and laden with spices and island art, and memories of an exceptionally sparkling and colourfully abundant sea.

The main island is small and easy to explore, with glorious white sand, palm-fringed beaches rewarding you for just a couple of hours’ drive to the North coast and the same to the East, along mainly hopeless but endlessly fascinating roads flanked by simple homesteads, roads worn more by foot or bicycle and frequented by chickens. There is a time warp here, this place where the past is so responsible for the present, where mobile phones, internet connections and television are all relatively recent, and where the history and culture is so imbued that you can simply stretch out beneath the dappled shade of the coconut palms and soak it up. Welcome to Zanzibar, and a world apart.

Sailors and traders from the first century AD came to the lands of ‘Zinj el Barr’, the Black Coast, bringing beads, porcelain and silks to trade for gold, slaves and spices, ebony, ivory, indigo and tortoiseshell. They waited for annual monsoon winds to fill their dhow sails and bear them across the Indian Ocean; today’s visitors usually arrive in a small ‘plane or ferry from Dar es Salaam. But these still afford a measured approach, allowing a breathtaking vision of sparkling cerulean waters over sandbanks and reefs, and then into Stone Town, the ancient island capital, still more of a town than a city, a maze of winding pedestrian streets in a hotchpotch of rooftops, a mass of corrugated iron overwhelming the historic stonework beneath.

Helplessly entwined in its own history, the people of Zanzibar are the Swahili, evolving from the influx of mainly Arabian and Persian immigrants who settled on the East African coast and islands to trade and escape the political upheavals of the Gulf two thousand years ago. Their cultural history was founded in sailing dhows, similar to those that glide by its shores today, boats that brought people, language and cultures and long centuries of power wrangling.

The Arab immigrants were overthrown by the Portuguese in the 15th century, until the Sultan of Oman finally saw them off for good in 1698 and started building the Stone Town of today; the Old Fort on the harbour was built on the remains of a Portuguese church dating back to 1600. Visitors to Stone Town still encounter the grandiose vision and dominant architectural style of a confident young Sultan who transferred the seat of his sultanate from the contentious capital of Muscat to the breezier climes of Zanzibar in 1832, and then began palace building in earnest, and seeding the coconut palms and clove plantations which soon defined Zanzibar as the ‘Spice Island’.

Driving through the island centre now, it is worth stopping to explore the spice plantations, where a guided walk for passing tourists is likely to be more lucrative than vast crops to export, but it is a fine sensual pleasure to crumble cinnamon bark straight from the tree, to breathe the scent of cloves drying in the sun, to taste and guess the spice from a handful of pods and powders. These are well used by the chefs and kitchens in beach hotels, where fishermen daily bring the catch of the day to be grilled, baked, battered or blanched with assorted Zanzibar spice.

The coast is dotted with hotels, self-contained beach hideaways that relish their privacy and provide various levels of style and comfort. I have been to most and head north by choice, to the northernmost peninsula which is occupied by Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel. The name is a very literal Swahili translation, but it says nothing of how this beach is secluded and the coral sands are blanched very, very pale. It does not tell how the wonderfully translucent and clear the sea is here, where a coral reef surrounds the shore creating a shallow wide expanse to explore until the tide rises high and then turquoise waves crash onto the beach. It is a naturally beautiful place.

Turtles come ashore to lay their eggs when the moon is full, and the surrounding reefs are a thriving colourful world to snorkel and dive. Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel is essentially respectful of its place, each room constructed from local wood and coral rag to create a number of thatched round houses along the beach, with lodge rooms in gardens behind. Soft sand pathways link the central thatched and open-sided restaurant to the rooms, pool and dive centre, providing the comforts of a fine hotel with a rustic, beach hideaway style. This is a fine place to lie back and soak up Zanzibar, crack open a coconut, watch the dhows on the far horizon and look forward to spice-scented, star filled African night.

Shooting Star to open new suites

Odyssey — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:11:00 +0000

Shooting Star Lodge builds 2 stunning new Suites: Kusi and Kaskazi

Construction has started on 2 new suites to be completed by October this year.

Kusi and Kaskazi. The names are taken from the trade winds that pass by each 6 months, Kusi from South and Kaskazi from the North.

The suites are located on the hill over looking the existing Sea View Cottages and are reached via a sandy path through the tropical garden; both are set in private gardens.

Each suite is entered through a pair of fabulous carved Zanzibari doors, and will have simple, but high quality finishes, antique furniture, and will be fully air-conditioned.

The Ground floor will have a huge hallway, which will open up onto a large terraced exterior Verandah with a private swimming pool. Shower and WC are reached from the hallway. Extra beds can be added to enable the hall way to be made into an additional bedroom with either double or twin beds.

The Verandah and pool deck will have dining and lounging areas as well as a kitchen space so that our chefs can prepare meals if required. A fridge will be stocked with drinks and fruit for guests on arrival.

The first floor is reached up a curved staircase reminiscent of our existing Family Cottages and houses the Master bedroom suite. The bedroom itself is some 40sq m and has magnificent panoramic views both up and down the coast. Windows will be shuttered as well as glazed so that those guests who prefer the ocean breeze to the AC can have the option. The 2 m wide bed will be of a traditional Zanzibari style and fitted with batik and cream linen. Large Shower and separate WC are adjoining.

Continuing up the stairs to the roof level, our guests will find the perfect place to relax in the evening, the views from the flat roof will allow them to watch the sun set over the island and rise over the Ocean. Our fantastically starry skies have inspired us to furnish the roof with a fully netted bed so that a night or a nap under the stars can be more than a dream. We are also building a huge bath on the roof for those who enjoy the alfresco touch.

Due to such high occupancy over the last 12 months they have also decided to build 2 day rooms which will be available for guests who require a late check out, each room will have 2 single netted beds for resting and a shower room. They will be furnished simply in the style of our existing rooms. Providing the guests stay for lunch they will not be charged, otherwise a nominal sum will be added to their bill for cleaning and linen etc.

The rooms are located close to reception and will be completed by June this year.

Nomad in Tarangire

Odyssey — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:05:00 +0000

Nomad have moved their mobile camp outfit into Tarangire, setting up in the most remote area of the National Park

In brief the camp is....
-Small & stylish, 'Bedouin meets the Bush'
-4 tents, comfort, space & elegance
-Bucket showers, hot & cold water on demand, hammocks, tin baths
-Moves between a number of selected campsites in the remoter southern area of the Park therefore maximising game viewing
-Open Jun to Mar
-Activities: Game drives & walking safaris-Children over 8 welcome
-Rate: From US$530 rack pppn-Includes: Full board accommodation, drinks, laundry, airstrip transfers, activities with private guide, exclusive vehicle

New Nomads Camp in the Serengeti

Odyssey — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:54:00 +0000

On the border with the Serengeti National Park, the new Nomad camp replaces Nomad's original Loliondo Camp.

-Designed as a celebration of Nomadic cultures worldwide

-6 en suite 'yurts' with bucket showers & short drop loos

-Light & airy with open 'wheel' in the centre of the roof & wrap around shade net windows

-Moves seasonally spending 6 months in southern Loliondo (Piyaya) & 6 months in northern Loliondo (Ololoswan)

-Open year round

-Activities: Day & night game drives, walking safaris, Maasai cultural interaction, picnics

-Children over 8 welcome

-Rate: From US$530 rack pppn8Includes: Full board accommodation, drinks, laundry, airstrip transfers, activities with private guide, exclusive vehicle

Private Safari in Katavi, a Connoisseurs Choice

Odyssey — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:33:00 +0000

In Katavi, this camping safari allows the true adventurer to escape the core areas and explore the remoter regions of the park: camp by the flood plains of Paradise and Mpunga which play host to a large variety of game throughout the dry season; or for spectacular views, hike up to the Mlele escarpment and the Chorangwa Falls.

A mobile safari really is a safari in the traditional sense: as you move, so too does your camp, and each evening you will be welcomed home by the same familiar faces, no matter how much the setting has changed. The camp is serviced by a dedicated crew of seasoned professional who can pack up the camp, whisk it to a new location and set it up again in time for your arrival in the evening. While it can move each day, we would strongly recommend two nights in any one site.

The camp is only available on an exclusive basis with your own private guide and 4WD car, so you have complete freedom to plan totally flexible safari itineraries each day.Designed primarily a base for exploring remoter areas, with an emphasis on walking (where allowed) as well as game drives, the camp is light, simple, yet perfectly comfortable. There are 4 well equipped, walk-in tents with two cot beds and a bathroom set at the rear with a short drop toilet and bucket showers.

There is a dining tent with a varied bar or you can dine al fresco under a canopy of glittering stars. The food is excellent, the fire place relaxing and the G and T’s flow.

This is how safaris used to be, and yet so few are nowadays. A rare chance for roving adventure and true mobility. This, is what safari is all about.

Increase in Ngorongoro Crater Fees

Odyssey — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:05:00 +0000

Ngorongoro Crater Increases Crater Fee

The Ngorongoro Crater Authority has announced an increase for the Crater fee for Ngorongoro Crater.

With effect on 01 July 2007 the crater fee will increase from USD25 per person to USD50 per person

Getting a Tanzanian Visa in the US

Odyssey — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:38:00 +0000

This remark is for the information of U.S. citizens who plan on getting their visa from the Tanzania Embassy in Washington DC. The following quote is taken from the Visa instructions at www.tanzaniaembassy-us.org:

(posted by one of out clients)

"2. APPLICATION FORMS SHOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY ONE (1) RECENTLY TAKEN
PASSPORT SIZE PHOTOGRAPH AND A SUFFICIENTLY STAMPED SELF-ADDRESSED
ENVELOPE TO FACILITATE RETURN OF PASSPORT BY THE MOST SECURE MAIL."

Unfortunately, this instruction assumes that the embasssy employee processing your passport understands the U.S. postal system and is willing to use it as you direct, an assumption which is sadly unwarrented.

After receiving guidance from the USPS that Registered Mail was "the most secure" method for mailing a passport, I sent the Tanzania Embassy my passport with the self addressed envelope as requested, complete with enough postage to have the passport returned by Registered Mail ($8.53).

I also included a written request with the passport that it be returned by Registered Mail.
When the passport arrived back in my hands, it had been sent by regular mail, not registered, not certified, not insured, and not even with a confirmation number so that it could have been tracked down had it gone missing.

so I got to thinking: If this is the efficiency demonstrated by people who are hand selected for embassy duty, one wonders what one will find in the country of Tanzania itself.
russmayers@juno.com

Selous Accomodation Review by Annabel Skinner, author of the Cadogan Guide to Tanzania

Odyssey — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:07:00 +0000

The Selous Safari Camp

Owned by the Selous Safari Company, Selous Safari Camp is the Selous Game Reserves best tented camp. Having been recently refurbished, and now offering a 9 tented standard camp or, a slightly more luxury, 4 tented ‘Private’ camp (an extra $50 pppn), Selous Safari Camp is without doubt the finest tented accommodation in the park.

An authentic and elegant permanent tented camp tucked among the palm trees on the banks of the Rufiji River, the camp is spacious and stylishly designed, with a shady swimming pool in both the private and the main camp. A richly furnished dining room and bar area raised high on stilts substantial enough to withstand the onslaught of elephant perusals during candlelit suppers, are the primary focus of the main camp and offers stunning views over the lagoon beside of camp.

All rooms in both camps have their own private verandas, outdoor showers and are colourfully bright and airy. The atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable; the camp staff give guests a real sense of being looked after, and provide an inspired gourmet menu that belies the rural bush location, even on intrepid fly-camping expeditions.

Standards of guiding and wildlife expertise are some of the best in the park, and taking the opportunity to fly-camp under the stars with the experts is extremely worthwhile for the extra cost. Walking safaris are also recommended; they are well led and give a wonderful opportunity to observe the minutiae of bush life; bird calls and animal tracks. Prices when compared to those of competitors offer exceptional value for money.

With its combination of great location, good food, relaxed atmosphere and excellent guiding, it is well worth a visit at any time of year.

The Selous Game Reserve

Odyssey — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:35:00 +0000

This month we are reviewing the Selous Game Reserve in Southern Tanzania. You will find below an introduction to the park and the man from whom it took its name. The text is written by one of our consultants Annabel Skinner, author of the Cadogan Guide to Tanzania.

Stay tuned to the Tanzania Odyssey Blog for the next month as Annie reviews the different lodges throughout the park.

Frederick Courtney Selous and the Selous Game Reserve

The game reserve was named in 1922 after an English explorer, Captain Frederick Courtney Selous, who met his fate beneath Sugar Mountain in Beho Beho, in combat with the Germans during the First World War. His name is generally pronounced with a French affectation that does not enun- ciate the final ‘s’ – ‘seloo’ – and this is the how the park’s name is pronounced today. Selous was the son of a chairman of the London Stock Exchange, who finished his public school education with a passion for Africa inspired by the writings of Livingstone. In 1871, rebelling against his family’s desires for him to enter the medical profession, he travelled to South Africa and embarked on a now legendary expatriate lifestyle. A friendship with King Lonbengula in Bulaweyo allowed him to travel freely through Matabeleland, one of the last areas of wild big-game herds that had survived extermination by the first Europeans. Selous earned himself a reputation as the ‘greatest of the white hunters’, distinguishing himself from other trigger-happy expats by his keen interest in nature, and propounding early theories on conservation and natural history – which did not entirely curtail his career as an animal-killer. Selous’s skills as a tracker and hunter, as recorded in his bestselling accounts A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa sold to an enthralled audience in Victorian England. Widely celebrated, he began leading safaris through the bush; he organized an extravagant hunting safari for Roosevelt and entourage in 1909.

Retired in Surrey by the outbreak of the First World War, Captain F.C. Selous felt that he could contribute to the war effort in East Africa. He joined the 25th Royal Fusiliers in Nairobi and pursued retreating German Schutztruppe through southern Tanzania, an arduous pursuit in which he refused to ride on horseback, insisting on marching alongside his depleted column of men. Each night when his men retired to their tents, Selous disappeared into the bush with his butterfly net to collect speci- mens. The captain was 64 when he died in action, killed by a German sniper at Beho Beho on the Rufiji River. Trenches remain in the Selous, a legacy of the German campaign, led by commander Paul von Lettow Vorbeck, who resisted more numerous allied troops here for four years.

More recently, another expat Englishman, Constantine Ionides, has developed a reputation as a hunter with a bent for conservation, playing a key role in controlling elephant poaching with the support of Tanzanian Game Officer Mzee Madogo in the 1990s. Now the reserve is divided between photographic tourism and hunting, the latter being the major source of income required to police the area against poaching and thus support the entire conservation area. Around 210 foreign hunters pay a vast sum of money to shoot up to 2,000 designated animals, the reserve’s quota, between July and November. The aim is to restrict human impact. Plans are under way to expand the area for photo- graphic tourism on the south side of the Rufiji River.

The Selous Game Reserve

The Rufiji River with its lagoons, sand banks and lakes, and the surrounding forests and woodlands that make up the northern, accessible part of the Selous Game Reserve creates a very unusual safari environment. The spectrum of wildlife is equally diverse, and is distinct in that this southern location attracts a unique combination of eastern and southern African wildlife, both resident and migratory – notably a curious and colourful assortment of more than 440 known species of birds and a healthy population of African hunting dog. Covering almost 50,000 square kilometres, an area greater than the size of Switzerland, the Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest areas set aside for wildlife preservation anywhere in the world, although only a small northern portion is allocated for photographic tourism – access to the southern region is strictly prohibited. This is also an area that naturally appeals to a photographic lens, as the waterways and plains reflect all the changing colours of the sun and attract numerous well-feathered water birds and raptors, alongside a healthy population of predators. The Selous was declared a World Heritage Site by the UN in 1982, but the number of visitors is still fewer than 5,000 a year and this lack of mass tourism ensures that those who do visit the Selous enjoy a true wilderness experience. The vast area contained within the boundaries of the Selous Game Reserve accounts for five per cent of the landmass of Tanzania, yet there are just a few options for tourist accommodation, all high-quality, low-impact lodges that maintain high standards. The freedom to take walking and boating safaris within the reserve means that guiding standards are also especially good and can extend to include excellent options to fly-camp overnight in the bush. All of these allow visitors to enjoy varied perspectives on life in this green and lush southern corner. The tourist sector north of the Rufiji River extends to Stiegler’s Gorge in the west and the TAZARA railway in the north, and contains all the various forms of vegetation to be found in this ecosystem. The combination of the river – its meandering streams, ox-bow lakes and swamplands – with open wood- lands, plains and dense thicket forests, makes the Selous an interesting ecological environment and an ideal location to explore over a number of days by vehicle, on boat trips and on foot.

The scenery of Selous Game Reserve is varied, with unusually green grasses and tangles of vege- tation, and provides a film-depleting string of photo opportunities with each turn in the path. The river routes are characterized by legions of tall borassus palms along the banks that grow up to 25m tall, and leave a tall headless totem when the water courses change direction and they become too thirsty to survive. The same demise is thought to explain the spooky silhouettes of ancient leadwood trees (Combetum imberbe) that remain intact, preserved when they die after up to two millennia of life, leaving a skeletal perch for songbirds and raptors that retains a perfectly still photogenic pose. The Selous conserves a surprisingly colourful African landscape, and the white forms of the leadwoods are in stark contrast to the surrounding vibrancy of well-watered greens and a ranging palette of sandy terracottas that reflect with the moods of the sun on the waters. The eastern area of the reserve around Selous Safari Camp, Rufiji River Camp and Impala Mbuyu Camp is a grassy woodland, with a mass of terminalia trees and sweet-scented African mahogany trees providing fragrant shady areas through which to enjoy walking safaris. Further north, and westwards towards the rise of the Beho Beho Mountains and the camp of the same name, the land is mainly covered by low miombo woodland. It takes a full daytrip to travel between these two areas from the respective camps.This area can be reached as a full day trip from southeasterly camps such as Selous Safari Camp. The western reaches of the reserve are the least developed, with Sand Rivers Selous presently the only camp in the area; its elevation gives magnificent views across the woodlands and plains of the southerly hills. Here the Rufiji River forms a narrow 8km creek through a chasm in the hard rock. This scenic region is now called Stiegler’s Gorge, after an unfortunate Swiss fellow who came to a sorry end when he met an elephant here at the turn of the last century.

Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

Odyssey — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:10:00 +0000

We have had so many enquiries this year for the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge that we have created a dedicated microsite to this great lodge - arguably one of the best lodges in Africa - certainly with views that are unrivalled. Please see http://www.ngorongoro-crater-lodge.com

Zanzibar Film Festival

Odyssey — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:02:00 +0000

The picturesque Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar is set to play host to the 10th edition of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) from 29 June to 8 July. As East Africa’s largest cultural event, ZIFF celebrates the unique cultural heritage of Africa and the Dhow countries of the Indian Ocean region and their global diaspora.

A highlight of this edition of the Festival will be the ZIFF-UNESCO special award worth $10 000 for a film that best discusses issues of slavery – both historical and contemporary. This award will be enriched with a one-day event that will include an organised tour of specific slave route sites culminating in a three-hour discussion on issues of slavery and a presentation of one major film shown in the Amphitheatre.

With many sites of memory in Zanzibar and Tanzania in general relating to slavery, the 10th anniversary of the Festival coincides with the 200th commemoration of the abolition of slave trade. ZIFF CEO Dr Martin Mhando says: “The flagship credo of the Festival, ‘Celebration of Water and Dreams’ will be strongly reflected this year. ZIFF will endeavor to initiate stimulating and relevant dialogues between the East African and Western worlds through a series of forums and events reflecting our objectives.

“ZIFF 2007 will again be a celebration of the plurality of world cultures. Our commitment this year will be to further advance inter-cultural understanding, promote respect and facilitate broader interaction between societies through the medium of film.”

Organisers are promising another week of thought-provoking films and exciting industry events for the people of Zanzibar and ZIFF’s honored guests. For more information visit filmdept@ziff.or.tz.