Kima Safaris

Irresponsible; callous; unapologetic; indifferent to fact we paid for a service he could not deliver

Sold safari itinerary that proved to be undeliverable.
Driven in land cruiser with several major defects, many of which were significant safety risks.
The most harrowing part of the journey was during 14-hour drive from Makumi to Selous (which should have taken no more than 7 hours).
Just after 7pm on this drive, the headlights on the vehicle failed. It was dark and very remote where it happened.
The road was potholed and riven (a truck had been stuck in the mud earlier and we had waited an hour while villagers dug it out before we could pass).
The driver resorted to holding his mobile phone out of the window in his right hand,to shine the light from his screen on to road. His left hand held the wheel and he drove one-handed, with very little light from his phone, with hazard lights on.
The journey was completed agonisingly slowly in this dangerous one-handed fashion.
Because of the rain, it was also hard to distinguish the road from water on both sides.
We both thought we would die.

The following day we saw Steven, the company owner, at the river safari where he was with a group (from the hotel where we had been staying). He was in a more superior vehicle.

We were rightly angry. We tried to tell him about some of our experience of the tour, but he offered not one word of sympathy, still less any apology or acceptance of responsibility.

When we said our lives had been endangered, he said we should take it as an adventure! I am in my 70s and my wife is nearly 70. We do not need this kind of adventure at this stage in our lives. We are well-travelled and had ‘slummed it’ in our twenties.

When my wife mentioned that the hand rail came off when she held on to it as the vehicle tipped at 45degrees going through a rut, Steven said that it was probably because of her weight!!!

We pointed out to him that it was his responsibility to provide us with a vehicle that was fit-for-purpose. He responded that it was the rain that posed a problem to our journey having taken so long.

This is just an account of the worst part of the tour.

We bought a 4-day safari (84 hours) but spent spent a total of 31.5 hours travelling in the vehicle, with a mere 8 hours on actual safari in the two parks, Makumi and Selous.

We paid USD1800 and were provided with an unroadworthy, not fit-for-purpose vehicle.

The accommodation was changed at the last minute on the first day and we were put up in a place with no fan, air-conditioning or hot water.

The accommodation at Selous did have a fan, but no hot water for a shower after our gruelling journey or for an early morning shower. (They did provide hot water later in the day but no hot shower before our walking Safari before breakfast.)

It was a terrifying experience.

Clearly not value for money.