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JerseyMolly
US
Visited:
August 2012
Reviewed: Sep 5, 2012
Email JerseyMolly | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unspoiled beauty
It was an amazing trip, I only wish that it was longer, I would've liked to spend more time at the Ngorongoro crater. It was definitely the highlight of this trip, a unique ecosystem that's been preserved in it's present state for many years. We were fortunate to see a pack of hyenas hunt wildebeest, that's not something I'd ever expected to see. At Lake Manyara we were able to observe several families of elephants, they walked right alongside our jeep, so close that we could see their eyelashes. Lake Manyara is also a birder's paradise and a home of great many baboons. One word of caution - it was very dusty, bring a mask or a bandanna to tie around your face, and drink lots of water.
Drew
Visited:
November 2010
Reviewed: Mar 10, 2012
Selous Game Reserve: less crowded= much more natural experience
Plan your safari very early- possibly before you leave but definitely in your first week. The more people in your group, the cheaper the safari (4 day safari in Serengeti/north circuit will run $600-700 plus flights/bus if you have >2 people in your group, whereas it will be >$1200 if you are alone). I tried for 3 weeks to join groups but couldn’t find any companies that had groups to join, so couldn’t go to the northern circuit.
Instead I went on safari to the southern circuit in Selous. This was an awesome experience and we got to see tons of wildlife in the comfort of luxury tents (true 5 star experience with excellent food and service). You are truly immersed in wildlife 24 hours each day with giraffe walking by your showers. I woke to fresh morning tea just to see a herd of elephants walk right by my tent. Each day you're there you have a choice between a boat, walking or truck safari (2 total per day). The stars at night are the most brilliant I have ever seen
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drweber82/sets/72157625606892476/
Contact for Selous Safari is: Festus Njogoro, 0774735693 or 0222128485, [email protected].
My friends previously went on safari at Serengeti with Sunny’s Safari, and they said they enjoyed that company.
Instead I went on safari to the southern circuit in Selous. This was an awesome experience and we got to see tons of wildlife in the comfort of luxury tents (true 5 star experience with excellent food and service). You are truly immersed in wildlife 24 hours each day with giraffe walking by your showers. I woke to fresh morning tea just to see a herd of elephants walk right by my tent. Each day you're there you have a choice between a boat, walking or truck safari (2 total per day). The stars at night are the most brilliant I have ever seen
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(zero light pollution). There is a guard that patrols the camp for lions at all times and you are always escorted at night from the dinning tent back to your own tent (big cats will roam the camp site at times). I always felt comfortable and protected, although the animal sounds at night were pretty exciting. If you want to see pictures you can look at my flickr site at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/drweber82/sets/72157625606892476/
Contact for Selous Safari is: Festus Njogoro, 0774735693 or 0222128485, [email protected].
My friends previously went on safari at Serengeti with Sunny’s Safari, and they said they enjoyed that company.
Eleanore Avery
US
Visited:
February 2012
Reviewed: Apr 19, 2017
Email Eleanore Avery | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
After 25 safaris, Tanzania is the best.
My first safari was to South Africa in 1998. I have made 25 safaris since then and now visit only Tanzania and the Serengeti. I have traveled to West, South and North in Tanzania. I would not return to Katavi and Mahale. I would certainly recommend all the parks in southern (Selous, Ruaha, etc.). Tarangire is great for Elephant lovers in particular and one must visit the Ngorogoro crater at least once. The Serengeti has a year round perpetual migration of Zebras and Wildebeest. In the south one can see the birthing of about 5000 calves a DAY in February...and all the big cats are drawn to this supermarket. The 'middle' of the Serengeti is home to all the cats year round as well as elephants, and very busy, but not to be missed. The north holds my favorite camp...Sayari. This is where I go to witness big migration crossing Mara River in August/Sept., but this area has wildlife all year. Tanzania has everything....all the cats: Lions, Leopards, Cheetahs, Servals and others. I have
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been to Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ruanda and Tanzania. My favorite wonderful safari experience is still Tanzania, and I am returning for my 26th safari (and 10th arranged by Vuriva safari company) in August 2017.
Nathan
US
Visited:
June 1999
Reviewed: Aug 15, 2013
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A great place to experience your first safari.
The national parks in Tanzania have a stunning amount of animals (significantly more so than Ugandan parks), and this makes game drives easier there. We visited 5 parks/reserves there, but by far our favorite resort was the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge at the rim of the crater. The views from the hotel were stunning, and the dining room was very luxurious, so I highly recommend this lodge.
The Serengeti is a must for any safari to Tanzania. If you can be there during the Great Migration (Jan-Mar) you'll see some awe-inspiring wildlife. Unfortunately we went during the summer, so we missed that, but still had an amazing journey.
Chris M.
US
Visited:
April 2010
Reviewed: Jun 11, 2012
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Exceptional wildlife and expansive landscapes.
It's hard to beat the wildlife, biodiversity, and expansive landscapes of Tanzania. From the highest peak on the continent to Ngorongoro wildlife rich crater, from the expansive Serengeti to vibrant alleyways of Stonetown on Zanzibar, Tanzania has it all and then some. If you're short on time and want to see big game, head straight to Ngorongoro. You'll see everything but giraffes here - they can't climb down/up the steep crater walls. There's so much wildlife it almost feels like a zoo. If you're more into the search and discovery style safari, and have the time, the Serengeti is for you. Better yet, do both. Climb Mt Killy to brag that you bagged the continent's summit, but for my time and money, I'd climb Mt Kenya - more beautiful and fewer traffic jams on the trail. Finally, the rich swahili culture, white sand beaches, and the alluring alleyways of Stone Town on Zanzibar are not to be missed.
The place to visit for wold life safaris.
Simply put it was out of this world.
We travelled with Access2Tanzania who helped us plan the trip, where to go, where to stay, meeting our budget, etc, they were simply delightful to work with and I can not thank them enough for their help and patience as we worked on different agendas and pricing.
When we arrived in Arusha (we flew from Dulles on Ethiopian Airlines directly into Addis Ababa and then onto Arusha to arrive by early afternoon) we were met by our guide, Fulgence, and our personal vehicle. He was an excellent guide I would highly recommend him and A2Z. Instead of stopping for a night in Arusha, as is typical when flights arrive in via Amsterdam, we drove directly down to our first stop near Tarangire National Park. This allowed us to start seeing the animals early on the second day.
I have a web site where you can see where we stayed and which parks we visited (http://www.moorecs.com/Tanzania or my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_moore/)
The tented camps are excellent and provide safe, clean and beautiful accommodations. We stayed two of our ten nights in a wilderness camp where you literally stay in a large tent and your hot water for a shower is brought to you in a bag - it is hoisted above the bathroom end of the tent. Toilets are chemical and at night you fall asleep to the sounds of lions in the distance, hyenas surrounding the camp and the night sounds of Africa - truly a great experience.
We would recommend the tented camps over the lodges which tend to be more European in nature, large dining areas and like a normal hotel anywhere in the world.
As for the animals - you will never go back to the zoo with the same excitement again. Our guide was brilliant in finding the animals and would sit as long as we wanted - you are not limited by the wants of others, simply what your group in your vehicle wants to do. We could stay out as late as we wanted and get up at times that suited us - but don't be lazy, the dawn rides out into the Serengeti for breakfast are worth the early rise. Getting up close to a prides of lions when it is only your vehicle anywhere to be seen is tremendous and our guide found remote locations where we sat for hours watching families of lions with their cubs (right beside our vehicle), a lion stalking a warthog, or a Leopard and her cub hauling their dinner, a gazelle, high into a tree - simply spectacular.
We would recommend that you take some time to visit the local villages or Masai boma. They really enjoy your visit and if you plan on doing this you may want to bring some small books or pencils for the children in the school. There are some pictures on my web sites of the children in the Masai school. You will find the Tanzanians to be a very welcoming people and happy to have visitors.
This is one of those bucket list of adventures and Tanzania has it all - wonderful people, great and varied accommodations and of course an unbelievable range and number of animals. Not to be missed.
We travelled with Access2Tanzania who helped us plan the trip, where to go, where to stay, meeting our budget, etc, they were simply delightful to work with and I can not thank them enough for their help and patience as we worked on different agendas and pricing.
When we arrived in Arusha (we flew from Dulles on Ethiopian Airlines directly into Addis Ababa and then onto Arusha to arrive by early afternoon) we were met by our guide, Fulgence, and our personal vehicle. He was an excellent guide I would highly recommend him and A2Z. Instead of stopping for a night in Arusha, as is typical when flights arrive in via Amsterdam, we drove directly down to our first stop near Tarangire National Park. This allowed us to start seeing the animals early on the second day.
I have a web site where you can see where we stayed and which parks we visited (http://www.moorecs.com/Tanzania or my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_moore/)
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and that should give you some ideas as to accommodations, places to see and, of course, the main attraction, the animals.The tented camps are excellent and provide safe, clean and beautiful accommodations. We stayed two of our ten nights in a wilderness camp where you literally stay in a large tent and your hot water for a shower is brought to you in a bag - it is hoisted above the bathroom end of the tent. Toilets are chemical and at night you fall asleep to the sounds of lions in the distance, hyenas surrounding the camp and the night sounds of Africa - truly a great experience.
We would recommend the tented camps over the lodges which tend to be more European in nature, large dining areas and like a normal hotel anywhere in the world.
As for the animals - you will never go back to the zoo with the same excitement again. Our guide was brilliant in finding the animals and would sit as long as we wanted - you are not limited by the wants of others, simply what your group in your vehicle wants to do. We could stay out as late as we wanted and get up at times that suited us - but don't be lazy, the dawn rides out into the Serengeti for breakfast are worth the early rise. Getting up close to a prides of lions when it is only your vehicle anywhere to be seen is tremendous and our guide found remote locations where we sat for hours watching families of lions with their cubs (right beside our vehicle), a lion stalking a warthog, or a Leopard and her cub hauling their dinner, a gazelle, high into a tree - simply spectacular.
We would recommend that you take some time to visit the local villages or Masai boma. They really enjoy your visit and if you plan on doing this you may want to bring some small books or pencils for the children in the school. There are some pictures on my web sites of the children in the Masai school. You will find the Tanzanians to be a very welcoming people and happy to have visitors.
This is one of those bucket list of adventures and Tanzania has it all - wonderful people, great and varied accommodations and of course an unbelievable range and number of animals. Not to be missed.
Tanzania... best travel experience of my life!
I had the great pleasure to spend about a week and a half in Tanzania in early November, 2009. This was a trip that I had spent hours and hours researching, reading about, asking questions about on various travel forums, and then finally planning with my safari tour operator (Good Earth Tours). I had very high expectations, and they were all exceeded. Everything from the weather, the low number of other tourists (and bugs/mosquitos!), the wildlife viewing, the services and care given by my safari outfitter and private guide, the warm welcomes from the good people of Tanzania, the quality of the food and lodging, the amazing natural beauty of the various parks we visited, all varied and different from one another... just made for the most magnificent trip I have ever taken. And I have taken quite a few. I love to take photos, purely amateur, but some of the photos I came back with stunned my friends and family, they couldn't believe the beautiful sights that I was able to see.
I feel like my itinerary was perfect, I wouldn't have changed a thing about it. Flew into Kilimanjaro Airport, and planned to spend two nights in the town of Arusha pre-safari, just to get acclimated to the time change, and to have a buffer day in case of flight delays or other problems like that. And it was a very good thing that we did that. ("We" was just myself, and one friend... party of two for this entire trip.) My friend had a mishap with her passport as we were preparing to fly out of St. Louis, it was current, but did not have more than six months validity left on it, which we did not know was necessary. What a day that turned out to be...after some scrambling to find out our options, my friend flew ahead to Chicago with hopes of getting her passport renewed on the spot. Thankfully, we had a long layover there before the international flight. Long story short, my friend did make it on the plane to Amsterdam, with only minutes to spare. The door was closing. I was already on the plane, planning to go ahead to Tanzania, knowing that we had the buffer day built in and that my friend could at least make it by the second day, and we would not miss our safari. So, just a word of advice, check your passport date! And do try to have an extra day to recoup when you arrive, or just relax, or to save yourself a whole lot of worry in case something like this happens to you.
The best part about our "extra" day in Arusha, though, was that we did get to have the most lovely lunch at Hatari Lodge, and a half-day visit to Arusha National Park. It was something I had debated back and forth, whether or not to include Arusha National Park in our safari. I am so glad we did. My very favorite photo from the whole trip was from there. And the way we did it was very cost effective... we asked to have lunch at Hatari Lodge, which is inside the park. So it was sort of a bonus to see the park, while we were just driving thru on our way to lunch! And our guide was so wonderful (Prosper was his name, with Good Earth Tours). We were getting to know each other during the drive, and I was just asking casual questions, making conversation. I asked about whether we would likely see Flamingos at Lake Manyara later in the week. Prosper said if we wanted to see Flamingos, he would make it happen. Turns out, the flamingos were actually in Arusha. lol LOTS and LOTS of them. He didn't have to do it, because it wasn't on our itinerary, but Prosper took at least two extra hours of his personal time, and took us to see the flamingos in Arusha National Park after our lunch. It was so beautiful, and such a pleasant surprise. Just a fantastic way to start our journey together.
Sorry for the long story there... but I felt it was important to share. Back to our itinerary:
Two nights in Arusha at the Kibo Palace Hotel
Two nights at Tarangire Sopa Lodge
One night at Lake Manyara Hotel (A Wildlife Lodge property)
Lunch at Gibbs Farm
One night at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Two nights at Seronera Wildlife Lodge
One night at Lobo Wildlife Lodge
Two nights at Migration Camp (including a full-day game drive to the Mara River)
Flight to Zanzibar
Stayed four nights at Imani Villa Beach Resort
Flight back to Arusha, picked up by Good Earth representative, who took us to some local places for last-minute shopping, lunch, etc. They kept our luggage for us during the day, and then drove us back to Kilimanjaro Airport for our flight home.
Good Earth took such good care of us, and so did the good people working at all the different lodges and camps. The food was so good everywhere we went. At least that is my most humble opinion.
I was especially impressed with the Wildlife Lodge properties. They are extremely budget friendly, and I thought they would be a little more rustic than they were, but was willing to save a few bucks by staying with them, in order to better afford the luxury of Migration Camp as the grand finale of our safari at the end. The Wildlife properties are Very, VERY well located, you are in the heart of all the beauty and wildlife. They are truly great lodges, the architecture of the common areas especially pleased me. And the food here was just as good as the Sopa lodges.
Migration Camp, well, what can I say, but DON'T MISS IT! Just an amazing experience to treat yourself extra special for a night or two. It's expensive, but I think it is worth it for at least one night.
I guess that is the basics, please feel free to contact me for more details! I love to talk about it and reminisce! :)
Cheers!
Sandi
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I feel like my itinerary was perfect, I wouldn't have changed a thing about it. Flew into Kilimanjaro Airport, and planned to spend two nights in the town of Arusha pre-safari, just to get acclimated to the time change, and to have a buffer day in case of flight delays or other problems like that. And it was a very good thing that we did that. ("We" was just myself, and one friend... party of two for this entire trip.) My friend had a mishap with her passport as we were preparing to fly out of St. Louis, it was current, but did not have more than six months validity left on it, which we did not know was necessary. What a day that turned out to be...after some scrambling to find out our options, my friend flew ahead to Chicago with hopes of getting her passport renewed on the spot. Thankfully, we had a long layover there before the international flight. Long story short, my friend did make it on the plane to Amsterdam, with only minutes to spare. The door was closing. I was already on the plane, planning to go ahead to Tanzania, knowing that we had the buffer day built in and that my friend could at least make it by the second day, and we would not miss our safari. So, just a word of advice, check your passport date! And do try to have an extra day to recoup when you arrive, or just relax, or to save yourself a whole lot of worry in case something like this happens to you.
The best part about our "extra" day in Arusha, though, was that we did get to have the most lovely lunch at Hatari Lodge, and a half-day visit to Arusha National Park. It was something I had debated back and forth, whether or not to include Arusha National Park in our safari. I am so glad we did. My very favorite photo from the whole trip was from there. And the way we did it was very cost effective... we asked to have lunch at Hatari Lodge, which is inside the park. So it was sort of a bonus to see the park, while we were just driving thru on our way to lunch! And our guide was so wonderful (Prosper was his name, with Good Earth Tours). We were getting to know each other during the drive, and I was just asking casual questions, making conversation. I asked about whether we would likely see Flamingos at Lake Manyara later in the week. Prosper said if we wanted to see Flamingos, he would make it happen. Turns out, the flamingos were actually in Arusha. lol LOTS and LOTS of them. He didn't have to do it, because it wasn't on our itinerary, but Prosper took at least two extra hours of his personal time, and took us to see the flamingos in Arusha National Park after our lunch. It was so beautiful, and such a pleasant surprise. Just a fantastic way to start our journey together.
Sorry for the long story there... but I felt it was important to share. Back to our itinerary:
Two nights in Arusha at the Kibo Palace Hotel
Two nights at Tarangire Sopa Lodge
One night at Lake Manyara Hotel (A Wildlife Lodge property)
Lunch at Gibbs Farm
One night at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Two nights at Seronera Wildlife Lodge
One night at Lobo Wildlife Lodge
Two nights at Migration Camp (including a full-day game drive to the Mara River)
Flight to Zanzibar
Stayed four nights at Imani Villa Beach Resort
Flight back to Arusha, picked up by Good Earth representative, who took us to some local places for last-minute shopping, lunch, etc. They kept our luggage for us during the day, and then drove us back to Kilimanjaro Airport for our flight home.
Good Earth took such good care of us, and so did the good people working at all the different lodges and camps. The food was so good everywhere we went. At least that is my most humble opinion.
I was especially impressed with the Wildlife Lodge properties. They are extremely budget friendly, and I thought they would be a little more rustic than they were, but was willing to save a few bucks by staying with them, in order to better afford the luxury of Migration Camp as the grand finale of our safari at the end. The Wildlife properties are Very, VERY well located, you are in the heart of all the beauty and wildlife. They are truly great lodges, the architecture of the common areas especially pleased me. And the food here was just as good as the Sopa lodges.
Migration Camp, well, what can I say, but DON'T MISS IT! Just an amazing experience to treat yourself extra special for a night or two. It's expensive, but I think it is worth it for at least one night.
I guess that is the basics, please feel free to contact me for more details! I love to talk about it and reminisce! :)
Cheers!
Sandi
Tamela
US
Visited:
June 2012
Reviewed: Jul 10, 2013
Email Tamela | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Life changing experience
We used Awaken to Africa on both of our trips to Tanzania. Our guide David is one of the best we have ever used. He ensures we see the all the wildlife and Grace makes sure our accommodations are top notch. Once you go to Tanzania to see the migration you will want to go back every year.
Tom Bissonnette
US
Visited:
August 2009
Reviewed: May 25, 2012
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A beautiful country with many contrast including people, wildlife and scenery!
This was our first trip to Africa and it lived up to all expectations. The wildlife in the Serenghetti was tremendous. We had to keep telling ourselves that it was real and not a Disney ride. We travelled with an American company, Overseas Adventure Travel, and their constant attention to detail was exceptional. Certainly seeing the major groups of wild animals was a highlight, elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinocerous, hippos, and all other animals was exceptional. The weather was perfect during our trip with little to no rain. Visiting the Masai was another exceptional experience as we had the opportunity to enter their modest homes and learn of their daily lives. As a lover of elephants I had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time photographing them and studying their interactions individually and as a group. Food was excellent and the experience of staying on the Serenghetti in tents for several days and nights was one that was a highlight. Seeing a sunset on the Serenghetti
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whil you are eating a gourmet meal cooked inside a field tent kitchen was amazing. Our guides were knowledgable as well as friendly and attentive. Overall I would recommend everyone to take a trip to Africa and experience the vast, beautiful continent that it is. If you can add a hot air balloon ride over the Serenghetti at dawn don't miss it.
Nick Dale Photography
GB
Visited:
January 2018
Reviewed: Mar 28, 2018
Email Nick Dale Photography | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The review below is the personal opinion of Nick Dale Photography and not that of SafariBookings.
4 / 5
3 / 5
3 / 5
2 / 5
Fantastic beasts and where to find them
As Noël Coward never said, "Very flat, Tanzania."
When God painted Tanzania, he did so with a very limited palette of green and brown. There's not much variety in the landscape either, and some of the grassy plains are so flat you could lie on your back and see for a hundred miles! The only relief is the occasional kopje, or rock formation, but that's more like the artist's signature on a blank canvas. However, when He carved the Serengeti heat alive with wildlife, His imagination knew no limit. I saw a total of 38 animals and 85 birds during my Classic Tanzania Safari with Exodus Travels, including lion, leopard, elephant, Cape buffalo, rhinoceros, cheetah, zebra, giraffe and impala. We even saw the very rare caracal, which is a medium-sized cat similar to a lynx. There wasn't as much game as there is in the peak season from July to September, but we still saw thousands of wildebeest and zebra taking part in the Great Migration, and I took
The spectacular and exciting variety of animals in places like Tanzania is the reason I keep going back to Africa, and, for me, the highlights of any trip are usually connected with the pictures I manage to take. After all, I count myself a professional photographer these days, so I never just go on 'holiday' any more! We didn't see a kill - which is the crowning glory of any safari - but we did see a cheetah just after it had killed a hartebeest. It spent around half an hour gorging itself right in front of us - only five or ten yards away - while a marabou stork and over a dozen vultures waited patiently for their share of the spoils. On the horizon, the hartebeest's mother kept up a solo vigil the whole time. Very sad...
Another highlight was seeing so many lions. One day, we were driving through a meadow with very tall grass, and I told our driver Julius that we were in 'lion country' now. Within a couple of hours, we'd seen around 14 lions in two separate prides, one lounging on a termite mound and another sleeping beside a tree! I love the excitement of predators, so it was great to be able to get such good sightings.
The other highlight was the birds we saw. Tanzania has a huge bird population, with more than 1,100 species, and we saw some spectacular specimens, including a red-cheeked cordon-bleu and a red-and-yellow barbet that I never even knew existed! When it comes to individual shots, my favourite was the one of the lilac-breasted roller at the top of the page. It's a beautiful bird anyway, but I was particularly lucky when it fluttered its wings unexpectedly without taking off. That gave me the chance to get a rare 'action shot'. I prefer action shots to portraits, but there wasn't much action to see on this trip, apart from a couple of buffalo fighting in the distance and two elephants 'fighting' like punched-out heavyweights in the 12th round of a fight, so we had to make the most of what we were given.
There were nine guests on the Exodus trip, which ran from 12-21 January 2018, plus an excellent guide called Jackson and a couple of drivers - Alex and Julius - for the four-wheel drive Toyota Land Cruisers we were using. One of the guests put a message on the Exodus community website before the trip, so I ended up meeting her at Heathrow and travelling with her all the way to Kilimanjaro, where we joined with the rest of the group. The actual 'travelling' is the only bit of travelling I don't like, so it was nice to have some company on such a long journey (and in the jeep later). Getting to Africa is never straightforward, and it took me over 38 hours to go from my flat in Putney to the front seat of the Land Cruiser on our first game drive!
I love close-up shots, so I followed my usual habit of renting a Nikon 800mm lens from Lenses For Hire for our trip. I have two Nikon camera bodies, a D810 and a D850, and I usually fit my Nikon 80-400mm lens to one and the 800mm lens to the other. I end up taking roughly half my shots with each camera. The only other things I take with me are my SpiderPro belt (just to help me carry everything to the jeep!), a lens cloth and a spare battery. You generally spend most of the day in the safari truck, so you don't need to worry about bringing hiking boots. I just put on trainers, cargo pants (with plenty of pockets!), a long-sleeved shirt (or merino base layer if it's cold) and a proper sun hat with a chin strap (not a baseball cap, as the brim gets in the way, and it might blow off!). The sun is usually very hot, and I always use a Nivea stick on my nose, but I avoid having to put on too much sun cream by covering up my arms and legs. If you're a photographer, you don't go on safari to get a sun tan!
Game drives are the whole point of going on safari, and you soon get into a routine. Whether you're staying at lodges or permanent tented camps or even in tents you have to put up yourselves, you always end up doing pretty much the same thing - and this trip was no exception. You generally wake up to an early breakfast - either at dawn or even earlier - and go out in your safari trucks for a few hours before returning for lunch or eating a packed lunch somewhere along the way. After another game drive in the afternoon, you head back to camp for a shower, drinks, dinner and a relatively early night. When I get back to camp, I like to edit all the pictures I've taken during the day, so that usually means hunching over my laptop for a few hours here and there. I wake up early at the best of times, so that means I can do a few hours' work before breakfast or, if I can't sleep, in the middle of the night!
Most safaris take place in a few different places, so the routine will also often include a journey to the next stop. Apart from a quick visit to the Oldupai Gorge to hear about the Leakeys' paleontological discoveries, we visited four main locations on our trip: Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park, and they were all very different.
Lake Manyara
Lake Manyara National Park is not the most famous safari destination, but it does have a reputation for its 'tree-climbing lions'. In fact, all lions can climb trees, but the lions that climb trees at Lake Manyara (which we actually saw) get the extra benefit of cool breezes on the slopes of the surrounding hills. Inside the park, you'll find Lake Manyara itself and a flat, marshy plain around it, but also the heavily wooded hills that form the walls of the Great Rift Valley. This was formed by plate tectonics and is a vast corridor that runs the length of Africa, all the way from Jordan to Mozambique. It splits into eastern and western spurs, but they're both so wide that you can never see the hills on both sides. Instead, you find the enormous flat plains known as the African savanna(h), which are the home to all the 'traditional' game animals, including the Big Five (rhino, elephant, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo). When you enter Lake Manyara National Park, the first things you notice are the trees and the hills that form the walls of the Rift Valley. The lack of open ground means that game is tricky to spot initially - apart from a few vervet and blue monkeys in the trees - but it gets easier once you drive out to the lake. Sadly, there was an unusually large amount of overnight rain during the course of our trip, so the lake and other water holes we passed were not the 'game magnets' that they normally are during the dry season. However, if the quantity of sightings was low, the quality was high, so that kept us happy.
Serengeti
The Serengeti plains are the stereotypical African safari destination. There is a good quantity of game all year round, and the landscape is ideal for spotting them as there are so few trees. Apparently, all the volcanic activity in the area has left a layer of tough igneous deposits a few feet below the surface that prevent trees from getting the nourishment they need to grow. Whatever the reason, it means that you are able to see those iconic, unbroken vistas that remind you of the etymology of 'Serengeti', which means 'endless plain'.
Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro is named after the sound a Masai cowbell makes. It is surprisingly small, and you can see the walls of both sides of the caldera from wherever you are on the central plain. There is also a strange optical illusion at work. The crater is 600 metres deep, and it looks like a very long way from the viewpoint up on the rim at 2,400 metres above sea level, but, when you look back up from the crater floor, the hills don't look that high at all. Strange... Anyway, the Ngorongoro has a justly deserved reputation as a safari destination and contains all the animals you'd expect to see - with the exception of the giraffe, which can't get down the steep slope from the crater rim because its legs are too long! On our trip, we had a couple of good sightings of lions here, particularly on the kopjes, where they choose to lie high up on the rocks to get a better view, and we came across a family group of elephants on either side of the road that gave us a great chance to get up close and personal.
Tarangire
In terms of the landscape, Tarangire National Park is a kind of cross between Lake Manyara and the Serengeti. It boasts the hills and water of the first, but with the open savannah of the second. It also has quite a few of the distinctive baobab trees. Baobab trees can be up to 2,000 years old, but there are few young ones as they get eaten by elephants, which eat the bark of the tree in the dry season as it contains large amounts of water.
Unfortunately, we didn't see much game there when we went. Normally, it's an important source of water for the animals, but the unseasonal rains meant that there was enough water for them to range far and wide without being tied to the Tarangire River. That meant they could 'save' that water source for when they really needed it in the dry season. We spent most of our time in Tarangire driving around looking for game, and the only good shot I got was the one of the lilac-breasted roller. On the other hand, the views were spectacular, and we spent our last night at a wonderful place called the Tarangire Safari Lodge, which gets a star rating in Lonely Planet. It had a long row of tents for all the guests, each with solar-powered lights and showers and a veranda with chairs and a table out front. There was a lookout point on the cliffs a few yards away that offered a spectacular panorama of the hills and river below, and the main building incorporated an enormous circular banda, with a vast roof above the dining area.
The food was a cut above the usual fare, and our dinner there consisted of pumpkin and ginger soup, mango and green pepper salad, bean and vegetable salad and then beef stew with rice or potatoes, followed by passion fruit mousse and plum tart with custard. The only problem was all the bugs flying around - even indoors. They managed to bite me even through my shirt, leaving four angry red spots on my back. It was horrendous, and it was the first time on the entire trip that I threatened to lose my sense of humour. Trying to edit my pictures on my laptop at the bar after dinner was almost impossible. The staff didn't do anything about all the creepy-crawlies and flying insects - apart from clearing away the dead bugs with a broom! - and it got even worse when I got back to my tent. It was crawling with insects, but there was no bug spray, and the bed didn't even have a mosquito net. When I couldn’t find the light switch as it wasn’t in the bathroom...well, I lost it and started sweating my head off! I hope my neighbours didn’t hear me! In the end, I had to squash all the bugs with a laminated menu card from the welcome pack. What a way to ruin - and I mean absolutely ruin! - what should’ve been a great experience to end the trip.
This Is Africa
That brings me on to a final point about going on safari. You have to take the rough with the smooth. 'This Is Africa', as they say, so you should expect a few minor problems and even one or two dramas, but you have to take it in good part. "Hakuna matata," as they say, or "No worries." If you were to write a list of pros and cons for going on safari, it would look something like this:
Cons
Very expensive
Long journey to get there
Long hours in the jeep
No electricity during the night (if at all!)
No hot water during the night (if at all!)
Patchy mobile coverage
Patchy or non-existent wi-fi
Broken equipment, eg in-car radio transceivers
Mosquitoes carrying a risk of malaria (and therefore having to take Malarone pills every day)
Tsetse flies (with a very sharp bite!) carrying a risk of sleeping sickness
All kinds of other insects and bugs, dropping on you wherever you are and making a home in the bathroom
Not being able to drink the water
Poor quality food and lack of alternative options
Constant worry about losing something or having it stolen (particularly bad in my case when staying in a tent without a lock on it with £30,000-worth of camera equipment in my bag!)
Daily risk of food poisoning (particularly from ice in drinks and/or washed vegetables such as green peppers - which directly caused me to make five unscheduled trips to the bathroom in Tarangire!)
Having to share a room/tent with someone who is not necessarily your favourite person in the world (unless you pay hundreds of pounds to sleep on your own!)
Vehicles often breaking down or getting stuck
Animals trying to get into your tent at night
Having to be escorted around the camp after dark in case of animal attack
Etc, etc, etc...
Pros
Wildlife
Er, that's it...
Yes, I know it's a very long list of cons and a very short list of pros. In fact, it was worse than that on our trip as a bridge was washed away by the flooding, and we had to find a way to ford the river in our Land Cruiser. So many jeeps got stuck in the mud trying to do the same thing that it looked a bit like the elephants' graveyard, but we eventually found a way across. Our problems didn't end there, though, as some enterprising locals had decided to pile rocks on the way up from the makeshift river crossing and were demanding money to let us through! We eventually had to have a whip-round and gave them a few Tanzanian shillings. Even then, we got stuck in the mud on the way back to the main road, and it was only when all the passengers climbed out of the jeep that Julius was able to make it to safety. We all thought he'd done a great job - until we found out that Alex had managed drive the other jeep across without any problems at all!
And yet, and yet...we did see fantastic wildlife. It may not sound like much compared to having to get up at five in the morning and go without hot water, electricity and wi-fi most of the time, but the fact I keep going back speaks for itself. When you sit down with your grandchildren on your knee, and they ask what you did during your lifetime, are you going to tell them you had eight hours' sleep every night and a hot shower every morning and never let a day go by without checking social media, or are you going to tell them you saw the best of God's creation in Africa...?
Butcher's bill
1 x tube of sun cream (confiscated at Heathrow)
1 x tube of shower gel (confiscated at Heathrow)
£60 fine for exceeding hand luggage weight limit (confiscated at Heathrow)
Species list:
Animals
Agama lizard
Banded mongoose
Bat-eared fox
Black rhinoceros
Blue monkey
Bohor reedbuck
Bushbuck
Cape (or African) buffalo
Caracal
Cheetah
Common (or plains) zebra
Dwarf mongoose
Eland
Elephant
Goff’s mongoose
Golden jackal
Grant’s gazelle
Hartebeest
Hippo
Impala
Kirk’s dikdik
Leopard
Lion
Masai giraffe
Mongoose
Monitor lizard
Mouse
Nile crocodile
Olive baboon
Rock hyrax
Silver-backed jackal
Spotted hyena
Thomson’s gazelle
Topi
Vervet monkey
Warthog
Waterbuck
White-tailed mongoose
Birds
Abdim’s storkAfrican fish eagle
African hoopoe
African jacana
African spoonbill
Ashy starling
Augur buzzard
Bateleur
Black kite
Black-bellied bustard
Black-headed heron
Black-headed weaver
Black-necked sand goose
Black-shouldered kite
Blacksmith plover
Blue starling
Brown snake eagle
Common house martin
Crested guineafowl
Crow
Crowned plover
D'Arnaud's barbet
Eagle owl
Eastern chanting goshawk
Egyptian goose
Eurasian roller
Fiscal shrike
Flamingo
Francolin
Giant heron
Greater kestrel
Green pigeon
Grey crowned crane
Grey flycatcher
Grey heron
Grey hornbill
Grey-headed heron
Hadada ibis
Hammerkop
Knob-billed duck
Kori bustard
Lappet-faced vulture
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little egret
Long-crested eagle
Madagascan bee-eater
Magpie shrike
Marabou stork
Martial eagle
Mosque swallow
Ostrich
Pelican
Pin-tailed whydah
Red-and-yellow barbet
Red-billed hornbill
Red-billed oxpecker
Red-billed weaver
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
Sacred ibis
Secretary bird
Silver bird
Silver-cheeked hornbill
Somali bee-eater
Southern ground hornbill
Speckled mousebird
Striated heron
Superb starling
Tailed rufous weaver
Tawny eagle
Violet wood-hoopoe
Von der Decken’s hornbill
Ward’s starling
Watt starling
White stork
White-backed vulture
White-browed coucal
White-browed cuckoo
White-capped shrike
White-faced whistling duck
White-headed buffalo weaver
White-ringed dove
Yellow-collared lovebird
Yellow-necked superfowl
When God painted Tanzania, he did so with a very limited palette of green and brown. There's not much variety in the landscape either, and some of the grassy plains are so flat you could lie on your back and see for a hundred miles! The only relief is the occasional kopje, or rock formation, but that's more like the artist's signature on a blank canvas. However, when He carved the Serengeti heat alive with wildlife, His imagination knew no limit. I saw a total of 38 animals and 85 birds during my Classic Tanzania Safari with Exodus Travels, including lion, leopard, elephant, Cape buffalo, rhinoceros, cheetah, zebra, giraffe and impala. We even saw the very rare caracal, which is a medium-sized cat similar to a lynx. There wasn't as much game as there is in the peak season from July to September, but we still saw thousands of wildebeest and zebra taking part in the Great Migration, and I took
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over a thousand pictures a day! In the end, I came back with 669 shots I thought were good enough to sell through stock agencies, and I even chose three prints to include in my next exhibition.The spectacular and exciting variety of animals in places like Tanzania is the reason I keep going back to Africa, and, for me, the highlights of any trip are usually connected with the pictures I manage to take. After all, I count myself a professional photographer these days, so I never just go on 'holiday' any more! We didn't see a kill - which is the crowning glory of any safari - but we did see a cheetah just after it had killed a hartebeest. It spent around half an hour gorging itself right in front of us - only five or ten yards away - while a marabou stork and over a dozen vultures waited patiently for their share of the spoils. On the horizon, the hartebeest's mother kept up a solo vigil the whole time. Very sad...
Another highlight was seeing so many lions. One day, we were driving through a meadow with very tall grass, and I told our driver Julius that we were in 'lion country' now. Within a couple of hours, we'd seen around 14 lions in two separate prides, one lounging on a termite mound and another sleeping beside a tree! I love the excitement of predators, so it was great to be able to get such good sightings.
The other highlight was the birds we saw. Tanzania has a huge bird population, with more than 1,100 species, and we saw some spectacular specimens, including a red-cheeked cordon-bleu and a red-and-yellow barbet that I never even knew existed! When it comes to individual shots, my favourite was the one of the lilac-breasted roller at the top of the page. It's a beautiful bird anyway, but I was particularly lucky when it fluttered its wings unexpectedly without taking off. That gave me the chance to get a rare 'action shot'. I prefer action shots to portraits, but there wasn't much action to see on this trip, apart from a couple of buffalo fighting in the distance and two elephants 'fighting' like punched-out heavyweights in the 12th round of a fight, so we had to make the most of what we were given.
There were nine guests on the Exodus trip, which ran from 12-21 January 2018, plus an excellent guide called Jackson and a couple of drivers - Alex and Julius - for the four-wheel drive Toyota Land Cruisers we were using. One of the guests put a message on the Exodus community website before the trip, so I ended up meeting her at Heathrow and travelling with her all the way to Kilimanjaro, where we joined with the rest of the group. The actual 'travelling' is the only bit of travelling I don't like, so it was nice to have some company on such a long journey (and in the jeep later). Getting to Africa is never straightforward, and it took me over 38 hours to go from my flat in Putney to the front seat of the Land Cruiser on our first game drive!
I love close-up shots, so I followed my usual habit of renting a Nikon 800mm lens from Lenses For Hire for our trip. I have two Nikon camera bodies, a D810 and a D850, and I usually fit my Nikon 80-400mm lens to one and the 800mm lens to the other. I end up taking roughly half my shots with each camera. The only other things I take with me are my SpiderPro belt (just to help me carry everything to the jeep!), a lens cloth and a spare battery. You generally spend most of the day in the safari truck, so you don't need to worry about bringing hiking boots. I just put on trainers, cargo pants (with plenty of pockets!), a long-sleeved shirt (or merino base layer if it's cold) and a proper sun hat with a chin strap (not a baseball cap, as the brim gets in the way, and it might blow off!). The sun is usually very hot, and I always use a Nivea stick on my nose, but I avoid having to put on too much sun cream by covering up my arms and legs. If you're a photographer, you don't go on safari to get a sun tan!
Game drives are the whole point of going on safari, and you soon get into a routine. Whether you're staying at lodges or permanent tented camps or even in tents you have to put up yourselves, you always end up doing pretty much the same thing - and this trip was no exception. You generally wake up to an early breakfast - either at dawn or even earlier - and go out in your safari trucks for a few hours before returning for lunch or eating a packed lunch somewhere along the way. After another game drive in the afternoon, you head back to camp for a shower, drinks, dinner and a relatively early night. When I get back to camp, I like to edit all the pictures I've taken during the day, so that usually means hunching over my laptop for a few hours here and there. I wake up early at the best of times, so that means I can do a few hours' work before breakfast or, if I can't sleep, in the middle of the night!
Most safaris take place in a few different places, so the routine will also often include a journey to the next stop. Apart from a quick visit to the Oldupai Gorge to hear about the Leakeys' paleontological discoveries, we visited four main locations on our trip: Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park, and they were all very different.
Lake Manyara
Lake Manyara National Park is not the most famous safari destination, but it does have a reputation for its 'tree-climbing lions'. In fact, all lions can climb trees, but the lions that climb trees at Lake Manyara (which we actually saw) get the extra benefit of cool breezes on the slopes of the surrounding hills. Inside the park, you'll find Lake Manyara itself and a flat, marshy plain around it, but also the heavily wooded hills that form the walls of the Great Rift Valley. This was formed by plate tectonics and is a vast corridor that runs the length of Africa, all the way from Jordan to Mozambique. It splits into eastern and western spurs, but they're both so wide that you can never see the hills on both sides. Instead, you find the enormous flat plains known as the African savanna(h), which are the home to all the 'traditional' game animals, including the Big Five (rhino, elephant, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo). When you enter Lake Manyara National Park, the first things you notice are the trees and the hills that form the walls of the Rift Valley. The lack of open ground means that game is tricky to spot initially - apart from a few vervet and blue monkeys in the trees - but it gets easier once you drive out to the lake. Sadly, there was an unusually large amount of overnight rain during the course of our trip, so the lake and other water holes we passed were not the 'game magnets' that they normally are during the dry season. However, if the quantity of sightings was low, the quality was high, so that kept us happy.
Serengeti
The Serengeti plains are the stereotypical African safari destination. There is a good quantity of game all year round, and the landscape is ideal for spotting them as there are so few trees. Apparently, all the volcanic activity in the area has left a layer of tough igneous deposits a few feet below the surface that prevent trees from getting the nourishment they need to grow. Whatever the reason, it means that you are able to see those iconic, unbroken vistas that remind you of the etymology of 'Serengeti', which means 'endless plain'.
Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro is named after the sound a Masai cowbell makes. It is surprisingly small, and you can see the walls of both sides of the caldera from wherever you are on the central plain. There is also a strange optical illusion at work. The crater is 600 metres deep, and it looks like a very long way from the viewpoint up on the rim at 2,400 metres above sea level, but, when you look back up from the crater floor, the hills don't look that high at all. Strange... Anyway, the Ngorongoro has a justly deserved reputation as a safari destination and contains all the animals you'd expect to see - with the exception of the giraffe, which can't get down the steep slope from the crater rim because its legs are too long! On our trip, we had a couple of good sightings of lions here, particularly on the kopjes, where they choose to lie high up on the rocks to get a better view, and we came across a family group of elephants on either side of the road that gave us a great chance to get up close and personal.
Tarangire
In terms of the landscape, Tarangire National Park is a kind of cross between Lake Manyara and the Serengeti. It boasts the hills and water of the first, but with the open savannah of the second. It also has quite a few of the distinctive baobab trees. Baobab trees can be up to 2,000 years old, but there are few young ones as they get eaten by elephants, which eat the bark of the tree in the dry season as it contains large amounts of water.
Unfortunately, we didn't see much game there when we went. Normally, it's an important source of water for the animals, but the unseasonal rains meant that there was enough water for them to range far and wide without being tied to the Tarangire River. That meant they could 'save' that water source for when they really needed it in the dry season. We spent most of our time in Tarangire driving around looking for game, and the only good shot I got was the one of the lilac-breasted roller. On the other hand, the views were spectacular, and we spent our last night at a wonderful place called the Tarangire Safari Lodge, which gets a star rating in Lonely Planet. It had a long row of tents for all the guests, each with solar-powered lights and showers and a veranda with chairs and a table out front. There was a lookout point on the cliffs a few yards away that offered a spectacular panorama of the hills and river below, and the main building incorporated an enormous circular banda, with a vast roof above the dining area.
The food was a cut above the usual fare, and our dinner there consisted of pumpkin and ginger soup, mango and green pepper salad, bean and vegetable salad and then beef stew with rice or potatoes, followed by passion fruit mousse and plum tart with custard. The only problem was all the bugs flying around - even indoors. They managed to bite me even through my shirt, leaving four angry red spots on my back. It was horrendous, and it was the first time on the entire trip that I threatened to lose my sense of humour. Trying to edit my pictures on my laptop at the bar after dinner was almost impossible. The staff didn't do anything about all the creepy-crawlies and flying insects - apart from clearing away the dead bugs with a broom! - and it got even worse when I got back to my tent. It was crawling with insects, but there was no bug spray, and the bed didn't even have a mosquito net. When I couldn’t find the light switch as it wasn’t in the bathroom...well, I lost it and started sweating my head off! I hope my neighbours didn’t hear me! In the end, I had to squash all the bugs with a laminated menu card from the welcome pack. What a way to ruin - and I mean absolutely ruin! - what should’ve been a great experience to end the trip.
This Is Africa
That brings me on to a final point about going on safari. You have to take the rough with the smooth. 'This Is Africa', as they say, so you should expect a few minor problems and even one or two dramas, but you have to take it in good part. "Hakuna matata," as they say, or "No worries." If you were to write a list of pros and cons for going on safari, it would look something like this:
Cons
Very expensive
Long journey to get there
Long hours in the jeep
No electricity during the night (if at all!)
No hot water during the night (if at all!)
Patchy mobile coverage
Patchy or non-existent wi-fi
Broken equipment, eg in-car radio transceivers
Mosquitoes carrying a risk of malaria (and therefore having to take Malarone pills every day)
Tsetse flies (with a very sharp bite!) carrying a risk of sleeping sickness
All kinds of other insects and bugs, dropping on you wherever you are and making a home in the bathroom
Not being able to drink the water
Poor quality food and lack of alternative options
Constant worry about losing something or having it stolen (particularly bad in my case when staying in a tent without a lock on it with £30,000-worth of camera equipment in my bag!)
Daily risk of food poisoning (particularly from ice in drinks and/or washed vegetables such as green peppers - which directly caused me to make five unscheduled trips to the bathroom in Tarangire!)
Having to share a room/tent with someone who is not necessarily your favourite person in the world (unless you pay hundreds of pounds to sleep on your own!)
Vehicles often breaking down or getting stuck
Animals trying to get into your tent at night
Having to be escorted around the camp after dark in case of animal attack
Etc, etc, etc...
Pros
Wildlife
Er, that's it...
Yes, I know it's a very long list of cons and a very short list of pros. In fact, it was worse than that on our trip as a bridge was washed away by the flooding, and we had to find a way to ford the river in our Land Cruiser. So many jeeps got stuck in the mud trying to do the same thing that it looked a bit like the elephants' graveyard, but we eventually found a way across. Our problems didn't end there, though, as some enterprising locals had decided to pile rocks on the way up from the makeshift river crossing and were demanding money to let us through! We eventually had to have a whip-round and gave them a few Tanzanian shillings. Even then, we got stuck in the mud on the way back to the main road, and it was only when all the passengers climbed out of the jeep that Julius was able to make it to safety. We all thought he'd done a great job - until we found out that Alex had managed drive the other jeep across without any problems at all!
And yet, and yet...we did see fantastic wildlife. It may not sound like much compared to having to get up at five in the morning and go without hot water, electricity and wi-fi most of the time, but the fact I keep going back speaks for itself. When you sit down with your grandchildren on your knee, and they ask what you did during your lifetime, are you going to tell them you had eight hours' sleep every night and a hot shower every morning and never let a day go by without checking social media, or are you going to tell them you saw the best of God's creation in Africa...?
Butcher's bill
1 x tube of sun cream (confiscated at Heathrow)
1 x tube of shower gel (confiscated at Heathrow)
£60 fine for exceeding hand luggage weight limit (confiscated at Heathrow)
Species list:
Animals
Agama lizard
Banded mongoose
Bat-eared fox
Black rhinoceros
Blue monkey
Bohor reedbuck
Bushbuck
Cape (or African) buffalo
Caracal
Cheetah
Common (or plains) zebra
Dwarf mongoose
Eland
Elephant
Goff’s mongoose
Golden jackal
Grant’s gazelle
Hartebeest
Hippo
Impala
Kirk’s dikdik
Leopard
Lion
Masai giraffe
Mongoose
Monitor lizard
Mouse
Nile crocodile
Olive baboon
Rock hyrax
Silver-backed jackal
Spotted hyena
Thomson’s gazelle
Topi
Vervet monkey
Warthog
Waterbuck
White-tailed mongoose
Birds
Abdim’s storkAfrican fish eagle
African hoopoe
African jacana
African spoonbill
Ashy starling
Augur buzzard
Bateleur
Black kite
Black-bellied bustard
Black-headed heron
Black-headed weaver
Black-necked sand goose
Black-shouldered kite
Blacksmith plover
Blue starling
Brown snake eagle
Common house martin
Crested guineafowl
Crow
Crowned plover
D'Arnaud's barbet
Eagle owl
Eastern chanting goshawk
Egyptian goose
Eurasian roller
Fiscal shrike
Flamingo
Francolin
Giant heron
Greater kestrel
Green pigeon
Grey crowned crane
Grey flycatcher
Grey heron
Grey hornbill
Grey-headed heron
Hadada ibis
Hammerkop
Knob-billed duck
Kori bustard
Lappet-faced vulture
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little egret
Long-crested eagle
Madagascan bee-eater
Magpie shrike
Marabou stork
Martial eagle
Mosque swallow
Ostrich
Pelican
Pin-tailed whydah
Red-and-yellow barbet
Red-billed hornbill
Red-billed oxpecker
Red-billed weaver
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
Sacred ibis
Secretary bird
Silver bird
Silver-cheeked hornbill
Somali bee-eater
Southern ground hornbill
Speckled mousebird
Striated heron
Superb starling
Tailed rufous weaver
Tawny eagle
Violet wood-hoopoe
Von der Decken’s hornbill
Ward’s starling
Watt starling
White stork
White-backed vulture
White-browed coucal
White-browed cuckoo
White-capped shrike
White-faced whistling duck
White-headed buffalo weaver
White-ringed dove
Yellow-collared lovebird
Yellow-necked superfowl