Tanzania Wildlife Safari with Cultural Exchange

People who have been on the Mount Kilimanjaro trip have the option to add on a cultural and wildlife safari. Seth Quigg, International Program Director and Co-Founder of Wildland Trekking, talks about the safari wildlife experience and the cultural experience of camping with the Maasai, a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. With the bonds formed through his years of living in Tanzania, Seth offers an extraordinary tour like any other. Kit also shares her personal experience in making this trip as the final and third part of the Tanzania series.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Take an African Wildlife Safari after Climbing Kilimanjaro!

Either as an add-on to your Kilimanjaro trek or as a stand alone vacation, be sure to add a Tanzanian Wildlife Safari with a cultural exchange to your Bucket List – it’s epic!  I have traveled to dozens of countries and my Tanzanian wildlife safari and visit with the Maasai tribe is a definite highlight of my travels!!!

This is the final part of our Three Part series on climbing Kilimanjaro plus the add-on wildlife safari with a cultural exchange.  If you haven’t already done so, check out Part I.  Whether or not you care to trek Kilimanjaro, Cindy’s inspirational story will help inspire you to achieve your audacious goals!  In Part I, we learn how Cindy prepared mentally and physically for Kilimanjaro, despite being overweight and hating to exercise.  It was life changing for her and inspiring for you!  In Part II, we learn how Cindy makes it down from the summit of Kilimajaro and it wasn’t on her own two feet!  In yet another inspirational tale, we learn how the worst experience of her life changed her life for the better.

And now we go into the African bush to see lions, elephants, rhinos, zebras, hippos, leopards and cheetahs, primates, hyenas and birds of every size and color!

Why would folks WANT to climb Kilimanjaro? No doubt she thinks we are crazy, but what a challenge – and there’s the appeal!

Tanzanian Wildlife Safari

On most Tanzania wildlife safaris you will see an abundance of animals including those pictured here:

Lions, giraffes, hippos, leopards, elephants, wart hogs, hyenas, water buffalo, cheetahs and if you are lucky, a rhino!  I saw so many animals that after a while, it was no longer special to just see a lion, now I wanted to see a pride chasing or eating a kill, etc.

You’ll most likely go to the Serengeti National Park and Ngorongora Crater.  It is simply beyond words to describe the abundance of wildlife!  You will travel around usually in a pop up jeep (see below) to keep you safely up high and to give you a great vantage point.  Be sure to bring excellent binoculars and a good camera!!!

Safaris may be expensive, but out of all of my travels, it is the trip that sticks out most in my mind.  SO WORTH IT!!!

I can’t wait to go on Wildland Trekking’s safari:  they take you to several local tribes so you can get a real insight into the culture and food.  It’s a no brainer to add this on if you are already going to be in Tanzania and like I said, well worth it as a stand along trip.

One thing super cool about Wildland Trekking is that they offer a truly AUTHENTIC experience interacting with some local tribes. Co-owner Seth Quigg, our guest today, lived in Tanzania and formed solid bonds with the locals, so on this tour you actually just get to hang out with his friends from several of the local tribes.  You’ll sleep in a Maasai “boma” – village huts.  Tag along on hunts, and in general actually experience life with the tribes!  Wildland Trekking also offers a wonderful Kilimanjaro trek experience.  Here’s the link to their Kiliimanjaro guided trek tour.

Check out Seth’s AMAZING photography on Instagram and Facebook @sethquiggphotography!

I’m pleased to announce my newest affiliate partner, Wildland Trekking! They offer AMAZING adventures aligned with the adventures we cover on Active Travel Adventures. If you decide to go with them, be sure to tell them that you heard about them through this site and use the links on my webpages and in the travel planners. Some of the links are affiliate links which mean that ATA may earn a small commission – at NO additional cost to you – which helps keep this program going – thanks for supporting ATA!  Kit

Tanzania Wildlife Safari With Cultural Exchange with Seth Quigg

We’re going to be finishing up part three of our series on Tanzania. In part one, we climbed Kilimanjaro and learned how to prepare mentally and physically. How to set big audacious goals and actually complete them so whether or not you’re even interested in Kilimanjaro, it’s a great episode. In the second part, we summit Kilimanjaro and then we find crisis on the way down as our guest, Cindy, injures herself and has the worst moment of her life but ends up changing her life for the better. In this final part three, we’re going to do some on the ground safari. We’re going to go into the bush and see some of the incredible animals, but unlike the safari that I took, on this safari that we’re going to be doing with Wildland Trekking, you also get the real cultural exchange. You’re going to go into the bush and meet some of the different tribes. Our guest, Seth, has lived in Tanzania and because of the friendships and bonds that he formed while he lived there, he’s able to offer an extraordinary tour unlike anything I’ve ever heard of. On the backside of the interview, I’ll be telling you some stories about my own experiences in Tanzania.

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We have here with us Seth, who I found from another podcast. His story was so interesting, his experience and what they offer on their safaris are so different than when I had that I wanted to get him on the program to tell us a little bit about a different way to do the Tanzania Safari experience. Seth, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your program?

My name is Seth Quigg. I am the international Program Director and Co-Owner of Wildland Trekking. We run trips all over the United States and all over the world. We’ll be discussing a little bit about our trips in Tanzania. We run a lot of trips on Mount Kilimanjaro and then our guests have the option to add on a cultural and wildlife safari, which is unique and authentic to us specifically.

That was one reason why I wanted to reach out to you because you do such a different experience. I got to meet some Maasai folks and all that, but you get to meet them. In fact, why don’t we go day-to-day of what the experience is that you’re offering?

I spent a lot of time in Tanzania. I studied there when I was twenty-years-old, maybe five or six times for extended periods of time. I’ve got to know a lot of people and friends and have a Tanzania family. I call them my Maasai brother. He is half Maasai, which is a big tribe found in Tanzania and he’s also half Chaga. On the first day of our safari, we actually go to his boma. Boma is basically a circular compound with a bunch of huts inside where the Maasai people live. We go to his boma, and we get to meet the chief and we camp out there, we have these luxury tents and have an amazing setup inside of the boma and we’re camping with the Maasai people and their chief.

It’s an authentic and unique experience. A lot of other companies will have touristy bomas that you go visit, but we actually get to go and hang out with his tribe and his family and friends, which makes it more authentic. We have a barbecue there. We have a chef who was one of his friends and family. Sometimes we’ve killed a goat there, it’s a big part of the Maasai lifestyle and culture is goat meat depending on if the guests are keen on it. We’ll butcher a goat and eat goat and then the Maasai guys will do a little dance and performance and we basically hang out with the rest of the night. They’ll stay up and hang out by the fire. That’s the first day of the safari.

The second day we drive through a town called Karatu. We have showers there and then go out to visit another tribe called the Hadzabe. The Hadzabe are the last Khoisan tribe in East Africa. Meaning they’re speaking click language and they’re hunter-gatherers. We go and visit them for a whole afternoon. We actually get to go hunting with them or sometimes they will invite you to go hunting and we ask them to do that. These guys are the best hunters in the world. They shoot bows and arrows and you can practice if you want to, but we’re not doing the hunting. We’re just following behind them and watching them hunt, which is an interesting experience. These guys can shoot a quarter out of a tree half a mile away. They’re brilliant marksmen.

How about communication? Do you have a translator, do they speak some English or how does that work?

They don’t speak any English. We learn a little bit of their language. We have another friend who can translate and teach us a little bit of their language. Our friend Memoia, he basically knows the Hadzabe folks and their lifestyle and knows where to find them. They’re semi-nomadic, so they’re always traveling around. He will take us there and explain what’s going on, why they’re doing what they’re doing and facilitate the cross-cultural interaction.

I remember when we visited that Maasai village, they had one of the young men when they do their hair red. Why don’t you explain a little bit that? He took us out and showed us all the plants and how they use it for the different medicines and all that. Tell us a little bit about the tribes that you interact with.

There are a lot of different tribes all over Sub-Saharan Africa, but the main tribes that we visit or encounter are the Chaga, the Maasai, the Hadzabe and the Toga as well. The Toga lives adjacent to the Hadzabe and they’ll sometimes trade metal for meat or certain things that they need with the Hadzabe. Those are the main tribes of people that we’re encountering.

The young man that toured Mickey and me around the bush and pointed out which plants they use for medicine in which they broke off and used as a toothbrush, he had his hair dyed bright red. I believe that was to indicate that he was entering adulthood and he had certain things that he had to do in order to become a man. Did I get that right?

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The Maasai is a massive tribe. You find subtle differences between Central Tanzania all the way to Central Kenya. They have a big range and they live all over Eastern Africa. You find subtle differences from subsect to subsect, but there are different stages in men and women’s lives. One of the main stages is right before a boy gets circumcised. They get circumcised and they have to go out into the bush for seven days after that. They’re called Spolio. They’re sent out there and they hunt birds and just hang out until their seven days are over and then they come back.

We should note that these young men are probably sixteen or seventeen-years-old. That circumcision hurts.

I must say, this is my interpretation of what is going on. There are a lot of different nuances of the culture that I might not be getting right. This is my interpretation of this situation.

The young man that took us into the bush spoke excellent English and the way I interpreted what he was telling us is this transition into adulthood was a big deal and something they are proud of.

That’s a big rite of passage for the young boys. They were called Moranis and that’s them becoming a man. There are also later stages of that where you become a junior warrior, and you become a senior warrior and then a junior elder and then the senior elder. There are lots of different stages

Do all the different tribes wear the red robes or is that just the Maasai?

That is just the Maasai. Those are called shukas. The Maasai are traditionally known for being tall, athletic and wearing the shukas.

I remember the cow is super important to them. As I recall, they eat the meat, drink the milk and the blood, and of course use the hides and other parts for building materials.

No part of the cow is wasted or the goat for that matter.

As I understood it, the cow was not sacred but rather revered because it’s important to their culture.

It’s essentially the currency of the Maasai. They’re pastoralist. Your wealth is determined by how many cows you have.

I like how you equate the cows to their currency. You visit the villages and then you’re also doing some game drives as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what people would see?

After the Hadzabe, we go back to the hotel, sleep there, and then the next morning wake up and drive to the Serengeti National Park. We have an all-day game drive there. We sleep in this great lodge called Kati Kati Tented Lodge. We have hot showers out there that are brought in and it’s amazing. You’re out in the national park. You can hear lions and all types of wildlife. There are guards so you’re not in danger by any means.

I’m glad to hear you say that about the guards. That’s the one thing I should have asked my tour company before I went on this camping safari where we camped every single night, and I assume we’d have armed guards, but it turned out we were on our own. They would pack us pretty tightly and all that, but I have some stories I’ll share about one night, in particular, that was a little bit dicey. It’s good that you had the guards there because there are lots of animals out there that are carnivores. What’s next?

The next morning we wake up early before breakfast and go on an early morning game drive. Wildlife is much more active at night and in the morning. We have all morning game drive. The last time I was there, we actually saw four cheetahs kill a gazelle. You rarely see one cheetah. To see four cheetahs, there’s a mom and three cubs to take down an animal was super lucky. It was amazing.

I have one story to share on that. I remember we were doing the game drive and there was a warthog in the middle of the road screaming bloody murder and there was tall grass on both sides. We could tell it was upset about something. We stopped to try to figure out what it was so upset about. Finally, we saw, I can’t remember whether it was a cheetah or a leopard with its baby and taking away the baby. The warthog, when the mother realized that it was all lost, took one last look, turned around and trotted back into the grass as if nothing ever happened. I’ll never forget it.

You’ll never know what you’re going to see out there. That’s a part of the brilliance of driving safaris and cultural safaris.

Let’s talk about who the safari is actually a suitable trip for. I went to Tanzania with my girlfriend, Mickey, it turns out for her, it was an unsuitable trip. It turns out Mickey gets car sick and she has to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes, which may not always be safe when you’re on safari.

You are in the car all day and you’re bouncing around, but we can accommodate almost anybody. At Wildland Trekking, we run a lot of trips that people perceive as very challenging, but we cater those trips to fit almost anybody. Granted, there are extreme differences between safari and climbing Kilimanjaro, but for the safari aspect, almost anybody can go. You need to expect that at nights, you will be comfortable. We’re going to have great accommodations and hot water. If you’ve got to go to the bathroom all the time, that’s part of life. We can pull over on the side of the road and go to the bathroom. I always say nothing is a big deal unless we make it a big deal. It’s usually about how the person feels about that.

Mickey didn’t come on the actual safari. In my jeep, it was just myself, a French couple, our driver who is also the guide and our cook who was also the person who set up and tore down our tents. We were told if we had to go to the bathroom on an unscheduled bathroom break, that our spot was right behind the jeep because that was the safest spot for us. We did have scheduled bathroom breaks throughout the game drive. While nobody in our group had to make an unscheduled stop, if somebody did, the guide’s eyes are so well-trained that they can spot danger and find an appropriate place to pull over for you to go to the bathroom. In fact, I remember there was a rare black rhino that most of the times you don’t get to see. The guide literally spotted it. It had to be more than a half a mile away. We didn’t believe him until we got the binoculars out and saw that he was right. We did see it, although it was teeny, that’s how sharply tuned his eyes were.

They know everything. They’ll let you know what’s acceptable and what’s not. My Maasai brother is a safari guide and he’ll tell you. Rest assured he’s not going to put you in a position where you’re going to get attacked by a lion.

It sounds like your accommodations are a lot more luxurious and particularly well-guarded than mine was. At night, we actually had to pee in a bottle. We couldn’t leave our tents.

We don’t do that, but it’s different. Camping with the Maasai, we have a portable toilet, just like a luxury porta-potty. The next three nights we’re in nice hotels.

Obviously, your tour is a much nicer trip than the one I took.

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It’s pretty nice. The first night, you’re camping with the Maasai to get the authentic feeling, but we have the luxury tents and it’s nice. You’re not peeing in a bottle by any means.

Inventing a one-liter water bottle toilet was part of my adventure. Seth, you picked up an interesting nickname out there. Why don’t you tell us the story behind that?

I’m known as the Pimbe Master if you will. Pimbe is a small mammal that is called a rock hyrax. Basically, it looks like a groundhog. When I was a student in East Africa, all of us, the students, gave each other nicknames and I became pimbe because I resemble the pimbe. My Maasai brother Yow, we call him Yani which is a baboon. The tall guy at the trip we called him Twigga, who was like the giraffe. We all have these names that are a joke. I think it was our last day hiking, we went and we met Memoia, our friend that knows the Hadzabe. Memoia introduced us and took us hunting with the Hadzabe.

We were not really hunting, we were following behind the Hadzabe. We were running through the savanna and it starts raining. We pulled under this big overhanging rock and Hadzabe started singing this good fortune hunting song and dancing. We were like, “We’re dancing.” It’s because I have an outgoing personality, I think Yani was like, “Pimbe, get up and sing.” I started getting up around the fire and I was doing my take of the song and started doing this dance. All of a sudden, the pimbe animal or hyrax runs out from under the rock. They shoot it, cut his foot off and made a necklace for me and gave me all of these jewels and a monkey tail to wear on my head.

They thought that I had summoned the pimbe and that I was a magic man. Yani or Yow said that was the first time he’s ever seen Mzungu break the cultural boundary between the Hadzabe and Mzungu or white person. Most of my friends over there know me as Pimbe. It is always a funny story and it’s a good way to make people laugh, whoever you are. The local Tanzanians love that. The Maasai think it’s hilarious. They were like, “You do look like a pimbe.” That’s a good laugh and a good way to break that cultural boundary.

It’s amazing that you’ve been able to do that because it is such a distinct culture. It’s so different and I can see that it would be hard to break into, but you’ve managed to do that.

I’ve never been one that’s hesitant or shy when meeting new people. I’m very willing to jump in and do what they’re doing. Start cleaning the elk, helping them out, learning from them and learning from the differences of different people around the world. I think it’s super important to empathize that all humans, although we are different and have different lifestyles, we’re all similar too. We share similar feelings and we cry, laugh and get angry. We’re similar as much as we are different. To help our guests learn about other people around the world and other cultures, I think it’s important moving forward in this day and age to be able to empathize properly.

They’re lovely people too. I love the people in Tanzania. They’re very friendly and very welcoming. It was hard to sometimes wrap your head around a culture that was so different if you didn’t have the exposure like you’re able to offer people.

A lot of times our guests will be like, “All of them are staring at us.” Imagine if you’re sitting in your backyard and you see six Maasai people walk down the street. You’d probably stare at them too like, “That’s unusual.”

In my Maasai village, the eldest woman was named Koko. She didn’t know how old she was, but they figured somewhere in her 90s. She was fascinated with my hair because I have very blond hair and she could not stop staring at my hair. I know she wanted to touch it. I should have given her some.

That’s a very common thing. Thinking about their experiences and we’re very different looking than the Maasai people. It’s a natural curiosity of something different.

Even from that too and I remember, when in Rome do as the Romans do and I’m a little germaphobic and I saw the pot she was going to make the tea. It looked like it had dirt in it and I was like, “I’m going to eat dirt tea.” It has spices and it was so good that I’ve incorporated that in my daily tea. All the cloves and the cinnamon, all the things that she’s putting in that tea was fabulous. It was not dirty, it was delicious.

Nothing is a big deal unless you make it a big deal.

Any other stories you want to share about things that people might see or some favorite memories?

I think this safari or African cultural and wildlife safari is for everybody. Don’t feel like because you have some limitation, you can’t come. Anybody can come. We will cater to you. If you want to have your mind blown and get to experience authentic East Africa, the people and the wildlife. This is the safari for you. It’s unique and not many other companies do that.

I couldn’t find another tour company and believe me, I looked. What you offer is truly unique.

Most of them just go to Serengeti and Ngorongoro. We actually go to Ngorongoro too, which is a big crater. On the last day, we do a game drive through there, which is brilliant. It’s like the Serengeti, lions, cheetahs, the big five, elephants and lots of animals.

In the Ngorongoro Crater, the wildlife is so concentrated. You can’t help but see gobs of wildlife.

We’re actually thinking of doing another hike. In Ngorongoro Crater, into the North of that, there are two other craters, Olmoti Crater and Empakaai Crater. We are thinking about running a cultural trek there where you’re hiking with Maasai, go into Empakaai Crater. You have two or three Maasai warriors with you. Camp in Empakaai Crater and then come out and maybe camp in-between Olmoti and go into Olmoti camp there and then wind up around Ngorongoro.

That would be so cool.

Me and Yow, my Maasai brother, we did that a while back and we have some pretty adventurous stories from that hike.

This safari episode is like a little bonus add-on to our Kilimanjaro Trekking two-part series. You go to Kilimanjaro as well. I like that you do it at a nice pace. Any advice that you can give folks?

I would say, make sure that you’re a hiker beforehand. I know there are a lot of folks on here that think they wanted to go climb Kilimanjaro and they haven’t been on a hike in six months. You need to be an avid hiker. You need to be in pretty good shape. The summit of Kilimanjaro is 19,300 feet, so it’s high. You need to have good respiratory and circulatory fitness. That’s the main limitation, it’s not technically challenging by any means. A couple of the days in the end are very challenging longer days. Our trip is good because we have three nights of acclimatization at Marangu, which is the south gate of the park. We do some cultural activities on the south side and then we drive around to the north side and hike up the Rongai route.

That first day is easy. You hike up to Simba Camp. The next day we hike over to Kikelewa Cave, which is a relatively easy day as well. It’s long, but it’s flattish. We go up to Mawenzi Tarn where we have a layover day. This day makes it for our guests. We have a layover day there and we go hike up a thousand feet, come back down, sleep again there and we head over to the main summit, which is called Kibo. I would say the best advice is to drink a lot of water and eat a lot of food. When I see people come down from having an altitude sickness is because of those two things and then going slow and having that acclimatization. Our itineraries set people up for success because it goes pretty slow.

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I appreciate that too because a lot of people try to rush it because the daily park fees are so expensive. What good is that if you can’t summit and you’ve worked this hard and spent a lot of money just to get over there. I liked the way that you all do it. That’s why I reached out to you so I could share your company with my audience.

It’s a great itinerary. It does work for folks. We have a high success rate of people summitting.

If somebody is unable, do you have it set up that someone’s able to be with them back behind? How does that work when some of the party can and some can’t?

We have multiple guides that are on the mountain and they’re constantly assessing the guests. That assessment begins on day one. How does this person take care of themselves? Self-care is the biggest thing. We have radios and walkie-talkies so we can communicate everywhere. It’s very common that somebody goes up and then wants to come back down because you’re getting up to the summit at 12:00 night. You’re walking through the night basically, which is beautiful. You get to see all of the stars and the lights down in the Samburu plain in Kenya. It’s just peaceful to be out there and you’re walking. You’re switching back a lot. A lot of it becomes deja vu staring at Kenya, but it’s a great hike. You’ve got a lot of support, a lot of guides. That’s how we do that. If you’re not feeling good, then one of the guides may walk you back down to camp, and we’ll have a base camp manager and the chef. We have waiters and a big crew there. They’ll check in with you, serve you tea, cook you food, things like that, and the guys might return back up to the mountain. They can go up there pretty fast.

You’ve got it worked out regardless of what happens. That’s good.

The national park has its own rescue services as well. If there is any big incident, but there’s so many people and a lot of support and resources there, so it’s good.

I want to talk about your photography. It’s outstanding. Are you self-taught or did you go to school? Tell us a little bit about your photography?

When I was in high school, I was the yearbook photographer. I just picked it up and started enjoying it. I found out I was good at it and I think at that time it was good to have something I was good at. When I went to undergrad, I started studying photography. I have a minor in technical photography. It’s been pretty much a hobby. I’ve got to travel the world over and over. I love taking photographs of landscapes, of people, of culture and I’ve gotten in some unique positions in the world and that offers good photos. We moved back to North Carolina from Colorado. I had a show in Colorado and had some photographs up in friend’s coffee shops and things like that. It’s mainly a hobby.

I love your portraits. That’s one thing when I’m traveling, I want to take the pictures of the people, but I don’t know if I should. How do you handle that? I don’t want to make people feel like they’re a tourist attraction. I remember one time I was on a boat ride through some of the canal ways of Bangkok and I remember a lady coming up near me and putting her finger waving it in front of her face saying no, she did not want her picture taken. How do you deal with that?

I think it has to do a lot with personality. My personality is I’m very outgoing, I’m very friendly with people. I’ve always asked people for permission to take photographs. Building rapport with people before you take a photograph is absolutely apparent. You have to have a relationship before you take a photograph. It depends. I would urge folks that want to take photographs of people to go and talk to the person and have some small talk before you stick a camera in their face. That’s the most important thing and not everybody wants to have their photograph taken.

I get where that woman was coming from.

A lot of the portraits I have are friends that I’ve met along the way. I’ve been sitting down with and have built a little micro relationship with. I remember unique stories from each of those portraits. It’s almost like photography for me is like a journal. Keeping a journal of memories. I don’t write much, but I have a lot of photographs.

If people want to follow you on Instagram, how would they reach you?

My Instagram name is @SethQuiggPhotography, also on Facebook.

If people want to learn more about your treks and all that thing. Where would they find you there?

Our company is called Wildland Trekking, www.WildlandTrekking.com. Our Facebook and Instagram also Wildland Trekking. We run trips all over the world, all over the United States. We run backpacking and camping trips. We also have lodge-based and inn-based trips for people that want to be more comfortable. We cater to a wide variety of people.

One last question I meant to ask you about the safari. Do you have a minimum group size or how does that work? Is it all custom?

We have a minimum of two people. If you are solo, grab a friend and come on our safari. If you are a Wildland Trekking past guest, you get 10% off of that. We usually have groups about six or more, but our minimum is two.

Anything else that I should’ve asked you that I didn’t?

I think it’s important for folks to just get out there and be active, be healthy, and explore the world and explore yourself in this world. Get to know different environments and explore different cultures as well. It’s the only thing that’s going to save the planet is understanding.

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It’s been great hearing about Seth and Wildland Trekking about doing a safari in Tanzania, particularly in conjunction if you’re going on a Kilimanjaro hike as we did in our two-part series on the previous two episodes. I did promise to tell you some of my own stories about my African safari and so I did mention about meeting Koko and changing my whole tea ritual. In addition to the Koko, the tea memory and the warthog memory, I have a couple of other stories I’d like to share. One night we were camping in the Ngorongoro Crater and I noticed that they made the tents particularly tight together. I found out the reason why later that night. Right after dinner, several bull elephants came up. They had realized that the camp was a reliable source of water. Each night when they finished their food hunting for the day or whatnot, they would come up to the camp and help themselves out of the big water tanks, which is exciting because we were able to get pretty close. While still wild, they were used to humans being up close to them.

We’re maybe 30 feet away, get some cute shots of them dunking their trunks down into the water tank. At night, they told us that it was not safe to leave our tents. They did have the latrines for us. Right before I headed to the tent for the last day as it was now getting dark, you could see eyes watching us from outside our camping area. I’m not sure what was out there, but you could see glowing eyes as I went to the restroom one last time. I get back to my tent, I went to sleep fairly quickly. It’s been a long day and all of a sudden at maybe 10:00 or 11:00 at night, the elephants started trumpeting. Two of the male bulls got in a fight. I should just stay here. I was worried that they would trample us, but eventually, they settled down and I went back to sleep.

A little bit later in the night I heard this noise and it sounded like somebody walking on thin ice and crackling the ice, but it was like 90 degrees so that was impossible. What it turned out to be was a water buffalo. They were grabbing the grass and ripping it out. As they ripped it out, it made that sound. The reason they packed our tent so closely was to keep the animals from getting near us, but of course, we had to have aisles in order to get out of our tents. These water buffaloes had wandered and were just working their way down our pathways eating the grass all night long.

Another story is we were camping, I think it was in Serengeti Park. The couple that I was camping with at breakfast, the woman was all miffed. She said, “Somebody is so rude. They pooped outside my tent last night.” Alisio, our chef, when he was tearing down the tent started laughing and he said, “That wasn’t human poop. That was hyena poop.” He had also warned us never to leave our shoes outside the tent because hyenas will come and take them away. Hyenas, as a side note, I always hated them from Lion King and all that. They were always the bad guys, but it turns out hyenas do a couple of cool things. Number one, because they have such sharp teeth, they’re like the garbage disposal of the plains. They are the only animals as far as I understand that can actually crunch the bones. If it weren’t for the hyenas, the bushland would be littered with skeletons. Number two, they’re very kind to each other in their family packs or dens or whatever it is they call themselves. If one of the hyenas gets injured, the others will make sure it gets fed and nurtured until it gets back to good health.

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About my girlfriend, Mickey, who I adore and on the way to walking to breakfast to start our safari adventure, trips and does a complete face plant. She smooshes her face and nose into this gruesome mess. You can’t just blast it with regular water because the water’s not sanitized. With bottled water, we are having great difficulty trying to clean the wound out. Eventually, she saw the doctor, got stitches and all that and the doctor wouldn’t let her go out in the bush because if it got infected, it would be too far from civilization to have it taken care of. She ended up staying in the lodge, which is a beautiful lodge for the entire week that I was out on safari. We were able to communicate most nights to check in on her and she was doing grand.

She was the one that I said it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because that safari for Mickey at least would have been unsuitable just because of her car sickness. You are jumping in a jeep all day and also, she has to go to the bathroom a whole lot, so that was inconvenient for her too. She ends up making lifelong friends with all these folks that she still keeps up with and some of them are going to come over and visit her, and they still keep up on a regular basis. It worked out great for both of us.

That is also another reminder too that when you travel, it’s a good idea to get travel insurance because had Mickey been more seriously injured, her travel insurance would have flown her to better hospital facilities, even getting her out of the country if need be. The insurance, while it was a little bit of a fight, she did get reimbursed for the safari part of her adventure, which of course are expensive frankly. That ended up being a good thing and a good reminder that it’s a good idea to get travel insurance. I always make sure I get it too because I have an elderly mother. One time my elderly father, if something happened to them or another immediate loved one, I can be brought back without additional expense.

One of a couple of few notes on safaris in general. The jeeps that you are in have pop-ups. You can stand up in the jeep to get some great views and photographs and that keeps you pretty safe from all the animals because you’re going to see a lot of animals. When I say a lot, to where you get to say, “Another lion. Another elephant. Is that another giraffe?” That’s how many animals that you see, particularly when you’re in the Ngorongoro Crater, where they’re isolated in this crater. The only ones that you won’t see there are giraffes. For some reason, they weren’t able to get down into the crater. You’re going to see birds galore, hyenas, elephants, lions, warthogs and water buffalo. During my time there, I got to see the starting of the migration of the wildebeests, which is amazing, in one of the alkaline lakes, Lake Natron. There were thousands of flamingos. My favorite animal is the Thomson Gazelle. It is just this delicate, beautiful, bouncy little gazelle. I loved looking at those and never got tired of seeing those.

You’ll also see some massive termite hills that are taller than humans. They’re all over the place and it’s a marvelous experience. The food is outstanding. I was shocked because I was expecting to eat yucky food. In every meal, Alisio went above and beyond. We always had a delicious soup and a wide variety of genres from spaghetti to steaks. It was great food. The people were marvelous. I cannot more highly recommend doing safari. If you’re going to Kilimanjaro, make sure you add this on. I did this as a stand-alone trip. We went to Istanbul for a couple of days, which I may not recommend that. Pick another place to break up your trip. It is a long flight to get there. We got based in Europe for a few days to get our bearings there and you arrive and have a spectacular trip of a lifetime.

I cannot wait to go back and this time when I go back, I’m going back with Wildland Trekking because I want to do that more intimate cultural experience that Seth’s company can do. I did go to a Maasai village and that was marvelous, but it’s not the same. Ours was I would say touristy and it was great because we’re helping that particular village make a little money. It wasn’t the same thing as spending the night there, sharing bread with them. I definitely want to do that. I’m pleased to share Wildland Trekking with you. I did do a lot of research trying to find a good company. I was very happy with my company, but I’m not so sure they had enough safety precautions. We didn’t have guards and there are animals out there that can hurt you. I think that his company offers a little bit more comfortable experience and safer experience. I’m pleased to recommend them. If you go on safari or climb Kilimanjaro and use Wildland Trekking, please be sure to let them know that you heard about them from Active Travel Adventures, either the podcast or the website. Use my links when possible. If you use my links on some occasions, I do make a small commission so that does help support the overhead to help keep this program on. I appreciate your support. Plus, it lets them know that they read about it from the show, so I appreciate that.

If you haven’t done so already, also make sure that you subscribe on Apple Podcasts so that you don’t miss any episodes. I hope you’ve enjoyed this three-part series on Climbing Kilimanjaro and the Wildlife Safari as an add-on. I’d love to hear your feedback. Remember, you can always reach me at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com. Go to the website. There’s a contact page and in fact, just poke around the website. I’ve got some great photos. There are also more resources. I tried to put together the whole package so that you can get the information in the manner that you most prefer. I’ll see you next time. Adventure on.

Important Links:

• Part one – Past episode Climb Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
• Second part – Past episode Trek Kilimanjaro Part Two: Summit and down
• Wildland Trekking
• @SethQuiggPhotography – Instagram
• Facebook – Seth Quigg Photography
• www.WildlandTrekking.com
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• Instagram – Wildland Trekking
• Apple Podcasts – Active Travel Adventures
• Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com

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