November 8 – December 19, 2017
Alison Bentley
The following is a detailed log of our 45th wedding anniversary adventure in Tanzania. It is quite long as we were there for six weeks during what is arguably the best time for birding in Eastern Africa. I also felt that including illustrations would help the reader. For those not wishing to read the whole report I have put the annotated species list ahead of the main text.
Logistics: coming from Canada, the only document we had to get ahead of time was a tourist visa. The latter is only good for three months so should not be purchased prior to three months from your anticipated return date. We left our passports in Ottawa at the High Commission of the United Republic of Tanzania and the visas were ready within a couple of weeks. You can also purchase visas at certain entry points into Tanzania but we wanted to get ours ahead of time a) in case of any issues and b) to avoid any line-ups at arrival.
Flights: after a significant amount of fare-watching and price-checking we bought tickets through Air Canada for what ended up being all Swiss Air flights. The routing was Montreal-Zürich-Dar Es Salaam, with a stop on the outgoing flight at Nairobi. We did not need to deplane but the hour-stop made for quite a long flight time. As the flights to and from Zürich were code shares, it meant that we could not select our seats. In retrospect, booking directly with Swiss Air would have alleviated the problem. Swiss Air proved to be an excellent carrier and Zürich airport a fabulous place for a layover. We can thoroughly recommend the extravagant but excellent breakfast for two in the Deli Café.
Tour Companies: planning for the trip began at least a year ahead of time, with refinements being made as plans changed. Having done a considerable amount of research we decided to approach Tanzania Birding and Beyond for the birding safari part of our trip. We always try to use “home-grown” tour companies rather than North American outfits. Furthermore not only is Anthony Raphael an incredibly knowledgeable and accomplished guide, but office manager Tina is the most patient and helpful person, answering my many, many questions with consummate grace. Given the provisos that we did not need extravagant quarters or North American food, she was able to put together a very reasonable 30-day package. This included all the areas for endemics (with the exception of Pemba) and the iconic Serengeti and Ngorongoro parks. If you have not traveled in Eastern Africa before, be prepared for the incredibly high cost of entering national parks. Plus in many of them the only vehicles allowed are those registered to tour operators, making self-drive options impossible.
Pre-tour: as we were spending the first few days of our stay visiting with an old friend of Stewart’s in Dar Es Salaam, we decided that we were just too close to miss out on going to Zanzibar and Pemba. We therefore arranged a small tour, with the help of Procell Safaris and Palm Tours (based on Zanzibar) with two nights on Zanzibar and three on Pemba.