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Overland Tours of Africa, 2005
Sent 4/20 from Mombasa
3-day excursion to Masai Mara; Tour Ends/Recommendations;
Hello from Mombasa.
The morning of Apr. 19, at 7am, we bid bye to our 5 mates
continuing to the gorilla tour to Congo; another truck
brought 9 of us back to Nairobi. Now I am of my own. Alas,
the trains from Nairobi to Mombasa (1st class about $40,
2nd $28) operate only on Wed, Fri, and Sundays--NOT, as Lonely
Planet says, EVERY day. The 19th being Tuesday, I took
instead the Msafiri bus to Mombasa for 800 Shillings (about
$11), departing at 10 pm from right across the Comfort
Hotel, arrived in Mombasa at 6am. I traversed the city
until 7pm and then came back to the bus station for my
return drive to Nairobi. I am typing this at an Internet
cafe at Moi Avenue, near the bus station.
OVERLAND TOURS of AFRICA.
0. Overland tours of Africa NOT recommended, BUT in special
circumstances.
Sally, my friend, in your case (since you have diabetes and
still want a tour of East Africa, with the Kilimanjaro as
the focal point), you MUST do the trip thru an overland
tour. Of the many operators, WorldWide--I had given their
web page in my 1st email--is still the best, also as to
prices, though, I think, they are all ripoff for the
reasons explained below. You have several options: 1) fly
to Johannesburg, from there take a flight to Victoria
Falls, Zimbabwe. Check the web site so that you sync your
date to the start of the 21-day overland tour from there to
Nairobi. The tour starts from Vic. Falls Lodge and Camp
right in town. It is a gated park-like camp. At the end
of the tour, you can add a 7-day tour to Kilimanjaro
itself, and/or the supposedly free 3-day excursion to Masai
Mara--for which you still have to pay $120 Local
Payment--which with 19 people on-board, in our case,
already paid for all trip expenses anyway. So this is
essentially FREE to the owner, NOT to you.
Before I get started, let me point out that I returned from
Nairobi back to Livingstone, Zambia (where the tour had started)
of my own in just 2 weeks, actually traversing a much longer
return path than with the tour, and I did this at 1/4th the tour
price, AND without putting up or taking down tents, washing
dishes, helping a cook, or cleaning someone else's truck. I
ate what I wanted, when I wanted, stayed where I wanted, always
had people around to socialize, a cheap Internet when I wanted,
and all sorts of other options than just drinking at the bar
which often was the only option with the tour. AND I had the
satisfaction of handling all details of my days myself, without
having to rely on a chaperone to guide me thru Africa.
a) First the advantages. You are traveling in a protected
capsule. (However, this also insulates and isolates you from
the very black Africa you presumably came to see, to interact
with.) All details of going A to B are arranged by the tour.
So you dont have to find the bus station, the particular bus,
etc. And you dont have to hunt down a hostel upon arrival,
possibly getting ripped off by a taxi driver getting there. It
is also true that you do not have to arrange your own tours,
for example to Masai Mara, though you also pay extra for these
with the tour.
b) Now the disadvantages. There are many, so let me list
them by topic. First the pricing scheme turned me off entirely.
That is, I may do foolish things at times, even be a fool, BUT
I dont like it if I am taken for a fool to start. The pricing
scheme does just that: it assumes you are an idiot, as with the
supposedly FREE add-ons I mentioned above for which you pay
anyway. Understand that these tours are like getting together
with a group and leasing a truck with a driver, cook, and a guide
as a baby-sitter. The so-called local payment already pays for
this essentially getting from A to B bus service. All the rest
are profit to the owner of the tour. Let me elaborate.
b1) Rip-off Prices. The price scheme is cleverly designed
in 4 parts: 1) the tour price itself which is about $850
for the 21 days, 2) the so-called Local Payment in
Dollars, which is $270, 3) options such as the 3-day
Serengeti & Ngorongoro excursion, which is $280, and 4)
other small options which could have been included in the
hefty price, like hostel in Zanzibar, "village walk,"
things, and tips to the crew--the latter to make up for the
low pay the crew gets from the owner of WorldWide, an
Aussie who lives in Nairobi.
The $850 per person is more or less pure profit to the owner.
Oh, he may invest this in a new truck for more of such profits,
of course; the Aussie owner has, I am told, 37 trucks, all of
which run in high-season, about 8 in low season. Assume an
8-month high-season, say about 27 people (truck capacity) per
trip. Divide 8 months to 21 days (11.42 trips PER truck), and
then multiply the per-person prices (850+270+280+110=$1510) by
27 people and again by 11.42 trips, and again by 37 trucks, you
get a ball-park figure ($17+ million) of the revenues. This is
in one high season only. I dont know how much of this trickles
down on black Africa. If not say about 50 percent, then this
activity reduces to neo-colonization of sorts. (I seriously
doubt that black Africa, that is VERY poor, gets anywhere near
this share.)
In my tour (low-season) there were 19 people. Understand that
19 * $270 local payment already paid for the gasoline, the food
served, the miserly pay of the 3 crew members for the 21 days,
and amortization of the truck and equipment, AND probably it
still left a profit to the owner from that component. As for
the $280 for Serengeti, the owner probably made additional
profit from that component. AND then he asks YOU to pay the
suggested $2 per day--thus $42 per person for the 21 days-
to the tour guide and some additional Dollars to the driver
and the cook, so he can keep more Dollars to himself.
Ain't he clever?
I paid the 1st 3 components and deliberated hard about the
tip, and almost did not pay it. (After all, the guides,
driver, cook knew their salary, and what they had to do for
it when they accepted their respective positions.)
However, our tour guide Sharon was so meticulous and
perfect that I decided--despite myself--that this much
excellence and effort, by a mere 23-year-old UK girl at
that, does deserve acknowledgment. So I tipped her nicely.
But you decide if you should be so manipulated.
b2) The tour itself. I did NOT like a lot of it, except for
the fine 19 people in our group. (Time will show if and
how long our bonding will last.) Until the last day before
joining the tour, I thought we would sleep in ready tents.
Then I found out we would set up the tents every nite, and
dismantle them every morning, come rain or sun shine. Then
we had to also serve as teams of Cook's Help, Wash-up,
Security, etc., despite having already paid for this thing
dearly. I presume the owner contemplated there is a boy
scout in every person that can be capitalized upon for more
profits to him--by not hiring more crew. Some in our group
apparently loved these tasks, the dutiful way they did
them. In your case, you can escape at least the cumbersome
tent part by "upgrading" at each stop, which means by
paying extra for a room. However, being alone, this may
cost you more than just $7-10 per dorm bed, unless other
people share with you. So find out first.
There were 2 other things I disliked about the tour. We
stopped at a series of white-owned camps in the middle of
nowhere, with no Internet or entertainment or ways of
passing time. So there was also the hidden cost of
boredom, as a cure for which people paid hefty sums for
beer and drinks--to make long small-talk yakking sessions
more palatable, I presume. This was one.
The other pain in the ass thing was that often we got up at
ungodly times like 4:30am to be ready to embark on that day's
journey at 6am, sometimes on the bus for 10 hours. None of
us remembers a thing about (for example) the huge country of
Zambia, for we just passed thru it, apparently to make up
for long (several days) stops at several (to me) dull
places later. (There were options available at these places,
like getting quick diving licenses. I am not one who pays
for a diving license, etc. just for the sake of getting one,
UNLESS I intend to use the license as part of my life-style,
say as diving instructor, or I live near the water and I
want to dive frequently. Some of the non-participants, like
Lynne in our group, a bright girl, passed the time, also in
the truck, by reading lots of books.)
In short, I would recommend these tours ONLY in VERY
special circumstances, like yours, where you are NOT an
experienced traveler, AND may need medical help along the
way. (This is exactly what I said on the evaluation form,
when asked if I would recommend the tour to others.) Bring
along all your medicine, all should be alright. Ask when
a tour guided by Sharon or Shaun starts so you can try to
join.
1. Exchange Rates. $=1100 Tanzanian Shillings, 70-77 Kenyan
Shillings. The Internet in Nairobi was the cheapest so far
(60 Shillings or 80 cents per hour), also call to the USA
thru DSL connection (100 Shillings or $1.33 for 5 minutes).
2. Dar Es Salaam (1.5 million) & Nairobi (2.5 million) are
major cities, almost in the league with Johannesburg or
Cape Town in substance. The infrastructure is relatively
well organized and functioning in both. Yes there are many
poor in both, but nevertheless they are fine cities with
shopping centers, etc. equal many USA cities. By the way,
of about 25 million population of Kenya, about 1 million
are whites; as for So. Africa, of 48 million about 9 mill.
are white.
3. The Masai. As you might know the Masai are the major
tribe around these parts. Driving up from Dar Es\Salaam to
Arusha, one sees more and more of them in their generally
reddish robes, holding a spear, with warrior head dress,
etc. They make a very striking figure against the green
landscape. And many, especially children, are herding
cattle and goats all over the countryside, well away from
cities. Their settlements are of small round mud and straw
huts with thatched roofs, say about 3 or 4 of them per
family, one for the man and his wife and small children,
others possibly for elders or grown-up kids still at home.
They are the only tribe still allowed to the Serengeti and
Ngorongoro. We saw many Masai villages and herds very
close to wildebeest, zebra, and impala herds, usually on
the fringes of the park.
4. I did attend the last night (of tour) celebrations at
the Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi 3 nights ago. The
meals were gyros of crocodile, camel, ostrich, lamb. The
large gyro sticks are brought to the tables and slices are
cut right into the plates of the people who want another
portion, as much as each person desired. The menu cost was
1650 Shillings (or divide by 77 for $). Drinks are extra,
no entry fee. The place is on the fringes of Nairobi,
about 12km out. I took a taxi from Comfort Hotel downtown;
the driver waited about 4 hours for me, and then brought me
back, all for 1200 Shillings, say about $16.
5. The Rift Valley and Masai Mara: 3-day excursion. The
drive from Nairobi southwest to Masai Mara takes about 5
hours on bad roads. Right outside of Nairobi (about 45
minutes), there are viewpoints to the scenic Rift Valley
below the escarpment. Down below the landscape is bush
country, much like the area in and around the Krueger Park
in South Africa. Our Acacia Camp was near the entrance to
the park. The famous Mara River (where you see many zebras
and wildebeest taken by crocodiles, as they cross the
river) is 3 more hours south on dirt tracks.
The landscape in Masai Mara is more mountainous, with
rolling hills of grasslands dominating the scene. Like the
much flatter Serengeti, this is essentially grasslands but
with bush forests and acacia trees dotting the terrain.
Although there were herds of wildebeest, zebra, impala,
giraffe, buffalo along the way, in some parts we did not
see a thing but landscape for 3 hours, until we reached the
camp (and armed wardens) at the shores of the Mara River
and got our best view of 2 groups of noisy hippos and 2
crocodiles. The warden, a rifle on his arm, told us that
the migration takes place in December, when herds head
south to the Serengeti, and in June when they return. I
other words, there were not many herds left in Masai Mara
at this time of the year, why we saw few herds here, why so
many and continuous herds as we traversed the 100km or so
stretch from Serengeti to Ngorongoro, which I mentioned in
my last report.
6. Mombasa. Is 8 hours by bus from Nairobi, also passing
thru a national park. The city itself is the largest port
of Africa on the Indian ocean. As such it is infinitely
more vibrant than our last port of call at Indian Ocean,
Zanzibar. I walked the 3 km from the bus station to the
Old City next to Fort Jesus. The Fort is maintained well,
as also the interesting artifacts kept in the museum open
site. After spending about 2 hours at the Fort and museum,
I walked the narrow and winding streets of the old town,
connected to the main market, and meandered back to the bus
station, stopping at several cafes along the way due to the
heat and humidity. While Nairobi (and Africa inland) can
get cool at nite, the parts along the Indian Ocean are as
hot and humid as Miami in June. I feel I can live in both
Nairobi and Mombasa. I liked Mombasa very much. It has a
pulse and character.
7. Immediate Plans. I am taking the bus back to Nairobi
tonight, arriving there at about 6am on Apr. 21. I will
walk around the city for some time, go to the artifact
market near the Comfort Hotel, and then (on Apr. 21) at 8pm
get on the Scandinavian bus to Kampala, Uganda, getting off
in Jinja--on the shores of Lake Victoria and the place
where the river Nile begins--about an hour before Kampala,
say at about 8am. Like Vic. Falls, there is an assortment
of activities in which one can can take part in Jinja, also
Level 5 (most difficult) rapids. I probably will limit
myself to marking the beginnings of the Nile and move on.
After spending the night there, I will take the bus west to
Kampala, take another bus southwest to Kabale then to
Kisogo, Uganda, to the land of the Bwindi Impenetrable
Forest/National Park and the world of gorillas. The
stretch from Kabale to Kisogo is said to be one of the most
scenic in all East Africa. From Kisogo, I will head south
to Ruhengeri, Rwanda to see the Virunga Volcano in Congo,
another habitat of gorillas. Once done with these small
towns near the point where Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo meet,
I will take a bus to Kigali, from there another bus to
Bujumbura, Burundi, to be at the northern point of Lake
Tanganyika, world's 2nd deepest lake. There is supposed to
be a boat to Kigoma, Tanzania from there on Tuesdays (Apr.
26), arriving in Kigoma in the morn of the 27th. I will
try to catch that and connect to another boat in Kigoma, or
if the ferry does not operate, take a bus to Kigoma,
Tanzania and then take the more dependable ferry that
leaves Kigoma in the afternoon on Wednesdays (Apr. 27) and
arrives in Mpulungu, Zambia on Fridays (Apr. 29). Once I
am that far, about 1/4th (or 1/5th, if something else I
have in mind comes thru) of my return trip to Johannesburg
will be completed. So I expect to be at the boat in Kigoma
by Apr. 27, in Zambia by Apr. 29, why I am NOT diddling
around now. After that I still have 32 days and lots to do
yet in Africa. More later.
Sirman