Stone Town - Nairobi: Intrepid review 3
*This review is my personal thoughts, feelings and recap. I booked 2 seperate trips throughout africa. Cape town to Vic Falls, and then Vic Falls to gorillas, however there are 4 smaller trips that make up these 2, and I have reviewed them separately as they were vastly different. :)
Tour Name: Stone Town to Nairobi
Countries visited: Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya
Duration: 9 days
Cost: from $2648
Rating/5 : 5
Overall thoughts:
This jam packed section of the trip was packed full of exciting animal sightings, beautiful views and cultural immersion. It felt long as the drives were short and your time was mostly spent soaking up the stunning landscapes of mainland tanzania.
Safe travels and happy reading!
Usumbara Mountains
You leave stone town on your first fulll day with a new group of friends and head straight for the Usumbara mountains. The drive in is stomach dropping, but once you arrive at your little lodge nestled above the mountains, you can’t help but breathe slowly. Here you’ll go on a village walk learning about how the Australian native gums arrived in the mountains whilst keeping your eyes out for the resident chamellions..cute! You immerse yourself in a local lunch prepared by one of the lovely mamas in the village, your stomach more than satisifed afterwards. Meeting the locals this day was one of my trip highlights, and our free time to roam into the markets if we wished exciting and the tiniest taste of freedom on what was mostly a guided expedition. I want to come back. to Usumbara, and spend weeks nestled up here in the clouds, it was an absolute. joy.
Karutu
In karutu you’ll either go on a coffee tour or trek to see the elephant caves. The caves were apparently not at all caved and more just broken rock formations, thus the coffee was delicious and our guide so fun.
The Ngorogoro Crater and Serengeti National Park
If you’ve at all looked into going to africa, the serengeti is for sure high on your list of must do’s. The famous park stretches for thousands of kilometres and the Ngorogoro crater which you’ll drive through beforehand is unbelievable. The crater is essentially a massive hole in the ground full of thousands of animals, including the rhino. You can’t quite believe you’re in there, and once you’re out into the serengeti itself it just gets better. Today you’ll leave your truck behind in Karutu, pack a day bag and head on a safari truck to your accomodation for the next 2 nights. Once you’ve journeyed through the crater and the sergenti to your camp, the sun has already set and hopefully even your tents were set up for you too.
The following day you have either the hot air balloon ride in the morning or a morning game drive, followed by an afternoon game drive. not going tolie this 19+ hours in a safari truck these days hurt my back… so if you’re the sasme pack a tonne of panadol, but fortunately the views outweighed any pain, and these few days of course were a massive highlight of my entire trip. Intrepid did it so well, and we were lucky to see all of the big 5.
Mto wa Mbu
Your final day will see you go on a walk through the banana plantations in the small village of Mto wa Mbu (meaning river of mosquitos) before joining a family for dinner in their home. This was the perfect way to end an incredible trip and say goodbye to our beautiful crew. This will also be your last chance to say thank you by tipping your crew, if they lived up to your expectations of course… ours definetly did. You’ll head into Kenyas capital today, with a tedious border crossing there are noa ctivities included in Kenya itself, so I would reccomend extending your stay for a day or 2 if you want to see some sites, or join onto the Gorilla trekking trip!!