点评:What an amazing safari! We are so happy to have found Antony and his team of incredible professionals. We had a fantastic time. Antony personally picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel. The next day, we explored Nairobi in the capable hands of the extremely experienced Christopher Mativu, who was our guide on the Kenyan leg. We saw the Sheldrick elephant orphanage (those big babies), visited the Giraffe centre and fed giraffes by hand, had a quick tour of the Karen Blixen Museum, lunched at the Yaya Centre and explored its Masaai market before calling it a day.
Day 1 of our actual safari took us from Nairobi to the Masai Mara National Reserve through the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from Lebanon to Mozambique. We checked into Tipilikwani Camp, a safari lodge set on the Talek River, which forms a natural moat around the camp. Evening game drive. We spotted wildebeest, ostriches, secretary birds, Thompson gazelle, spotted hyenas, giraffes, lions, elephants, topi, and zebras. Slept with the sounds of zebra and spotted hyena from across the river. That was just day 1!
Day 2: Our full day game drive in the Masai Mara began at 7:30 am and just kept going till about 6 pm. Highlights: a large herd of elephants with a couple of babies, impalas, lines of wildebeest migrating in very orderly fashion, an extremely rare but distant sighting of a leopard (and the Pakistani PM on a VIP safari), a cheetah lounging in a shady spot, away from the noonday sun looking very bored by us, a lion and a lionness who briefly gave us a show by mating and then sauntering off through all the landcruisers, a male ostrich, some marabou storks devouring carrion and all this before our picnic lunch, where more marabou storks and a flock of Superb starlings joined us. In the afternoon, we saw vultures, eland, a rare Serval cat, two cheetahs eating their wildebeest kill, a ton more wildebeest and zebras, elephants grazing, and lions posing in the evening sun.
Day 3: 4 am. We set out for our superb sunrise hot balloon ride and a champagne breakfast, after which we moved to the Mara Conservation area, catching a glimpse of the migration at the Sand River before checking into the magnificent Mara Serena, a beautiful hilltop resort with a view of the plains for miles and our base for two nights. The Serena's grounds were filled with hyraxes and the odd baboon. Our evening game drive gave us a sighting of hippos leaving their pool to graze for the night, herds of buffalo, elephants and eland.
Day 4 was devoted to the river crossing, and Chris found us a prime position on the banks of the Mara as a massive herd gathered to cross while crocodiles and vultures, a study in patience, calmly waited for their meal to be served. This day deserves an entire post to itself.
The next day, we headed to the border and said goodbye to Kenya and Chris who ensured we were safely in the care of our Tanzanian guide, Erasto Nickolau from More Africa, Antony's Tanzanian collaborator.
Erasto drove us into the Serengeti, and we began our 3-night stay at the brand new Sidai tented camp, staffed by the loveliest people. Zebras graze across the campsite and throughout the night, we could hear zebras (squeals and hiccups) and hyenas (whoops) right outside. We experienced the glory of a Serengeti thunderstorm, saw a leopard in a tree, and saw an entire pride of lions, bellies full with an elephant they had killed the day before—an extremely rare sight. We saw massive hippo pools, lions too many to count, cheetah, dik dik, springbok, meerkats, jackals and birds of every kind. The Serengeti was much drier but the wildlife was abundant
Our hearts filled with the Serengeti, we travelled to Karatu, just outside Ngorongoro, for the final leg of our safari. Early the next day, we set out for Ngorongoro Crater, with a stop to visit the Olduvai Gorge Museum, the cradle of humanity. Then we set off for the crater and that spectacular setting completed our Big Five treasure hunt with a sighting of one of only 12 black rhinos in Ngorongoro.
We finished our safari with a visit to Lake Manyara National Park. Saw waterbuck and the Blue Sykes monkeys and vervets, a monitor lizard, and so much more. On our way out, we were charged by a bull elephant on the narrow trail, but Erasto was very calm and knew exactly what to do.
With our safari done, Erasto drove us to Arusha airport for our flight to Zanzibar, showing us a little bit of his hometown on the way to the airport, which has a spectacular view of Mount Meru. Antony made sure we knew our driver was waiting in Zanzibar, and after two nights at the luxurious Blue Bay Resort, we headed to Dar es Salaam for 2 more nights. Again, Antony checked on our pickups and departures and followed up to make sure we were all safe and well, even when we were no longer his responsibility.
I cannot recommend Antony and Entice and our guides—Chris Mativu and Erasto Niklaou enough. Thank you, Antony, for a truly incredible trip.
翻译:真是一次精彩的狩猎之旅!我们很高兴遇到了安东尼和他的专业团队。我们度过了一段美好的时光。安东尼亲自去机场接我们,并把我们送到了酒店。第二天,我们在经验丰富的克里斯托弗·马蒂武(Christopher Mativu)的带领下探索了内罗毕,他是我们肯尼亚之旅的导游。我们参观了谢尔德里克大象孤儿院(那些大宝贝),参观了长颈鹿中心,亲手喂了长颈鹿,快速游览了凯伦·布里克森博物馆,在雅雅中心享用了午餐,并逛了那里的马赛市场,然后就此结束一天的行程。
我们正式狩猎之旅的第一天,我们从内罗毕出发,穿过东非大裂谷,前往马赛马拉国家保护区,这条大裂谷从黎巴嫩一直延伸到莫桑比克。我们入住了蒂皮利克瓦尼营地(Tipilikwani Camp),这是一家位于塔莱克河畔的狩猎小屋,营地周围环绕着一条天然的护城河。晚上驱车游猎。我们看到了角马、鸵鸟、蛇鹫、汤普森瞪羚、斑鬣狗、长颈鹿、狮子、大象、转角羚和斑马。伴着河对岸斑马和斑鬣狗的叫声入睡。这才是第一天!
第二天:我们在马赛马拉的全天狩猎之旅从早上 7:30 开始,一直持续到下午 6 点左右。亮点:一大群大象带着几只幼象、黑斑羚、成群的角马有序地迁徙,还有远处罕见的豹子(以及巴基斯坦总理的贵宾狩猎之旅),一只猎豹在阴凉处休息,躲避正午的烈日,看起来对我们很不耐烦,一头雄狮和一头雌狮短暂地交配,然后悠闲地穿过陆地巡洋舰,给我们表演了一场秀,一只雄鸵鸟,几只秃鹳正在吞食腐肉。这一切都发生在我们野餐之前,之后更多的秃鹳和一群壮椋鸟也加入了我们。下午,我们看到了秃鹫、大羚羊、一只罕见的薮猫、两只猎豹正在吃角马猎物,还有大量的角马和斑马,大象在吃草,狮子在夕阳下摆着姿势。
第三天:凌晨4点。我们出发去体验绝妙的日出热气球之旅,享用香槟早餐后,前往马拉保护区,在沙河边观赏了动物迁徙的景象。之后,我们入住了宏伟的马拉塞雷纳酒店。这是一家美丽的山顶度假村,坐拥绵延数英里的平原美景,也是我们两晚的住宿地。塞雷纳酒店的庭院里到处都是蹄兔和稀有的狒狒。傍晚的狩猎之旅让我们看到了河马离开水池去吃草过夜,还有成群的水牛、大象和大羚羊。
第四天我们专注于渡河,克里斯帮我们在马拉河岸边找到了一个绝佳的位置,看到一大群动物聚集在一起准备渡河,而鳄鱼和秃鹫则静静地等待着它们的猎物,它们就像是耐心的实验品。这一天值得用一篇完整的文章来记录。
第二天,我们前往边境,与肯尼亚和克里斯道别。他们确保我们安全地交给了坦桑尼亚导游埃拉斯托·尼科劳(Erasto Nickolau),他来自“更多非洲”(More Africa),是安东尼在坦桑尼亚的合作伙伴。
埃拉斯托开车带我们进入塞伦盖蒂,我们开始了在崭新的Sidai帐篷营地的三晚住宿,营地里的员工都非常友善。斑马在营地里吃草,整晚都能听到外面斑马的尖叫声和打嗝声,鬣狗的叫声也时不时地响起。我们体验了塞伦盖蒂雷雨的壮丽景象,看到了树上的豹子,还看到了一群狮子,它们的肚子里还饱含着前一天猎杀的大象——这景象极其罕见。我们还看到了巨大的河马池、数不胜数的狮子、猎豹、小羚羊、跳羚、猫鼬、豺狼以及各种各样的鸟类。塞伦盖蒂虽然干燥得多,但野生动物却十分丰富。
塞伦盖蒂的景色让我们心潮澎湃,我们前往恩戈罗恩戈罗郊外的卡拉图,开启了我们旅程的最后一站。第二天一早,我们出发前往恩戈罗恩戈罗火山口,中途参观了人类的摇篮——奥杜威峡谷博物馆。之后,我们又前往火山口,在壮丽的景色中,我们终于找到了恩戈罗恩戈罗仅有的12头黑犀牛之一,完成了我们的非洲五霸寻宝之旅。
我们最后参观了曼雅拉湖国家公园,为我们的旅程画上了圆满的句号。我们在那里看到了非洲水羚、蓝赛克斯猴、青长尾猴、巨蜥等等。在离开的路上,我们在狭窄的小路上被一头公象袭击,但埃拉斯托非常冷静,知道该如何应对。
游猎结束后,Erasto 开车送我们去阿鲁沙机场,搭乘飞往桑给巴尔的航班。在去机场的路上,他带我们游览了他的家乡,从那里可以欣赏到梅鲁山的壮丽景色。Antony 告诉我们,我们的司机正在桑给巴尔等候我们。在豪华的蓝湾度假村住了两晚后,我们前往达累斯萨拉姆又住了两晚。Antony 再次确认了我们的接送和出发情况,并持续跟进,确保我们一切安好,即使我们不再由他负责。
我强烈推荐 Antony、Entice 以及我们的导游 Chris Mativu 和 Erasto Niklaou。谢谢你们,Antony!这是一次真正令人难以置信的旅行。