Lodge Review: Ndutu Safari Lodge, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Tara

The first thing I saw on their home page was a photo of lots of vibrant Fischer’s Lovebirds – and I knew we had to stay there. Ndutu Safari Lodge didn’t disappoint either in wildlife nor in facilities. It was awesome!

Prices are very reasonable for this part of Tanzania, I think you save a bit by not actually entering Serengeti NP but by being on the border in the NCA with similar wildlife. After seeing all the birds in the area, I wish we could have stayed longer than the one night.

As you enter, you see the reception area and the rear of some rooms as the rooms face a plain where you can watch wildlife.

They have a shop but it was closed by the time we arrived.

They have an excellent display of informational boards about the wildlife to be found in the lodge surrounds.

Nice to see which birds to look for!

Here is our bungalow with the backpacks sitting outside. Yes, that really is ALL we traveled for a month in Africa with!

This room could hold up to 4 people but it was nice to have extra room to sort our stuff out.

Coffee & tea is provided but there are better varieties of both in the dining room.

The bathroom was huge!

Storage cabinet, thankfully we didn’t need the umbrella.

This bungalow is actually a duplex and the closest one to the dining room and the pond where the lovebirds come to drink, I had requested this.

Most people get at least a breakfast and dinner package as there is no where else to eat. The food was really good. Don’t forget to try some of the exotic teas!

The garden was gorgeous and apparently this sunbird agrees! I think it’s a female by the colour.

Caution not to go beyond a certain point, there are wild animals out there!

Fischer’s Lovebirds! They were readily seen around the lodge and not afraid to pose for photos.

Scarlet-breasted Sunbird

Caught in the headlights – now you know what it really looks like!

The resident Genet. These guys are not cats as some people call them, you can tell by the face. This one is a mother and I caught a glimpse of her baby but he wouldn’t come out for a photo. Genets are very elegant and graceful and it was fun to watch her antics during dinner. She caught and ate a large moth.

A well-named Beautiful Sunbird

The best thing to do at Ndutu is to stake out this little pond and see who comes in for a drink. It’s within sight of the dining room so have a leisurely breakfast and coffee and enjoy the show!

Laughing Doves

Nubian Woodpecker

Beautiful Sunbird

Inquisitive Fischer’s Lovebird

Bathing beauties!

Another educational poster at the lodge.

Taking A Break At Tarangire Safari Lodge

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Tara

After lunch, we pushed on but it was obvious the birds were taking a break so when we passed a sign leading to Tarangire Safari Lodge, I decided it was time for us to take a break too!

The travel blogger in me was keen to check out the accommodation as well. Of course I couldn’t enter a bungalow but the grounds and facilities were excellent! They even had wifi at the restaurant so I could check my emails while resting and sipping cold drinks. The lucky guests had a pool to cool off in. It was really hot that day!

I really loved the poster they had to show what birds frequent the area!

Our driver had gone off to where the other drivers & guides hang out for a nap and promised to pick us up at 4pm. Ina & I headed to the restaurant to chill out and have some ice-cold drinks.

The view from the restaurant is amazing!

While we were sitting and relaxing, we could see some Beautiful Sunbirds.

There was also a cute little Speckled Mousebird.

Female Beautiful Sunbird

Refreshed and rejuvenated, we were ready to make our final afternoon safari in Tarangire. I had been talking to some other people who had seen Meyer’s Parrots that morning and I got their guide to tell our guide where to find them. So off we went!

Lodge Review: Whistling Thorn Camp, Tarangire NP, Tanzania

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Tara

While Whistling Thorn Camp is not located inside the Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, it is within 5km from the border and in the Kwakuchinja Wildlife Corridor area. Birds are all over the camp and wild animals have been known to walk through as well. When you walk back to your tent after dinner, you will have a Masai guard to ensure your safety. It’s all here – bush, birds and nice people to run it! If I could make one criticism, I do think it is overpriced for the product, which seems to be supported by the fact that there was only one other couple there the first day and we were the only tourists there the 2nd day. Lowering the price would bring more people in and more potential revenue for the village.

You can book Whistling Thorn Camp through their website. They take credit cards by email, since I am very cautious I split the number over several emails.

This is the dirt road turnoff that leads to the camp. It isn’t well marked so make sure your driver has obtained the directions before heading out.

This was our tent, you can see another tent to the right. They have the thatched roofs overhead to protect from the rain.

You can sit here and watch birds!

This is the first place where we had both a welcoming committee in the form of adorable Yellow-collared Lovebirds ………………

………….. and a Go Away committee! Notice how much darker this Go Away bird is than the South African one.

The tents are fitted with 2 single beds. The rear zipper leads to the bathroom.

Water for the bathroom is stored in a tank and refilled as needed by the staff. The shower was warm enough from the heat of the sun and most people shower right after returning from their afternoon safari while the water is still warm.

Sunset at camp

Dinner is served in the reception tent and they do bring plenty of food around! You won’t g hungry here!

Waking before sunrise to see birds.

Coffee, tea and fruit are available, they put cereal, bread and other breakfast items out before you leave on your morning safari. They will pack a lunch for you to take with you.

Overall view of the reception/dining tent. There are electric plugs in the back to charge cameras, no wifi! Cool drinks are in the fridge and are cool enough if the generator has been on.

Our Jeep, notice the 2 spare tires. Always make sure your rental car is well equipped for emergencies.

This is a great place to see Yellow-collared Lovebirds and more!

Magpie Shrike

Tanzania Red-billed Hornbill

Watch out for turtles in the road, they are very difficult to see, especially when you are looking up in the trees at birds! This one was lucky, we saw him and waited for him to waddle off the road.

Hotel Review: Addis Ababa Hilton

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Tara

There is a bright side to flying on Ethiopian Airlines. If you have an overnight layover, they provide hotel accommodation, meals and transport between the airport and hotel.

Blurry photo taken on the run trying to beat everyone else to the transit desk.

First you have to get past the lines. At 8pm, they were packed. Most people had connecting flights in the morning and several planes had disgorged passengers so being first off the plane didn’t help. We had to go in the same bus with everyone else and pass the temperature taking control.

Then we need boarding passes which we didn’t get in Accra as the computer was down and they were handwriting passes. So we went to the transit counter which had a Cloud Nine line and got them without drama. Next we had to go to the accommodation desk which was packed! Although I rarely do this, it was time to pull the DYKWIA card. I “innocently” went to the front and asked where the business class accommodation line was. The lady said “Right here”, took our boarding passes and issued us vouchers for the Addis Ababa Hilton, dinner and breakfast and a transit visa voucher. Whew, one line avoided! Most business class passengers get the Hilton, economy passengers get a cheaper hotel, maybe a 3 star.

One last hurdle to pass – immigration. There was a business class line and next to it a line for diplomats. The oddest people seemed to be diplomats! The same officer was serving both lines and “diplomats” got to go first so it took forever to get through.

It was close to 10pm by the time we got out of the airport, got in a shuttle and were carted off to the Hilton. The Christmas tree in the lobby was gorgeous! We outran the others in the shuttle to get our room.

We were in the older wing which could be a disadvantage to some people but it worked ok for us. The grounds on that side were very birdy in the morning!

Desperate for a shower and not hungry, we grabbed some dessert from the designated restaurant, showered and passed out.

The next morning we could see more where we were. I like character in a hotel so the old wing with the huge atriums and catwalks over the gardens were perfect for us. We did some early morning birding so tomorrow you will see the grounds and birds!

There were some nice Ethiopian touches around the lobby. There seemed to be a conference in town and the hostesses were dressed in beautiful traditional costumes.

We couldn’t see the entrance as we arrived at night so here it is now.

From here, the shuttle took us back to the airport and we got a glimpse of Addis Ababa on the way.

Birds Sleep In Trees, You Can Too

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Tara

Conde-Nast has a nice slideshow of some beautiful treehouse hotels around the world. Wake up right next to the birds!

Although I haven’t been to any of these, I have stayed in a really cool treehouse hotel in Belize!

Lodge Review: Rainforest Lodge, Kakum National Park, Ghana

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Tara

The Rainforest Lodge in the small village of Akrofrom, Ghana is about a 10 minute drive from Kakum National Park and is actually the closest lodge to the park. Both individual birders like us and people on international organized birding trips stay here.

You can get here easily by tro-tro from Cape Coast. Tell the driver where you are going, they should all know where it is but also keep an eye out on your left side as our driver forgot to stop and almost went past it!

Even before we entered the reception, we loved the African artwork on the building!

The rooms are in a circle with covered walkways to each one. It does rain here sometimes!

Here’s our room, it was gorgeous! We really felt like we were in Ghana and not some cookie-cutter room that could be anywhere.

If there was anything to complain about it would be the presence of a tv. Who needs a tv when the grounds are full of birds?

The restaurant has wonderful murals of birds and the rainforest on all the walls and windows overlooking the garden where you can watch birds while waiting for your food.

I probably should have taken photos of the food but you’ll just have to trust me, the pizza was to die for! Forget Dominoes, Pizza Hut or whatever, Rainforest Lodge Pizza rules!

Rooms are very reasonably priced at around $60 a night and includes breakfast and free wifi. Since most of the clientele are birders, they are well accustomed to providing early breakfasts or will pack one up for you. There is a swimming pool but since we got there late and then spent the whole next day at Kakum we didn’t use it.

If you are on your own, it is pretty easy to get either a taxi or tro-tro on the road in front of the lodge to Kakum.

Did I mention there were birds here? Tune in tomorrow!

Hotel Review: Accra Holiday Inn

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Tara

It was good enough for POTUS Barack Obama so I figured it would be good enough for us!

The Accra Holiday Inn near Ghana’s Kotoka Airport has the best meet & greet ever – a private lounge for their guests to relax and have coffee while they wait for the shuttle! First we passed through the immigration which didn’t take long as we had obtained tourist visas at the Ghanaian Embassy in Canberra.

Then we made our way to the lounge. We didn’t have to wait long until the mini-bus showed up and took us to the hotel.

It was getting late but the spotless lobby with African decor made a great first impression.

The room was what you expect from a Holiday Inn – clean, basic and good free wifi. By this time it was around 11pm so all we wanted was a shower and a good night’s sleep.

I did find the placement of the glass screen a bit awkward, you can’t move it and it makes that shell-like thing on the bathtub hard to clamber over.

The next morning we got a better look at the hotel – still a garden-variety Holiday Inn from the outside. This first night was only a layover as we were keen to get to Kakum National Park.

After visiting the park, we had 2 more nights here. We spent one morning at Shai Hills Reserve, using a taxi to get out there. There is a car booking service in the lobby, you can negotiate them down if they aren’t busy.

The pool is huge, great for a refreshing swim after a birding day trip or going to the craft market.

We had a few meals in La Cabana by the pool as the food was really good and it was nice to eat outdoors.

As you can see, we really treated ourselves!

The breakfast buffet was excellent with a nice variety of western and Ghanian items and omelets made to order.

This is a great hotel to use points on as it goes for 20k per night whereas a paid booking will run between $250-300! Hotels do run on the expensive side in Ghana so you really do want to have enough points to cover your stay. This is also one of the few places in the world where you can use points for a night and have a great place for birding within an easy day trip – Shai Hills Reserve!

Hotel Review: Hotel Brajas, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Tara

We only spent one night in Tana just before our flight to Accra via Nairobi. We had very simple requirements – WIFI, centrally located and accepts credit cards. Hotel Brajas delivered on all 3 accounts. It’s a small hotel with very attractive decor and an Indian Restaurant on the premises.

Our room was at the end of the hall.

It is a small room but at that point, all I wanted was wifi as we had been offline for 6 days!

There’s a mini-bar and tv, I don’t recall any English channels.

The bathroom is one of those glass enclosed rooms, thankfully with blinds for those who prefer privacy.

Decor and merchandise in the lobby

The bar

The Indian Restaurant, portions were huge, not even my husband could finish his. We both had the biryani which was delicious. I was more interested in catching up with emails.

The street where Hotel Brajas is located.

Lodge Review: Blue Vanga Lodge, Andranofasika – Ampijoroa Madagascar

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Tara

Blue Vanga Lodge is run by a friendly family in the village of Ampijoroa, about 5 km from Ankarafantsika NP. They accept online bookings which will be replied to by their Majunga office. You must pay cash Ariary or Euros, no credit cards accepted either online or in person.

We arrived with barely enough light to see the track from the main road which was well-signposted. It is a small lodge with 6 brick bungalows for tourists and a bunk room for drivers. There is no parkland nearby and the only birds we saw here were chickens belonging to local farmers. If you want to see Blue Vangas, you need to go to the park. We saw a couple other tourists who also had a private car/driver so I am not sure how people using public transport would get to the park. I did see some mini-buses (taxi-brousse) parked in the village you you could get one headed towards Majunga and just hop out at the park. To get back to the lodge, you could try for a mini-bus with empty seats or walk. A tasty breakfast is provided and they will have cold drinks if you ask after the generator has been running a couple hours. They can also do other meals. For lunch and dinner your choices are basically eat at the lodge, buy food at the market in the village or have lunch at the park.

Beds have mosquito nets and there is a fan but electricity only runs from around 6-10pm.

Nice large bathroom

There’s our jeep parked at the entrance.

Although there weren’t many mosquitoes, there were lots of moths that would get in and even get through the net. They are attracted to laptop or tablet screens, especially after the generator is switched off. The bungalows can get very hot once the fan turns off and I was dying to open a window, but then more moths came in. The next morning, the staff fixed fly screens on the windows (which just happened to be laying around) and the problem was solved! We had cross-ventilation and no moths!

The village is very small. You can see a mini-bus on the right of the red truck.

Basic food supplies – drinks, fruit, veggies and canned food can be bought at the market. We had to do this the 2nd night as I was running out of cash and no place to get any more and I needed to save enough for the petrol back to Tana. We survived!

Vakona Forest Lodge – Lunch With A View

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Tara

This is the lunch that almost didn’t happen. The Vakona Forest Lodge is the only place in Andasibe that accepts credit cards and since my cash reserves were low after paying for the hike in the park and guiding fees, I was keen to use plastic wherever possible.

Vakona Forest Lodge is quite a ways out of town, you can’t walk it so you need transport to stay or visit here. It is a beautiful drive and you may see birds on the way. After passing the gate, you still have a km or so to get to the main building.

I was so nervous about the credit card not working, I insisted they run the card and get an approval code before serving our lunch. Turns out I had good cause to worry. It took them forever to get a signal! The clerk was taking the machine and walking as far up the stairs as possible, then climbing a small hill while I waited below biting my nails. It was a good 45 minutes before he finally succeeded in getting a signal and charging the card. Woohoo – we can eat!

Actually, they had already given our order to the chef and the food was prepared before the card was approved. I don’t know what they would have done if the card hadn’t gone through as we didn’t have enough cash to pay for it and I had asked them not to prepare the food until I was sure it was paid for. I had also charged a few bottles of water to take with us to get us through until we were back in Tana and could hit up an ATM. The food was really good. I can’t remember exactly what we ordered but it was good, we were definitely satisfied customers!

The dining room has a beautiful view of the small pond and an outdoor terrace so you can watch birds while you eat. A birding group staying at the hotel came in shortly after us so it was interesting to compare notes. They had clearly seen a lot more birds than we had so it does pay to have the best possible guide. Money talks and the large birding companies do have a big advantage over independent birders. Unfortunately, we will never be in the financial position to join one of those tours so we have to do the best we can.

My apologies for not taking notes on these birds. If anyone can help me identify them, please do so in the comments. It was still fun to just enjoy them while having lunch!

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