Ian and Michael at the summit!

 The feedback from Ian Walker and Michael Hopkins after climbing Kilimanjaro with Nature Discovery in October, 2012.:

Wow, what a great experience! The final walk up the summit ridge was a just an amazing feeling and luckily, weather conditions on the top cleared up after starting from School Hut in lightly falling snow.

Anyway, what I want to say (and I speak on behalf of Michael as well) is that we were both very impressed with the way the whole trek was handled. Everything ran like a well oiled machine. We just couldn’t fault it! We really liked the team approach across porters and guiding staff.  I know that these things don’t just happen and you should be proud of your staff and their efforts. Would I recommend a Nature Discovery Kili trek to friends and family – absolutely! That to me is always the test after completing something like this.

Your advice as to the Shira Plateau route was spot on. Excellent to get the necessary acclimatization time in and nobody suffered from altitude sickness. Having experience that at Everest Base Camp, I was very pleased (and relieved) to come through unscathed this time.

Some specific comments:

Hire gear was great.

Food was exceptional, both as to variety, quality and quantity. Our chef, Felisiana August was superb and turned out meals of a consistently high standard. Both the menu design was excellent and we were continually surprised as our waiter Good Luck announced each evening what we were having.

Guide team: Onest Mtui is the sort of person you just trust and respect. Quietly spoken, very knowledgeable, and as we headed up the mountain on summit day with the ground covered in snow, you just knew that he was right on top of his game. Excellent man and we all really enjoyed his company.

Assistant guide William Bwenje is someone that you need to keep in mind when you are looking to promote new head guides. Both Michael and I were impressed with his depth and maturity. He anticipated problems, worked with people who needed assistance, demonstrated really good leadership qualities and has a very good grasp of English. The overall caliber of your people on our trek was just superb.

So in summary, I must compliment you and all the team on a job well done.

On May 19th, 2012, Wilfred Moshi became the first Tanzanian and 3rd native African to reach the summit of Mount Everest!

Wilfred lives in Moshi, Tanzania and has worked as a Mt. Kilimanjaro Head Guide for Nature Discovery for over 8 years. On Everest, he was a member of a New Zealand expedition run by a company called Adventure Consultants.

In his daily blog Wilfred described his journey on Everest as the greatest physical and mental challenge he has ever faced. Wilfred strived to climb the world’s highest peak and it was his strength, heart, and unwavering determination that lead him to his summit success. He now aspires to climb all seven of the world’s highest peaks!

Congratulations Wilfred on your amazing accomplishment!

Photos of Wilfred accredited to the Adventure Consultants dispatch:

http://www.adventureconsultants.com/adventure/Everest2012Dispatches/

Carbon Tanzania works with local villages, community-based organizations, and rural extension and conservation organizations to produce sustainable, transparent and scientifically sound carbon offsets. They work with people who demonstrate a commitment to sustainable, long-term forest management, equitable local benefit sharing and transparent governance.

Recent news from Carbon Tanzania…

• Tanzanian Tour operators: Our existing offsetting partners in Tanzania already benefit from being able to promote their emissions reduction payments as resulting in social and environmental wins for communities. This sets them apart from other operators and allows them to fulfill the growing international travel industry demands for responsible tourism.

I went on a lot of safari’s with Nature Discovery and have never been disappointed. As an International photographer I have won many prizes with the photographs taken during the safaris organized by Nature Discovery.

- R. Jourdain

Elephants Fighting

Leopard and dikdik

Wildebeest and young

 Tanzania possesses many national parks dedicated to the wildlife. It is for me, my paradise on earth! Accompanied by my wife and my friend I headed on safari with the Nature Discovery team of Arusha, and I want to thank them for the quality of their services!

-R. Jourdain

 

 

It’s not often on a safari, or on a series of safaris, to witness lions killing a buffalo from the tense beginning to the gory end. It’s quite common to see lions near buffalo, or even stalking one, or to see them on a buffalo kill after the fact. But we got to see the action from start to finish and it was nothing short of an awesome display of power and determination on both sides.

Unfortunately the best camera we had was a Nikon Coolpix, point and shoot. The purpose of our trip was to test out a camp in the Loliondo area, an hour drive from the Serengeti border.  Fifteen minutes after landing at the Seronera airstrip (central Serengeti), Peter, a senior Nature Discovery guide took us to an area where he thought he might find lions.

And find them he did! Below are a few of the photos of the action. It went on for over an hour – lions attacking a lone subadult buffalo, then the herd coming to the rescue, then the poor buffalo (must have been in shock) walking right back into the lions and then a half an hour struggle while the lions fought to keep it away from the herd and get it down on the ground.

Who should choose to overnight in Crater Camp?
Of course it’s very high in elevation (19,000’ / 5800m), so taking enough time is essential to be able to camp here. The overnight at crater camp does make for a challenging sleep, especially for 8 day treks where you sleep there on the 6th night. I try to avoid selling 8 day treks with Crater Camp these days, and it’s even more difficult on Western Breach Route ascents because this requires a 1am to 4am departure and this means spending even more time above 5,000 m (16,500’) and thus further increasing chances of developing severe altitude illness. It would be better to do it on the 7th or 8th night of the trek, thus making a 9 or 10 day trek. Alternately, if restricted to 8 days, camp in the crater on the 7th night and then descend the entire mountain on one day, but that is easier said than done (more on this below).

Who should ascend via the Western Breach?

It’s a 1,000 meter steep scramble from camp at 4,900 m (Arrow Glacier Camp) to the crater rim, is a true alpine-adventure style scrambling route (from 16,200’ to 18,900’). The entire group must be homogenous in experience in doing this sort of thing. Everyone in the group must have prior experience scrambling on steep slopes where there is danger of rockfall. The entire group must stay together to limit the small rockfall that normally happens when scrambling. This is NOT a route for people who have no experience off trail in steep terrain. Selling this route is extremely limiting in terms of who you can sell to…perhaps less then 10% of all potential Kilimanjaro trekkers will be well suited to climb the WB. You must qualify each and every person in detail on what climbs they’ve done, and with what frequency, and whether it was recent or in the distant past. A WB trekker is someone who is a regular mountaineer; someone who lives that lifestyle. I think unless you have a group of people who all know each other and regularly do these types of activities together, its not a good idea to offer the WB on a group trek.

Who should consider descending the mountain in one day?
Descending the mountain in a day is something that fewer than 2% of our clients do. It’s over 13,000 feet of grueling descent. This is not for anyone who has any sort of knee, foot, hip or back problems. It’s limited to those to have done similar things before.  Again, it’s something you definitely do not want to offer on a group trek. It must be a private, homogenously fit and experienced group that you plan this for.

Any questions? Please contact us: info@naturediscovery.com

The group were climbing as a fund-raising initiative for the Teenage Cancer Trust Charity. According to trip participant Caroline Sales, “We are raising money to build 3 dedicated wards for teenagers in the Nottingham and Leicester Hospitals which will be an environment totally dedicated to their very specific needs and comforts, something that is badly needed. This amount of money will make a huge difference and put them well on their way in their fundraising efforts.”

To date the group has raised GBP 114,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust Charity. Well done!! For more information visit the website http://www.teenagecancertrust.org/.

 Here’s a photo and testimonial from Caroline:

“Thank you for the most amazing trip with the best bunch of guides and porters you could wish for…

The pictures are now doing the rounds and we are having a big get together at a local pub tomorrow evening to show all the pictures and videos taken and that will be a great evening and you and all of our guides etc will be very much in our thoughts. Our group had Honest, Nastoria, Edward and Laizer as our guides and they were absolutely fantastic. Please, please pass on our huge thanks to them all for their expert advice and encouragement that managed to get us all to the top and this was solely due to their magnificent help. The food was absolutely top class (better than the Lodge!!) and Good Luck a delight as our waiter.

I can’t thank you enough for the experience, something I know that will stay with me forever.”

Caroline Sales
Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, NHS
UK

We watched these two male giraffe fighting for over half an hour and there was no sign of giving up when we moved on. They swing their heads at each others’ bodies with loud smacking noises. It’s not something I’ve ever seen before.

We also encountered some lions. Here’s a sleepy lioness with a collar! She’s part of a research project being carried out in Tarangire. The male struck a beautiful pose, but unfortunately, my point and shoot zoom lens wasn’t quite up to the task. Anyway, it was pretty magnificent and you get the idea.

We stayed at Tarangire Safari Lodge, which has one of the best views anywhere in Tanzania, even on a rainy morning.

Also keep an eye out for news and updates posted by Nature Discovery staff as we explore new places, visit new accommodations, and revisit places we already know and love.