Gorillas & Masai Mara - Camping

WYU190630 Just returned from my first African wild adventure and i m still day dreaming of it! Couldn't have asked for a better crew team members and better group. Absolutely awed day in day out. This being my first experience camping and group travelling i must say it has been a blast! Do not let the camping put you off! It is a great experience and i loved every minute of it!

One of the best holidays we have been on, every day was special. Ideal holiday for wildlife and adventure loving people.

The trip was everything I had expected it to be and more. The team were excellent. Great food and lots of it. Varied itinerary, many early starts and long days. Great experience for people who love to be out there camping, being driven overland in a truck, in places, over rough terrain (the African massage!!). Good value for the money.

Amazing trip with so many highlights. I will be returning to Africa based on this experience!

This memorable trip was made special by the excellent leader Jacob and his team Stonecold, the wonderful driver, Godfrey the chef and assistant Esther. Whilst the journeys were often very long we had plenty of stops. The trip was filled with humour and fun. The group ages were from 42 to 69, we were at the upper end. For us the key was having a go. We were encouraged to try white water rafting and not only did we manage to do it , it was an excellent experience. Upgrades to cabins were available at most campsites. We saw so much on safari , big 5 , countless birds and much more. Our skille driver ensured we got the best photos.

This trip is great for adventure, photography and wildlife. Be prepared for long bumpy journeys on the truck but driving through the towns and villages is interesting to.

What an incredible trip. The scenery, the wildlife viewing and the people all combine to make a fabulous itinerary. We were incredibly lucky with the wildlife from the very start, with the Big 5 achieved between the Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru, along with five cheetah, lions, baby giraffe, elephants, zebra and so much more. We were incredibly lucky with the boat trip in Queen Elizabeth NP, getting to spend time watching two herds of elephants, both with babies, come down to the water's edge to drink. The whitewater rafting in Jinja was intense but absolutely brilliant and the safety was top notch. There are options on the rafting for how intense you want the experience - our group did the highest class available and spent a fair bit of time in the water, but it was such a fun activity. The chimp trekking in Budongo was on relatively easy paths, with only the last 5-10mins being properly 'off-track'. The chimps stayed up in the trees, however we still had a great viewing, with a young chimp playing around and giving some fabulous poses and facial experiences. Beware of the chimps throwing things down at you - they are surprisingly accurate with their aim! The gorilla trekking is everything you imagine and more. It is impossible to predict how far or how hard your walk will be, so go prepared for a tough hike. Our group had around an hour of reasonable hiking on established tracks, followed by around 30-40 mins of full scrambling up and down a steep ravine as the gorillas moved away in search of a different food source. Once the gorillas had re-settled, we were able to spend the hour with the whole family, from the massive silverback to the playful adolescents and the relaxing females. The trackers are awesome and the gorillas showed no signs of being even remotely bothered by our presence, coming up towards us and playing / posing for photos near by. As other reviewers have previously mentioned, there are lots of early mornings, but you soon adjust and, as this is when the wildlife is most active, it is definitely worth it. The campsites were generally of a very good standard. We had a slight issue with very late and loud music at the Jinja camp (take earplugs), and one campsite did not have working showers when we were there, but as this was one night only it really did not have a big impact. Most of the facilities were good and some were excellent (lovely hot showers), but really this trip is not about the accommodation - with good food (thanks Ken!) and great company, you really do not need luxury and the experience of waking up to the sounds of baboons and hyena made everything worthwhile. The Exodus tents and mattresses are good quality and well cared for, and there were plenty of opportunities for upgrades if you wanted a break from camping.

There is no way to describe how perfect this trip was. It was all I had expected and much more. Every aspect of the trip deserves a superlative. It was as if the trip was made to give us the absolute best of each featured activity. The migration was at its height, we saw the "Big Five" within the first 24 hours, the balloon ride took us down into the river twice, the white water rafting was breathtaking (still smiling!), and the gorillas can never be adequately described in words or duplicated in pictures. This was truly the trip of a lifetime with a group of like minded, fun and spirited companions, who had all come to experience it all from a "real" level. Definitely the best trip I have ever taken.

An amazing trip with so many memorable moments, seeing all the big cats, black and a white rhino, herds off elephants and the boat trip along the Nile. Crossing the Ugandan border was an experience in itself with so many checks and the officers wanting "gifts" from us. The campsites are not what you might expect and quite often the showers were cold water and only one to share between you. Unfortunately most of the group and staff became ill in the second week of the trip, this really dampened the spirts of everyone and it was hard with everyone feeling bad. The food was not too my liking so I stuck to peanut butter sandwiches but Wilson did try his hardest to keep me fed but I will say that everyone else seemed to enjoy his cooking. We were a mixed group of ages but it was great how we all got on so well together as this could make or break a trip. The 4 guys that took care of us were amazing and so helpful and friendly. Really loved this trip but be prepared to rough it and definitely get a porter for the Gorilla trek as believe me you will need one.

We took the trip over the Christmas period and it was a good one, the crew (Jacob, Stoney, Silvia and Dolly) were all excellent and could not be faulted. The organisation was good, the driving excellent, (how Stoney gets that truck along some of those roads is unbelievable) and the food was good and plentiful. There were 11 of us on the trip and we all got on very well which is a good thing if you are stuck on a truck for 2 weeks. Do not worry about charging batteries as the truck has a plug by each seat which can be used anytime whilst the truck is moving. The White Water Rafting Option in Jinja was excellent and the safety precautions couldn't be faulted, you are almost guaranteed to be thrown out at least once but we all felt perfectly safe when we were. The campsites were in some cases very basic with no water in the toilets and cold or no showers but they were adequate and in others there were options for upgrades to rooms if required. On day 8 the trip notes stated a visit to the top of the falls, what they did not say is that it involved a boat trip and then a trek along an uneven trek and a climb up several steps of uneven height, which was a bit testing for some people, although I see that this might have changed now but you might want to check. The big but is that on our trip both the Chimps and Gorillas were unco-operative and people thinking of doing the trip need to be aware that there is no guarantee of seeing either. On our trip some of us trekked 5 miles along tracks and off track just to see 1 Chimp and for the Gorillas we left camp at 4.45am and drove for 3.5 hours to the start point and then split into 2 groups, the moderately hard trek group took 7 hours of hard trekking up and down steep slippery and overgrown hills there and back to see the Gorillas who were up in the trees and not all that easy to see, the easier trek group took 10 hours and 4 of our group needed stretchering out with exhaustion which cost them between $200-$300 dollars each. We then all had another 3.5 hour drive back to camp getting back between 20.30 & 22.30 hours, much to the relief of Jacob our guide. Although this is what happened on our trip, we were told that that was not the norm but.....