Liz booked with Nomad Tanzania primarily due to their reputation as having great guides (their reputation is safe with Felix) and secondarily to stay in two of their mobile camps – Serengeti Safari Camp and Loliondo (more on Loliondo later).
These are not the most luxurious tented camps in the Serengeti (the ones with crystal chandeliers in the tents and 18,000 thread count sheets) but they are designed to be moved every couple of weeks or so – to be close to the migration action. Each has only 6 tents, for a maximum of 12 guests.
And – they are very comfy!
There was a bar tent – with an attractive single lady in the bar
And a dining tent where we had excellent meals – out of character we took no pictures of our food under canvas – note the kitchen and bunk tents for staff
As a special bonus Sarah, the menu consultant for Nomad, was in the camp during our stay (we were the only guests). She is a native of Kenya where she and her husband run a small hotel. Formerly she owned a catering business in England – a foodie like us! Much interesting conversation flowed.
(re the food – very impressive, considering where the kitchen is located! They bake all their own bread and serve lovely 3 course meals)
Our ‘tent’ was a delight – large, private and all the amenities – we’ve stayed in smaller hotel rooms and places with a lot more unpleasant wildlife in the rooms! There were fewer bugs than a Muskoka summer
Inside – the tent was divided into three sections – with canvas “doors” that dropped between them for privacy
- the bedroom (with a very comfortable double bed)
- a dressing room with a washstand – (a jug of hot water and cold water were always there plus bottled water for drinking (the basin drained into the plain outside), and clothes storage area
- toilet and shower area
Lighting was by battery powered lamps (love those LEDs) so we didn’t set ourselves on fire….
The shower was very neat…and effective. We’d schedule a shower (or 2). Staff would heat the water (it was always the perfect temperature) and then hoist a drum of water over our tent and we’d have a real shower that lasted about 10 minutes. Refills were free :)
The following photo is from our next camp but you can see the bucket hoist for the shower on the left
All the service was accomplished by a series of zip up/down panels in the tent and the “secret door” . At night we would drop the panels separating the bedroom and dressing area – in the morning we were awakened with hot coffee and biscuits and the staff member would slip in the secret door and leave hot water and fresh drinking water.
As to the “big” question? The toilet was just fine (called a long drop toilet – basically a toilet seat with a very large bucket placed into a hole in the ground). Absolutely no odor, comfy, no bugs, immaculately clean and the bucket seemed to be replaced about every 5 minutes (silently – how do they do that?). You do what you do in the big city, then throw in a couple of scoops of fine Serengeti dirt (from the bucket next to the toilet) and you’re done. No where near as bad as confronting squat toilets!
Overall very comfy accommodations (especially the surprise hot water bottles in the bed when you retire from the dining room – turn down service in a tent!) The zebras come up to the tent at night to graze. You go to sleep to the rhythm of little hooves and munching teeth. Here’s an early morning pair waiting to say hello
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