my first swahili
The word safari in swahili means “journey”. Or at least, it used to. Nowadays it seems like safari means “rich man’s journey”. A few weeks ago I was looking into the safari options that exist in Tanzania, and just about all of them are prohibitively expensive. We’re talking around $250 a day or so per person, and that’s pretty much the bare minimum. Actually, I was told by Donovan from bootsnall the bare minimum was around $150-$200, but I “wouldn’t want to do that”. I don’t know what that means, but I’m going to take his word for it.
For the most part, it seems like safari’s only visit the national parks, which are very large game reserves. The owners, which are the government and sometimes private, charge substantial amounts of money for entrance into the parks. That is expensive item number one. Expensive item number two is gas. Imagine a 4×4 vehicle with 10 people driving for 5-6 hours a day, and then combine that with the price of gas in Tanzania, and you have quite a barrier of entry. Did I mention that even the $250 a day is camping? Contrast this to the price of staying in guest houses in Tanzania and getting meals, around $10-$20 dollars I believe.
Now, I’m sure there is ample reason for the entrance tickets to be high, and i certainly want the government to charge whatever they feel is necessary to keep the parks protected from poachers and their ilk. Still, I am definitely bummed out that it seems as if I won’t be doing any “safari” for less than $1000. I’m looking into options that are outside of the national parks, but am unsure about the diversity of wildlife in unprotected areas. I would have to imagine it is much less. Maybe I’ll just hang out at mustafa’s on zanzibar for a month.
Tags: Planning
Adam
The scenery is beautiful. It must be nice having a glass of wine and watching the scenery. I am glad that the weather has improved. Have fun hiking.
Love,
Mom