A camping safari tour in the game parks is an immersion into nature. The typical wildlife sounds at night, which may include a distant roar of a lion or the eerie “laughter” of hyenas, is a constant reminder that you are in the wildlife kingdom where man is but a visitor. This combined with the game drives in specially designed 4×4 safari vehicles in prime wildlife areas, gives a truly non-stop bush experience to the guest.
We pick our camping crew carefully and train them well; they are efficient, friendly and unobtrusive, focused on ensuring that guests enjoy their stay in Tanzania. Our camp cooks, whom we consider key in a camping trip, take pride in catering for our guests, spoiling them with fresh and delicious bush cuisines. When visit natives Tours & safaris first started operating camping safari tours in 2018, the plan was to keep it small in anticipation of start-up challenges usually associated with new projects. Our first product was budget camping, modest and neat, in keeping with Leopard Tours tradition and commitment in delivering a thoroughly researched product. We did Budget Camping for one year, very successfully, before moving on to a higher level of Standard Camping, in direct response to the market.
Types of Camping Safari
1. STANDARD CAMPING
Standard Camping, our flagship camping product, is a very popular product in the northern Tanzania game parks. One of the most important features of this product is staying in a private and exclusive campsite, off the beaten track wilderness. The camping crew, together with equipment and provisions, travels separately in a support vehicle ahead of the guests, so that when you arrive at the campsite everything is prepared and waiting – tents up, meals cooking,
and hot water ready for a shower.
Accommodation is provided in spacious walk-in tents with twin beds made of fine tropical wood, mattresses, blankets, bed sheets & pillows, and two folding bedside tables. Wash room facilities are set on the far end, inside the guest tent, and include a hot water bucket-shower and a chemical toilet. Each accommodation tent has a hand washbasin, and a verandah with two safari chairs and a safari table allowing you to relax with a book, or just enjoy the different smells,
sights and sounds around you.
The mess tent is spacious and well ventilated, with dining tables and chairs, cutlery, crockery, table cloth and other amenities offered in a standard restaurant. The camp serves three freshly cooked meals a day – breakfast, and 3-course lunch and dinner. Evenings at the campsite are invariably one of the highlights of a game park program, with a crackling campfire in a serene and quiet surrounding interrupted by occasional distant calls of wildlife. The experience of camping in an African bush, as pure as the Serengeti for example, is so special and fulfilling.
2. BUDGET CAMPING SAFARI
Budget camping is the ideal way for those who like to “rough it”. Accommodation is provided in a public campsite in a two-man tent with folding safari beds, mattresses, pillows blankets and bed sheets. The tents are spacious enough for two people and have a mesh on each window to keep off insects.
The guests’ safari vehicle, invariably a 4-wheel drive (4×4), manned by a driver-guide experienced in camping and accompanied by your cook, tows a custom-built trailer carrying camping equipment and provisions. All preparations for setting up the camp are made on arrival at the campsite. The driver-guide and cook will pitch tents, cook and do cleaning. The cook prepares three meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner (3-course) served on a dining table with
chairs. The public campsites provide basic washroom facilities including shared toilets and shower of reasonable hygienic standard for the guests.