Kenya - Tanzania

Kenya - Tanzania
The discovery of East Africa on foot offers you to glance at remarkable landscapes, equatorial forests with high volcanic summits; passing by plains and beaches of your dreams on the Indian Ocean. Snows of Kilimanjaro tint white the roof of Africa, and make any trekker in love with beautiful mountains dream! It’s ascent undoubtedly leaves an imperishable memory… The ascent of Africa’s other giant, Mount Kenya, is also deemed one of the most beautiful treks.
In the middle of the large savanna, wild fauna continues it’s thousand-year-old ballet and completes those in love with adventure: as in your childhood dreams, lions, giraffes, rhinoceros, moose, antelopes emerge right before your very own eyes. And Masais, one of the last tribes living as semi nomads, invite you to discover their richness. Savanna and eternal snow… East Africa is a true paradise!

• Broadest range of trekking to reach summits: a very large choice of ascents, through several different routes, combined with safaris to delight those ones in love with wild nature.
• Our hardworking and effective local representative guaranteeing you organization of very high quality: from the reliability of the vehicles to the comfort of our camps, to radio and/or telephone access for our guides, to hyperbaric chambers in altitude
• The strongest rate of success climbing Kilimanjaro!
• Twenty years of terrain experience, well trained guides.
• Guaranteed departures with 4 participants.

The equatorial mode is influenced by the Asian monsoon and by the mountainous zones of the country.

The two dry seasons are ideal for travel to East Africa:

• the short one, from December to mid-March,
• the great dry season, from June to the end of September.

Average temperatures in Main Cities (day maximum/night minimum)in Fahrenheit degrees

	January	March	May	July	Sept	Nov
Nairobi	77/52	79/54	73/13	72/52	75/50	73.5/55
Mombasa	90/73	91/75	84/73	82/68	84.5/70	70/73
Zanzibar	86/77	88/75	86/72	84/19	84/66	86/66
Arusha	82/61	82/63	26/63	75/54	77/57	82/63

 

Countries	Tanzania	Kenya
Population	38 millions habitants	34 millions habitants
Surface	364,898 square miles	224,080 square miles
Capital	Dodoma	Nairobi
Peaks	Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet) & Mont Meru (14,480 feet)	Mount Kenya (16,355 feet) &  Satima (12,969 feet)
Natural Reserves	Ngorongoro, Serengeti	Masai Mara, Amboseli
Official Languages	Swahili & English	Swahili& English
Political	Republic	Republic
Time shift	http://www.worldtimezone.com/utc/utc+0300.html

 

• In Kenya, Kenyan Shilling (KES)
• In Tanzania, Tanzanian Shilling (TZS)

Approximate Exchange Rate (2008) 1 $US = 1300    1 TZS = 70 KES

As an organizer of worldwide trips, Mountain World Travel is concerned for our guest’s safety and security. We always keep ourselves up to date with current travel warnings and always consider the government safety advices, while organizing and preparing our different trips.
Please double check on the official government website regarding each country's warnings.
US Government Travel Advices

A long beautiful adventure
Our first “long-distance” trip took place as early as 1983 with the ascent of Kilimanjaro! This mythical summit plays an integral part of Mountain World Travel’s culture. Moreover, in 2005, we celebrated our 200 group’s ascent to the top of Kilimanjaro. A beautiful page of our history that we are happy to share with you. Quite naturally, we quickly turned to other East African “giants”: Meru, a splendid Tanzanian volcano, and also Kenya mount, the climax of Kenya. Today, thanks to our long experience on the terrain, we propose the ascent of these prestigious summits via their more beautiful access routes. To continue to offer you the best of Tanzania and Kenya, we invest ourselves day after day at the sides of our partner to propose quality services to you. From this was born the will to further invest in our local guides with regard to mountain safety and guiding.

Among the four principal population groups, there are hundreds of sub-groups with their own dialect (kikuyu, luo, masai,etc). However, the common language used to communicate is Swahili (or Kiswahili). Learning some key words will enable you to gain the respect of your interlocutors and to facilitate your exchanges with the tribes met.

Do not hesitate to use the following expressions: Hello: djambo. Welcome: karibu. Please: tefadhali. How is that?: habari? Very well: msuri sanatorium.
You can ask your guide how to pronounce them; your voyage will only be richer by your attempting to speak the local language! And then smile, it is often the best means of having good contacts!

East Africa offers travelers an attractive mixture of African cultures. This part of Africa is the land of various tribes, one being the Masais, one of the last living as semi-nomads. In order to respect these populations, their traditions, cultures and religions:

- wear long and baggy clothing, covering knees and shoulders;
- couples, be discrete in your signs of affection,
- never take a photograph of a Masai in his traditional costume without their agreement , even in daily life scenes,
- in general, we advise you not to give anything for free, but to trade your donations for an exchange or a tip for excellent service.

Advice from of Mike Vibert, in charge of our East African voyages:

- the question of tips is rather complex in East Africa. For years, they almost became systematic and obligatory. Our guides, carriers and cooks expect tips (even if the wages that we pay are above the local standards). However, it is very important that the tip remains a deserved "plus", offered for good guest services. We thus invite you to distribute tips (approximate amount 100 $ per person per week)) only if the service answered your expectations. And to reduce this sum if the services of the team were not sufficient, by explaining why, thus helping us improve and teach better customer service, if needed.

Different East African ethnic groups:

- Kikuyu has a Bantoue origin, and it is the most important tribe, in numbers, in Kenya.They are based on the country's highlands, between Nairobi and the Mount Kenya. They are mainly farmers.
- Hadzabe populate the far away edges of Lake Eyasiand are related to South-Africans Bushmen. They have the same language "click".They are hunters and collectors which carry out a lifestyle of primitive nomads.
- Masais form the most curious tribe from Eastern Africa.These very proud people, who refuse to give up their traditional origins, live mostly in the south of Kenya and the north of Tanzania. They are warriors and wandering stockbreeders, dreaded by the neighboring Tribes.
- Datoq are people of wandering stockbreeders.Their territory goes along the Masais border: some occasional conflicts results from it.
- Luos has a Nilotic origin, it is an important group. Luos live in the area of Kisumu, at the edge of Lake Victoria. They thus excel in fresh-water fishing.
- Luhyia regroups various tribes joined together under the same name by English colonists. Their languages are very similar. They live in West of Kenya, between Nakuru and the Ugandan border.
- Akamba, from east of Nairobi to the Tsavo National Park, live mainly off of agriculture and, more recently, of the craft industry for the tourist market.
- Turkana in the north of the country, the Kalenjin group in the west, the Meru, east of Mount Kenya (tribe close to Kikuyu), the Taita south of Tsavo and coastal tribes (in particular Digo) joined haphazardly together under the Swahili name.

Population distribution according to distinct ethnic groups in Kenya:
Luyia (11,7%), Luo (11%), Kalenjin (8,4%), Akamba(8,4%), Gusii (5,4%), Meru (4,5%), Giryama (2,1%), Bukusu (2%), Lubukusu (2%),Embu (1,5%), Masaï (1,5%), Turkana (1,1%), Idakho (1%), Somali (1%), Pokoot(1%), Duruma (0,8%), Digo (0,7%), Taita (0,7%), Teso (0,7%), Logooli (0,6%),Galla (0,5%), Borana (0,5%), Sabaot (0,5%), Samburu (0,5%), Swahili (0,5%), Tugen(0,5%). Note that each individual knows, at the first glance, how to recognize another person group, starting from features, costumes, scarifications,etc...

How to communicate in East Africa? English is understood and spoken by all of the people in contact with tourism.

What to photograph/observe the animals with? We advise you to carry binoculars and camera to admire fauna in the parks (as well as a zoom objective if you have)

Electrical plugs
US electrical devices are not compatible with Kenyan-Tanzanian electrical plugs.
We recommend that you carry an adapter, because the plugs are 230/240 volts. 

Altitude in this area of Africa influences clearly the vegetation. East African flora is very rich, and much many of the species are endemic.
We count on you to leave natural spaces that you cross as clean as possible:

• think of collecting your trash throughout your trek and leave your camping sites as clean as possible
• sort your trash and bring back to the US the most polluting items (batteries, etc)
• gather incinerating waste and burn it them with the assistance of your team, if there are no fire hazards.

East Africa also has an extremely rich wild fauna, easy to observe. Thus,you will be able to cross, during your safaris, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes,zebras, rhinoceroses, monkeys, antelopes, leopards, hyenas, lions, etc... For safety reasons, it is forbidden to leave the vehicles during safaris.

Collection and the purchase of souvenirs that come from fauna, floral or animal species in danger (objects in leopard skin, ivory, rhinoceroses' horns, jewels, elephant hair...) are prohibited! Ask for advice from your guide.

The "big five": In Africa, one refers to "the big five" as the five large mammals feared and respected by the hunters of the past: the elephant (the largest), the rhinoceros (often poached), the lion, the leopard and the buffalo. The Masaï Mara Park is a rarity where it is possible to meet all of these animals.

The difference between a park and an animal reserve:
The parks were emptied of their population and were reserved exclusively for the animals.
The reserves can still be inhabited by various villages. Neither the parks nor the reserves are enclosed: they are privileged places where the animals, for various reasons, concentrated naturally: water points, micro climates, nature of the ground... and which today, are protect by human beings.