Mt Meru feedback
(this first feedback is in German - more English ones below)
Horst Gloth
Mülheim an der Ruhr
12.05.05
Hallo Chris,
Gerne schreibe ich Dir unsere Eindrücke von unserem Urlaub mit IntoAfrika
in Tanzania.
Wir kamen mit der Spätmaschine nach 22.00 Uhr am
Kilimanjaro Airport an. Der Transfer nach Arusha war von IntoAfrika für
uns bestens organisiert.Im Guesthaus wurden wir von freundlichen Menschen
erwartet und betreut.
Die beiden nächsten Tage verbrachten wir mit
Sightseeing in Arusha und Umgebung. Dank der wirklich hervorragenden
Betreuung durch die örtlichen Mitarbeiter von IntoAfrika wurden auch
diese beiden Tage ein Erlebnis für uns.
Dann ging es zum Mt. Meru.
Es war anstrengend aber für uns ein herrliches
Erlebnis diesen Berg in dieser einmaligen Natur zu besteigen. Auch hier können
wir erklären, dass von der Begleitmannschaft alles getan wurde um uns den
Aufstieg und die Übernachtungen so angenehm wie möglich zu machen. Nach
Rückkehr ins Guesthaus starteten wir am nächsten Morgen in zur Safari in
den Ngorongoro Krater, die Serengeti, den Lake Manyara und zu den Maasai
nach Longido.
Diese Woche brachte uns Eindrücke und Erlebnisse,
die wir in der heutigen Zeit nicht mehr für möglich gehalten hatten.
Natürlich kennt man in Deutschland viele
Fernsehbilder aus diesen Gebieten aber die Wirklichkeit
übertrifft dies alles um ein Vielfaches. Auch hier ist die gute
Organisation, Betreuung und die hervorragende Ortskenntnis durch die
Mitarbeiter von Intoafrika besonders hervorzuheben.
Grundsätzlich möchte ich zum Urlaub mit IntoAfrika
noch folgendes erklären.
Es ist der bessere Weg mit einer lokalen Agentur zu
reisen um die Menschen vor Ort
an den Erlösen durch den Tourismus besser zu beteiligen. Ich kann sagen,
dass wir zu keiner Zeit Europäische Reiseleitung oder Organisation
vermisst haben. Im Gegenteil hatten wir oft das Gefühl
mit unserem Weg näher an der afrikanischen Natur und dem Leben in Afrika
zu sein.
Wir konnten an verschiedenen Orten während unserer
Reise die von IntoAfrika unterstützten
Projekte besuchen. Es war sehr beeindruckend, was hier mit relativ
geringen Mitteln geleistet wurde und wird.
Es sollte häufiger angestrebt werden, in Afrika Afrikanern mit in Afrika
verdientem Geld helfen.
Für uns war dies alles sehr beeindruckend und wird unvergesslich bleiben.
Bleibe gesund Chris und weiter viel Erfolg in Afrika.
Alles Gute
Gisela und Horst Gloth
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Dear Chris and the IntoAfrica team,
.............................
We finished our trip with the Mount Meru trek.
While we're fairly comfortable hiking at home, we were ill prepared for
the hike up Mt. Meru. Although we have no regrets, we would
recommend that those interested in this trek be in fairly good shape and
at least have some experience hiking in the mountains. (Especially
if, like my parents, you belong to the over 50 age demographic.) We
were also pleased that we left this trek until the end of our trip, as we
were all a bit stiff for a few days afterwards and didn't mind the lengthy
flight home nearly as much as usual.
We had previously hiked up to the first camp on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and so
were quite impressed by our first day's hike on Mt. Meru. It was
much prettier and there was more wildlife to see. Our guide, David,
and the park ranger, Mahundi, who accompanied us, were very knowledgeable
and very patient with our slow pace. In comparison, the cook, cook's
assistant and three porters that it took to get us up the mountain, made
it from one camp to the next in record time, even though they carried
enormous bundles on their heads! Although the cook offered to boil water
for us, we were glad to have brought a purifier with us, which hopefully
saved both time and weight for our crew. We did wish we had brought
more bottles with us to carry water during the hike. We didn't make
it to the summit, but were pleased to have made it to Little Meru and to
Rhino Point to see the sunrise over Mt. Kilimanjaro. Probably, the
summit would have been attainable if we had done a 4-day instead of the
3-day trek. However, the best part of this experience was definitely
our return to Arusha Guest House, where a warm shower and a delicious
supper were waiting for us.
Thank you all for making our trip a memorable one.
Sincerely,
Robert, Shirley & Venita Harris
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----- Original Message -----
From: Gus M. Garmel, MD
To: enquiry@intoafrica.co.uk
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 3:48 PM
Subject: Comments/feedback from Gus Garmel
Dear IntoAfrica -
What an amazing trip! Laura Kerr (spouse) and I had a tremendous time. Let
me share some of my comments.
First, the scheduled events were well-timed and really fantastic! We flew
in and stayed off-site for two nights. We were picked up on time,
which made things really nice. Easy drive to Emmy's place.
Dennis (our guide on the safari) was so good that we asked that he be our
guide on the Mt. Meru climb, which we loved!
The transition from safari to Mt Meru climb was great! Emmy was
super-nice, and gave us instructions. She was available that night
between, and we had enough time to relax, clean some clothes, and prepare
for our Mt Meru climb. We were able to store extra luggage at the hotel,
and came back from Meru and stayed one extra night. Also, Emmy
arranged for us to visit AICC hospital, where we donated some medical
supplies and met the staff (I am a
physician in the US). That was very nice too.
Our Meru experience topped off a beautiful week, and although the cost was
higher since it was just Laura and me, we enjoyed our companionship and
that of Dennis and Michael (Ranger). He is a special person; please say
hello to him for us.
It was truly amazing as a trip, and we hope to come back to Africa in the
future. When we do, we will certainly use your company again!
Thanks for a wonderful experience.
Gus Garmel and Laura Kerr
California, USA
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----- Original Message -----
From: Wace, Conrad
To: IntoAfrica UK Ltd
Sent: Thurs, September 25, 2003 7:08 PM
Subject: RE: feedback
Dear Chris,
So my high level feedback remains the same .. ie
>> We had an absolutely superb time! >> Your team on the
ground in Tanzania were first class! >> The mountains and the
countryside were great - but the thing that made the trip really special
were the people. Here are some other comments:
From George:
GW> I thought the organisation was excellent. Emmy
GW> and her team couldn't have been more helpful. The team who looked
after us
GW> on the "hills" were superb. I don't think there could be
many guides better
GW> than Julius or Oforo, I can't think of any reason to criticise
them.
GW> If anyone asked me to recommend IntoAfrica I'd have no hesitation.
From Dave Lee:
D> Don't really have much to add to the Into Africa
D> comments column, other than everything was done excellently.
From Gordon:
GN> not much to say other than it was a brilliant experience.
GN> I thought it was very well organised and the staff were all
excellent.
GN> I think they would struggle to better the holiday in anyway.
GN> A big thanks to them all.
I also got many other verbal comments that echo the sentiments expressed
above. All in all we were very very happy with our trip and we were
delighted that we chose IntoAfrica. In particular the food on the mountain
was absolutely superb. Our compliments again to Elias and Ludiga!
However - I guess their are some aspects of our experience that we can
share with you that might help you in terms of setting peoples
expectations and providing advice via your FAQ's page. So - in no
particular order feedback and comments from the party:
1. State of route up through the forest. Knee length gaiters are a must
unless the conditions were just exceptionally bad for us.
2. More should be made of the dust factor. Again it was far worse than
people expected. People should be advised that they need to consider ways
of avoiding inhaling so much. It hit some people quite badly.
3. Those who were on their first trip to East Africa were taken aback by
how hard it is to change TC's at banks etc. The suggestion is that people
are made aware that whilst taking TC's provides some protection against
loss/theft etc .. it also introduces quite alot of extra hassle -- most
people said if they were going again they'd take TC's to pay for the
balance owing for the trek - but cash for everything else.
4. Tips -- whilst everyone had budgeted for tips -- we did not have the
small denominations we'd collectively need to provide all the smallish
tips for porters etc. Fortunately I recognised this would be an issue
after the Meru trip and asked Emmy to bring everyone $100 in small
denominations (she acted as our banker!!) ... but it might be mentioning
this issue on your Tips info sheet.
That's it! Hope the above is useful -- frankly these things are very minor
-- however I guess the comments might help you to make things even
better!! Couple of other things ...
I made a video of the holiday - very happy to let you have a copy. I
mentioned this to Emmy - she seemed keen. It might help you with your
marketing efforts.
Dennis mentioned he may be coming to the UK at some stage. I invited him
to visit us -- we'll take him as our guest walking in the Lake District if
he's interested.
Finally - I'd have no hesitation at all in providing references etc if
that would be helpful. You have my agreement in advance to provide my
email address and telephone number to anyone who wishes to discuss my
experiences in Tanzania with your company.
I'll call you next week sometime to close the loop.
Hope you have a good trip back to UK. A big thank you again - Talk soon
Conrad.
Emmy: Please say Hi to everyone - I hope you're all keeping well. I'll be
in touch - and will be sending 'photos etc as promised.
All the best - Conrad.
...........................................................................................................................................
Reference sent to Lonely Planet and forwarded to us:
From: Ruth Clark
Cc: "'enquiry@intoafrica.co.uk'"
Subject: Tanzanian Honeymoon
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 10:43:38 +0100
Dear Lonely Planet,
We have enjoyed an excellent honeymoon in Tanzania, with the aid of your
guidebook, and am writing to praise the services of IntoAfrica, whose
name we got from the Meru and Kilimanjaro section. The service they provided
from booking and information, to the friendly welcome in Arusha (after
a 6 hour bus ride from Nairobi!), to the climb up Meru was fantastic,
and we did not have to worry about anything.
Our guide (Robert) was helpful and supportive with our bid to get to
the top, but tempered this with common sense and experience (unfortunately
only one of us made it all the way). He also gave us an insight into life
in Tanzania, which meant we learnt as much about the country as we did
about the mountain.
My only advice with your guidebook would be to make it clearer that US$
in cash are indispensible, as nobody is interested in local currency or
Sterling. We were taken somewhat unawares (and with only $ Travellers
Cheques), as we foolishly thought the situation would be similar to South
Africa which we visited last year.
Hope all this is of some use for the next edition.
Richard and Ruth Harper
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