I do not usually publish a post about where we stay on our photographic trips but this one was exceptional. We spent 10 wonderful days at the Grumeti Tented Camp in early March as part of a CNP Safari’s photographic trip.

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

– Anonymous

We flew to the Grumeti by charter plane from Mount Kilimanjaro airport, a two-hour flight as you stop at all the landing strips along the way to pick up and drop visitors. The alternative is to drive for six hours on rough roads which gives you what is affectionately called an “African massage”.

The Grumeti Tented Camp is owned and operated by &Beyond. The camp is sited along the Grumeti river in the Western Corridor section of the Serengeti Nature Reserve in Tanzania. The Grumeti river flows into the southern part of Lake Victoria. The next map shows the Serengeti and the clockwise circular path that the “Great Migration” follows and the its approximate timing.

Courtesy of Mahlatini Safari (https://www.mahlatini.com)

A view up river of the camp. The river had been naturally dammed at this section and provided ideal pools for a number of large pods of Hippos.

An understated entrance to a beautiful tented camp. On occasions you could find a Hippo browsing on the grass next to the path.

 

The entrance to the main lounge and dining areas.

A view from inside the lounge looking out over the deck onto the Grumeti river – heaven!!

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.”

~ John Steinbeck

 

The main lounge area. It is warm all year-long so no need for walls.

 

On the deck in front of the main lounge area.

 

My kind of swimming pool providing cool respite from the midday heat. It was private and sited right next to the river with the sound of birds all around and Hippos grunting to each other all day long.

The swimming pool was about ten to 15 metres above the Grumeti river with a spectacular view up the Grumeti river.  The bush here is not quiet but somehow it is peaceful far away from barking dogs, high-pitched motor bike exhausts, traffic drone and house alarms.

Hippo antics in front of the camp in the Grumeti river.

Territorial tussle between bulls.

Breakfast in the park – far away from the maddening crowds. In the foreground is the new specially fitted photographic vehicle provided by CNP and &Beyond.

Our team of photographers,clockwise from front left, Elana Erasmus, Aubrey Siebert, CNP guide Wenzel Kotze, ranger Waziri, Duncan Blackburn and Dave Champion. Behind them were chef Jona, and waiters Elia and Raphael.

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”

~ Ray Bradbury

My tent under a palm roof.

The view from my tent at sunset as I was getting ready for dinner. The Grumeti river was about thirty metres away.

At night after a wonderful cuisine from chef Mbesi and his team, I would sink in to bed and drift off into a dream-filled sleep serenaded by Hippos. During the night I could hear Lions roaring in the distance, Hyaena whooping to each and in the early hours a lone Leopard coughing on the far side of the river.

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.”

~ Samuel Johnson

To camp manager Joseph and his team, your camp is top draw. A wonderful setting, thankfully not glitzy but very comfortable and with exceptional service from your staff . A big thank you to you and your staff for making our stay so memorable.

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.”

~ Mark Twain

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike