Our story begins back in 2023, on an unassuming Wednesday in the middle of July. Like with most mornings, we Flight Finders began our day with (you guessed it) a spot of flight finding. Everything was pretty normal…until… *ding*

We got an alert on our feed…

“Return flights to Tanzania in £160s with Saudia Airlines”

Within seconds, we jumped into action. It turned out to be a 2-in-1 trip — the flights departed from Milan and returned to the UK. As we set up the flight tip for JFC members, the cogs were already turning in our brains. Urged on by our inner bargain hunter and a healthy dose of FOMO, 8 of us caved and booked the flights.

Then reality set in. While we may have been able to afford some £160 flights, our bank accounts weren’t really prepared for much else. And a quick search of safari prices practically made our credit cards shrivel up and hide. But surely, we couldn’t go all the way to Tanzania and not see the animals? There just had to be another, cheaper, way to do it…

Choosing our safari

First things first, we did some thorough research. After sifting through pages and pages of all-inclusive luxury safaris well over the £1000 mark, we finally came across a website called Safari Bookings. 

The site was… different.

It showcased various tours from a selection of companies with much less frightening prices. We filtered our dates, adjusted the search results to display prices from low to high, and this is what showed up:

3-Day Selous Reserve, Nyerere Park Boat, Drive and Walking Safari

A boat trip, a game drive and a walking safari, with food and accommodation included, and the chance of spotting some of the ‘big five’ for £360 ($450 USD) — it all sounded pretty perfect to us, considering it would be a private tour. The activities offered were more or less the same as the ones included in the pricer safari tours — which we later discovered had slightly fancier accommodation (probably justifying the price).

This cheaper safari also included a visit to a Masai Village, which we felt a tad apprehensive about. After doing some research, we couldn’t confidently determine whether this visit would help the villagers, and we weren’t keen to rock up and hope for the best.

Not to let the only reasonably priced safari slip away, we decided to reach out and ask if we could skip the village. Turned out, we could! But not only that, they even gave us a lil’ discount for booking three people. The final price they offered was £312 ($390 USD) per person.

Surprisingly, we didn’t need a down payment (more on that below) or any other confirmation to lock this deal in. It’s safe to say that the company operated very casually…

Our word was apparently all they needed, and we were promised that a guide named Willium would show up at Dar es Salaam airport to pick us up and whisk us away on our adventure. Instead of a deposit, we were told Willium would accept cash or card payments on the day.

Was this legit? We had no idea, but it was our best shot at a safari, so we decided to go for it! 

Day One — The rain

And then, it began.

A quick weekend in Milan, two smooth flights (you can read about our Saudia experience here!) and some minor sleep deprivation later, we finally landed in Dar es Salaam.

After getting changed into our 30 °C+ -appropriate safari attire, we stepped out of the airport arrivals, praying that someone would be waiting for us in the hall.

Willium was there, holding a thin sheet of paper with faded writing that looked like it said ‘Lauren & Fran’ on it, with an emotionless face, and a hint of annoyance.

As soon as he recognised us, he crumpled up the paper and told us to follow him. He was “fine, but tired”, and had apparently been waiting for a while. Odd, considering our flight wasn’t delayed, and we told him in advance when we would land. At that point, we understood that Willium was a man of few words.

Stepping out through the airport doors felt like entering a steam room — the 37 °C heat, matched with 100% humidity levels, was jarring. But what we really weren’t prepared for was an endless amount of dark grey clouds quickly gathering above us.

Tiny rain drops started falling on us before we took cover in the massive Jeep, which would turn out to be our main transport for the following three days. Inside the car, a very smiley man was waiting for us — more realistically, he was waiting for our money. 

Fran and Andreia had brought the exact per-person amount in euros in cash, since they had been told the currency would be accepted as payment. The man quickly put the cash in his pocket, and turned to Lauren, who wanted to pay by card. Contrary to what we had been told by email, paying by card wasn’t an easy option. The money-man started complaining to Willium, but eventually resigned, trusting Lauren to make her card transaction at the lodge where we would be staying for the next two nights.

While in this sticky money situation, the rain intensified. But it was only when marble-sized drops began hitting the car roof that we realised a tropical storm was above us. Willium seemed stressed, and as soon as the money topic was settled, he told us that we had to start driving before the unusual off-season rain began damaging the roads towards Nyerere National Park.

Little did we know it was already too late…

We buckled our seatbelts (or so we thought…) and away we went to brave the roads rivers of Dar es Salaam.

As the roads became more remote, the rain was only getting worse — and as the rain got worse, so too did the amount of water coming from the roof of the car. Nevertheless, running on a couple of hours of sleep, we all slowly started dozing off on the spacious, leather Jeep seats while our clothes only got wetter, and the roads muddier…

…and suddenly BAM!

As soon as Lauren opened her eyes from the jump scare, Fran was already flying towards the car’s roof and then back down on her seat. The car had run over a deep puddle a bit too fast — Willium didn’t flinch.

We gave each other a terrified stare, before realising the rain had stopped. We breathed a sigh of relief, assuming it couldn’t go any further downhill from there… and yet, we couldn’t be more wrong.

Actually, downhill we kinda went… when the car got stuck on the muddy main road towards our camp.

While the three of us are seasoned travellers, none of us had been in this kind of daunting situation before, and when the car’s wheels just wouldn’t get out of the mud, we just looked at each other in disbelief. The confusion intensified as soon as some people from the local village approached the car, and started staring at us from outside the window.

Willium, who had been silent during the whole 4 hr drive, knew exactly what to do. After telling us to stay inside the car, he stepped outside and started talking to the locals.

After being stuck in the car for nearly 30 minutes — and having started working our way through the few snack leftovers from our flight (cheers, Saudia) — a dozen men holding some huge wooden logs showed up in front of the car: they had a plan.

Willium and his troupe of log-carriers carefully started to place the logs below the car wheels.  After endless pushing, revving, and finger-crossing, the car jolted forward out of the mud. 

When the excitement washed off, and we got back on the ‘road’, we started to feel the main effect of the heat: thirst.

To our disbelief, we were informed by Willium that — no, there are no bottles of water.

And, to give a bit of extra context, at that point, we were on a deserted road, in the middle of Southern Tanzania, heading towards Nyerere Reserve. So, stopping by a mini-market was, unsurprisingly, not an option.

The 2 last hours of the drive to the camp were spent sitting quietly, wondering why were we never offered any water, and why there wouldn’t be any in the car — especially since our safari experience was supposed to be all-inclusive.

Day One — The boat safari

Thirsty, weary, and feeling a little like three socks that had just tumbled through a 6-hour washing cycle, we staggered into our new home for the following two nights.

First impressions: it was nice! Rustic, but nice. There was a simple outdoor dining area, an algae-coated pool and a handful of wooden lodges. Oh, and a territorial troop of resident baboons roaming around the garden. Normal stuff.

We hopped our way across the garden, dodged the primates, and unlocked our front door. After such a long journey, we were relieved to see two freshly-made beds with mosquito nets — perfect to protect us from the unexpected millipede army that we noticed making its way into our room! At least there were no gigantic spiders in sight…yet.

Our relief disappeared when we realised there was no door to our (private?) bathroom. But hey, we were all friends (thank goodness) and there was no going back now, anyway.

Before we had any time to worry, there was a knock on our door. It was Willium.

“Lunch? And boat safari?”

We grabbed our things and followed him to the outdoor seating area. We were hastily served a simple rice, vegetable, and chicken combo (minus the chicken for vegetarians) and then ushered towards the jeep once again.

After a short drive, we reached the grassy banks of the Rufiji River. Fuelled up on food and with a renewed sense of excitement, we were introduced to our friendly boat guide. He led us onto a tiny motorboat, and we trundled out onto the murky waters.

After teaching us a bit of background info on the river itself, he exclaimed, “Look, hippo!”

We couldn’t believe it — he was right! And not just one, but multiple big, chunky hippos gracefully floating by. It was incredible. To witness animals this big, and this powerful, just chilling in their own natural environment felt so incredible. We spent the next hour oohing and aahing at hippo after hippo, and a few less-chunky birds, while our guide taught us about the animals’ lives.

As the sun began to set, we wrapped up our boat tour and made our way back to camp. After an exhausting day, and with an early alarm set for tomorrow, we doused ourselves in bug repellent, hit our pillows and passed out.

Day Two — The Game Drive

The day began at the crack of dawn. After a lightning quick breakfast of eggs, bread, fruit, jam, and tea, we were ushered straight into the jeep and off towards Nyerere Reserve. During the drive, Willium did his best to keep our expectations low, warning us that the recent rains may make it difficult to navigate the park.

 Before we entered the gates, our eyes were drawn to the immediate right, where there was a short dirt runway used by the tiny incoming planes from Zanzibar. Despite our curiosity (we are Flight Finders, after all), we were on a tight schedule, so onwards through the gate we trundled.

Within the first minute, Willium began calmly pointing out little groups of gazelles. It was remarkable. We had literally just entered the park, and it was like we had been transported to another world, where wild animals had no fear.

We turned a few corners and bumped along the muddy road. Once again, Willium raised his arm, softly murmuring…

“Look, giraffes” 

And there they were, and a baby! Eeeeeekkkk!

We continued…

“Look, pumba” 

OMG, who knew warthogs could be so darn cute!

Suddenly, our excitement ground to an abrupt halt. We had reached a sticky, mud-logged traffic jam. Willium told us to wait while he got out to inspect the situation. Things didn’t look great as we noticed another jeep to our right completely engulfed in the sludgy ground — he certainly wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon!

Willium hopped back in the driver’s seat and immediately put the car in reverse. I guess there had been a change of plan?!

Hitting the throttle full force, we launched over the uneven track and diverted into a side road full of greenery. At this point, we all realised our driver was a man with a plan. He knew this place by heart, and we knew we were in good hands.

This became all the more apparent when he jumped on the brakes, inched the jeep around a corner, and miraculously pointed out a camouflage elephant munching on some leaves. It was simply surreal. We were even able to open up the roof and peek out to get a better glimpse.

As lunchtime approached, we drove up to a flat grassy plain scattered with picnic benches. One by one, Willium handed out a homemade packed lunch for each of us. A samosa-type snack, a hard-boiled egg, a banana, a sweet biscuit and a juice box — it was all pretty tasty and filling (and vegetarian-friendly!).

From then on out, our day consisted of zig-zagging through bushes, hydroplaning through puddles and gazing at elephants, gazelles, giraffes, hippos, zebras, and monkeys — it was magical.

With our expectations blown through the roof and our camera rolls full of snaps, we passed once more the very same mud-logged jeep we were stuck next to earlier on in the day. To our amazement, it hadn’t moved an inch. He had spent the entire day stuck in the mud. Thank goodness we had Willium behind the wheel!

Day Three — The Walking Safari

After a sleepless night of spider-related nightmares (we’ll never actually know if what Lauren saw was a huge, hairy spider), and one last very rushed breakfast, we headed out on our last day.

Having opted out of the Masaai Village visit, which would have been the afternoon activity of our last day, the plan was instead to go for a 6am forest stroll with a Bush Boy (no, not these fluffy guys). Afterwards, we would be driven back to Dar es Salaam to hop on the 4pm ferry to Zanzibar.

After a brief 10-minute drive, we reached the meeting point. There, waiting for us, stood a small near-naked smiley man wearing nothing but a loose straw waistcoat and some leafy, breezy briefs.

“Jambo! Nice to meet you, I’m a Bush Boy!”

*ring ring*

Suddenly, our Bush Boy produced an iPhone out of who-knows-where and began chatting away. Impressive, considering we’d struggled with patchy phone signal for the past two days!

After a couple more tourists joined us, the walk started. The Bush Boy opened with some information about local insects, traditional medicine and plants. Plus, an unexpected monologue on the importance of… poop.

Yes, poop. The king of forest fertilizers, crucial for soil health, and biodiversity! 

And as a finale, our guide climbed a massive tree, carved the bark off with his teeth and sucked water out of it. What a way to finish! If only we had known this trick two days ago…

And before we knew it, our 1-hour forest walk came to an end.

After a quick lunch and a moment to thank and tip our lovely camp team, we were back on the road. Although we had been assured by Willium that he would buy the ferry tickets for us, we discovered that we would have had to purchase them ourselves upon arriving at the port.

Not what we expected, but at that point we were already used to plans changing. Plus, thanks to  Willium's judgement, we were perfectly on time.

The journey back to the city was lovely — Willium decided to pick a different road from the one we took a couple of days earlier. This one was nestled in the lush Tanzanian hills, and four hours flew by while staring out the windows at the emerald green vegetation.

Our arrival in Dar es Salaam was…full of gridlock.

Willium had factored in our schedule plenty of time to be stuck in the city rush hour, but after staring at the colourful buses outside the window for over an hour and a half, we started worrying about missing our ferry.

“How long till the port, again?” we mumbled.

“Soon”, our guide answered in proper Willium fashion.

Shortly after, Willium turned to us and said ‘I’m gonna stop here, you’ll come out and someone will bring you to the port to buy the tickets. Don’t let anyone get your suitcase. Okay?’

And there we were: in the hands of a random man found on the side of the street, heavy backpacks on our shoulders, trying to cross an incredibly busy road and navigate Dar es Salaam’s port madness… all with only 20 minutes to spare before our ferry was set to sail off.

Sounds fine, right? Little did we know, the process of buying our ferry tickets as European passport holders was definitely not a speedy one. After a couple of, “Portuguese? Cristiano Ronaldo!” greetings, and some confused stares from locals checking our passports, we managed to get our tickets.

With only five minutes to spare, we rushed through the port security scans (something similar to a tiny airport security zone), our passports flying from one stranger’s hand to another, alongside a thousand people throwing their bags (and their live chickens) on the conveyor belt.

"Andreia, are you there?!"

"Lauren, LAUREN! Hold my hand!"

"Wait wait wait, my passport! Where’s my passport?!"

After offering a tip to the man who accompanied us to the ferry entrance, we made it on board just as the doors closed.

A sigh of relief later, we stared at each other with weary eyes and extremely sweaty clothes, wondering what would come next, not knowing what awaited us on Zanzibar’s idyllic shores.

So, was it worth it?

Well, considering Fran sent her mum and sister on the same exact tour with Willium a week after we got back, we’d say yes!

Before embarking on this journey, we were worried we wouldn’t see many animals, the tour would be very basic and filled with uncomfortable beds and creepy crawlies. But, in reality, it was one of the biggest, wildest adventures of our lives. We saw wild giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos and sooo many monkeys, all for around £300. Our beds were comfy, the food was tasty, and the bugs were manageable (including those tiny neon-green frogs having a pool party in the toilet).

Our guide was definitely the silent type, but after discovering his driving skills and wildlife wisdom, we wouldn’t swap the experience for any other.

Now, could we have paid more money to have a more luxurious experience? Well, most of the cars that we passed by had tons of people squished in them, and we had an entire cushioned jeep and a guide to ourselves. And, after chatting with some of the other tourists that did pay way more for the privilege, we realised that our camps were not that different after all!

Would we do anything differently? Welllll, our Flight Finder hearts can't stop thinking about that airstrip next to the entrance of Nyerere Reserve, but the budget backpackers within us are still wondering whether it would have been worth the extra £120 just to fly into Zanzibar!

Would you book a budget safari like we did? Or have any of you ever flown on those tiny 6-person planes?

Please let us know how it went, as we're dying to know :-)