The footsteps of Jane Goodall

Moshi

The trip begins in Moshi town, an oasis between beautiful extensive coffee plantations, with an attractive mix of African and Asian influences, where the skyline of Mount Kilimanjaro dominates. You will be welcomed at the airport and enjoy the first evening in a comfortable lodge with beautiful views of Mount Kilimanjaro, just outside the city.

The next day you visit the Mweka Roots & Shoots at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. After an information session about the project, you will actively plant a number of trees here together with Roots & Shoots members. Afterwards you can practice your skills in traditional cooking.

Lake Manyara

After a delicious breakfast and perhaps an early yoga class, you and your guide will leave for Lake Manyara. You see everything along the way. Somewhere halfway you can enjoy your picnic lunch in a beautiful spot.

Before arriving at Lake Manyara National Park, you will drive through the village of Mto wa Mbu. This typical African village has a colorful local market with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Definitely worth taking a look around. Your safari has now really begun. You will then stay two nights in the middle of the park. There is a good chance that animals will walk by while you enjoy a cold drink at the tent.

Like Jane Goodalls’ first project, the next day you go on a walking safari in search of the baboon. Take the time to observe too closely.

Ndutu

This morning you leave early for Serengeti National Park. You will drive along one of the most beautiful routes in Tanzania. ‘Serengeti’ literally means ‘endless plains’. You’ve probably never been able to see that far in your life. Millions of animals pass through this park all year round, which has so much to offer.

You will have lunch near the Olduvai Gorge, a 45 km long ravine and a very important place in human evolution where prehistoric man lived about 2 million years ago. The fossils found were proof of social man and that he lived as a hunter.

In the afternoon you will visit the grave of Hugo Baron van Lawick, husband of Jane Goodall, filmmaker and photographer, and father of her son Grub. Today you will spend the night in their former home, at Lake Ndutu. The Ndutu region is best known for its large numbers of felines, nursing wildebeest calves and hunting cheetahs!

Serengeti

After breakfast, at a place where Jane has often sat, you will explore the wilderness on foot. For this you will be taken to a part of the Serengeti where there are no vehicles, in the middle of nature. The journey there is beautiful, you see so many animals.

You will of course do the walking safari accompanied by a guide and a ranger. Feel the nature and the atmosphere, as it must have been when Jane and Hugo did their research here.

You will also spend the night among the animals in the stylish Green Camp, for the real safari experience.

Gombe Stream

After breakfast you leave the place where Jane lived and did so much research, on your way to her beloved chimpanzees. Today you fly to the crystal clear Lake Tanganyika and spend the night in a wonderful and quiet place with a beautiful view of the lake.

The next day you leave by boat to the rainforest of Gombe Stream National Park, the habitat of the chimpanzee. This is the place where Jane gained the trust of the great apes through her patience. A place where Jane discovered that the chimpanzees make and use tools, and also had human drives and emotions.

Depending on where the animals are at that moment, you will depart for a walking safari to the smart and thoughtful chimpanzees in the coming days. The chimpanzees may unexpectedly decide to come to you. A unique experience! You will spend the night here in a stylish and intimate lodge on the beach.

Dar es Salaam

After a delicious breakfast you depart from the beach by boat to Kigoma Airstrip for your flight to Dar es Salaam. Just outside the city lies Jane Goodall’s Nature Center in the green Pugu hills, where you drive the next day for a visit and a presentation from the staff. It is possible to take an edible plant walk and/or a night walk here. The day ends with a tasty Swahili meal by the campfire.

The next day you take a city walk through part of Dar es Salaam and visit the office of the Tanzanian Jane Goodall Institute for a presentation about their work. You will have lunch at Jane’s house where she also lived with her husband Derek Bryceson. In the house, located on the Indian Ocean, people still work and live.

Amsterdam

Today you will be picked up from your accommodation and taken to the airport for a return flight to Amsterdam.

Unless you decide for an extension on one of the tropical islands off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean; Zanzibar, Pemba or Mafia Island to relax and enjoy all the adventures you have made in the footsteps of Jane Goodall.

If not, you will arrive at Schiphol Airport the next day full of new impressions and inspiration.