Back problem

Angel Medina

How rough or bouncy the road on the Kenya/Tanzania tour?
Would a cushion be of any use?

Guests had described concerns about dehydration, how has Tauck dealt with restroom stops on game drive?
What can we do to prevent us from getting Tsetse flies or mosquito bites?
What type of precaution should we use in dining?

British

Very! Scroll through other threads on the forum about this. Cushions would not stay in place. Look for the topic Cushions, date that started was August 12 th 2014 as an example

Angel Medina

Thanks for the quick reply. We are going to South Africa after the Kenya safari. Hope the roads there are smoother.

British

I note you have put some additional questions in your post. There is plenty of water available to drink at all times.
If you need the bathroom while out in the vehicles, you ask to 'check the tires' get out and either pee at the back of the vehicle, or the guides scan the area very carefully and you go behind a nearby bush. It's no big deal.
Tsetse flies, cover as much of your skin as you can and avoid wearing black or dark blue.
Mosquitoes, cover as much of your skin as you can, pre-treat your clothing before your tour. Use insect repellent on exposed skin and get Malaria meds from your doctor. Close the mosquito netting tightly in your room after first checking there are no mosquitoes inside the netting.
Dining-- all food served is safe, wash your hands well before eating. Avoid touching your face as much as possible.

Dottie D

We just returned from this fantastic trip. The roads are indeed terribly rough and I don't think a cushion would help. We had a few in our group with fairly significant back problems and all made it through without apparent issues. The front seat next to the driver seems to be the least bouncy. You can ride there if the TD is not in your vehicle that day. I would recommend trying to avoid the back row if you have serious issues. Most in our group would offer the seats in the first row to the bad back folks. The road from Ngorogoro Crater to Serengeti was the worst.

Re: Dining, our TD recommended against lettuce, raw vegetables and fruit you didn't peel yourself. However, most in our group ignored that warning and I heard of no ill effects.

I think 3 hours was the longest we had to go between bathroom breaks. I just took it easy on the coffee in the morning and made it fine. The rule is to never pass up a flushing toilet opportunity.

Echo British re: flies and mosquitos. We were lucky, seeing few and getting no bites.

You will have the time of your life. Enjoy.

British

Dottie, I was intrigued to read your TD saying not to eat the vegetables. We took K and T tour and the Tanzania Zanzibar tour and our TD told us the exact opposite, that all fruit and veg was safe to eat in the places we were staying on the tours. We were fine. Who was your tour director? Are you saying that Tauck would deliberately stay somewhere where they were offering food that is not safe for their customers, it just does not make sense to me. Some of the best food we have eaten is in Africa.

Sealord

British wrote:

Dottie, I was intrigued to read your TD saying not to eat the vegetables. We took K and T tour and the Tanzania Zanzibar tour and our TD told us the exact opposite, that all fruit and veg was safe to eat in the places we were staying on the tours. We were fine. Who was your tour director? Are you saying that Tauck would deliberately stay somewhere where they were offering food that is not safe for their customers, it just does not make sense to me. Some of the best food we have eaten is in Africa.

Likewise on our K&T and Z, B, and SA trips. Our TD said all the food was fine, we ate everything, I don't know that anyone had any problems. That does not mean that 'diifferent' food won't bother a sensitive system. It does not have to be 'bad'. Our dog can't eat chicken. Go figure.

British

Thanks Sealord, we just returned from the Zambia Bots and SA tour and ate everything from Ostrich, Kudu, Steenbok, you get the idea. No issues for anyone! I wish I could figure out how to post the most favorite photo of myself ever here, I am impressing everyone with my giant leap in the Kalahari, guess you know what I mean.

Dottie D

Perhaps she was just being super cautious. She mentioned especially lettuce that is hard to get thoroughly clean. She also talked about the microbes our stomachs aren't used to. Our travel clinic provider told us the same thing even though we said we were staying at luxury lodges. A table-mate and I did have a bit of a issue after having apparently a bad piece of Chicken Kiev, but that's the only problem I heard of on the whole trip. So I wouldn't necessarily suggest skipping the fruits and vegetables either. The TD did tell us the ice was fine though, so no need to miss out on the gin and tonics.

lampme

My husband and I went on the K&T trip in August of this year. The roads can't even be described. Some of them are one huge hole after another. I have a bad back and used my fleece jacket as a lumbar support on the jeeps. Any type of cushion/pillow will not stay in place. I brought a heating pad and slept with it at night time. Stretching every day and using tennis balls to get out knots before I went to bed were helpful. Someone else used a back brace and she said it worked great.

Water is readily available at all times. Each jeep has a cooler in the back, which may or may not actually be cool, filled with bottled water. You help yourself as needed. I suggest you keep hydrated as someone in our group became ill and had to miss a day or so.

Restrooms are far apart. We had to "check the spare tire" more than once. Don't worry about modesty, you won't care after a couple of days. Bring wet wipes to clean your hands. Even when you do have restrooms , they usually don't have TP or running water in the sinks (and the toilets rarely flush.) I put a roll of tp from the hotel in my backpack. The director will have hand sanitizer but i preferred the wet wipes so i could actually remove the grime (dust) off of my hands.

We were lucky and never had tsetse flies. For mosquitoes, most people used insect repellent on their clothes (permethrin), deet on their exposed skin, and long sleeved shirts/pants. My husband wore shorts and he wasn't bitten. One man didn't use anything and he was also okay. Although, I wouldn't suggest that.

Eating is not an issue in any of the hotels or restaurants that are planned through Tauck. You need to be careful if you go out on your own but it would be rare for you to have any time to do this, unless you come a day early. Several people had diarrhea at different times but that was probably from the malaria medication, trying different foods, or even just from their bodies being so tired.

The trip is worth ALL inconveniences. Everyone on our tour thought it was amazing.