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Crowds, Other Vehicles on Game Drives
Question for the previous travelers on this itinerary.
Did you encounter many other vehicles while out on the game drives? I know that the drivers are always communicating by radio and will attempt to redirect to a specific location when there is an interesting sight. With the enormity of the area did you find this to be a concern?
Did you encounter many other vehicles while out on the game drives? I know that the drivers are always communicating by radio and will attempt to redirect to a specific location when there is an interesting sight. With the enormity of the area did you find this to be a concern?
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You will definitely encounter other vehicles, but the amount of "traffic" varies greatly. A fully booked Tauck Safari will have 30 people and 5 safari vehicles. Sometimes all 5 will be together, but mostly there will be only 2 or 3 in any one place- more eyes looking in different areas. Your drivers are very good at sharing viewing- they will take turns, and carefully reposition the vehicles so everyone has a good view and camera angle, especially of unique sightings, e.g. a lounging lion pride, lion "honeymoon," female lion with cubs, leopard in a tree with a recent kill, etc. etc.
Your drivers will all be on the same radio frequency to alert each other of sightings. If not intentionally on the same frequency as drivers from other companies (due to regulations) they may monitor other frequencies, or possibly all drivers regardless of company just share- a big fraternity. In any case, customers benefit. Also, you can see quite a distance, so it is easy to tell if there is something of interest a few miles away because vehicles are stopped and gathering there.
That being said there were only a few times when I felt there were too many vehicles at one location. I remember one evening in Amboseli where at least 3 additional vehicles joined our Tauck viewing spot to observe a large herd of elephants crossing the dirt road. As a result there was a lot of jockeying for position and a few drivers were not as courteous as they should have been. I got all the stills and videos I wanted but it would have been easier if there had been fewer vehicles. On one game drive near the Four Seasons in the central Serengeti our five safari vehicles were joined by two or three other similar vehicles and a very large green vehicle- a double-decker safari "camping" bus! Cooking and camping gear was stowed underneath while the passengers rode on the top level! The Serengeti was much busier than than Ngorongoro Crater and the Mara. We saw a number of vehicles or sometimes just their dust clouds in the crater, but they were mostly off in the distance.
Bottom line, though at times it was annoying, additional vehicles did not restrict viewing or photography too much, but you had to be patient.
In Amboseli- in addition to 3 of our 5 vehicles visible here, there may have been 4 or 5 more watching this:
It was just our 5 vehicles in Ol Pajeta Conservancy near Mt Kenya Safari club. 2 of 5 are visible in this shot, I'm in a third vehicle, so everyone had a chance to get a good look/photo:
This is a stock photo, but we saw this monster camping bus in the Serengeti. They were only allowed to camp in specially designated camping areas, but boy, talk about blocking the view and scaring the animals away during a game drive!: