Maningo had immense depth of knowledge having been a guide for over 25 years. Even with all that time doing the job, he was as eager as we were to get out and watch animals live their lives. He answered most questions from his own experience but also paid attention to what other guides and youtube videos said about possible animal behaviors. He knew many many guides and they all help each other to optimize the viewing for their clients. Even with just an iPhone camera that has only a 10x telephoto lens, I got great photos, thanks to Maningo knowing how to work with those limitations. He showed us not only the big charismatic animals but also the lesser known but fascinating ones e.g. rock hyraxes which are elephants’ closest living relatives but are the size of bunnies. He was very knowledgeable about birds too. He also identified plants, such as a date tree growing wild. He anticipated road conditions affected by the weather and worked around it.
“I thought it well-run and organized. It is a scary venture, heading into a completely different environment and culture. We never felt lost or abandoned or at any time unsettled or unsafe. And this was entirely because of the on site staff and our guide. This supports the company’s description that while the infrastructure may be managed by folks both in the US and in TZ, the training and support of the staff to care for us and manage our trip was incredible. Even with a minor medical need for antibiotics way in the midst of the Serengeti, our guide was in touch with A2T staff and arranged a stop in at a local remote clinic to get what we needed. We didn’t miss a moment of our adventure and our companion received excellent medical care. We moved around a lot and yet we never had transportation glitches or hotel issues. It was seamless.”