Northeast Nebraska residents will have the opportunity to go on a safari to Tanzania without having to pack a suitcase or make travel arrangements.
Tanzania Choice Safaris will be bringing a virtual safari to Wayne and hopes to benefit the Majestic Theatre in the process.
On Tuesday, July 18 Brenda and Kakasii Kimaro will lead a virtual safari as a fund-raiser for the theatre. The event will be held at the Majestic Theatre at 7 p.m. and last approximately one hour. Following the presentation, attendees will have time to ask questions of the Kimaro family.
In addition, a raffle drawing will be held for a number of items from Tanzania and hand-crafted items and Tanzanian coffee will be available for purchase.
Tanzania Choice Safari has been in existence since 2013 and is owned by Kakasii and Brenda Kimaro.
The couple has more than 40 years’ experience in planning and leading safaris. Kakasii has been a safari guide almost 25 years and Brenda organized her first safari for a group in 2003.
"My first trip to Tanzania was totally on a whim. At the time, I was working for Mosaic in Omaha and doing a lot of domestic travel for my job, but had never traveled abroad. A friend was organizing a trip to Tanzania on behalf of the Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and was telling me about it one day after work. He suggested I join the trip as there were still a few spots left and I just said, “Sure!” I honestly could not have even picked Tanzania out on the map at that time, I just knew it was in East Africa," Brenda said.
Brenda (Meier) grew up on a farm midway between Wayne and Wakefield. She attended school in Wakefield and church in Wayne. All of her siblings (five sisters and one brother) live in Nebraska.
"I have lots of great memories of going to the theatre in Wayne when I was young and am excited to share our beautiful Tanzania and support the theatre," Brenda said.
Brenda's sister, Tammy, and Jason Barelman, who now is the manager of the Majestic Theatre toured Tanzania in 2018 and Jason is excited to bring some of their experiences to Wayne through the virtual tour.
During 2020 when travel was shut down because of COVID, Tanzania Choice Safari began offering virtual safaris, explaining all the animals that were part of the area.
Plans for having a virtual safari in Wayne began in February of this year when Brenda was in the United States for a visit.
"The theatre is such a great thing for the community and I thought it would be wonderful to project a safari on the big screen. It is not possible for everyone to come (to Tanzania) in real life and we can make a safari more accessible and give people a chance to meet us and ask questions," Brenda said.
"The length of each safari depends on how much time the traveler has available and what parks and other sights they’d like to see, but our safaris are typically about 6-10 days, not including the travel time to get to Tanzania. The majority of our guests are from the US, so it takes about 24-30 hours to travel here by air, with connecting flights in Europe or the Middle East," Brenda said
In 2022 Tanzania Choice Safaris did about 60 safaris and have at least that many booked so far for 2023. We’re also already booking for 2024.
Some of the animals visitors can expect to see on a safari include what is known as the African “Big 5”—the lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African buffalo. They originally gained that designation because they were the most dangerous and challenging to hunt.
"We don’t do hunting safaris but these are still some of the most exciting animals to see on game drives. Also common to see are cheetahs, giraffes, zebra, various types of antelope and gazelle, crocodiles, hippos and lots and lots of bird species. Leopards and rhino are more elusive and harder to spot so our safari guides are really happy when they locate them for our guests to see," Brenda said.
Safari tours are given all year long. The Kimaros customize all of their safaris according to the time of year in order to maximize the game viewing. For instance, early in the year, the Great Migration is in southern Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area so we will include those locations in an itinerary. But later in the year—July through October—the migration has moved to northern Serengeti so we will take guests there instead. Some parks—such as Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater—are great any time of year.
Tanzania Choice Safari employees four people working in the office on sales, marketing, finance, administration and support, five safari guides and a lead mountain guide for our Mt. Kilimanjaro climbs.
