Maruska AdyeRowe

Learning unexpected, amazing and suprising wildlife behaviour from expert guides is my favourite thing about safaris.

Specialist countries: Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zanzibar

Maruska is in New Zealand and usually available:

NZ time: 06:15 and 14:45 Mon-Fri .
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More about Maruska...

My affinity with Africa began when my parents took me with them to live in Tanzania before I was a year old. Most of my young years were spent living in Dar es Salaam where some of my first spoken words were in Swahili. I was also lucky enough to spend two of those years deep in the Selous Game Reserve where my parents ran a lodge.

In 1986 our family returned home to New Zealand where my parents settled, but by then the need to explore and travel was embedded in my psyche. I left home at the age of 16 to live in England where I studied for A-levels before taking a graphic design job. Although I enjoyed the work, after a year I gave in to my travel itch, and the call of Africa, and bought a year’s open ended flight ticket with the idea of backpacking from South Africa to Tanzania.

Easily distracted by the exciting places I visited and the great people I met along the way, my well laid travel plans soon began to unravel. A chance encounter encouraged me to hitch to Namibia, a country I’d not heard of before. I immediately fell in love with it and decided to stay. I worked in bars, designed flyers, managed backpacker hostels and camps – anything to prolong my time in Africa – before taking a job as a travel consultant based in Windhoek.

Seven years later I decided to move to the UK where I joined the Expert Africa team. These days I maintain my close connection with Namibia, whilst building on my knowledge of other African countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and of course, Tanzania. In 2009, I returned home to New Zealand to settle. I operate satellite office for Expert Africa based in Upper Hutt where I enjoy the best of everything – living in New Zealand, regularly visiting Africa and helping others plan their safaris!

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Maruska's most recent Africa trips

Tanzania

Sep 19 13 nights

A return to southern Tanzania, where I spent my childhood, is always a wonderful experience. This time around I was so impressed by the leaps and bounds that Tanzania, especially Ruaha and Selous, has made in terms of the service and guiding standards at the safari lodges and camps. I visited most camps in Selous Game Reserve, had a short taster of Ruaha National Park, and was blown away by the sheer number of animals in Tarangire! Although personally, the diversity of eco-systems, variety of activities and sharing the experience with less other visitors means Selous was my favourite.

I visited: Dar es Salaam, Nyerere National Park, Ruaha National Park, Tarangire National Park

Zimbabwe, Botswana

Nov 16 12 nights

After time away from travel for the birth of my daughter it was exciting to return to Botswana as it’s always been a favourite destination. On this trip I visited a cross section of reserves so as to take in a variety of landscapes and experience what the wildlife viewing was like during the short rainy season. I also visited Hwange and Matopos in Zimbabwe, where I’d last been as a working backpacker 20 years ago! The locals were as friendly as I remembered and really made a great trip wonderful.

I visited: Matobo National Park, Hwange National Park, Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, Okavango Delta Safari Reserves, Moremi Game Reserve

Tanzania

Oct 12 14 nights

I returned to Northern Tanzania for a second trip in 2012, this time travelling in October when I could experience the wildebeest migration in remote northern Serengeti. The Ngorongoro Crater and central Serengeti were busier than in May, but by travelling with a great guide and in a private vehicle I got to experience some amazing wildlife sightings without being impacted on by other vehicles. Hearing herds of wildebeest thunder past camp in the night is a memory that will stay with me for a long time.

I visited: Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Migration Area, Arusha

Maruska's previous Africa research

Country	Arrived	Length of stay	Areas visited
Tanzania	May 2011	10 nights	Arusha, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Migration Area
Namibia	April 2010	5 nights	Waterberg Plateau National Park, Etosha National Park, Central Highlands
Botswana	May 2009	9 nights	Kalahari's Salt Pans, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta Safari Reserves, Chobe National Park
Zambia	July 2008	13 nights	South Luangwa National Park, Lower Zambezi National Park
Zambia	September 2007	10 nights	Kafue National Park, South Luangwa National Park
Botswana, Namibia	April 2007	9 nights	Windhoek, Southern Namibia, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Kalahari's Salt Pans, Okavango Delta Safari Reserves
Botswana	November 2006	4 nights	Maun, Kwando-Linyanti area
Namibia, Botswana, Zambia	May 2006	8 nights	Caprivi Strip, North-west Kalahari & Panhandle, Livingstone & Victoria Falls
Botswana	October 2005	12 nights	Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Kalahari's Salt Pans, Okavango Delta Safari Reserves, Kwando-Linyanti area, Moremi Game Reserve
Namibia	July 2003	3 nights	Skeleton Coast & Kaokoland

Namibia

Contributor 4th edition 2011

I really enjoyed researching Windhoek, the central highlands and Etosha Park for the Namibia Bradt Travel Guide. It gave me the chance to visit a wide range of properties and I met a lot of interesting people.