Tanzania: On Safari (ft. Jared Sternberg)

The lion, the leopard, the elephant, the cape buffalo, and
the rhino. On Safari, these animals make up what's known
as the Big Five, Africa's most iconic species. Once considered
too dangerous to encounter on foot, travelers come to Africa
from all over the world to catch a glimpse of
these extraordinary creatures. But what no traveler can plan for
are the invisible shifts that Safari offers to those lucky
enough to experience its wanders. This is Wayfinder, life changing travel.
This podcast goes beyond the guidebooks into the heart and
soul of real life travelers as they journey around the world.
I'm your host, Daniel Scheffler, and I have seen firsthand
how our stories connect us and inspire us. Today, I'm
in conversation with Jared Sternberg, an Alaskan resident who brings
small groups of travelers to Tanzania, Africa for exploration and Safari.
On his very first scouting trip, what began as a
journey into the wild became something far more personal, a
shifting perspective and a lesson in space, prisons, and the
aunt of letting go.
I grew up in southern California and my parents worked
hard to have an opportunity for themselves later in life
and for their kids to travel, and so they started
bringing my siblings and I on trips when we were
small to Costa Rica or Mexico or to go skiing.
We went to Fiji in Australia one year and I
loved it ever since I was a kid, and the
first time I went to Costa Rica, my mind was
just blown. So cut two years later, as an adult,
I found myself dreading the nine to five and after
I finished work, meeting people going outside, exploring nature. And
so one day I just had an epiphany of like,
you know what, I'm just going to do this.
I'm just going to.
Bring people to places like this eco lodge in the
middle of nowhere and that might change them like it
changed me. So I started a small business called Gondwana
Eco Tours. We do small group, multi night trips to Tanzania,
to Alaska, to Norway, Patagonia, et cetera, et cetera. Gondwana,
for those of you who don't know, was a super
continent similar to Pangaea, and it was when America and Africa,
among other places, were connected. And so I liked the
idea of people reconnecting the land and the people to
like what it once was.
You know, I just came back from Kenya. I wasn't
in Tanzania, but I was in Kenya for like ten
days about a week ago.
Was that your first time going on a Safari.
No, I've been going my whole life. I'm South African,
so going to the bush is just something that South
Africans do.
That is crazy to think about.
Isn't it. Tell me how you found Tanzania opposed to Kenya,
opposed to South Africa? Right? Yeah, Because what's interesting to
me is when people talk about Safari, like in South Africa,
you're able to see the Big Five very easily, and
you're very close up with animal. You're so in the
thick because you're gain driving and there's bush and thick, thick, thick,
and the distances aren't so massive. When you go in
Safari in the Messamara and in Tanzania in the Serengetti,
it's space that really blows your way. You see all
the animal, but you see them en mass, you see
them in scale that is so unbelievable. But the big
difference between Safarian in these countries is how you interact
with the animal, right, So tell me your perspective on that.
Well, for starters, I'll say I want to go on
more in more places, because I haven't been everywhere in
Africa by any stretch of the imagination. The reason I
ended up becoming obsessed with Tanzania is because before I went,
I had this idea of seeing the Big Five and
also endangered mountain gorillas. The first time I went on
a safari, I wanted to see all of those things.
And so that's how I ended up in Tanzania, and
then I fell in love with it and the people
there and some nonprofits that we started working with, et cetera.
But once I was there, the space and the landscape,
like the feeling of the Serengetti alone, is just huge.
There's just so much space, and if you've got good guys,
the ability to just go and find your own things
and be the only vehicle there by a hippo pool
or you know, like watching wildcats hunt or what have you,
it is pretty freaking cool.
Yeah.
If people say to me, I can't really travel, I
don't have the time, I don't have the money, I
don't have the ability, and they say like, I could
do one trip in my life, what should I do?
I always say Safari because it's just so l like changing.
It takes you back to something so primal, And I mean,
I was born on the African continent, but I think
it is a sort of going home for all of us, right,
So you're not only seeing all the magic of the
animals and you're understanding your place in the sort of
hierarchy and macrocosm, but you're going somewhere so primal that
it feels like homecoming.
Yeah.
I could not agree more with that. When I meet people,
they ask which is your favorite trip, which is a
very difficult question, but the true answer I give people
when pressured is a Safari. It was my favorite trip
I've been on anywhere in the world, So I definitely
share your opinion.
That would be the one trip I'd recommend to.
Before he could bring other guests on Safari, Jarrett needed
to experience it himself, so he planned a scouting trip
to Tanzania, not entirely sure what he'd find when he arrived.
I'll be honest, I was a little nervous because it
was my first time going to East Africa and it
was the first time I was planning a big trip
for work to a place that I wasn't familiar with.
I met with a bunch of different guides in advance
on Zoom and set up a bunch of appointments and
some scouting trips. But I hadn't met anybody in person yet.
And so when I got off the plane and I
had my little pelican case with camera gear and my
little carry on suitcase with clothes, I thought, Man, I
hope this dude that I sent buddy to actually booked.
Me lodges and it's going to show.
Up at the airport to get me, like you said,
because truthfully, like you never know, I didn't know. I
walked out of security and there he was, and that
gentleman's name was Victor. And about ten years later, I'm
still working with this guy. He guides safaris in partnership
with my company, and we've had some really powerful experiences together.
I'm really into wildlife photography, and so I really wanted
to get pictures of lions and cheetahs and leopards and
elephants and an endangered black rhino and all the big
five buffalo whatever.
And now when I go I'm like, look.
At this little mongoose, or look at the little giddy
fowl or the little battyard foxes that hop around, and
just like the birds are amazing. No one talks about
the birds when they go out of Safari, but there's
all these owls and eagles, and there's the secretary birds
that kind of remind me of Beyonce. It looks like
they have high heels on and they're kind of like
doing the single Ladies dance.
And that trip was just so profound.
The baobab trees in Turrengaria National Park are surreal to me.
I think it might be my favorite tree on the planet.
And remember sitting in the land cruiser watching these giraffes
just pulling leaves from them and the scale that that
gave me off of like the dirt road. And then
there's these twenty feet tall giraffes with their necks extended
and their tongues going up and they're just reaching like
some of the lowest leaves on this giant tree that's
dwarfing them and making them look like ants inside of
an ant hill. The scale of everything there is just
so special.
And just when he thought he was in control of
the itinerary, Jared was confronted with something far more raw,
a moment that challenged not just his expectations, but he's conditioning.
If I watch a David Attenborough documentary, I sometimes fast
forward past the parts where something's getting killed. It just
was hard for me. So I was nervous how I
would respond on the first one and if I would
have a hard time with it.
I did not. It was pretty cool.
That was.
How it ended up feeling for me, And I think
part of it was the time spent there and seeing
the full picture and scope, because you're seeing these herds
of prey animals. I mean, you're seeing so many will
to beasts you can't even count them, and there's a
lot less predators, and they've got babies, and you see
the cubs and they've got to eat. This is what
they eat. And so by the time I saw my
first kill, I was ready for it. It felt like what
needed to happen, and it felt like a privilege at
the end of the day to see nature take its
course and the power and beauty of the predator prey
relationship was something I found so much more fascinating than
I ever thought I would. The different predators have their
own strengths and weaknesses evolutionarily speaking, as for hunting techniques,
So like a pride of lions are not the best
hunters of all time, but once they kill something that's theirs.
Nobody's taking anything from a lion. A leopard is a
pretty darn good hunter by itself, and then it drags
it up a tree, so no one's going to come
take a gazelle from the leopard twenty feet up the tree.
Cheetahs are so fast, as we know they're known for,
but they're smaller than I thought. They're skinny, so they
can't defend their food, so they hunt the most often.
And what that means is the odds of seeing like
a cheetah hunt is pretty decent when you go on
a safari. So the first time I saw these two
cheetahs is brothers hunt together in a will to be
heard and just take off at like sixty miles per
hour and take down a full sized will to best
was mind blowing. I mean, it was so so cool
and surreal to see, and it was also kind of
surreal to see all the other will to beasts watch
that happen. And then two minutes later biologically, forget that
that ever happened, just go about their business like nothing
ever happened. And then the cheetahs did it again, and
I'm like, oh, you poor will to beast, like bless
your hearts. You know, I'm curious what your take on
it is, but I actually think it's one of the
most natural things and I love it.
Travel teaches you a little bit about that. Idea of
it is my Western mind contextually, Like I've lived in
Europe and America most of my life now, and I
put all that context on situations, right, So as a
Western person, it doesn't feel like it's in my culture,
it doesn't feel like it's in my undisi standing of things,
and therefore I put a judgment on it. Africa and
spending time there teaches you to accept these things, and
it teaches you to be like, there's no point in
my judgment of it. There's only point in me trying
to learn something about myself and about the world and
to turn that into empathy and to turn that into
a better understanding of thyself and of other.
It is so much easier to judge from Afar people
or animals or whatever it is. I could watch something
on TV and think, oh, man, that cheat doesn't like that,
orcs throw in the sea otter in the air, why
doesn't he just kill it?
Or whatever?
But like if you go and you watch the Orcas
or you watch the Cheetahs and you spend time, it
feels different. Besides are herders and so some of the
villages if you visit them, it's their honor to kill
an animal for you, and they want you ideally to
participate in butchering the goat and like fleeting it and
drinking the blood if you will, et cetera.
Like there are limits too.
I think everyone's personal willingness and bandwidth and whatever, and
I'm not here to judge that, but the point being
whether or not something makes sense to me based off
of my values are upbringing is subjective and trying to
take a step back and just understand it and leave
it there is such a skill that we all, myself included,
could use more of, even just in the US.
Right now.
You know, it's like such a stark divide politically, and
I feel like we've lost the ability to understand people
that we disagree with.
It's so hard, but travel teaches you some better ways.
How to sort of navigate that. Like I spend time
with native people in Tanzaniam, some of the tribes, some
of the must Have tribes, and they explained the way
that the culture has set up what I would call
the patriarchy. They explained it to me, and then they
explained to me how it's changing, how the wives are
now milking the goats and selling the goat milk to
the elephant's sanctuary and now have their own money and
now no longer reliant on the man for money, and
how it's shifting. And I was like, well, how do
you feel about that as a man, And he said,
I feel empowered. And then I was like, oh, I
had put my own judgment on you even before you
answered that question, thinking like, oh, he's going to say
I feel emasculated, and no, he felt the opposite. So
I don't know. This is the work that's Safari, this
is the work that Africa gives you.
Yeah.
I think that's true, And I think while you're doing that,
it also happens to be one of the most breathtaking
nature experiences you can possibly have.
That release of judgment is exactly what Jared hopes to
create for others and back on the ground in Tanzania,
he aims to lead his groups through that same philosophy.
One of my favorite things that I was able to
set up on the safaris that we do when we
visit a Masai community, they have a conservation area that
they've started. So one of the issues in Tanzania that's
happening is conflict over land, which happens everywhere. But you've
got these wildlife corridors between national parks that are important
for will toebeeste and lions and giraffes, etc. To kind
of be able to move between these parks, so you
don't get these bottlenecked populations. But then you also have
growing populations of people, and these people have cows and
goats and whatever, and that's their way of life, and
so then there can be conflict between wildlife and people.
So one of the solutions has been massill led initiatives
to help with the wildlife corridors so they can kind
of get some benefit from it. And so there's a
Masai village that has a wildlife corridor that they protect
and they can take you on a guided walk there.
And when we take our guests there, as they're walking,
if any of them ever listen to this. I'm sorry
for ruining this surprise, but we have a bush lunch
for them set up under this huge tree. So as
you're walking at first, people are really excited, and then
when they're like thirty minutes into this walk, inevitably the
chatter starts of.
Like, where the fuck are we going?
Like are we going to have to walk back? There's
wonders happening. Yes, And so about that point in time,
we're able to point to the trees and say like,
that's where we're going. And then when they get there,
it's like this little eating of food and drink, and
we've got the vehicles already there parked in the back
so they don't have to walk back. For me, that's
like the epitomy of what I try my best to
encourage people to find, or to put together for people
as something where it's like off the beaten path, like culture, nature, comfortable,
exciting and interactive and authentic, all in kind of one
experience where you can really get to know the people
and the environment of a place, but also not pretend
that we don't have different expectations and standards based off
of where we come from. So I think that trying
to find opportunities to get on your feet because there'll
be few and far between.
It's like another recommendation I have.
What's hilarious to me about that is it's so the
human brain, like we'd have to control this, have to
know what I'm doing. And there's a part of me
in Africa when I'm there, and I just try and
tap into that part of me that really just wants
to go with it. Just go with the flow, easy going,
whatever you want to say, but like just trust, just
trust like you're in the flow and beyond the Safari experience.
Here are a few more of Jared's tips for what
you can do in Tanzania.
Aside from village visits, which I think is like a
must do from my perspective, I love going to the markets.
They have, for example, the coolest patterns of fabric design.
And I have a bunch of friends that are musicians
that are obsessed with the shirt so that I bring
back for them from Arusha.
They're just so colorful and gorgeous.
And like, I love going to markets anywhere I travel
and just walking around and talking to people and like
asking what things are and how they're made and where
they came from and what their story is.
So that for me is another fun highlight to do.
And then the.
Hot air balloon ride is such a cool way to
get a different perspective while you're on safari. That's a
huge one. One other small thing, if you're going to Tanzania,
a lot of people will skip a RuSHA National Park.
There's these famous parks in Tanzania, the Serengeti and gor
and Goro Crater which is like a UNESCO Heritage Site
Tengira National Park, and so people will go straight to
these more famous destinations. But RuSHA National Park is a
sleeper because it kind of has all of the ecosystems
in one little place, and it's such a peaceful, non crowded,
beautiful way to kind of get your feet wet, and
it also has some unique species of privates that you're
not going to see anywhere else.
But also you can hike there.
My least favorite thing about a safari, and there's very few.
It's probably the only thing I don't like about a
safari is that I like to walk, and so it's
hard to have a lot of opportunities to be outside
of the vehicle. For obvious reasons. So being able to
do a hike with a park ranger in a Rusian
national park and there's a waterfall that you can hike
to and you can see a bunch of animals from
foot instead of in the vehicle, which feels very different,
is an easy and super worthwhile thing.
I think a lot of people arrive on Safari with
a sense of control and a checklist of what they
hope to see and how they want the experience to unfold.
The thing is, we're privileged, right We get to go
again and again and again. Most people don't, so they
feel the pressure. But there is something that I like
to say to people about traveling. This is valid for
me for Safari as much as it is for Paris.
You don't have to see all the sites. It's okay
if you don't see the Eiffel Tower. And the same
applies to Tenzonay, Like I know, it's wonderful to see Lion,
to see all these things, but you will. If you
take the pressure of it, then that stuff starts to
happen more naturally and your trip becomes more of the
point of going to Africa, the idea of tapping into
our roots, the idea of seeing wildlife in a conservation context,
and that's why you're there. You're not there to tick
off the fact that you saw a rhino.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And my struggle personally is
continuing that mindset when I get home, because I think
it's an attitude and or a skill set when you travel,
whether you go somewhere once or your privilege and you're
able to go lots of times because of work or
other means. You know, adventure is flexibility and the more
open you are to take what is presented to you
and to enjoy that, whether that be the rain or
different wildlife than you imagined, or flat tires or things
that can happen along the way and you just roll
with it. And if there are any people like me
out there, you might mentally prepare yourself to have that
mindset before you go on a trip, to get the
most out of it, and then to keep it going
when you come home. For me, that's what I try
and learn about myself as well as a place I'm going,
like the bigger kind of primordial meaning of life, and
then remember that too, so it's not just when I'm
there that I can be more at peace, to take
life as it comes, but to continue on with that.
That's like this personal journey I'm on right now.
That's the journey we're trying to inspire people to do.
This is why to go to Africa. When people ask
me about it, it's like, don't worry about ticking off
any boxes. Go for this thing, and you'll set yourself
on a course for a personal journey that you may
not expect. It may just surprise you. It's crazy how
that happens.
It's like anything else in life too, where sometimes it's
the things that surprise you along the way that end
up being the best parts. And for me, one of
them was the people. I wanted to go on a
safari because I wanted to see wildlife, but the people
I met along the way are honestly what has become
my favorite part of the experience now. And sometimes when
I'm in Tanzania and I'm on a safari or in
this village and I look around, I just imagine everybody's
story that I'm seeing and how profound it most likely
is for so many people. And I think about how
challenging my own life has been, like running a small
business and having a kid, and my wife's pregnant, and
I was almost late today because she had to go
get like a blood transfusion.
You know, it's still hard.
So I just am so awe struck by the ability
of people to not only like adapt, but to thrive
and to be the same everywhere as crazily different as
they can be. You know, a lot of the villages
are lacking access to clean water, They're lacking access or
easy access to schools. They're running into conflict between competing
interests over national parks and wildlife corridors and their own
pastoral traditions, and at the heart of everything is often money.
Yet when you go into a Masai village, they are
so warm and welcoming and inviting. And you know, I
don't want to project my own feelings on how another
person is, but they genuinely seem happy. And the guides
I work with I know well, and I will say
that they are happy, and that to me in and
of itself, considering opportunities that I've had in my life.
Compared to let's say, Victor, it does surprise me how
he's able to make the most of the situation given
to him and to actually be helping and sharing with
people that have so much more. I was talking to
Victor the other day and I was asking him to
remind me about the conversations we had when I first
met him, and he reminded me about his path to
where he's at, this laundry list of just like micro
miracle after miracle to get to where he's at. And
he's now grown a fleet of vehicles to have five vehicles.
He's got ten people working for him. A lot of
them came from situations similar to him that he's taken
under his wing and passes forward the opportunity. And he
does view it as anything special. That's just like, of course,
that's what I did. And he's really lucky in his mind,
and I believe that he is. There are a lot
of people with similar stories to him, And I think
it's hard not to come back from a trip like that,
whether it be if you go once or fifty times
or whatever it is every single time and just think, like,
the world is a beautiful place, those lions and the
vastness of the SERENGETI yes, sure, but also like these
people that exist everywhere and are just impressive and inspiring.
Yeah, it's amazing because in the world it's hard to
interact with humans on this real level, right, And sometimes
I feel like I'm Safari When you're spending this time
with these guides. It's real time, Like it's hours and
hours and it's sharing, and it's having a bush breakfast
and I love a four o'clock tea and the bush
with the rusk. You know, it's all this beautiful connecting time.
We need more, Yeah, I think we do. I think
we've lost that a little bit. Yeah, Africa can remind you.
Yeah, I hadn't really thought about it in that way
of just like the shared time, because it's so true.
I mean, friends I have where I live, if we're
able to meet up, we might meet up after work
for a beer or to like watch a game or something.
And how much time do you really get to spend
with someone in that situation getting to know them, as
opposed to if you go on like a ten day
safari and you're in the vehicle for eight hours or
ten hours a day with a couple people without your phones,
you're really going to get to know people and connect
in a way that it reminds me of when I
was a kid. You get to go play and like
talk to people and get to know each other and like, yeah,
spend time.
By the end of Jared's journey, what began is a
search for wildlife had become something much deeper, a shift
in scale and how he sees the world and how
he chooses to move about it, from witnessing rare animals
to confronting the reality of a hunt. Jared left Tanzania
with a different kind of awareness than when he first arrived,
because out here in the wild we're reminded not of
what we can control, a lot of what we can
learn to let go of.
My message to future travelers on safari and Tanzania is
go and go with a flow. It's so simple, really,
anyone who hasn't been on a safari, especially in Tanzania,
just do it. There is no place and no experience
like it. The scale is unreal, and just put yourself
as best you can in a headspace to take it
for what it is.
Wherever your journey takes you next, made it wide in
your view and bring you a little closer to the
bigger picture unfolding around you. Wayfinder Life Changing Travel is
a production of Iheart's Ruby Studio I'm your host, Daniel Scheffler.
Our show's executive producer is Sierra Kaiser, supervising producer Kelly Kyle,
and story producer Ryan Amador, with post production by James
Foster and editing by Sierra Spreen. Don't forget to subscribe
to Wayfinder and please rate and review the show wherever
you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.