You will be met by your Northern Tanzania Safari circuit guide upon
arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport and transferred to your
first overnight of your safari at Arusha safari lodge situated on
the outskirts of Arusha town where a full briefing for the exited
days ahead will be given. Full Board Arusha safari lodge.
Day 2:Tarangire National Park
On this morning of your Northern Tanzania safari you set off on an
early departure for the approximately 3 hour drive to Tarangire
National Park.
One of the most underrated parks
in Africa Tanzania offers the visitor a spectacular array of
wildlife on dramatic landscapes. Herds of elephants range the open
savannahs and acacia woodlands, with ancient baobabs adding to the
vista. Full Board accommodation at Tarangire safari lodge.
Other species to be seen include lion, leopard and cheetah as well
as a range of antelope, including the lesser kudu. A picnic lunch
will be enjoyed in the park before heading to your accommodation for
the night at Tarangire Safari Lodge.
Days 3 & 4: Serengeti National Park
Today we head for the iconic Serengeti National Park via the
Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge. A stop on the crater rim allows
for a spectacular view into this unique eco-system – in anticipation
of exploring the crater in the coming days. The route also takes us
past the Olduvai Gorge where the history of mankind is been
researched. An excellent museum shows the work being done there.
The vast Serengeti, arguably the
most famous wilderness in Africa, provides a feast for the senses.
It is here where at certain times of the year almost two million
animals can be seen in the great wildebeest migration. A picnic
lunch en-route and an afternoon game drive will take us to the
Seronera Wildlife Lodge where we will spend the next two nights.
Although the Serengeti is renowned for the Great migration there are
millions of other animals that roam the plains throughout the year
providing visitors with dramatic wildlife interactions. Game drives
in the park will open up this iconic destination to you.
Seronera Wildlife Lodge Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Days 5 & 6: Ngorongoro Crater
Today we leave the Serengeti, on a long game drive, and head back to
the unique Ngorongoro Crater where we will overnight at Ngorongoro
Wildlife Lodge on the rim of the crater.
We spend time in the crater on a
game drive, and may even have lunch at the bottom of the crater.
Descending the walls of the Ngorongoro Crater is almost like moving
into another world.
Formed over time after a massive volcanic explosion, the wilderness
that is Ngorongoro plays host to more than twenty thousand animals
in an a relatively small area. Such is the nutritional value of the
grass in the crater that herbivores thrive – and with that is a high
predator population, in particular lions and hyenas. Ngorongoro
Wildlife Lodge Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Day 7: Lake Manyara National Park
After a breakfast overlooking the crater we head to Lake Manyara,
passing the Ngorongoro Highlands on our way to Lake Manyara Hotel.
After lunch we head down into Lake Manyara National Park, said by
Earnest Hemingway to be ‘the loveliest I have seen’.
Lake Manyara National Park boasts a
diversity of eco-systems inkling grassland savannah, forest and
scrub which in turn host wide species diversity. Aside from millions
of flamingoes and other birds the park has elephants, a range of
antelope and a host of predators – a truly unforgettable park. Lake
Manyara Hotel Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Day 8: Lake Manyara - Arusha
After breakfast we take a morning Game drive with picnic lunch.
After Lunch we head back to Arusha. Spend the evening at Arusha
Safari Lodge. Arusha Safari Lodge Dinner, Breakfast.
07:00hrs. Depart early morning and board a flight scheduled for
Ruaha National Park to start the Southern Tanzania Circuit.
11:00hrs: On Arrival at Ruaha you will be are met and transferred to
your lodge for check in. After Lunch take an afternoon Game Drive
into the park before returning later for dinner and overnight.
The game viewing starts the moment the plane touches down. A giraffe
races beside the airstrip, all legs and neck, yet oddly elegant in
its awkwardness. A line of zebras parades across the runway in the
giraffe's wake.
In the distance, beneath a bulbous
baobab tree, a few representatives of Ruaha's 10,000 elephants - the
largest population of any East African national park, form a
protective huddle around their young. Ruaha River Lodge Breakfast,
Lunch, Dinner
We enjoy early morning and afternoon game driving along the great
Ruaha River - the only permanent source of water in Ruaha and
therefore a perfect location for game viewing.
Ruaha protects a vast tract
of the rugged, semi-arid bush country that characterises central
Tanzania. Its lifeblood is the Great Ruaha River, which courses
along the eastern boundary in a flooded torrent during the height of
the rains, but dwindling thereafter to a scattering of precious
pools surrounded by a blinding sweep of sand and rock.
A fine network of game-viewing roads follows the Great Ruaha and its
seasonal tributaries, where , during the dry season, impala,
waterbuck and other antelopes risk their life for a sip of
life-sustaining water. And the risk is considerable: not only from
the prides of 20-plus lion that lord over the savannah, but also
from the cheetahs that stalk the open grassland and the leopards
that lurk in tangled riverine thickets. This impressive array of
large predators is boosted by both striped and spotted hyena, as
well as several conspicuous packs of the highly endangered African
wild dog.
Ruaha River Lodge Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Ruaha National Park is home to a wild and eco-system and provides a
home to Tanzania‘s largest elephant population. Ruaha also
demonstrates striking topography with plateaus, rocky outcrops and
several sand rivers; all of which host wildlife unseen in other
parts of the country.
Ruaha's unusually high diversity
of antelope is a function of its location, which is transitional to
the acacia savannah of East Africa and the miombo woodland belt of
Southern Africa. Grant's gazelle and lesser kudu occur here at the
very south of their range, alongside the miombo-associated sable and
roan antelope, and one of East Africa's largest populations of
greater kudu, the park emblem, distinguished by the male's
magnificent corkscrew horns.
Ruaha River Lodge Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
We exit Ruaha today and transfer by road to Mikumi National Park,
located to the east. We complete registration formalities and game
drive to our luxury camp.
Mikumi National Park abuts the
northern border of Africa's biggest game reserve - the Selous – and
is transected by the surfaced road between Dar-es-Salaam and Iringa.
It is thus the most accessible part of a 75,000 square kilometre
(47,000 square mile) tract of wilderness that stretches east almost
as far as the Indian Ocean.
Lions survey their grassy kingdom – and the zebra, wildebeest,
impala and buffalo herds that migrate across it – from the flattened
tops of termite mounds, or sometimes, during the rains, from perches
high in the trees. Giraffes forage in the isolated acacia stands
that fringe the Mkata River, islets of shade favoured also by
Mikumi's elephants. Vuma Tented Camp Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Day 13: Mikumi - Msasani Peninsula
We explore the wilderness of Mikumi today with game driving to
exploring this Park which is an extension of the Selous eco-system.
The Park displays an awesome array of wildlife, most notably on the
floodplains and is an important educational and research location.
FBat Vuma.
Criss-crossed by a good circuit of
game-viewing roads, the Mkata Floodplain is perhaps the most
reliable place in Tanzania for sightings of the powerful eland, the
world’s largest antelope. The equally impressive greater kudu and
sable antelope haunt the miombo-covered foothills of the mountains
that rise from the park’s borders.
More than 400 bird species have been recorded, with such colourful
common residents as the lilac-breasted roller, yellow-throated
longclaw and bateleur eagle joined by a host of European migrants
during the rainy season. Hippos are the star attraction of the pair
of pools situated 5km north of the main entrance gate, supported by
an ever-changing cast of water birds.
Departing after breakfast, we game drive out of Mikumi in the
direction of Dar es Salaam (Haven of Peace) and we arrive at out
hotel on the Msasani Peninsula in time to enjoy the afternoon sea
breezes. Sea Cliff Hotel Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Heading north towards Dar es Salaam, we reach Bagamoyo ’Lay Down
your Heart’ - a major boarding point for the Slave Trade of times
gone by. We explore the Kaole Ruins before we enter the town of
Bagamoyo, and find the ancient ruins of mosques and the eeriness of
tombs. In Bagamoyo itself, we can find the ruins of German
missionaries and compounds and take a history lesson of the area.
Lazy Lagoon Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
The bandas of the Lazy Lagoon allow you to have the peace of curling
up with a book or lazing by the pool and is located on a secluded
peninsula just south of Bagamoyo. A short ride across in a boat
allows you to arrive into this paradise. Lazy Lagoon Breakfast,
Lunch, Dinner.
Within your own time schedule, you will be transferred to your Dar
es Salaam departure point.
Kenya
