Tanzania Safaris
LAKE MANYARA - NGORONGORO
CRATER - SERENGETI
Day 1: The drive from Moshi to Lake Manyara National
Park takes about 4 hours. After having a picnic lunch in Manyara, you start a
late afternoon game drive, which is the best time to view animals in this park.
When you approach it from the east, the Rift Valley escarpment looms on the
horizon forming an impressive backdrop to the lake. In the tall trees of the
ground water forest, monkeys leap from branch to branch, and on the escarpment,
elephants stand in the shade. Other animals frequently seen are zebras, impalas,
monkeys, giraffes, buffalos, hippos, and others. Overnight at the TWIGA
Campsite, Full Board. FB
Day 2: The drive to Serengeti National Park via Oldupai
Gorge takes 3 to 4 hours. Olduvai Gorge is an archaeological site located in the
eastern Serengeti plains, in which early human fossils were first discovered. It
has an amazing landscape that resulted from the same tectonic forces that
created the Great Rift Valley millions of years ago. Then, in the late evening
drive to and overnight at the Serengeti Seronera Wildlife Camp - full board.
Day 3: After breakfast, venture into the Serengeti’s
wilderness corners for a full day of game viewing in the park. With a picnic
lunch beside you, take your leisure while exploring this world heritage site,
where earth’s largest concentration of plain game still roams free! In the late
evening, go to the Serengeti Seronera Wildlife Camp for rest, dinner, and
overnight.
Day 4: After breakfast, Drive to Ngorongoro Crater for
game drives. This is the best place in Tanzania to see black rhino as well as
prides of lion that include the magnificent black-manned males. There are lots
of colorful flamingoes and a variety of water birds. Other game that you can see
includes leopard, cheetah, hyena, other members of the antelope family, and
small mammals. In the late afternoon. Drive to SIMBA Campsite or Campsite near
Karatu, for overnight. Full Board. FB
Day 5: After breakfast, Morning hike in the Southern
Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the elephant cave and waterfall. In the
afternoon visiting the Iraqw tribe cultural centre in Karatu to learn how the
tribe protected their cattle from Masai incursions using underground
settlements. In the late afternoon, drive back to the Springlands Hotel in Moshi.
Lake Manyara
Located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the
edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems,
incredible bird life, and breathtaking views. Located on the way to Ngorongoro
Crater and the Serengeti, Lake Manyara National Park is well worth a stop in its
own right. Its ground water forests, bush plains, baobob strewn cliffs, and
algae-streaked hot springs offer incredible ecological variety in a small area,
rich in wildlife and incredible numbers of birds.
The alkaline soda of Lake Manyara is home to an incredible
array of bird life that thrives on its brackish waters. Pink flamingo stoop and
graze by the thousands, colourful specks against the grey minerals of the lake
shore. Yellow-billed storks swoop and corkscrew on thermal winds rising up from
the escarpment, and herons flap their wings against the sun-drenched sky. Even
reluctant bird-watchers will find something to watch and marvel at within the
national park.
Lake Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions are another reason
to pay this park a visit. The only kind of their species in the world, they make
the ancient mahogany and elegant acacias their home during the rainy season, and
are a well-known but rather rare feature of the northern park. In addition to
the lions, the national park is also home to the largest concentration of
baboons anywhere in the world -- a fact that makes for interesting game viewing
of large families of the primates.
Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater is often called ‘Africa’s Eden’ and the
‘8th Natural Wonder of the World,’ a visit to the crater is a main drawcard for
tourists coming to Tanzania and a definite world-class attraction. Within the
crater rim, large herds of zebra and wildebeest graze nearby while sleeping
lions laze in the sun. At dawn, the endangered black rhino returns to the thick
cover of the crater forests after grazing on dew-laden grass in the morning
mist. Just outside the crater’s ridge, tall Masaai herd their cattle and goats
over green pastures through the highland slopes, living alongside the wildlife
as they have for centuries.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area includes its eponymous famous
crater, Olduvai Gorge, and huge expanses of highland plains, scrub bush, and
forests that cover approximately 8300 square kilometres. A protected area, only
indigenous tribes such as the Masaai are allowed to live within its borders.
Lake Ndutu and Masek, both alkaline soda lakes are home to rich game
populations, as well as a series of peaks and volcanoes and make the
Conservation Area a unique and beautiful landscape. Of course, the crater
itself, actually a type of collapsed volcano called a caldera, is the main
attraction. Accommodation is located on its ridges and after a beautiful descent
down the crater rim, passing lush rain forest and thick vegetation, the flora
opens to grassy plains throughout the crater floor. The game viewing is truly
incredible, and the topography and views of the surrounding Crater Highlands out
of this world.
This truly magical place is home to Olduvai Gorge, where the
Leakeys discovered the hominoid remains of a 1.8 million year old skeleton of
Australopithecus boisei, one of the distinct links of the human evolutionary
chain. In a small canyon just north of the crater, the Leakeys and their team of
international archaeologists unearthed the ruins of at least three distinct
hominoid species, and also came upon a complete series of hominoid footprints
estimated to be over 3.7 million years old. Evacuated fossils show that the area
is one of the oldest sites of hominoid habitation in the world.
The Ngorongoro Crater and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area are
without a doubt some of the most beautiful parts of Tanzania, steeped in history
and teeming with wildlife. Besides vehicle safaris to Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai
Gorge, and surrounding attractions, hiking treks through the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area are becoming increasingly popular options. Either way you
choose to visit, the Crater Highlands are an unforgettable part of the Tanzanian
experience.
Serengeti National Park
A million wildebeest... each one driven by the
same ancient rhythm, fulfilling its instinctive role in the
inescapable cycle of life: a frenzied three-week bout of
territorial conquests and mating; survival of the fittest as
40km (25 mile) long columns plunge through crocodile-infested
waters on the annual exodus north; replenishing the species in a
brief population explosion that produces more than 8,000 calves
daily before the 1,000 km (600 mile) pilgrimage begins again.
Tanzania's oldest and most popular national
park, also a world heritage site and recently proclaimed a 7th
world wide wonder, the Serengeti is famed for its annual
migration, when some six million hooves pound the open plains,
as more than 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson's gazelle join
the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing. Yet even when the
migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most
scintillating game-viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo,
smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon
thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle.
The spectacle of predator versus prey
dominates Tanzania’s greatest park. Golden-maned lion prides
feast on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt
the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density
of cheetahs prowls the southeastern plains. Almost uniquely, all
three African jackal species occur here, alongside the spotted
hyena and a host of more elusive small predators, ranging from
the insectivorous aardwolf to the beautiful serval cat.
But there is more to Serengeti than large
mammals. Gaudy agama lizards and rock hyraxes scuffle around the
surfaces of the park’s isolated granite koppies. A full 100
varieties of dung beetle have been recorded, as have 500-plus
bird species, ranging from the outsized ostrich and bizarre
secretary bird of the open grassland, to the black eagles that
soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.
As enduring as the game-viewing is the liberating sense of space
that characterises the Serengeti Plains, stretching across
sunburnt savannah to a shimmering golden horizon at the end of
the earth. Yet, after the rains, this golden expanse of grass is
transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with
wildflowers. And there are also wooded hills and towering
termite mounds, rivers lined with fig trees and acacia woodland
stained orange by dust.
Popular the Serengeti might be, but it remains
so vast that you may be the only human audience when a pride of
lions masterminds a siege, focussed unswervingly on its next
meal.
Included
in the Cost:
-
Ground transportation
with driver/guide
-
National Park entry
fees
-
All meals whilst on
safari
-
Camping fees (Camping
Safari only)
-
Camping Equipment
(Camping Safari only)
-
Cook (Camping
Safari only)
-
Government Tax
Remember
to bring along:
Itineraries are subject to change without prior notice.
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