Safari in Tanzania – 4 national parks

Today is departure day, where you will fly to Tanzania with connecting flights along the way.

The plane lands close to Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, which rises a majestic 5,895 metres from the savannah. The snow-capped peak of the mountain is in sharp contrast to the fact that you are now in Africa.

Your driver/guide is waiting for you at the airport. Ahead of you lies an exciting sightseeing tour covering more than 200 km, before you arrive at your Hotel. The tour takes you past the villages of Chini, Kisongo, Makuyuni, Mto Wa Mbu and Karatu.

If time allows, the afternoon can be spent relaxing at the hotel or visiting Karatu and the local market.

Please note: Today you drive to your Hotel in Karatu, where you will stay overnight. Here, you are just a short drive away from the Tarangire National Park tomorrow, giving you the maximum amount of time in the park.

Today, we head to the Tarangire National Park, which is the sixth largest national park in Tanzania.

The park is named after the Tarangire river, which flows through the park. In dry seasons, the river is the animals’ only source of water.

The landscape and vegetation are incredibly varied. The hilly landscape has nine different growth zones, and you experience a savannah filled with majestic baobab and acacia trees, almost taking all the attention away from the many animals.

The diverse vegetation attracts a great many wild animals. The park is particularly famous for its large number of elephants. One of the largest concentrations of elephants in the world is found here, and it is not uncommon to see herds of several hundred. Gnus and zebras are also found in large numbers, and kudu, impala and gazelles thrive here. The abundant prey here attracts lions, leopards and hyenas, and if you’re really lucky, you might also see a wild dog.

After breakfast and check-out from the hotel, we head through Ngorongoro’s hilly plateaus, where the red-clad Masai live in round huts, and their cattle graze between the zebras, gnus and giraffes of the savannah. Along the way, there is time to enjoy a packed lunch.

Via Nabi Hill Gate, the route heads north-west across the endless plains of the Serengeti, where animals galore await you; millions of gnus and zebras, thousands of antelopes and buffaloes, hundreds of lions, elephants, leopards, hippos, crocodiles, and thousands of birds. Serengeti offers one of the most amazing and unique wildlife and outdoor experiences on the planet.

Please note: Ikoma Wild Camp is located just outside the north-western section of Serengeti National Park. It offers a phenomenal view of the Serengeti plain, and the promise of some unique experiences that you cannot enjoy in the national park itself. If you wish to stay inside the Serengeti National Park itself, you can (against a supplement) choose to stay at the Serengeti Wild Camp.

Full day safari in Serengeti, looking for the “Big Five”: lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffaloes. You have the whole day to enjoy the wildlife of the stunning Serengeti.

The ecosystem here in the park is considered to be one of the oldest in the world, and you’d be hard pressed not to feel both humbled and astonished when sitting in your land cruiser, absorbing all that you see before you. Outside the drought period, you will also see a large number of Thompson’s gazelles, buffaloes, topi, Grant’s gazelles, eland antelopes, warthogs, eagles, ostriches, etc., in addition to the animals already mentioned.  Today, you will probably also see and smell the hippos wallowing in the hippo pools.

A hot lunch is served at Serengeti Wild Camp or Serengeti Wildebeest Camp.

A fantastic day, just waiting to be experienced and enjoyed!

New experiences await you when the safari heads south-east in Serengeti. A picnic lunch is enjoyed in the open at noon.

The tour then heads into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where you visit the red-clad Masai in a local village, where you can experience how life is lived in a Masai village and look at their handicraft, which is mainly bead work. They are keen to sell, but remember to “haggle”!

Please note: Today you drive to your hotel in Karatu for an overnight stay. If you wish to treat yourself to an extra special experience, you might (against a supplement) like to upgrade to Ngorongoro Wild Camp – this maximises the time you have to spend in the Ngorongoro crater in the morning.

The Ngorongoro crater is the largest inactive volcano crater. The volcano erupted some 2–3 million years ago and folded in on itself, leaving a gigantic hole, which is today home to 30,000 animals and 350 different species of birds, all of which have access to water all year round.

Once past the entrance to Ngorongoro, you pass through a lush area of rainforest before the descent along the inside of the crater begins. After an exciting drive down, you arrive at the 260 km² crater floor. The rim of the crater towers 600 metres above you. You might be at the bottom of the crater, but you are actually high up, because the rim of the crater is 2,200 metres above sea level.

The day is spent in the crater – and there is plenty to look at! Lions, gazelles, elephants, gnus and zebras in their droves. If you are really lucky, you might see the endangered black rhinoceros, which is almost extinct in Africa due to poaching. In Ngorongoro, they are protected by the armed rangers.

Lunch is enjoyed in stunning surroundings on the floor of the crater, and at the end of the day you will be driven back to your hotel.

After breakfast and check-out from the hotel, you head to Lake Manyara National Park. Extending over an area of 330 m2, this is one of Tanzania’s smallest national parks, of which the lake itself covers a good two-thirds, depending on the season.

It was here on the southern shore of the lake that Ernest Hemingway’s camp was situated in the mid-1930s, while he went hunting for the largest and most beautiful kudu in the nearby area, known today as Tarangire National Park.

Lake Manyara National Park was established in 1960 to preserve the region’s unique ecosystem, and in 1981, it became part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).

The area is part of the spectacular Great Rift Valley, which runs all the way through the African continent from the Middle East to Mozambique. Researchers believe that this rift system will at some point in the future cause the African continental plate to split into two separate continental plates and thus tear a large part of the African continent apart from the rest.

The national park, which is long and narrow, is bordered to the east by Lake Manyara itself, and to the west by the slopes of the Rift Valley, which are up to 600 metres high. In between are open grasslands, a jungle-like forest, mangroves, hot springs and swamps. The diversity is unrivalled, and it is impressive to see how drastically the landscape changes in a relatively small area. With the many different habitats comes a great variety of wildlife – although the animals can be difficult to spot amidst all the lushness.

The great biodiversity in the park also attracts many birds – more than 400 different bird species have been recorded here.

Lake Manyara itself is a soda lake, and the water level fluctuates a lot depending on whether it’s the rainy season or the dry season. Along the shore, you may be lucky enough to see large flocks of flamingos.

After this final nature experience, you’ll be driven to the airport, where your journey home begins.

You will arrive at your chosen airport.