Nine Days Safari

Day 1: Tarangire National Park

After an early breakfast followed by a Safari briefing by your guide you are off to Tarangire! “The Park with giant baobab trees and bush savannah” is also famed for the congregation of wild animals attracted to drinking, feeding and wallowing in its marshes. Close-up views of Elephants in this park is legendary. Reputedly some of the largest elephant herds in Africa call Tarangire home. It is a sanctuary to many an animal species. You will absorb the landscape and watch the animals from a roof pop-up Safari vehicle. You will be able to especially view three rare species: The Greater Kudu, the Fringe-eared Oryx and some Ashy Starlings. A picnic lunch is a welcome break in the early afternoon before continuing with the afternoon game drive. In the evening you will drive to your accommodation where a hot and delicious dinner awaits you.  (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Day 2: Manyara National Park

After early breakfast, we leave for Lake Manyara National Park. An impressive park and one of Tanzania’s most dramatically located wildlife areas, Manyara consists of a massive but shallow soda lake (covering two-thirds of the park) at the root of the Great Rift Valley’s Western escarpment. The Park’s varied habitat attracts a wide variety of animals, including one of Africa’s largest concentrations of Elephants plus world-famous tree-climbing Lions of Manyara as well as large flocks of Flamingos whose main food source is the algae in the Lake. At the end of the day you will drive to your accommodation for hot dinner and overnight accommodation. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner). 

Day 3: Lake Eyasi (Hadzabe Bushmen, Datoga Tribe)

After an early breakfast, you will drive to Lake Eyasi around which live Hadzabe tribesmen (in small groups of about 700-800 tribesmen). The Hadzabe are the last true hunter-gatherers in East Africa leading a way of life almost identical to the Stone Age. They hunt with bow and arrow and forage for fruits, wild roots and honey from the Baobab trees. After a welcome and an insight into the village life, you will go hunting with Hadzabe men. They hunt big prey such as Antelopes and Gazelles and also smaller ones like birds or Mongooses. In the late morning you will visit the Datoga—a pastoralist and skilled blacksmith tribe. They collect metal scrap and cleverly fashion out bracelets, arrowheads and knives. You will have the opportunity to visit one of their huts where you can watch their women traditionally grind flour from corn, which they later bake for bread. In the late afternoon you will return to Karatu. On the way back for dinner and overnight stay, you can enjoy the impressions of your Safari and the unique visit to the Hadzabe and the Datoga. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Day 4: Traditional Village Maasai Experience

After breakfast you head to Mto-wa-Mbu to visit Maasai bomas (grouped huts/homestead of an extended family) to explore first-hand the Maasai traditional day-to-day traditional life and culture. On arrival at the village, you will be greeted in the traditional manner with a lot of singing and dancing. Your participation will be very much encouraged, enjoyed and appreciated! You will then have the opportunity to learn some customary practices such as fire-making and beadwork. You may also get the chance to meet and speak to villagers in their homes where questions are very welcome and your guide will happily interpret, if needed. You will also have the opportunity to purchase handmade leather and beadwork from the villagers. When the time is up, you will head back to your accommodation for dinner and overnight stay. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Day 5: Serengeti National Park

After an early breakfast you will drive to Serengeti National Park through the Rift Valley. Serengeti (from the Maa-language word for “endless plains”) is the oldest national park in Tanzania founded back in 1951. It is the heart of a vast ecosystem, whose species–rich animal world is simply “uniquely unique”. The Serengeti together with the Ngorongoro and the Maasai Mara in Kenya forms one of the world’s largest natural migration systems for wild animals. The Serengeti, with about 3 million larger mammals, boasts the richest wildlife worldwide. Annually over 1.4 million Wildebeest, almost 300,000 Thomson’s Gazelles, about 200,000 Zebras and a thousand Topis migrate within the three game parks’ collective territory. The animals follow the rainy seasons and lush, greener meadows. After your viewing, you will drive to your Camp where dinner and sleeping quarters await you. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Day 6: Serengeti National Park

After breakfast is the game drive along the Sogore River Circuit, which loops into the plains south of the Seronera river. The drive provides possible sightings of Lion, Thomson Gazelle, Topi, Ostrich and Cheetah. The nicely designed visitor’s center—not too far from the Serengeti Seronera area—is well worth a visit after the morning game drive. It offers some interesting wildlife displays as well as a gift shop selling information leaflets and maps of the area. A shop for cold drinks and snacks is also found in the vicinity. At the center under the shades of the giant Acacias, you will enjoy a relaxed picnic lunch. In the afternoon we will follow the Kopjes Circuit. Kopjes are weathered granite outcrops scattered around the plains. Most of them are miniature ecosystems providing shade and rainfall collected drinking water in the pools within the rocks. Kopjes usually attract formidably large Cobras and a number of lions that hide to pounce upon thirsty prey. These areas are therefore particularly good for spotting wildlife during the dry season. The Kopjes Circuit goes anti-clockwise around the Maasai Kopjes. After your long day out you will get back to your accommodation for dinner and overnight stay. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Day 7: Serengeti National Park

This day is completely peppered with further game drives in the Serengeti. In the evening you will return with many impressions of this long day back to your tented camp in the Serengeti for dinner and overnight stay. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Day 8: Serengeti National Park – Ngorongoro Crater

After breakfast you will continue with morning game drive in the Serengeti. By noon you will drive to Arusha. On your outward journey to the Park Gate, you will enjoy some more game viewing before leaving the National Park in the early afternoon and continue to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. As soon as you reach the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater, the giant caldera below is quite a breathtaking sight! You will then depart to Karatu for dinner and overnight stay. (Breakfast, Lunch. and Dinner).

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Day 9: Ngorongoro Crater – Arusha/JRO

After an early breakfast, you descend over 600m down and into a unique “wild-animal-world amphitheatre” for an unforgettable half-day game drive. the Crater, which enjoys a year-round water supply and therefore abundant fodder, supports – within its diameter of 17-21 kilometers – an impressive animal variety such as the “big five of “Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino and Leopard”. Here abound giant herds of Wildebeest, Zebra, Buffalo, Eland, Warthog, Hippo and African Elephants. With the impressive food chain, predators such as Hyenas, Jackals and Cheetahs can be easily spotted. With the help of trained eye of guides, the shy and elusive Leopard can also be seen.

Inclusive is the visit to Lake Magadi. The large, shallow alkaline lake is one of the main features of the Crater. Here, you and bird watchers will have your fill of viewing massive flocks of Flamingos, other water birds’ species plus Hippos. After your picnic lunch, you will start ascending from the crater on your way back to Arusha. (Breakfast and Lunch).