Wings over East Africa

You’ll wake early this morning for a very special optional experience.  While the cool air is still calm, you’ll ascend in a hot-air balloon over the savanna as the rising sun paints the landscape below.  Africa’s light has to be seen to be believed, and when it illuminates a landscape of rich colours and gentle terrain dotted with wildlife, it beggars belief.  With your spirits soaring, you’ll gently touchdown and board your custom safari vehicle.  

Whether or not you choose to experience the balloon safari, the rest of the day will be spent looking for wildlife.  Around lunchtime, your guide will select a scenic spot where you can stretch your legs and enjoy a tasty picnic surrounded by nature.

The Masai Mara is home to the Big 5, a term coined in colonial times in reference to the five animals hunters regarded as the most dangerous to pursue on foot.  They are the lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and Cape buffalo.  Since guides are in radio contact, information on sightings is shared, so you have an excellent chance of ticking these iconic species from your checklist.

Savour the setting sun as you return to camp in the late afternoon before freshening up for dinner, followed by a good night’s sleep.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay inside Masai Mara National Reserve
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

Refreshed the next day, it is time to say goodbye to the Masai Mara.  After breakfast, you’ll be taken to the local airstrip to catch a flight across the border into Tanzania.  Later, upon arriving at the Serengeti National Park, you’ll be warmly welcomed at your lodgings and served a delicious lunch.  Then, take a short siesta before once again setting off in search of wildlife.

Serengeti National Park covers nearly 15,000 square kilometres (5791 sq. mi), roughly ten times the size of the Masai Mara.  Like its neighbour to the north, the Serengeti is also home to the Great Migration.  Pausing only on its southern plains to give birth to their young, the migration moves constantly in search of grazing.  With over 2 million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra, gazelle and other antelope, that’s a lot of mouths to feed.  Like the Mara, the Serengeti is home to the Big 5, although rhinos are only seen on very rare occasions.

There is, however, an abundance of other species.  These include around 70 different mammals and in the region of 500 bird species.

Concluding your game drive back at your camp, enjoy a traditional gin & tonic before dinner around the campfire.  Then, drift off to the stirring sounds of the African night.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay inside Serengeti National Park
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

Once again, you have the opportunity to rise before dawn to embark on another optional hot-air balloon safari.  See how many different species you can count before touching down.  

As before, whether or not you do the balloon safari, the entire day will be spent enjoying the sights, scents and sounds of the Serengeti.  Keeping you comfortable and refreshed, you will once again stop at a beautiful lookout for lunch and a short walkabout.

While everyone has their favourite species, few would argue that it is always special to see predators.  Whether resting or on the hunt, they stir something primal in us.  Given its huge population of herbivores, the area also supports an excellent population of large predators.  Among them, a distinct hierarchy exists.  

Here, the graceful cheetah occupies the lowest position.  They have sacrificed strength and bulk for speed and can reach speeds of up to 120 km/h (70 mph).  Being solitary, leopards rely on stealth and phenomenal strength to survive.  With luck, you’ll see one resting in a tree, its fresh kill draped in the branches nearby.  Next up are spotted hyenas.  Accomplished hunters in their own right, they are more than just scavengers.  Their social behaviours show an intelligent creature, occasionally able to outwit their chief foe – lions.  Of course, being social and bigger than all other predators, lions sit at the top of the hierarchy.  You’re sure to hear their incredibly deep-throated roars several times throughout your stay.

By day’s end, a warm meal and a comfortable bed will be a welcome sight.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay inside Serengeti National Park
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

On your final morning, you’ll set off once again to spot wildlife.  Iconic moments abound in the Serengeti.  Feeling the drum of millions of stampeding hooves as the migration passes is unforgettable, as is the sight of a lone giraffe browsing from a flat-topped acacia tree, or a normally solemn breeding herd of elephants splashing around with childlike abandon in a river.  Seemingly at every turn, the Serengeti gifts visitors with sights the soul will want to hold onto.

Returning to camp, it is now time to say goodbye to the Serengeti.  You’ll be driven to the airstrip where you’ll board a flight to Arusha, the safari capital of Tanzania.  From there, you’ll depart for your onward destination.  Here, we say our goodbyes, quietly certain that before long, you’ll return to once again soar over the East African plains and savour her abundant treasures.

• No accommodation, this is the final day
• Breakfast, no lunch or dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra