A Week in Tanzania and Kenya Safari

In the morning, you will meet your guide, either at the airport or at your hotel.  Then it is time to board our comfortable vehicle for the 4-hour journey to the famed Ngorongoro Crater and your overnight accommodation nearby.  After checking in, it will be time for an afternoon game drive in the crater.

The Ngorongoro Crater was formed millions of years ago, when a massive volcano imploded during an eruption.  Collapsing in on itself, it left what is still the world’s largest intact caldera.  Separated from the surrounding landscape by sheer 600-metre-high slopes, the crater floor within is an isolated ecosystem teeming with life.  Covering 260 square kilometres (100 sq. mi.), the crater has two main ecosystems: forests on the slopes and grasslands (with occasional marshes) on the floor.  Here, the climate is temperate and mild, with two wet seasons, occurring in November-December and from March to May.  Be sure to pack warm clothing for game drives.

This is one of the few places in Tanzania where one can still see the Big 5 – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo – roaming free in one place.  The crater is said to have one of the highest densities of lions in Africa.  They sit at the top of the local food chain along with spotted hyenas and the occasional leopard.  Both elephants and buffalo are abundant, and, completing the ensemble, a variety of mammals, such as zebra, wildebeest, warthogs and various antelope species, abound.  Birds are also well-represented, with over 500 varieties represented.

As night falls, you’ll leave the crater for dinner and a well-deserved rest.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay in Ngorongoro Crater
• Lunch and dinner, not breakfast
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

In the cool morning, you’ll descend once more into the mist-veiled crater.  Overnight, all sorts of dramas will have taken place, and there is a good chance you’ll encounter a pride of lions feasting on their latest prey.  While lions are often considered the ‘king of the jungle’, they are locked in an eternal feud with roaming clans of spotted hyenas.

After the game drive, it is time to leave Ngorongoro for your next destination, the widely esteemed Serengeti National Park.  The park is most famous for the annual wildebeest migration, during which 2 million wildebeest and millions of other herbivores follow the rains in search of fresh grazing.  Serengeti National Park covers nearly 15,000 square kilometres (5791 sq. mi) of rolling grasslands interspersed with thickets and rocky outcrops.  The climate in the Serengeti is pleasant year-round, thanks to the altitude.  While it doesn’t get too hot, temperatures drop significantly overnight.  The area experiences two Wet seasons: from November to December and March-May.  Conditions for game viewing are best from June to October.

In the afternoon, you’ll head off on a game drive.  Game viewing is excellent throughout the year, with the wildebeest migration’s location varying throughout the year.  As the sun sets, you’ll return to camp for dinner and bed.

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

With such a vast expanse to explore, the entire day will be spent out in the field.  The plains of the Serengeti are made up of vast grasslands crisscrossed by several rivers.  This combination sustains a huge amount of life.  In total, some 70 different mammal species are on record, along with close to 500 different birds.  While technically the Big 5 are present, rhinos are very rare.  The most common large predators are the lions and hyenas.  The area also boasts great sightings of Africa’s spotted cats, leopards and cheetahs.  Of the two, although endangered, cheetahs thrive in the open landscape, which allows them to use their speed to full advantage.  Cheetahs do most of their hunting by day, so there is every chance of seeing one streaking across the plains in pursuit of a panicked antelope.  

At lunchtime, your guide will select a scenic spot to stop for lunch and a good stretch.  The safari continues into the late afternoon.  The Serengeti is blessed with large herds of elephants and buffalo.  Both species love the water, both to slake their thirst and to cool down in the midday heat.  Other general game species that you’re likely to see include the ubiquitous wildebeests and zebras, Thomson’s gazelle, topi, and giraffe.

Returning to camp in the late afternoon, enjoy dinner under the stars before retiring.

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

On your final morning in the Serengeti, try capturing some iconic images of the landscape and wildlife.  A lone giraffe browsing from a flat-topped acacia tree, a family of elephants walking trunk-to-tail, a lion yawning in the golden light.  Afterwards, you will leave the Serengeti and Tanzania to head north into Kenya’s renowned Masai Mara National Reserve.  After arriving at your accommodation, you’ll enjoy lunch and a short siesta before heading out on an afternoon game drive.

The Masai Mara is about a tenth of the size of the Serengeti but shares an equal density of wildlife.  Sitting at a similar altitude to its southern neighbour, the reserve is both cooler and wetter than one would expect.  Daytime temperatures hover in the mid-twenties Celsius, while evenings cool significantly.  The Mara, as it is commonly known, experiences its best weather and game viewing from June to October, when it is dry.  Seasonal rains occur in March-April and November-December.  The great wildebeest migration briefly arcs out of the Serengeti between July/August and October.  While the Big 5 do occur in the reserve, sightings of rhinos are rare.

As the sun dips to the horizon, the colours of the sky and landscape intensify before bruising into starlit darkness.  Back at camp, you’ll enjoy another great meal before retiring for the night.

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

As in Serengeti, today’s activities centre on an extended dawn-to-dusk game drive.  With refreshments on board your safari vehicle, you’ll be further revitalised at a lunchtime picnic.

All three of Africa’s big cats are frequently spotted by safari-goers.  As most safari vehicles are equipped with radios, sightings are widely shared and accessible.  You’ll more than likely encounter spotted hyenas, and there is a slim chance of seeing African wild dogs.  Other predators that roam the Mara include serval, caracal, jackal and bat-eared fox.

It’s worth checking out the renowned river crossings if you are fortunate to visit during the migration.  These are a highlight for both human observers and various predators.  To reach further grazing, the great herd occasionally has to ford fast-flowing rivers.  Tentative at first, the wildebeest and antelope crowd the riverbank until the pressure sees hundreds of braying and bleating bodies leap into the swirling, crocodile-infested waters.  Furthermore, various predators set up ambushes in the surrounding cover, adding to the chaotic extravaganza.

Like the Serengeti, the year-round game viewing is only slightly diminished outside the migration window, with Thomson’s gazelle, eland, topi, reedbuck, impala, and giraffe all regularly spotted.  For birders, a proliferation of over 500 species awaits discovery.

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

This morning, after breakfast, it is time to say goodbye to the Masai Mara.  The trip to your next destination, Lake Nakuru National Park, will take in the region of 5 hours, through scenic countryside.

Lake Nakuru National Park is Kenya’s most popular wildlife destination, thanks to the prolific birdlife and excellent game viewing.  The park covers an area of approximately 188 square kilometres (73 square miles). Located within the Great Rift Valley, the lake itself is one of several Rift lakes and is renowned for the prolific birdlife it attracts.  Vast flocks of pink flamingoes step delicately through its shallows.  This is also the top place in Kenya to see both black and white rhinos.  The year-round climate remains fairly consistent, ranging in the mid-twenties Celsius by day, but dipping significantly overnight, into the early morning.  Most of the annual rainfall occurs from April to May, although scattered showers occur throughout the year.

On arrival, you will be shown to your accommodation, and there will be an afternoon game drive.  With a bit of luck, you’ll get to see some of the endangered rhinos and Rothschild’s giraffes that can be found living peacefully along the lakeshore.

Returning to camp by sunset, it’s time to enjoy your last dinner under the African sky.

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

The morning game drive will be the last of your East African journey, so be sure to keep an eye out for any of those bucket-list species you might not have seen.  These might include any of the 450 different species of birds, especially the huge variety of waterfowl, from tiny finches to imposing eagles.

On leaving Lake Nakuru, we will travel southeast for a little over three hours to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.  There, it will be time to part ways with your guide for your onward destination.  Having seen so much over the past week, you may well feel reflective, perhaps even have a niggling need to return.  As Brian Jackman once quipped, “Everything in Africa bites, but the safari bug is the worst of all.”  We hope that you, too, have been nipped by the ‘safari bug’, for we have so much more we’d love to share with you.

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