The Big 5 in Tanzania Safari

After breakfast, we head across the hilly plateaus of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where the red-robed Maasai live in traditional villages of thatched huts and their cattle graze amongst the savannah game like zebra and gazelle. Along the way, there is time to enjoy a packed lunch, and the route heads northwest via the Naabi Hill Gate and into the Serengeti National Park. Meaning ‘endless plains’ in the Maasai language, the Serengeti covers a vast 14,763-sq-km and is one of Africa’s largest and most celebrated wilderness areas. You will spend the next four nights at a comfortable safari lodge or tented camp, which is located in the south-central region of the park known as the Seronera Valley. It’s a very scenic area with acacia-studded open plains lined with low hills and abundant wildlife including large numbers of big cats.

• Overnight in Serengeti National Park
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

Your three full safari days in the Serengeti will be planned between yourself and your Tanzanian safari guide/driver. You can choose to embark on full day game drives with a picnic packed lunch, or early morning and late afternoon game drives combined with lunch and some relaxation at your safari lodge or tented camp. If you are there during the annual wildebeest migration, remember the Serengeti is very large and the length of game drives will depend on the movement and position of the migrating animals, but your expert Tanzanian guide knows very well how to locate the herds. At any time of year, there is no shortage of things to see, and the Serengeti is home to all the major safari animals such as lion, leopard, elephant, cheetah, buffalo and wild dog, and plenty of grazing herbivores including giraffe, Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, waterbuck, hartebeest, eland, topi and zebra.

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

The Serengeti National Park is famous for the ‘Great Migration’, one of the biggest movements of land animals on the planet when up to two million hooved animals—mostly wildebeest and zebra—follow the rains each year in a roughly circular migration between the Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. July sees the herds gather on the western edge of the Serengeti, ready to cross the Grumeti and Mara Rivers; August—September sees the massed herds move northwards and into the Masai Mara; and in October the animals cross back over the Mara River once more and travel to the southern Serengeti plains. Every step of this arduous journey is fascinating to watch, especially as the herds are followed by plenty of predators like lion and cheetah and scavengers like hyenas, while giant crocodiles wait in the rivers. But even without this mass migration, the Serengeti is a spectacular place and these extended days on safari are the perfect way to experience the magic.

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

Another exciting Serengeti safari today and you might see hippos wallowing in deep-green pools, large crocodiles sunning themselves on riverbanks, elephants having a muddy bath at a waterhole, or a leopard dragging its kill into the branches of a huge yellow-barked acacia tree. A memorable, out-of-the-ordinary experience is to start the day with an optional hot air balloon safari, US$599 per person, and it’s wonderful to float over the plains and rivers of the Serengeti in the first light of dawn and watch the wildlife below.

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

Departing the Serengeti, we drive back into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This highland region of plains, woodlands and forests protects the Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest caldera and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is 19.2-km in diameter, 610-metres deep and covers an area of 304-sq-km and was formed when a volcano erupted and collapsed on itself approximately two and a half million years ago. The well-fertilised volcanic soils create rich grazing for the animals and it is often referred to as ‘the Garden of Eden’. On the way, and for an extra fee, you can stop at the museum at Olduvai Gorge to learn about the archaeological excavations that escalated the studies of early man. In the afternoon we enjoy our first descent down to the crater floor and your expert guide will show you every corner of the dramatic landscape to see some of the 20,000 or so large mammals that live there. These include a number of black rhino, making the crater the best place in Tanzania to see these amazing creatures, and it’s also well-known for high densities of carnivores including leopard, lion, hyena and jackal. When we ascend back to the crater rim, you may catch a glimpse of a magnificent sunset before heading to our camp/lodge

• Overnight in Ngorongoro Conservation Area
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water, all other drinks are extra

After an early breakfast, we head back down into the crater for another thrilling game drive. This breath-taking oasis provides a haven for both predator and prey to live among the grasslands, swamps, fresh springs and savannah woodlands. All the Big Five are present—rhino, lion, leopard, buffalo and elephant—as well as most of the plains game with the exception of giraffe as the crater walls are too steep for them to climb down. The birdlife is largely seasonal and is also affected by the ratio of soda to fresh water in Lake Magadi on the crater floor, but you are likely to see flamingos, geese, storks, vultures and more. We take a break from the vehicle for lunch at the Ngoitoktok Springs picnic site—look out for the entertaining black kites (large birds of prey) that brazenly swoop down to grab food.

• Overnight in Ngorongoro Conservation Area
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water, all other drinks are extra

After breakfast, depart for Lake Manyara National Park on the floor of the Great Rift Valley for an afternoon game drive. At 330-sq-km, this is one of Tanzania’s smallest parks and about 200-sq-km is covered by its Rift Valley soda lake. The dense woodlands and steep mountainsides make it very scenic, especially from the viewpoints on top of the escarpment looking down on the lake. The varied ecosystem consists of ground water forests, acacia woodland and open grassland along the lakeshore. These habitats sustain a wealth of wildlife, including large herds of elephant and buffalo, giraffe and impala, while troops of olive baboon and Sykes monkey frolic in the trees and you might be lucky and spot the famous tree-climbing lions that the park is famous for. The lake also attracts more than 400 species of birds, and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day. Highlights include thousands of pink-hued flamingos as well as other large water birds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.

• Overnight in Lake Manyara National Park
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water, all other drinks are extra