Itinerary

Day 1: Arusha > Tarangire
Your guide will meet you at your hotel and conduct a pre-departure briefing at 09h00 for a 09h30 departure. Your guide can assist you should you wish to exchange money or purchase other beverages or snacks. The rest of the safari crew will have gone ahead to set up your camp. The drive to Tarangire is just over two hours and you will either be able to enjoy lunch at the campsite or a picnic lunch en route, so that you will be able to spend the rest of the day game-viewing.  Overnight Comfort Camping in Tarangire. (BLD)

About Tarangire
Countless elephant scrach the dry river bed for underground streams while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd shringking lagoons - the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem occurs within the Tarangire National Park. Then, when finally the first rains fall, these seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 square kilometre range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. Tarangire's mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry. And the swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus of many of the park's 550 bird species, one of the highest tallies for any protected area anywhere in the world. On drier ground you find the Kori bustard, the world's heaviest flying bird; the stocking-thighed ostrich, the world's largest bird; and small parties of ground hornbills blustering like turkeys. More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colourful yellow-collared lovebird, and the somewhat drabber rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling - all endemic to the dry savannah of north-central Tanzania. Disused termite mounds are often frequented by colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their loud, clockwork-like duetting. Tarangire's pythons climb trees, as do its liions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail.

Day 2: Tarangire
This morning, you will be able to enjoy a full day exploring Tarangire National Park where you can enjoy game viewing and bird watching. If you rise early, you will enjoy the park in relative "privacy" before other guests arrive from their lodges outside of the park. Tonight, spend a second evening in your private campsite in Tarangire or in a nearby private concession.  Overnight Comfort Camping in Tarangire. (BLD)

Day 3: Lake Manyara > Ngorongoro
This morning after breakfast, continue to game drives in Lake Manyara.  Continue to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, weave your way upwards into the densely forested slopes of the Ngorongoro Conservation area, pausing to admire the splendid view of the crater floor 600 metres below at Heroes Point.  Overnight Comfort Camping at Ngorongoro. (BLD)

About Ngorongoro
The Ngorongoro Crater, at 2286 metres above sea level, is the largest unbroken caldera in the world. Surrounded by very steep walls rising 610 metres from the crater floor, this natural amphitheatre measures 19.2 kilometres in diameter and 304 square kilometres in area. It is home to up to 30,000 animals, almost half being wildebeest and zebra. Buffalo, elephant, hippo, hyena, jackal, lion, ostrich, serval, warthog, bushbuck, eland, hartebeest, reedbuck, waterbuck and huge herds of both Thomson's and Grant's gazelle are easily seen on the crater floor. Thanks to anti-poaching patrols, the crater is now one of the few places in East Africa where visitors can be certain of seeing black rhino, with the number now reaching 25. Leopard may occasionally be seen in the trees of the forest surrounding the crater while cheetah are present but rarely seen. Large herds of giraffe live on the rim of the crater. Countless flamingo form a pink blanket over the soda lakes while more than 100 species of birds not seen in the Serengeti have been spotted. The crater, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which covers more than 8,300 square kilometres. It is bounded by Lake Eyasi in the southwest and the Gol Mountains in the north. Roughly in the centre is the Olbalal Swamp and the arid Olduvai Gorge.

Day 4: Ngorongoro > Serengeti National Park
This morning head down into the caldera below and spend the rest of the day enjoying game viewing in one of the most spectacular places on earth! Photographic opportunities are abundant, and one often sees four out of the Big Five in a short time. Have a picnic lunch at the floor of the crater at a pleasant lakeside location, where you can stretch your legs and soak up the magnificent scenery.  Break up camp after lunch and embark on a game drive into the great Serengeti plains. Before crossing from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area into the Serengeti National Park, you should take the opportunity to visit the Olduvai Gorge. Here you may attend a short talk on the archaeological importance of Olduvai and the work of Mary and Louis Leakey in excavating the area and discovering some of Africa's most important hominid fossils. You might consider the optional extra of a visit to a Maasai village boma where you can spend some time learning about the culture, traditions and beliefs of this ancient, noble warrior tribe. This is an additional cost, and should be discussed with the guide, and paid directly to the guide and the Masai.  Overnight Comfort Camping in the Serengeti. (BLD)

About the Serengeti
Serengeti is Tanzania's oldest and most popular national park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its annual migration when some six million hooves - not only wildebeest but also zebra and gazelle - march as one in search of fresh grazing. And even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers scintillating game viewing: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and gazelle. The spectacle of predator versus prey dominates. Golden-maned lions feast on an abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt acacia trees along the Seronera River, while greyhound-like cheetahs prown the open plains. All three African jackal species occur here, alongside the spotted hyena and a host of more elusive small predators, from the insectivorous aardwolf to the beautiful serval cat. There is more to the Serengeti than large mammals. There are also wooded hills and towering termite mounds, rivers lined with fig trees and acacia woodland stained orange by dust. Gaudy agama lizards and rock hyraxes scuffle around isolated granite kopjes. A full 100 varieties of dung beetle have been recorded, as have 500 plus bird species, making the park endlessly rewarding to birders. Above all, there is the liberating sense of space that characterises the sunburnt plains, as they stretch to shimmering golden horizon at the end of the earth. After the rains, this golden grassy expanse is transformed into a lush green carpet flecked with wildflowers. Popular the Serengeti might be, but its vastness is such that you might be the only human audience when a pride of lions masterminds a siege, focussed unswervingly on its next meal.

Balloon Safari
If you would like to go on an early morning balloon safari over the Serengeti, this MAY be possible, but is largely dependent on the position of your pre-booked accommodation or camp and the season you are travelling. Please note that the balloon safaris can only be guaranteed if they are pre-booked and there is an additional charge for this.

Day 5: Serengeti National Park
Morning and afternoon, or full day game drives in Serengeti National Park. If you would like to go on an early morning balloon safari over the Serengeti, this may be possible - but it is largely dependent on the position of your pre-booked campsites and the season that you travel. Please note that balloon safaris can only be organised by pre-arrangement and there is an additional cost for this.  Overnight Comfort Camping in the Serengeti. (BLD)

Day 6: Serengeti National Park
Another day in the Serengeti - with either morning and afternoon game drives or a full day game drive with picnic lunch.  Overnight Comfort Camping in the Serengeti. (BLD)

Day 7: Serengeti to Arusha
It is recommended that you consider the option of flying back from the Serengeti to Arusha today. It is an exceptionally scenic flight over the highlands of Ngorongoro, across the vast expanse of the Rift Valley escarpments, and over the green coffee plantations surrounding Arusha airport. On a clear day, you will see amazing views of Mount Meru's dark profile rising up above the town, cloaked in wisps of cloud, and sometimes Kilimanjaro in the distance. This flight is an additional cost. Should you fly back, only breakfast this morning will be included.

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