Great Safaris Trip Itinerary for Sarah Group - 2027

Giraffe Centre

The Giraffe Centre is home of the endangered Rothschild Giraffe and the Centre allows one to feed the Giraffes - a truly awesome experience. Attend a short lecture to learn how and why the Centre is taking care of these amazing animals. Leave with a whole lot more knowledge about wildlife in Kenya.

History of the Giraffe Centre: The Africa Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W.) Kenya was founded in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie-Melville, a Kenyan citizen of British descent, and his American-born wife, Betty Leslie-Melville. They began the Giraffe Centre after discovering the sad plight of the Rothschild Giraffe. A subspecies of the giraffe found only in the grasslands of East Africa.

The Giraffe Centre has also become world-famous as a Nature Education Centre, educating thousands of Kenyan school children every year.

At the time, the animals had lost their habitat in Western Kenya, with only 130 of them left on the 18,000-acre Soy Ranch that was being sub-divided to resettle squatters. Their first effort to save the subspecies was to bring two young giraffes, Daisy and Marlon, to their home in the Lang’ata suburb, southwest of Nairobi. Here they raised the calves and started a programme of breeding giraffe in captivity. This is where the Centre remains to date.

Betty and Jock then registered A.F.E.W. in the United States. Funds were raised to move five other groups of giraffe to different safe areas. Breeding herds of 26 giraffes were translocated from Soy Ranch to the Ruma Game Reserve in present-day Homa Bay County, Lake Nakuru National Park in Nakuru and Nasolot Game Reserve in modern-day West Pokot County. In 1985, seven giraffes were introduced to Yodder Flower Farm near the Mwea Game Reserve in Mbeere District in Eastern Kenya.

In 1983, funds raised by A.F.E.W. USA helped build the Educational Centre on a 60-acre sanctuary. This with the extraordinary vision of creating an educational institution in conjunction with rescuing the giraffe. The Giraffe Centre opened its doors to the general public and students the same year, receiving over 800 excited students.

There are now over 300 Rothschild Giraffe safe and breeding well in various Kenyan national parks. Recent herds have been introduced to Soysambu Ranch by Lake Elementaita in the Great Rift Valley, Kigio Conservancy and the Sergoit Ranch in the Mount Elgon region.

Daphne Sheldrick Animal Orphanage

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, is located in a secluded area of the nearby Nairobi National Park. Orphaned baby elephants and other animals are taken care of by a dedicated team of conservationists. The orphanage is run by Angela Sheldrick, the daughter of the late famous Naturalist, David William Sheldrick who was the founder Warden of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya and his wife, the late Dame Daphne Sheldrick.

The baby animals are brought from the National Park for a mud-bath at the orphanage, where for an hour you can get close to them, touch and feed them. In addition, there is a keeper who will give a talk about the elephants, where they came from, how they are getting on, and how some of the previous orphans are progressing. The orphanage also takes in rhinos and so if you are lucky you will get the chance to see a young rhino.

To date the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has successfully hand-raised over 263 orphaned elephants and has accomplished its long-term conservation priority by effectively reintegrating orphans back into the wild herds of Tsavo, claiming many healthy wild-born calves from former-orphaned elephants raised in their care.

Rescued elephants, rhinos and giraffes can be adopted; it takes as little as $50 a year and as foster parents, you receive a personalized adoption certificate, a monthly email update on your orphan and access to the latest Keepers’ diaries, videos and photos. You can also help by picking up a souvenir (or two or three) from the gift shop.

Carnivore Restaurant

Dining at Carnivore Restaurant is not for the light eater, but rather an indulgent “Nyama Choma” dining venue where you sample an abundance of varied juicy meats roasted over a charcoal fire that are piled on your plate until your stomach is beyond full. When the meat has reached a perfect temperature, waiters carry the full skewers through the restaurant, and the aromas tempt your taste buds and stir your curiosity.

Since 1980, Carnivore Restaurant has been satisfying the appetites of meat lovers and safari adventurers with a never-ending selection of ostrich, crocodile, venison depending on what is locally available, served alongside beef, lamb, pork and chicken. A variety of side dishes complete this gastronomical tour of African cuisine, such as salads, soups, vegetable dishes and authentic sauces. The experience is enhanced by the informal, relaxed setting while gulping a Carnivore Dawa cocktail to hydrate, refresh and sharpen your palate for every delicious morsel.

Should you find that even one more nibble is simply unbearable, just lower the white flag in the middle of your table and your surrender is noted with a final edible bite of dessert served with coffee or tea. More than two million international guests have shared in what is known as “the ultimate Beast of a Feast,” and the restaurant has been lauded in varied international culinary and dining publications and TV shows. AfricanMecca offers this dining experience as a lunch or dinner option along with a hotel pickup and drop off service.

Shared transfer to the Airport

Internal flight from Nairobi to Arusha

Land Transfer from Arusha to Tarangire National park

Tarangire National Park

Welcome to one of Africa's most underrated parks. Thanks to its proximity to Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire National Park is usually assigned only a day visit as part of a larger northern-circuit itinerary. Yet it deserves much more. It is a place where elephants dot the plains like cattle, and where lion roars and zebra barks fill the night.

But here the wildlife tells only half the story. Dominating the park's 2850 sq km, Tarangire's great stands of epic baobabs should be reason enough to visit. There are also sun-blistered termite mounds in abundance, as well as grassy savannah plains and vast swamps. And cleaving the park in two is the Tarangire River, its meandering course and (in some places) steep banks providing a dry-season lure for animals and thus many stirring wildlife encounters for visitors.

Game Drives in Tarangire National Park

Morning and afternoon game drives are conducted in a 4x4 customized game viewing vehicle with a professional driver - guide. Tarangire is an elephant enthusiast's paradise with up to 6,000 roaming the park. It is impossible to spend time in the park without encountering these iconic animals, feeding at the base of a baobab, strolling through the riverine forests or 'playing' in the mud of the marshlands. They are often present in a conglomeration of herds that could be 300 individuals - an incredible sight for even the most seasoned safari-goer.

Elephants aside, Tarangire is home to one of the greatest concentration of wildlife outside of the larger Serengeti ecosystem. They dry season influx of ungulates sees a profusion of wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, eland, hartebeest and buffalo assembled near the river, or around residual pools in the swamps. Such a conservation of prey serves to attract the attention of the park's various resident predators, particularly the ever-attended lions. The lions of the Silale Swamps are particularly renowned, not only for their marshy hunting techniques, but also for their habit of lounging in the boughs of trees. Leopards and cheetah are also present, and even the highly endangered African wildlife dog. Away from the wetter areas of the park, one might be fortunate enough to spot a gerenuk or fringe-eared oryx, making Taranigire one of the few places in Tanzania to see these arid species.

Internal flight from Tarangire to Lake Manyara

Game drives in Lake Manyara National Park

Welcome to Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its tree climbing lions. One of the small parks in Tanzania with an exceptional diverse vegetation ranging from savannah to marsh to evergreen forest, a total of 11 ecosystems. The chance to see elephant families moving through the forest or Lake Manyara's famous population of tree-climbing lions are alone reason enough to come. Lake Manyara also provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife with more than 400 species have been recorded to date, which include pink-hued flamingos (by the thousands during migration), as well as other large water-birds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks. The dramatic western escarpment of the Rift Valley forms the park’s western border. To the east is the alkaline Lake Manyara, which covers one-third of the park but shrinks considerably in the dry season. During the rains, the lake hosts millions of flamingos and other bird life.

Land transfer from Lake Manyara to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Game drives in Ngorongoro Crater

Game drives descend into the Ngorongoro Crater through a lush highland forest, with magnificent birdlife to be spotted among the different tree species. Once on the grassy crater floor, you may discover a large variety of grazing herbivores, up to 25,000 animals, as well as the predators that are attracted by this abundant supply of prey. Depending on the time of year, you may see huge flocks of pink flamingo around the shores of the shallow Lake Magadi, while the surrounding swamp is inhabited by hippo. Safari vehicles are closed, with glass windows and a pop-up roof.

The crater has formed its own ecosystem due to its enclosed nature, and is one place where you can certainly tick all the boxes. Lerai Forest comprised of yellow fever trees and Lake Magadi, a shallow soda lake. Roam to the east and you will find Gorigor Swamp and the Ngoitokitok Springs where happy pods of hippo can be found. The north of the Crater is where the bulk of the resident game resides thanks to the drier, open grasslands.

Ngorongoro Crater & Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Crater is an extinct volcanic caldera in the Eastern Great Rift Valley, northern Tanzania. The caldera measures between 10 and 12 miles across and has an area of 102 square miles. Its heavily forested rim rises 2,000 feet above the caldera’s floor to an elevation of 7,500 feet. Ngorongoro is thought to have formed about 2.5 million years ago from a large active volcano whose cone collapsed inward after a major eruption, leaving the present vast, unbroken caldera as its chief remnant.

The caldera’s floor is predominantly open grassland. It is home to a diverse array of animals including elephants, black rhinoceroses, leopards, buffalo, zebras, warthogs, gnu (wildebeests), Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles, and the densest population of lions in the world. The local Masai people also graze their livestock in the crater. Lake Magadi, a shallow soda lake ringed by extinct volcanoes, is renowned as a habitat for great flocks of pink flamingos.

Internal flight from Manyara Airstrip to Serengeti

Shared road transfer to the lodge

Northern Serengeti National Park

Kogatende, which is in Northern Serengeti, near the Mara River is a great place to get away from the crowds since it is secluded and inaccessible, sandwiched between the Central Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve to the north.

Travelers who make it to this part of the Serengeti will be rewarded with breathtaking scenery, including green rolling hills, granite outcrops, and acacia woodlands dotting open savanna, incredible wildlife, and, most importantly, massive herds of wildebeest and zebra crossing the croc-infested Mara River during the Great Migration in June and July, and again in September and October - subject to rainfall and migration patterns that change annually. This area of the park is also home to a number of other attractions.

This section of the park is also home to the Serengeti’s highest concentration of elephants, as well as large concentrations of lion, leopard, cheetah, and hyena, as well as a variety of resident species including giraffe, topi, eland, and hippo. The Mara River, which flows through the Northern Serengeti before entering Lake Victoria in the west, is without a doubt the centerpiece of this isolated Serengeti region. The river is home to massive hippos and a variety of wildlife, including giraffe, elephant, leopard, and lion.

Game drives in North Serengeti National Park

Travelers who make it to this corner of the Serengeti will be rewarded with gorgeous landscapes of green rolling hills, granite outcrops and acacia woodlands dotting open savanna, incredible wildlife, and most importantly, with massive herds of wildebeest and zebra making dangerous crossing of the croc-infested Mara River during the Great Migration in June and July and again in September, October and November. This sector of the park is also home to the greatest concentration of elephant in the Serengeti, as well as good numbers of lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena and diverse resident animals such as giraffe, topi, eland and hippo.

Internal Flight from Kogatende to Arusha

Arusha

Arusha is Tanzania's gateway to the northern circuit of stellar national parks and the starting point of a memorable safari. Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, Arusha City has a temperate climate. The city is close to the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyara National Park, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Meru in the Arusha National Park.

It's also a large, sprawling city with vibrant markets that sell everything from meat and fish to fabrics and electronics, curios and African art by local artists. They are crowded and busy but a great way to experience 'local' Africa. Arusha is also considered an international diplomatic hub. It is home to the East African Community, and is set to be the capital city of the proposed East African federation. Arusha is home to many industries and business sectors, including banking, manufacturing, and tourism.

Shared transfer to the Airport

Departure flight from Kilimanjaro Airport

Bid farewell to Africa, for now until your next Safari !