Great Safaris Trip Itinerary for Website - East Africa

Arusha National Park

Arusha National Park is one of the most interesting places in Northern Tanzania and famous for being a home to the second highest mountain in Tanzania, Mt Meru, as well as having the world’s largest population of giraffes. It harbors incredible wildlife species that cannot be viewed in other national parks in the northern circuit including vegetation types like the lush rainforest, savannah, alpine vegetation, and amazing wildlife like buffaloes, bushbucks, warthogs, zebra, red duikers, elephants, giraffe, leopards, hippos, primates like black and white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys and more. Birdlife is equally great with species like grey crowned crane, flamingos, African fish eagle, harlaubs turaco, secretary birds among others. The park has three distinct areas that are the Meru crater funneling the Jekukumia river in the west, Ngurdoto crated in the south-East and the shallow alkaline Momelle lakes with varying algae colors in the north-East.

Momella Lakes

The Momela lakes are located within the Arusha National Park, they are alkaline lakes whose shallow waters come from underground sources; on their bottom they grow many algae that many water birds that live on their shores feed on. The seven lakes are: Big Momela, Small Momela, El Kekhotoito, Kusare, Rishateni, Lekandiro and Tulusia.

Each lake has a source of spring water separated from the others and also has a different color ranging from green to turquoise; the reason for these different colors depends on different minerals contained in the individual lakes, in fact, even if they are not far one from the others, each of these lakes has a particular composition of minerals, that makes them all different from one another; there are also different algae that grow there, as well responsible for the different colors. These lakes are the perfect habitat for many aquatic birds, both resident and migrant, who are located in the park, such as the greater pink flamingos, the lesser pink flamingos, pelicans, Egyptian geese, guinea fowls, African fish eagles, African jacanas and many others.

Mto wa Mbu village

The bustling farming community of Mto Wa Mbu, located between Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater, is home to around 18,000 people. Spend half a day here and you will discover a side of Tanzania that many visitors miss. It is a melting pot of cultures, and Mto Wa Mbu is thought to be one of the only places in Tanzania’s East Africa Great Rift Valley where there are representatives from all 120 tribes living happily side by side.

Visiting Mto wa Mbu village is an immersive cultural experience on all levels. What makes this excursion a 'personal' journey is to listen to the guide who grew up in the village. The guide will share his personal stories growing up in the area, seeing the community through his eyes. Visit local farms and learn how they farm and survive, the school (if open), a kindergarten, local homes to meet the people, the vibrant market and milling machines.

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.

*** Auric Air Scheduled flight to the Serengeti (flight included)

Internal flight from Manyara Airstrip to Serengeti

Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti National Park is partly adjacent to the Kenya border and northwest of the adjoining Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is best known for its huge herds of plains animals, especially wildebeest, gazelles, and zebras and it is the only place in Africa where vast land-animal migrations still take place. The park, an international tourist attraction, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981.

The park was established in 1951 and covers 5,700 square miles with some of the best grassland range in Africa, as well as extensive acacia woodland savanna. With elevations ranging from 3,020 to 6,070 feet, the park extends 100 miles southeast from points near the shores of Lake Victoria and, in its eastern portion, 100 miles south from the Kenya-Tanzania border. During the wet season, from November to May, the herds graze in the southeastern plains within the park, with the calving season peaking around February when up to 8,000 calves are born daily for nearly two months. Early June one major group of animals moves west into the park’s woodland savanna and then north into the grasslands just beyond the Kenya-Tanzania border, an area known as the Masai Mara National Reserve, and another group migrates directly northward. The herds return to the Serengeti southeastern plains in November, at the end of the dry season.

*** Inclusive of Local Drinks

Game Drives in the Serengeti National Park

Morning and afternoon game drives in and over the vast plains of the Serengeti. Serengeti National Park is a World Heritage Site teeming with wildlife: over 2 million ungulates, 4000 lions, 1000 leopard, 550 cheetahs and some 500 bird species inhabit an area close to 15,000 square kilometers in size. Dotted with trees and kopjes from which majestic lions control their kingdom; gaze upon the Great Migration in awe or find an elusive leopard in a riverine forest. The biological diversity of the park is very high with at least four globally threatened or endangered animal species: black rhinoceros, elephant, wild dog, and cheetah.

Serengeti National Park is at the heart the larger Serengeti ecosystem, which is defined by the area covered by the annual migration. The property is contiguous with Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, an area of 528,000ha declared a World Heritage Site in 1979. The entire ecosystem also includes the Maswa Game Reserve in the south, Ikorongo Game Reserves in the east, Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya (1,672km2) to the north, and Loliondo Game Controlled Area in the west. This entire ecosystem is intact and no barriers hamper the migration. Serengeti National Park is sufficiently large and intact to ensure the survival and vigour of all the species contained therein, if maintained in its present state but does not, by itself, ensure the protection of the entire ecosystem.

Hot Air Balloon safari over the Serengeti

In the crisp air of dawn, the passengers watch the crew partially inflates the balloon with enormous fans before the gas burners are ignited to fill the balloon with hot air. The crew directs clients how to get into the basket moments before take-off. The balloons lift off just before sunrise when the breeze on the plains is still cold. Once airborne, the balloon is blown by the prevailing winds across the broad landscape. Apart from the hiss of the burners, the flight above the plains is magically silent. The pilot controls the height of the craft by regulating the flow of hot air into the balloon. Sometimes the balloon will descend over the plains for a close up view of the wildlife; on other occasions, it rises to clear a tree canopy and rise over the riverine forest. This is an experience never to be forgotten. Enjoy the rest of the day on safari exploring this amazing park.

*** Inclusive of Local Drinks
*** Hot air balloon safari is not included in the tour cost

*** Safari Airlink flight from Serengeti to Ruaha - depart 10:00am and arrive 12:40pm (flight included)

Internal flight to Ruaha National Park

Ruaha National Park

Ruaha National Park in southern Tanzania is named after the Hehe word for ‘river’ because the Great Ruaha River runs through the park. Ruaha is the second-largest national park in Tanzania, and due to its low visitor numbers, a safari here feels secluded and exclusive. Ruaha is a wildlife haven, hosting one of Tanzania’s largest elephant populations. Its vast landscapes are home to cheetah, lion, leopard, and endangered African wild dog and serves as one of “Tanzania’s Lion Conservation Units”. Giraffe, buffalo, hippopotamus, zebra, warthog, roan, greater kudu and sable antelope are some of the popular species found within the park. In the dry season the river draws wildlife in for drinking and becomes an excellent game viewing area. The park also supports a rich variety of birds, with over 570 species, making it a paradise for bird enthusiasts.

*** Inclusive of Local Drinks & Laundry

Game drives in Ruaha National Park

A game drives led by expert guides in the Ruaha National Park take place twice-daily and offer both the first-time and seasoned safari enthusiast a fantastic opportunity to encounter the wildlife of the region. Keep a look out for the greater and lesser kudu as well as the striking sable antelope and large herds of elephant. Come face to face with a big-maned lion and snap a picture of yourself standing next to one of Ruaha’s ancient baobabs. In the morning, extend your game drive to include a delectable picnic breakfast and in the evening, watch the final rays of the sun dance across the landscape as you enjoy a refreshing sundowner stop.

Ruaha is home to forty per cent of Tanzania’s lions and ten per cent of the total lion population of Africa. A spectacular place to discover the Kings of the Jungle, watch great prides of over thirty golden felines roam the vast terrain affirming their small, protected territory. These prides need substantial amounts of food and their favourite dish on the menu is hearty buffalo. When the buffalo prides leave, the lions pounce on giraffe, kudu and on rare occasion’s elephant.

*** Inclusive of Local Drinks & Laundry

*** Safari airlink scheduled flight to Selous - depart 13:15pm and arrive 15:00pm (flight included)

Internal flight from Ruaha to Selous

Selous Game Reserve

The Selous Game Reserve is the largest protected game reserve on the African continent covering an area of 54,600 square kilometers comprised of a vast wilderness with forests, grassy plains, mountains and open woodlands. Twice the size of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and three times Kruger National Park in South Africa. It was established in 1922 and in 1982 declared a UNESCO world heritage site thanks to its rich diversity of wildlife and uninterrupted nature.

This national reserve has abundant wildlife, approximately 145,000 buffalos, 4,000 Lions, 100,000 wildebeests, large journeys of giraffes, 35,000 zebras, 40,000 hippos, 250,000 impalas, large herds of Lichtenstein’s hartebeests, waterbucks, elands and bushbucks, in addition to leopards, crocodiles and hyenas. Furthermore this is among the few wildlife sanctuaries on the African continent where you will find the puku antelopes the African wild dogs as well as the sable antelope.

There are 445 different birds species including the giant kingfishers, the pink backed pelican as well as the African skimmer; along the sandbanks you will see the white-fronted bee-eater, fish eagle, carmine, ibises and palmnut vultures. The purple-crested turaco, yellow-billed stork, trumpeter hornbill, white-crowned spur-winged plovers, malachite kingfishers and various small waders are among the other water birds, as well various migrant species all visible.

*** Inclusive of Local Drinks & Laundry

Game drives in Selous Game Reserve

Game drives are conducted early in the morning as well as in the late afternoon with experienced and professional driver guides who are highly knowledgeable and knows the best places to find animals.

The Selous Game Reserve is amongst the largest protected areas in Africa and is relatively undisturbed by human impact. The property harbors one of the most significant concentrations of elephant, black rhinoceros, cheetah, giraffe, hippopotamus and crocodile, amongst many other species. The reserve also has an exceptionally high variety of habitats including Miombo woodlands, open grasslands, riverine forests and swamps, making it a valuable laboratory for on-going ecological and biological processes.

The reserve contains a great diversity of vegetation types, including rocky acacia-clad hills, gallery and ground water forests, swamps and lowland rain forest. The dominant vegetation of the reserve is deciduous Miombo woodlands, a globally important example of this vegetation type. Because of this fire-climax vegetation, soils are subject to erosion when there are heavy rains. The result is a network of normally dry rivers of sand that become raging torrents during the rains; these sand rivers are one of the most unique features of the Selous landscape. Large parts of the wooded grasslands of the northern Selous are seasonally flooded by the rising water of the Rufiji River, creating a very dynamic ecosystem.

More than 2,100 plants have been recorded and more are thought to exist in the remote forests in the south. Similarly, the property protects an impressive large mammal fauna; it contains globally significant populations of African elephant, black rhinoceros and wild hunting dog. It also includes one of the world's largest known populations of hippopotamus and buffalo. There are also important populations of ungulates including sable antelope, Lichtenstein's hartebeest , greater kudu, eland and Nyassa wildebeest . Because of this high density and diversity of species, the Selous Game Reserve is a natural habitat of outstanding importance for in-situ conservation of biological diversity.

Boat ride in Selous Game Reserve

The Selous Game Reserve is one of the very few places in Africa where it's possible to view wildlife from the water, and after the dust and bumpy roads of a game drive, there's nothing more relaxing that drifting along the river watching the wildlife. Sharing the river with pods of hippo and floats of crocodiles giving you the opportunity to view birds nesting in the banks, monitor lizards and many water birds are just some of the highlights.

*** Inclusive of Local Drinks & Laundry

*** Safari Airlink scheduled flight to Dar-es-salaam - depart 07:00am and arrive Dar-es-salaam 08:30am

Internal flight from Selous to Dar-es-Salaam

Departure flight from Dar-es-salaam Airport

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