6 Days Tarangire – Lake Manyara – Serengeti – Ngorongoro

After breakfast leaves the camp and proceeds to Lake Manyara National Park for a day of game viewing an area Hemingway described as, “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”. Lake Manyara National Park is a naturalist’s delight thanks to its diverse environments. Ranging from the underground-water forest and acacia woodlands to grasslands, swamps, marshes, and hot springs, the park is simply packed with wildlife. Over 400 species of bird have been recorded including large flocks of flamingos and migratory water birds. Manyara’s forests ring with the call of monkeys and birds while its acacia woodlands are home to Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions and slow-strolling elephants. The park is also home to the largest troops of baboons in Africa, zebra wildebeest, giraffe, hippos, leopard, and impala, and in the late evening drive to camp or lodge for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, you will travel via the cooler highlands towards the southern Serengeti and at mid-day you will reach the plains of the Serengeti plains. This park is the oldest and famous in Tanzania and has a diversity of habitats and landscapes – short grass plains, savannah, thick bush, swamps and lakes. Bizarre rock formations called kopjes dot the grassy landscape where predators are often seen. The Serengeti is famous for the yearly migration when hundreds of thousands of wildebeests and zebras trek to find fresh grass and water, game viewing is good year around with great sighting of lions, cheetah leopard, hippos, and giraffe in the evening drive to camp or Lodge for dinner and overnight.

The entire day is dedicated to game viewing in the Serengeti National Park. The areas that you visit will depend upon where the migrating herds are. Predators usually follow closely behind the trekking animals and include lions, leopards (in the acacia trees) and cheetahs. During the short rainy season in November and December the herds move from the hills in the north to the plains in the south. During the longer rainy season from April to June they return to the central part of the park.  As the migration is completely dependent on the yearly rainfalls, the location of the herds may vary from year to year but your guide will know where to locate the animals and where to see them best. You will spend another night at the camp or Lodge

After an early breakfast we head out for another game drive upon the Serengeti. We may have the opportunity to spot the “Big Five” – lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard – before embarking on our journey to the Ngorongoro Crater. The animals roam freely through the unfenced reserves offering us an uninterrupted game-viewing experience. We spend the evening and night the the camp or lodge, boasting aesthetically tasteful restaurants and the most commodious of rooms for your rest, ease, and dreams of the African Wild.

Wake up very early in the morning, and through the Ngorongoro Conservation before descending, 610 meters down to the grasslands of the crater floor, an area of about 265 square kilometers. Despite its small size, the Crater is a Big 5 country and the openness of the terrain means easy and rewarding game viewing. You will spend 6-7 hours. Exploring the crater floor, stopping to picnic on the grasslands amidst the grazing herds. Formed by a massive volcanic eruption, the world’s largest intact and un-flooded caldera provides a year-round home to an astonishing 25,000 large mammals including black rhino, wildebeest, and zebra along with Africa’s densest concentrations of hyena. The Crater’s forests shelter elephants and buffalo, and its wetlands are home to hippos and flamingos while lions, jackals, leopards, and caracals make up the full range of predators. Late afternoon you leave the crater behind and drive back to Arusha and you will be dropped at Kilimanjaro international airport or Arusha hotel.