After breakfast the tour departs, we will stop at Arusha town for any last minute purchases before we head off on safari. Afterwards we head towards the Tarangire National Park for a game drive with picnic lunch at the park. Tarangire is well known for its huge elephant population and baobab trees. It forms the centre of an annual migratory cycle that includes up to 3000 elephants, 25,000 wildebeest and 30,000 zebras. The park is also home to Masai giraffes, various gazelles, antelopes, buffaloes, lions, leopards, baboons and more than 500 types of birds. After an extensive game drive you will leave the park in the afternoon and drive to the selected Lodge/Tented camp for overnight.
Today you will visit the small but beautiful Lake Manyara National Park. A large area of the park is covered by the alkaline Lake, which is home to colonies of flamingos and other water birds with more than 450 species of birds recorded. There is also a great sighting of Elephants, Giraffes basking on the shore of the lake, Buffaloes, Baboons, Wildebeest and tree climbing lions (don’t throw your heart on these since its rear and just see it as a bonus). After an extensive game drive you will leave the park in the afternoon and drive to the selected Lodge/Tented camp near Ngorongoro highlands for overnight.
After breakfast you set off to the famous Serengeti. Travelling through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area you will stop for a breath-taking view over the Ngorongoro Crater before you continue to the Serengeti National Park, enjoying your free “African massage” on the bumpy road, passing Maasai village before you reach the plains of the Serengeti National Park around midday. The endless plains and abundance of wildlife are unsurpassed. The annual wildebeest migration with more than a million wildebeest is probably the highlight of the Serengeti. It is a true spectacle and impressive to watch millions of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles thunder across the endless plains of the Serengeti.
The entire day is dedicated to game viewing in the Serengeti National Park. The areas that you will visit will depend upon where the migrating herds are to be found. Predators usually follow closely behind the trekking animals. 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 up north. As the migration depends upon the yearly rains, the location of the herds might vary from year to year but your guide will know where to see them best. Dinner and overnight at the selected Lodge/Tented camp.
Dawn is a good time to watch wildlife and so you will be up early to join an early morning game drive. You will return to the camp for breakfast before heading out for another game drive in the park while heading to Ngorongoro, Our drive takes us back through the Serengeti via a different route, offering plenty of opportunities to spot the animals that eluded you on day two. As far as the eye can see, you’ll spot thousands upon thousands of animals in herds; wildebeests and zebras migrating together, tall and graceful giraffes, jumping antelopes and gazelles, the powerful African elephant and the most respected group of animals: the predators. You will have the chance to spot lean cheetahs and shy leopards, foraging hyenas, and last but not least, the king himself; the lion.
After an early breakfast, you will descend over 600 meters into the crater to view wildlife. Supported by a year round water supply and fodder, the Ngorongoro conservation Area supports a vast variety of animals, which include herds of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog, hippo and giant African elephants. Another big draw card to this picturesque national park is its dense population of predators, which include lions, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs and the ever-elusive leopard, which sometimes requires a trained eye to spot.
After a leisurely breakfast, you will travel back to Arusha where you will arrive around midday for dinner and Overnight or airport drop off.
