At 8 a.m., we will pick you up from your hotel and transport you to a unique national park. Tarangire is known for its varied landscape, which includes nine distinct vegetation zones. The park is known for its abundance of Ancient Baobab trees (the continent’s largest trees), which dominate the landscape and dwarf the animals nearby. The park’s river is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including lions, leopards, zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, antelopes, and, of course, elephants. In fact, the park is home to the country’s largest concentration of elephants, providing unique opportunities to observe elephant family interactions. The lunch area is fascinating, with an observatory offering spectacular views of the river and wildlife (with good chances of seeing a hunt while having your picnic). We’ll still go on a game drive in the afternoon before heading to your lodging.
After an early breakfast, depart for the Serengeti, the world’s most famous national park. The driving itself is spectacular, despite its length. You’ll drive up the crater highlands, stopping briefly at the rim for a breathtaking view of the Ngorongoro Crater. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for anyone who sees it for the first time. As you travel deeper into the Serengeti, you’ll understand why the name means “endless plains” in the local language. The park covers 6,900 square miles (18,000 square kilometers), and for the most part, the plains stretch to the horizon, defying your perception of distances.
It is home to 2 million wildebeests, hundreds of thousands of zebras, and a diverse range of antelopes, including abundant impalas and Thomson’s gazelles. When it comes to Big Cats and large predators, it’s the place to go to see lions, cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas, with many television scenes, such as the famous river crossings, being filmed here. Smaller animals such as foxes, mongooses, honey badgers, jackals, monkeys, baboons, rock hyrax, and Africans hares, as well as more than 500 bird species, call this park home.
On your way to the park, you can stop at Olduvai Gorge, a well-known site where Dr. Louis and Mary Leakey discovered the remains of the first man to walk on the Earth. A short lecture about the archeological digs and geologic characteristics of the gorge, as well as a visit to their museum, are included in this tour.
We recommend getting up very early on this day to go on an early morning game drive (when the animals are more active) and see one of the most beautiful sunrises you’ll ever see. It’s truly one of the most beautiful things you can do. After the game drive, we’ll return to the camp for a delicious brunch before heading to Ngorongoro, the world’s eighth wonder. The crater covers 102 square miles and has 2.000-foot-high walls, making it a virtual Noah’s ark that is home to almost every species of East African wildlife. It’s one of the few places on the entire continent where you can see a black rhinoceros.
Africa has the highest concentration of wildlife on the continent. A river, several swamps, a soda lake with a large concentration of flamingos, a forest, and open plains can all be found within the crater. It’s also known for its elephants, which are the world’s largest and have enormous tusks. This is due to the volcanic soils and grasses’ high mineral content. The Ngorongoro Crater is a Natural Wonder of the World.
You’ll arrive in time for a sundowner at Ngorongoro.
We will start the day very early and descend into the crater floor for an incredible morning of wildlife in one of the most stunning places on Earth. After the game drive, there will be time for a picnic lunch near the beautiful hippo Lake. After lunch, we will have time for a short game drive and then ascend the crater and exit Ngorongoro Conservation Area towards Lake Eyasi, where you will have a unique and fascinating cultural experience on the next day.
Today is going to be a very special and unique day. You’ll get up very early in the morning, just before sunrise, and follow your guide until he finds the Hadzabe tribe, one of Africa’s last true nomadic tribes. After a brief introduction to the tribe, you will be invited to participate in their daily morning activities. This is an off-the-beaten-path experience that does not feel touristy in the least. The photographic possibilities are incredible. This excursion will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of your safari. Joining the men in their daily hunting or the women in their fruit gathering sessions are examples of experiences you can have with the tribe. You will learn about many aspects of the Hadzabe way of life in either of them.
After finishing our activities with the tribe, we’ll travel to Lake Eyasi, a seasonally shallow salt lake on the Great Rift Valley’s floor, and then back to Arusha. We plan to return to Arusha around 5 p.m., but we are flexible in case there is a flight to catch or other obligations.
