Predator’s Prime Time Safari

After breakfast in Arusha, you will be driven to Tarangire National Park, the third largest national park in Tanzania. There will be many opportunities for game viewing as we drive through the park.  After a stop for lunch at Tarangire Safari Lodge, you will have time to unpack and maybe rest before the afternoon game drive. Tarangire contains a range of ecosystems from grassland and woodlands in the north, to scrub and wetlands further south. The Tarangire river cuts through the park and empties into Lake Burunge in the west. Tarangire boasts one of the largest and most conspicuous elephant populations in East Africa. There are large family groups with many calves being born each year as the population continues to recover from the devastating effects of poaching in the eighties. You will see herds of elephants and experience close contact with the matriarchs, the babies, teenagers, and bulls. Your close contact will help you in understanding these incredible animals. Spend several hours surrounded by the herds and you cannot help but feel their wisdom. Tarangire is also known for its abundant baobab trees, most of which are over 400 years, old and the beautiful landscape.

We will stay 2 nights at the Tarangire Safari Lodge or similar.

After breakfast at the lodge, you will drive to the Ndutu area of the Serengeti.  We will ascend through an extensive and rich agricultural area between Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater rim and then we enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The main route to the Serengeti (a lovely dirt road) passes alongside the Crater rim for our first view down to the Crater floor. From a good viewpoint overlooking this ecosystem 2000 feet below, a small speck is perhaps an elephant and the pink hue on the alkaline lake most certainly flamingos. We then cross over from the highlands down to the short grass plains. From there, we drive slowly over the Serengeti plains to Olduvai Gorge on the eastern boundary of the Serengeti Ecological Unit. Here the Leakey’s found the hominid remains Australopithecus, Homo habilis and Homo erectus, plus many other fossils exhibited in the excellent, small museum at Olduvai. Then we are off across the Serengeti plains to Ndutu.  There will be many chances to spot the resident mammals and birds of the area.  We may find spotted hyenas, golden and silver-backed jackals, Kori bustards, and gazelles.

At the end of the journey across the plains, we arrive at the Serengeti Savannah Camp – your home for the next 4 days.  The camp is located in an area of the bush where you can experience living in the wild of Africa.  This is not camping in tents and sleeping bags and eating canned food.  This is a luxurious tented camp. The spacious verandah in front of your room is furnished with comfortable safari chairs and tables - the perfect retreat for a relaxing moment watching a weaver bird building its nest in a nearby Acacia tree, a herd of impala grazing quietly only meters away, or simply relaxing and listening to the sounds of the African bush. Your bathroom is complete with a dressing table and is fully plumbed with washbasin, lavatory and showers – a new and often surprising interpretation of ‘camping’. Hot water is available throughout the day and evening.  Your butler will see that your laundry is done, your morning tea is waiting, and the water for your shower is ready.

Each day we will head for the plains at dawn taking hot, coffee, tea and muffins to have for breakfast later in the morning on the Serengeti plains. We'll search for bat-eared fox and cheetah out hunting and possibly honey badger still foraging.  As the mornings are very cool at this season the nocturnal mammals are sometimes still active.  We may even spot African wild cat, though it is extremely shy. The Ndutu is an excellent area for cheetah, which feed mainly on gazelles and hares. Grant's gazelles stay year around while Thomson's gazelle is the last in the migration.  During this time of the year we will see a lot of wildebeest and zebra as they all congregate where the grass is very nutritional.       Five full days of excitement await you at the Serengeti Savannah Camp.