7 days in Tanzania: Explore Tanzania – Olting’itai

Journey: (morning) Arusha to Tarangire National ParkOur two-hour (120km) journey first takes us westwards from Arusha. Along the route, your eyes will be opened to all the colours and character of Tanzania: perhaps some Maasai herdsmen driving their flocks of goats to new pastures. You’ll get to know your driver-guide, amazed at his depth of knowledge as he effortlessly answers all your questions.

 

Day’s Highlight Your afternoon game drive in Tarangire, with its incredible diversity, massive baobab trees and herds of elephants.

Safari (Game Drive) in Tarangire National Park

Tarangire is huge. As you stand at the park gate and look south, it stretches as far as the eye can see. Known as the ‘Elephant Playground,’ this phenomenal park contains huge herds of these mighty mammals. But Tarangire is also home to buffalo, lion, wildebeest, zebra and gazelle and the park can rival Serengeti for sheer animal densities. What might you see today? Perhaps a solitary male lion stretched out beneath a tree, perhaps a trio of male cheetah enjoying some lazy bonding-time in the sun. Maybe some graceful Grant’s gazelle or zebra bounding away from the road or a couple of giraffe munching happily from the choicest acacia branches. For Tarangire specialities, look out for kudu and oryx.

Here as in other parks, it pays not to ignore the small animals. It’s so easy to be mesmerized by the power and majesty of an elephant or the elegance of the giraffe. Ask your guide to find you an agama lizard, especially a male one who changes colour in front of you according to the temperature! Or a hyrax, known as pimpi, an insignificant-looking creature of around 30cm in length…who astonishingly is related to elephant!

Not many trees will pass you by without something of avian interest catching your eye. A memorable flash of colour might be a lilac-breasted roller or blue-eared starling. Ostrich are plentiful and it’s hard not to chuckle at the sighting of the well-named, studious-looking secretary bird as it awkwardly pads across the grasslands.

The park is also famous for its splendid baobab trees, rolling savannah and acacia woodland. It can be dusty – wear a scarf over your mouth – but this is a minor inconvenience for sighting wildlife in such abundance.

Accommodation

Publicly operated by the Tanzania National Parks Authority, Tarangire Public Campsite lies inside the park itself. The campsite is unfenced, which means that animal visitors are a possibility here! Toilet facilities and showers are available, though note that there is only cold water at this campsite. Your meals will be prepared for you by our Easy Travel staff.

At night, entertainment will be provided by the sounds of the wildlife as you fall asleep under the star-filled African skies. This is real adventure-time!

Meal plan

Breakfast is enjoyed at Arusha Planet Lodge. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by the hotel for you to take out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal provided by our safari chef at the Tarangire Public Campsite.

Journey: (morning) Tarangire National Park to Serengeti National Park (afternoon) : With Serengeti as our destination, and with the wonders of Tarangire still fresh in your mind, we set out to the north and west for our 7 hour journey (344km). On the journey, you can quiz your driver-guide about all aspects of Tanzanian culture, traditions, tribes and of course wildlife. Treat him as an ‘encyclopedia on legs’ – he will rarely disappoint with his answers! In no time, you too will feel like an expert, even before you reach the awesome Serengeti plains. On arrival, we will enjoy our lunch before taking an afternoon game drive.

 

Day’s Highlight : Here’s a National Park which will offer you a whole variety of wildlife surprises over the next few days, but perhaps today’s highlight – certainly for first-time visitors – will simply be the Serengeti terrain itself. The sheer vastness, as the plains roll away in front of you into eternity, will leave you with a sense of awe.

 

Safari in Serengeti National Park : At last! Serengeti, the incomparable wonder of Tanzania, will be the stage for the natural animal theatrics which will be performed over the next few days. Your afternoon game drive here combines the known with the unknown, the certainty that you will be amazed with the uncertainty of exactly what you will see and when. Changing light, a changing cast of animal actors, ensuring that at every turn there is a new experience. Snap off some memorable photos, but don’t forget to simply take a deep breath and enjoy nature in its real-time, raw beauty.

 

Accommodation : In central Serengeti, the Seronera Public Campsite provides basic facilities in an open area visited by wildlife. Your Easy Travel staff will assemble your tent and make you as comfortable as possible. Water here for showers is cool and toilet facilities are basic. Visitors should be aware that when the camp gets busy, the cleanliness at this camp can suffer a bit.

At night, listen to the sounds of the animals and marvel at the star-studded African skies – a real Tanzanian adventure!

Meal Plan: Breakfast is enjoyed at Tarangire Public Campsite. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by our safari chef for you to take out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal provided by our safari chef at the Seronera Public Campsite.

Day’s Highlight Today, we set off from our accommodation in the Central Serengeti. Wildlife is abundant: sometimes you may think it has come to find you, rather than the other way around. Today’s highlight is unknown, as the animals don’t publish their schedule (!) What we see also depends on the season, but this area is where bushland meets grassland, a favorite spot for big cats looking for prey. Cheetah, leopard and lions are all possibilities today.

 

Safari in Serengeti National Park Today is a full day of discovery, a chance to enjoy the varied landscapes of the Central Serengeti. The Seronera River weaves its way through this area, providing waters for all species of wildlife. You will also see the distinctive rocky outcrops, the famous kopjes which characterize the Serengeti landscape. Lunch will be an unforgettable experience, enjoyed in the middle of the bush. Everything here varies with the seasons, but in May, November and December migrating herds join the already rich population of resident animals which live here year-round. (In the rainy season, the landscape turns black with hundreds of thousands of wildebeest – a simply incredible sight.)

 

Accommodation After your day of thrilling game drives, your driver will return you safely for another relaxing night your Serengeti accommodation (see above). Drink, relax, dine and sleep, all out in the wilderness of the Serengeti. What could be better?

 

Meal plan Breakfast is enjoyed at the Seronera Public Campsite. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by our safari chef for you to take out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal provided by our safari chef at the Seronera Public Campsite.

Journey: (morning) Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Conservation Area (afternoon)After a morning game drive and lunch, this afternoon we will head south-east towards Ngorongoro, a distance of 145km which will take us around 3½ hours.

 

Day’s Highlight Today, we will get our first sight of the spectacular, incomparable Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera and the heart of the Conservation Area of the same name. But before that, we have another morning game drive in amazing Serengeti, marveling at its animal inhabitants. Another day of adventure, another day to enjoy the wildlife.

 

Safari in Serengeti National Park With its informative visitor centre, the Seronera area of Central Serengeti is the national park’s most popular area. And it is very popular with the wildlife, too. The Seronera river enjoys year-round waterflow, so there is always something of interest to observe. Several game drives can be undertaken here and might reveal lions in sizeable prides, hippo or herds of elephants – whose populations in the park have risen in recent times. Depending on other attractions, we may choose to call in at the Serengeti Visitor Centre, where there is an excellent explanation of the park’s eco-system and a chance to understand the history of conservation in this area. In particular, you will find out about the work of Bernhard Grzimek and the Frankfurt Zoological Society who had the foresighted vision of preserving the Serengeti’s eco-system. Even at the center, you may well find wildlife: populations of hyrax and mongoose, as well as many small bird species.

After lunch, we head south-east towards Ngorongoro. If it has not already struck you with its vastness, Serengeti’s ‘endless plains’ will make a deep impression on you as we take the long, straight road which passes Simba Kopjes (famous from ‘The Lion King’) to reach Naabi Hill Gate, close to the divide between Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Here you can gather information at the gate’s visitor center, clamber up the hill for superb views back over the plains, or look out for a colorful agama lizard among the rocks.

Accommodation Imagine tall trees, clear starry skies, the sounds of animals shuffling nearby at night-time. Welcome to Ngorongoro Simba Campsite, the public campsite based on the crater rim above stunning Ngorongoro Crater. This is a simple place, a great location in the middle of nature and just a short distance from the beating heart of the famous Conservation Area.

Here, you can sit by your tent and marvel at the surroundings or chat to your companions in one of the communal spaces provided at this public campsite. Washing and toilet facilities are basic here and as these are shared facilities, the cleanliness can suffer a bit when the campsite is busy. Guests dine together in a common dining area. Most important of all, don’t forget that the site is located at an altitude of 2300 metres (7546 feet). It can be very cold at night, so warm clothes are absolutely essential here!

Meal plan Breakfast is enjoyed at Seronera Public Campsite. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by our safari chef for you to take out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal provided by our safari chef at the Ngorongoro Simba Campsite.

Journey: (morning) Ngorongoro Crater – Kilimanjaro International Airport (afternoon) After our morning visit to the incomparable crater – see below – and then lunch, we will have a 5-hour journey, covering the 250km back to Kilimanjaro International Airport.

 

Day’s Highlight Like nothing else on Earth, the stunning crater of Ngorongoro is a unique home for many, many species of Tanzania’s wildlife. With some luck, you may even see a black rhino here.

 

Safari in Ngorongoro Crater From our accommodation, we set off after breakfast, a 6am departure to reach the rim and then descend into the vast crater itself. At one side there’s the Lerai Forest, classic mountain forest landscape with almost tropical characteristics. This is good elephant country, so keep your eyes peeled. By the side of the nearby swampland is what is sometimes called the ‘elephant graveyard’ as the mighty male tuskers at the end of their lives come to chew on the soft, swampland grasses once their teeth have failed them.

The crater has a population of around 120 lions, with well-defined territories; 15,000 wildebeest, 9,000 zebra, 400 hyenas, and around 50 black rhino. Many wildebeest and other herd animals are resident, benefiting from the many sources of year-round waters and are boosted by some migrators in season. Buffalo, Thomson’s gazelle and eland are also present in numbers. Hippos can be found in pools and swampland and highland birdlife is colourful and plentiful around the waters. Flamingos can often be seen in Lake Magadi, which occupies part of the crater floor.

Meal plan Breakfast is served at Ngorongoro Simba Campsite. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by our safari chef for you to take out on safari and enjoyed after your morning game-drive, before we return you to the airport for your flight home. As today is your departure day, please note that dinner tonight is not included in the tour.

 

Departure Instructions Please note that this Tanzania Camping Tour – 7 Days tour ends at Kilimanjaro International Airport at 17.30 hours. Your departure can only take place today if you have pre-booked a domestic flight which leaves from Kilimanjaro International Airport at 19.40 hours or after, or an international flight which leaves at 21.00 hours or after. Otherwise, you will need to book an extra night’s accommodation (not included in the tour price) and take a flight the following day.

Post Tour Extension

After your exhilarating time on safari, you may want to extend your Tanzanian holiday with time on Zanzibar’s wonderful beaches. Please contact us for details.