After clearing the entry formalities for Tanzania in the airport you will be met in the arrivals area and then transferred to the lodge for your first night in Tanzania. The road here is a good paved road but you will certainly see the colorful side of life in a contemporary African city which Arusha does very well.
You can settle in here and enjoy the grounds while you relax before the safari really starts in the morning. Meals and drinks are all offered here for you.
Today you leave the Arusha area and head for the Ngorongoro Highlands - most of the journey is on a good paved road with a good mix of very rural and more modern small towns along the way plus you have the stunning scenery that comes into view as you ascend into the crater highlands up the Albertine Rift.
After clearing the entry formalities at the entry point for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area you will now be on the look out for wildlife of all descriptions but typically you would see Olive Baboons, Vervet Monkeys, Bushbuck and sometimes Buffalo until you reach the crater rim which is an incredible site and well worth stopping at to take in for a few minutes. With your binoculars you can have a game drive from right there.
This morning you have an early start to get down into the Ngorongoro Crater. The drive down is stunning as you descend through the Acacia forests before it opens up into the grasslands on the crater floor. It wont take long for you to see why this is considered one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It really is an incredible spectacle. Apart from the herds of Buffalo, Eland, Thompson's Gazelle, Grant's Gazelle, Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Zebra etc. you must be on the look out for the a Black Rhino. There is a nice population of them down in the crater so it is a rare opportunity to be able to see this very endangered mammal. The Lion and Hyena Population here is also substantial so I would be surprised if you did not see both of these large predators as well.
You have a wonderful scenic and safari drive today down from the crater highlands out onto the Serengeti. Along the way you could choose to stop off at the famous Olduvai Gorge Museum where you can see some of the actual dig sites and a very well presented museum covering the work that has been done here over the years by various archeologists, most famously Richard and Mary Leakey.
As you go out onto the plains you will leave the various Masai Villages which gets replaced by the wildlife and if you get your timing and luck right you could see the vast herds of Wildebeest and Zebra that move into this area during the migration which can be any time between November and March.
This area of the Serengeti is referred to as the Central Serengeti and has a good mixture of different habitats, it is not all open grasslands, so this does allow for a good mix of wildlife that is resident in this area even some Wildebeest and Zebra which choose not to be part of the migration. The main time for the migrating herds through here would be from November into March. Outside of these dates you should not expect to see these herds but still a good selection of wildlife including all your big predators like Lion, Cheetah and Leopard.
Today you will transfer over to nearby Seronera airstrip for a scheduled flight, there are a few to choose from so we will select the best timed to suit your onward travel arrangements.
