Run Wild - Tanzania!

On arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport you are met and transfer to Simba Farm Lodge. This lodge has superb home cooked, farm fresh meals, and a great location. The afternoon is set up to allow for a few different running options depending on arrival time, everything from a short 5km stretch out, to longer 21km forest trail runs. 

Kilimanjaro: an amazing destination, but not just to summit. The trail and road runs on the Shira plateau are a superb way to taste the mountain, see the sites, and more importantly run to areas that are visited by fewer tourists. We take an early transfer up to the edge of the Shira plateau and have 2 loops that are available for different abilities. For the super charged there are options to extend by starting lower, or finishing on the down track as well. We head back to the lodge for a late lunch and then in the afternoon there are biking options, hiking options or just relaxing for the next stage! 

We love the term "Run Wild" and today we take this to the next level! The Wildlife Management Area (WMA) has a wide range of wild animals and so our route planning and backup plans are fairly specific today with a support team ahead and behind our running team to ensure that our route is safe, and that any large animals are avoided. We have stunning trail runs all the way to midday and then time to relax! In the heat of the day we can rest up, have a picnic lunch and then post lunch there are more options to run OR simply use the vehicles for some game driving before heading back to the lodge. 

In the morning we say a fond farewell before we are off to Lake Natron! The transfer is around 4 hours, and we arrive for lunch. This area can be very warm and so keeping cool by dipping into the natural springs is a good plan! In the late afternoon we head out on a "free run" - there is a lot of flexibility here to explore and run and so we love to let people explore (and we send out support staff with radios to key points just in case!). Some may want to simply relax in camp, see the lake, flamingoes or even have a massage with one of the excellent Maasai therapists. 

Explore day. This region offers some deep gorge exploration hike / scrambles and is a fabulous way to mix up the activity levels. The longest exploration is around 5 hours to the "source" of the Ngare Sero river and is really worth the effort. On this day for those that really want to push the limits bear in mind we have the stunning climb near to us, Oldonyo Lengai (hardest one day trek in East Africa), although the coming run up the rift valley tomorrow may be more than enough! 

The Great Rift Valley is visible from space.. We run up this amazing geological feature today, up nice and early before the sun really becomes to hot, and then onto the Sale plains, contiguous with the Serengeti eco system. Here we really have plenty of options to run as long as people want to. On the plains there are a mixture of plains game from Robert's Gazelle to ostrich, as well as stunning views in a truly remote and entirely wild place. We rest in our fly camp in the afternoon, which is now set up for us and moved for the next couple of days as run to the Serengeti. 

Sanjan to Piyaya is a mix of running the gorge and then running through Maasai land to a community camp that we have been using for a number of years. Each one of these fly camps is placed in very remote Maasai communities where people still live a very traditional lifestyle and yet the modern world is catching up slowly but surely. We meet local people on route and even cross into riverbeds littered with fossils. Our fly camp, set up into ancient rocky kopjes, are the perfect place for a final evening in these remote vanishing wildernesses. 

There is a final morning where we can explore and look for fossils, cave paintings before we now head on back to Arusha or on safari. We suggest a couple of nights in the heart of the Serengeti and or migration (which could be in a place called the NCAA, part of the Serengeti eco system) and have options to suit a range of budgets and tastes. A final good bye to your run and support team, and we're off back to civilisation..