You will be met at the airport when you arrive and assisted through the immigration and customs process before transferring to the lodge which takes about 45mins. The setting is beautiful and will be a nice way to settle in and enjoy being in Africa for the first time. Keep an eye in the tall trees for various primates that include Colobus Monkeys - Sykes Monkeys and Olive Baboons.
Your guide will arrive this morning to collect you after breakfast for the drive through to Tarangire. You will first pass through the busy town of Arusha before heading out into the open plains where you will see a mix of traditional African life mixed with more contemporary villages before you turn off into the Park. This is now a game drive through to the camp and the plan would be to get you there in time for lunch.
Tarangire is a beautiful park and the highlights here include the big population of elephants and giraffe in amongst the many Baobab trees. Nice herds of buffalo, wildebeest and zebras and well known for great cat sightings as well that include lion and leopard. Along with this, it is also possible to see some of the more unusual animals of this part of Africa, which include Lesser Kudu, Fringe Eared Oryx and Gerenuk.
After breakfast you will leave the lower lying areas of Tarangire and travel by road up onto the Highlands and on to Ngorongoro Crater. It is a beautiful and scenic road with lots of small towns and villages along the way and we will pass by one of Tanzania's other well known parks - Lake Manyara where we might stop time permitting or you can have a short look around the local town called Mto Wambu where you may pick up some fresh fruits for the journey.
You have a full day today inside the actual crater itself - certainly one of the most amazing wild life and geographic spectacles you will see any where. There is so much going on down here it will be hard to know where to look first. A highlight here is looking for the Black Rhino that live down here and some beautiful big old elephant bulls with long tusks. There is also a host of other animals that include Zebra, Grant's Gazelle, Coke's Hartebeest, Wildebeest, Hippos, Lions, Hyenas, Waterbuck and Serval Cat.
It is also possible while you are here to have a short hike up to Olmoti crater or to visit one of the very traditional Masaai Villages up here away from the main tourist routes.
You leave today to drive from the lodge - back around the Ngorongoro Crater and then down off the highlands, onto the Serengeti. On the way there you will also drive past the famous Olduvai Gorge where there is much excavation work going on to uncover fossils of both humans and animals that lived here millions of years ago and is well worth a stop off if you enjoy that type of historical sites. You will travel with a packed lunch so you can be flexible with your game drive transfer timing through the day and should arrive in camp later on in the afternoon. ( Jan and Feb )
For July and Aug the camp is set right up in the North of the Serengeti so the most efficient way to do this is to have an air transfer through to the camp, so you will fly from Lake Manyara to the North of the Serengeti and then when you get to camp you will now have an open safari vehicle that will be shared with the other guests - it is however possible to book this as private.
The camp is set up on the edge of a shallow valley and if the trends are followed should be in the heart of the wildebeest migration that is pushing into this area where they will give birth to their calves in January and February. It's an epic event to see and one of the greatest natural events on the planet. While you are here you will be able to do game drives either for the full day or morning and afternoon, we will just assess what is going to work best when you are there and the position of the herds.
If you choose to travel in the July August time then the herds will be right up in the North of the Serengeti and into the Masaai Mara. The bush here is quite varied so there is always resident wildlife here and a good variety in these habitats.
Your last day on the Serengeti, after breakfast in camp you will have a game drive transfer across the plains again to the nearby airstrip where you will fly back to Kilimanjaro Airport for you to catch your International flight home.
