5 Nights | 6 Days: Glimpse of Serengeti & the Ngorongoro

JAMBO – KARIBU!! It is ‘touch down’ at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. Representatives of Twiga Tours, your hosts in Tanzania eagerly await your arrival in traditional African style – wet towels and bubbly. It is a tradition in Africa to present a gift as an expression of our joy and happiness – what better gift than an authentic (branded) safari hat and other safari essentials!

Thereafter transfer to your hotel city hotel in Tanzania’s “safari capital”, Arusha. The rest of the day or evening is spent at leisure.

After breakfast depart to the Ngorongoro Conservation area. Proceed towards the rim of the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater stopping occasionally to admire the breath-taking vista unfolding before you. Arrive for check in, thereafter lunch. This afternoon just relax and enjoy the panoramic views of the crater, the largest unbroken caldera in the world. It has been described as one of the great natural wonders of the world. Eight million years ago, the Ngorongoro Crater was an active volcano but its cone collapsed, forming the crater that is 610 meters deep, 20 kilometres in diameter, and covers an area of 311 sq. km. Spectacular as it is, the crater accounts for just a tenth of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The crater is home to many species of wild game and birds. With the exception of impala and topi (due to fierce competition with the wildebeest) and the giraffe (because there is not much to eat at tree level), almost every species of African plains mammal lives in the crater, including the endangered black rhino, and the densest population of predators in Africa. A strange thing is that the crater elephants are mainly bulls! The birdlife, which includes the flamingo, is mainly seasonal, and is also affected by the ratio of soda to fresh water in Lake Magadi on the crater floor. Dinner and overnight at your preferred choice of accommodation.

NOTE: Warm jacket/cardigan is highly recommended.

OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

Visit to an ‘off the beaten’ track Masai Manyatta
This afternoon, you may opt to visit a traditional Maasai Manyatta (off the beaten track) and experience the culture of this world famous community. The Masai still live as they did for centuries -interact with these nomadic people and experience their way of life as you learn about their customs and traditions.

After breakfast descend some 600 metres into the crater, which is home to an abundance of wildlife and a photogenic paradise, for a full day of game-viewing drive with picnic lunch at a private scenic site. Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact caldera in the world teams with an abundance of wildlife permanently resident on the crater floor. Prides of lions, herds of cape buffalo, impala, Thompson gazelles, rhino, giraffes, golden & black-backed jackal, zebra, cheetah, leopard and the spotted hyena. Unmatched for its natural variety and breath-taking beauty, there are few places on earth where such a tremendous diversity of landscapes exist inside a region this size. Apart from its wildlife riches, the crater is also of great archaeological importance, with the remains of some of mankind’s earliest ancestors discovered in the area, also a home to hundreds of bird species, refreshing in the small lakes in the crater floor. Return for dinner and overnight at your preferred choice of accommodation.

Enjoy a sumptuous breakfast then depart for Tanzania’s famed, Serengeti National Park via Oldupai Gorge where hominid footprints believed to be 3.6million years old were found. We will enjoy an on-site talk on the interpretation of the gorge by the resident guide. Arrive at your lodge for lunch .

Enjoy an afternoon game viewing drive. Covering an area of 14,763 square kilometres, the world famous Serengeti National Park is Tanzania’s oldest park, and one of the world’s last great wildlife refuges. It stretches as far as Lake Victoria to the West. Its name comes from the Maasai word Siringet, meaning ‘endless plains’. The park’s vegetation ranges from the short and long grass plains in the south, to the acacia savannah in the centre and wooded grasslands concentrated around the tributaries of the Grumenti and the Mara rivers in the park. The western corridor is a region of wooded highland and extensive plains reaching the edge of Lake Victoria. In the early morning and evening light, the Serengeti landscape is stunningly beautiful.

The Serengeti ecosystem supports the greatest remaining concentration of plains game in Africa, including more than three million large mammals. It is the sanctuary of an estimated four million different animals and birds. Wildlife that roam the vast park include lions (the adult males of Serengeti have characteristic black manes), cheetahs, hunting dogs, Savannah elephant, Cape buffalo, topis, warthogs, hunting dogs and spotted hyena among others. Dinner and overnight at your your preferred choice of accommodation.

Today you have a day in the Serengeti with early morning and late afternoon game drives in search of any game that may still have eluded you in your previous game viewing drives. You may even opt to have an uninterrupted full day of game viewing drives in the Serengeti. Be on the look out for the hundreds of predators that roam the vast savannah plains or go in search for the cheetahs found in the southern part of the National Park.

In the early morning and evening light, the Serengeti landscape is stunningly beautiful. The rolling plains and grasslands, stretch far into the horizons, as far as the eye can see. The Serengeti National Park is one that can never disappoint, one is spoilt by the variety of bird and wildlife species in this game reserve with game-viewing drives; among them the out-sized ostrich and bizarre secretary bird, the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.

All meals and overnight at your preferred choice of accommodation.

OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

Balloon Safari
Today’s adventure begins just before dawn. Flames from the hot air balloon burners light the darkness as the crew inflate their craft. The first, pink tongues of sunlight flicker across the skies and the hot air balloon fills then rises. Suspended in a basket beneath the rainbow-coloured canopy, you’re off for a game-viewing adventure with an entirely different perspective. Apart from the occasional hiss of the burners, a lion’s roar, elephants crashing through the bush, baboons perched in the tips of the trees startled and screeching to see something above them, the flight above the Masai Mara plains is magically silent. At the end of the flight, the passengers are treated to a champagne breakfast in the bush, complete with flowers. China and crystal are set out on the table that is placed under a convenient acacia tree. The finishing touch to the flight is a game drive back to the camp, and the possibility of seeing the same pride of lions, or herd of elephants that had been viewed while ballooning. A flight certificate is issued on completion of the balloon safari. Back at Camp/lodge enjoy a sumptuous lunch and a well deserved rest.

This morning enjoy your breakfast then check-out. Unbelievable but true, your good bush moments have come to an end. You bid farewell to your wonderful lodge manager and his team then depart to Arusha. Not empty handed though, with you are photographs – a capture of the special moments you have had on this tour to immortalize the experience. Your guide driver will transfer you to the airstrip for your short flight to Arusha. On arrival transfer to Kilimanjaro International Aiport for your homebound flight. Or alternatively, you can fly directly to Kilimanjaro International Airport and check in for your homebound flight.