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Pick up from the hotel in Arusha/ Moshi drive to Tarangire National Park. Enjoy the game drive with picnic lunch until late afternoon drive to the campsite for dinner and overnight.
Tarangire National Park is the sixth largest national park in Tanzania,The name of the park originates from the Tarangire River that crosses the park. The Tarangire River is the primary source of fresh water for wild animals in the Tarangire Ecosystem during the annual dry season. The Tarangire Ecosystem is defined by the long-distance migration of wildebeest and zebras. During the dry season thousands of animals concentrate in Tarangire National Park from the surrounding wet-season dispersal and calving areas.
Tarangire is also well known for its large herds of Elephant.
It covers an area of approximately 2,850 square kilometers (1,100 square miles.) The landscape is composed of granitic ridges, river valley, and swamps. Vegetation is a mix of Acacia woodland, Commiphora-Combretum woodland, seasonally flooded grassland, and Baobab trees.
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After breakfast we head towards the Serengeti National Park, via the beautiful high lying farmland of Karatu and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Leaving the highlands behind, we descend into the heart of wild Africa – the Serengeti National Park – with its endless plains, rolling into the distance as far as the eye can see.
We head to the central park area, known as the Seronera area, one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park, featuring the Seronera River, which provides a valuable water source to this area and therefore attracts wildlife well representative of most of the Serengeti’s species.
We arrive in time for lunch and enjoy an afternoon game drive in the Serengeti national park then after proceeding with evening game drive before going to the campsite for dinner and overnight.
Dinner and overnight at a lodge or campsite in Serengeti
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After breakfast it’s a time for the game drive viewing along the Sogore River Circuit, which loops into the plains south of the Seronera River, and which is good for possible Lion, Thomson gazelle, topi, ostrich and cheetah sightings.
The Visitor Centre close to the Serengeti Seronera Lodge and public campsites is well worth a visit after the morning’s game drive. This nicely designed centre offers some interesting wildlife displays as well as a gift shop selling information leaflets and maps of the area. The centre also has a shop where cold drinks and snacks can be purchased, as well as a picnic area and information trail up and around a nearby kopje. We will enjoy a relaxed picnic lunch at the centre in the shade of the giant acacia trees.
In the afternoon we will follow the Kopjes Circuit, which goes anti-clockwise around the Maasai Kopjes, which usually attract a number of lion and some formidably large cobras. Kopjes are weathered granite outcrops, scattered around the plains, most of which are miniature ecosystems, providing shade and drinking water in pools left in the rock after the rains. This makes the kopjes particularly good for spotting wildlife in the dry seasons – including lions, which like to lie in wait for animals coming to drink water!
Dinner and overnight at a lodge or campsite in the centre of Serengeti
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The second morning after breakfast it’s a time for another game drive in Serengeti National Park, drive in Serengeti plains with the possibility to see all big predators, reptiles and large herds of herbivores including wildebeests. The wildebeest migrations are normally in Serengeti from November to July and the early of August. During this season of the year the game of chasing and killing is not rare to be seen.
In the afternoon, depart Serengeti National Park with en route game drive to the Rim of Ngorongoro Crater for dinner and overnight at a lodge or campsite
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After Breakfast from the Lodge/Campsite, with a well packed picnic lunch, drive about 20 minutes into the Ngorongoro Crater floor for the game drive. Enjoy the game drive inside the crater and view the various resident animals on the crater floor until in the afternoon ascend the crater and drive to the campsite/Lodge outside Lake Manyara for dinner and overnight.
The largest unbroken caldera in the world, Ngorongoro has an area of 260 kilometers and a depth of 610 meters.
The crater provides a protected habitat for thousands of mammals and birds. The entire day is spent on the crater floor viewing lion, hyena, wildebeest, zebra, black rhinoceros, and many species of small antelopes. The Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area is located between the Serengeti and Lake Manyara. It is home to the famous Ngorongoro Crater which is the largest unbroken caldera in the world.
The Crater is a spectacular setting in which to experience your African safari. Some scientists maintain that before it erupted, Ngorongoro Crater the largest intact caldera in the world would have been higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa. Covering a mere 260 square kilometers (100 square miles), the 600 meter (1969 foot)-deep Crater is home to a permanent population of more than 30 000 animals. It is one of the few places in Africa where you stand a very good chance of seeing the Big Five (lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino and elephant) in the course of a game- drive.
The local Maasai have permission to graze their cattle on the Crater floor, and it is not unusual to see Maasai cattle and buffalo grazing together with lion mere meters away. There are around 1000 lions in the Crater, approximately 20 black rhino, and the spectacular Lerai Forest is one of the best places in Africa to spot leopard. This is one of the natural wonders of the world.
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After breakfast, you leave early to Lake Manyara National park. Enjoy the game drive and the scenic beauty of Manyara which is the main reason to travel here and certainly deserves a visit. But the game viewing pales into insignificance compared to the quality of game viewing on offer in Tarangire National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park.
Being famous for its tree-climbing lions, flamingos, breathtaking scenery and the soda-ash lake in the center makes it reason enough to visit here for a day.
After a really enjoyable day it’s a time to call it a day and drive back to Moshi/Arusha/Airport for dinner and overnight /to catch a flight back home.