Serengeti Photo Tour – Tanzania

It is ‘touch down’ at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. Representatives of UNUSUAL EXPEDITION, your hosts in Tanzania eagerly await your arrival in traditional African style. We will then transfer to your city hotel, where you will spend the night.

After breakfast we depart for the Serengeti National Park via a short domestic flight. We will arrive at the Mara river, where we will do a game drive and check-in to your preferred choice of accommodation and enjoy some leisure time. We will have dinner and spend the night at the lodge.

The Serengeti National Park is known for its massive annual migration of wildebeest and zebra, with nearly 1.5million of these creatures on the move! Seeking new pastures, the herds move north from their breeding grounds in the grassy southern plains. Many cross the marshy western corridor’s crocodile-infested Grumeti River. Others veer northeast to the Lobo Hills, home to black eagles, and Black rhinos inhabit the granite outcrops of the Moru Kopjes. Serengeti also has the highest concentration of large mammals on this planet and is famous for its 2,500 lions, the highest concentration found anywhere

After breakfast, we depart for the Serengeti National Park with picnic lunches for a lovely day out in the plains, heading for the Mara River. The Mara River is a river in the Mara Region in Kenya and Tanzania , and lies across the migration path of ungulates in the Maasai Mara/Serengeti game reserves. The river is a vital source to grazing animals within the reserve. Although during the dry season it may often appear shallow, it may swell to up to twice its normal size after heavy rainfall. This can create rapids in the river, which may lead to shortage of food for predators that cannot cross the river to hunt.

Enjoy FOUR full days in the park with morning and afternoon game-viewing drives. The word ‘serenget’ means endless plains in Masai, where millions of plain game – wildebeest, zebras and impala feed and breed in the thousands in readiness for the annual migration north to the Mara ecosystem. The predators are easy to spot as they hunt, making for some dramatic photos you’ll never be able to capture anywhere else!

After breakfast, we depart for the 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. We will then proceed towards the rim of the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, stopping occasionally to admire the breath-taking vista unfolding before your eyes, before arriving at your preferred choice of accommodation for check in. We will have lunch at the lodge and spend the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the panoramic views of the crater. In the evening, we will have dinner and spend the night at the lodge.

NOTE: Warm jacket/cardigan is highly recommended.

We will set out to visit a local tribe and understand their way of life. Lake Eyasi is a seasonal shallow endorheic salt lake on the floor of the Great Rift Valley at the base of the Serengeti Plateau, just south of the Serengeti National Park and immediately southwest of the Ngorongoro Crater in the Crater Highlands of Tanzania. The lake is elongated, orientated southwest to northeast, and lies in the Eyasi-Wembere branch of the Great Rift Valley

The Hadzabe bushmen live in this region, as do the Datoga and Mbulu tribes. A visit with the bushmen is worthwhile and they will graciously show you where and how they live and hunt. They subsist entirely off the bush and by bow hunting. Everything they use is made from local materials, including their bows which are strung with giraffe tendon and their arrows which are coated in lethal poison. Their language resembles that of Kalahari bushmen tribe, with clicking noises used.

The scenery of Lake Eyasi differs dramatically to that of the surrounding areas. Compared to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Highlands this area seems downright tropical. Palm trees border the lake and make homes for birds such as Fischer’s lovebird. Other trees in this area include the umbrella thorn acacia and sand paper bush. The weather is nearly always very hot and intense, as the lake is located in floor of the Rift Valley, the oldest rift in the world. The rift is thought to have opened over 65 million years ago, shortly after dinosaurs became extinct.

We will have breakfast at the lodge before departing on a pleasant drive to Lake Manyara National Park, which apart from its abundant bird life, is known for its tree-climbing lions.
We will arrive in time for lunch and after, you are free to enjoy some leisure time, before heading out for game drive later in the afternoon. Keep an eye out for the baboons and giraffes! We will then return to the Arusha for dinner and overnight stay at the lodge.

Amka! After a sumptuous breakfast, we must check out, for all good experiences must come to an end, and sadly you must say ‘kwaheri’ to your wonderful lodge. We will depart for Arusha for lunch before departing for the airport. This is the end of our expedition.