Great Northern Parks

Today we kick things into high gear with a safari drive in Tarangire. This is a beautiful park with a distinctly different look and feel to Serengeti. Here you have all of the Big Five, save the rhino. In the dry season, the thirsty animals flock to the river, creating a scene that's chock-full of animals! The elephant herds of the park are a huge drawcard, as they can number into the hundreds!

After an early breakfast, we head to the Serengeti. It's a long day of driving, with some of the road being quite bumpy. But we stop en route to stand on the rim of the majestic Ngorongoro Crater and marvel at the breathtaking view below. Continuing through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, we pass Maasai villages and see plenty of wildlife, such as giraffes, wildebeests, hyenas and more. Our destination for the night is our camp within the vast plains of the central Serengeti.

Today's game drive takes us into the northern Serengeti, a quieter section of this famous park. Look out for the massive herds of wildebeest, zebras and antelopes making dangerous crossings of the croc-infested Mara River during the Great Migration. These are chaotic scenes that have to be seen to be believed! Also see if you can spot lions, leopards, hyenas and other predators who track the herds looking for a kill. Since this is Big Five country, you might also be lucky and spot some rhinos, buffaloes and elephants.

Today we enjoy another epic game drive. Did you know that the name serengeti comes from the Maasai word for ‘land of endless plains’? The views as we drive are of gorgeous rolling hills, granite outcrops, open savannah and acacia woodlands. Apart from the Big Five, the park also boasts the like of cheetahs, elands, giraffes, warthogs, servals, hyenas, jackals, topis, impalas, oribis and porcupines.

We head southeast towards Ngorongoro Crater today, enjoying another great safari drive in the Serengeti on the way. It's a long drive today, but en route we have the option of stopping at Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world. In the evening we settle into the lodge on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, surrounded by thick, lush rainforest. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for wildlife hiding in the surrounding vegetation, as the animals are most certainly there!

It's an exciting day today: we drive down into the 600 m-deep Ngorongoro Crater! This is something that's on every self-respecting traveller's bucket list. The roads zigzags down through the forested crater wall, and you should be on the lookout for leopards. We then enter the grasslands and woodlands of the crater floor, where there's a super-abundance of wildlife, including lions with unusually dark manes.