3 Days The Migration Adventure Safari ( Serengeti, Manyara, Ngorongoro)
KILIMANIA ADVENTURE SAFARI
We give you unlimited mileage for game-drives: While this may not seem like a big deal, it really it – you will have total flexibility to game-drive until your heart is content. That’s what you came for, and are paying for, after all. Unlike our tour companies, we don’t limit our clients to a few hours of game-driving in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon. We aren’t trying to save on fuel or vehicle wear-n-tear. You will have maximized opportunities for wildlife-viewing on your schedule.
We offer you the best value to meet your expectations: We are exclusively a safari tour operator that specializes in private, customized safaris. While we are not the least expensive safari outfitter we are also not the most expensive. When compared with other safari tour operators in our class, you will find that Kilimania adventure offers an exceptional value.
Kilimania adventure can make your Tanzania safari dreams come true by creating a highly personalized and uniquely memorable experience for every traveler in your group. We work with you to customize an unbeatable private, luxury, African safari based on your interests and our expertise. We’ll be on-hand to personally assist you throughout the planning process and with every detail while on safari. Whether you are coming to see The Big 5, experience fascinating cultures, or just be witness to the primitive beauty of Africa.
Safaris Tanzania
Northern Circuit Safaris
Lake Manyara National Park
Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-meter high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”.Park size: 330 sq km (127 sq miles), of which up to 200 sq km (77 sq miles) is the lake when water levels are high.
The compact game-viewing circuit through Manyara offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience. From the entrance gate, the road winds through an expanse of lush jungle-like groundwater forest where hundred-strong baboon troops lounge nonchalantly along the roadside, blue monkeys scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees, dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized forest hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy.
Contrasting with the intimacy of the forest is the grassy floodplain and its expansive views eastward, across the alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise from the endless Maasai Steppes. Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra herds congregate on these grassy plains, as do giraffes – some so dark in coloration that they appear to be black from a distance.
Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of acacia woodland is the favored haunt of Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants.
Squadrons of banded mongoose dart between the acacias, while the diminutive Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade. Pairs of klipspringer are often seen silhouetted on the rocks above a field of searing hot springs that steams and bubbles adjacent to the lakeshore in the far south of the park.
Manyara provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded, and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day. Highlights include thousands of pink-hued flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as other large waterbirds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.
Ngorongoro Crater – Tanzania
The Ngorongoro Conservation Authority Area boasts the finest blend of landscapes, wildlife, people and archaeological sites in Africa. Often called an “African Eden” and ‘eighth natural wonder of the world’, it is also the pioneering experiment in multiple land use. For Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the idea of multiple land use means to allow humans and wildlife to coexist in a natural setting. Traditional African pastoralists co-operate with Tanzania’s governing bodies to help preserve the natural resources of the area and ensure a fantastic experience for tourists.
The First view of the Ngorongoro Crater takes the breath away. Ngorongoro is a huge caldera (collapsed volcano), 250 sq km in size and 600 m deep. The crater alone has over 20,000 large animals including some of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhino. The rhino emerges from the forests in mists of early morning, and their prehistoric figures make a striking impression, surrounded by the ancient crater walls. No fences or boundaries on the crater walls; animals are free to enter and leave the crater, but many of them stay for the plentiful water and grazing available on the crater floor throughout the year.
Open grassland covers most of the crater floor, turning yellowish with wildflowers in June. The Makat soda lake is a great attraction for flamingos and other water birds, while predators hide in the marsh to ambush animals that come to drink from the river that feeds the lake. Swamps in the crater floor allow water and habitat for elephant and hippo as well as numerous smaller creatures such as frogs, snakes and serval cats. Game viewing around Lake Makat is especially rewarding-animals like zebra and gazelle come to drink while herds of hippos sun themselves in thick lakeshore mud.
The Lerai Forest on the crater floor gets its name from the Maasai word for the elegantly yellow backed acacia tree. Elephants often graze in the forest shade during mid-day, emerging into the open plains during the early hours of the morning and in the evening, as the mid-day heat abates. The small forest patches on the crater floor are home to leopard, monkey, baboon, and antelope such as waterbuck and bushbuck.
Humans and their distant ancestors have been part of Ngorongoro’s landscape for millions of years. The earliest signs of mankind in the Conservation Area are at Laetoli, where hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock aged 3.6 million years. The story continues at Olduvai Gorge, a river canyon cut 100m deep through the volcanic soil of the Serengeti Plains. Buried in the layers are the remains of animals and hominid that lived and died around a shallow lake amid grassy plains and woodlands. These remains date from two million years ago. Visitors can learn more details of this fascinating story by visiting the site, where guides provide fascinating on-site interpretation of the gorge.The most numerous and recent inhabitant of the Ngorongoro Area is the Maasai, who arrived about 200 years ago. Their strong insistence on traditional custom and costume interests many visitors. As of today, there are approximately 42,000 Maasai pastoralists living in Ngorongoro with their cattle, goats, and sheep. Their presence in the area makes big difference between the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Tanzania’s national parks, which do not allow human habitation. Cultural ‘Bomas’, or Maasai villages, give visitors chance to meet Maasai people on their own terms and learn more about this complex and interesting.
Serengeti National Park
A million wildebeest each one driven by the same ancient rhythm, fulfilling its instinctive role in the inescapable cycle of life: a frenzied three-week bout of territorial conquests and mating; survival of the fittest as 40km (25 mile) long columns plunge through crocodile-infested waters on the annual exodus north; replenishing the species in a brief population explosion that produces more than 8,000 calves daily before the 1,000 km (600 miles) pilgrimage begins again. Park size: 14,763 sq km (5,700 sq miles).
Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park, the Serengeti is famed for its annual migration, when some six million hooves pound the open plains, as more than 200,000 zebras and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle join the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing. Yet even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle.
The spectacle of predator versus prey dominates Tanzania’s greatest park. Golden-maned lion prides feast on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density of cheetahs prowls the southeastern plains. Almost uniquely, all three African jackal species occur here, alongside the spotted hyena and a host of more elusive small predators, ranging from the insectivorous aardwolf to the beautiful serval cat.
But there is more to Serengeti than large mammals. Gaudy agama lizards and rock hyraxes scuffle around the surfaces of the park’s isolated granite koppies. A full 100 varieties of dung beetle have been recorded, as have 500-plus bird species, ranging from the outsized ostrich and bizarre secretary bird of the open grassland to the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.
As enduring as the game-viewing is the liberating sense of space that characterizes the Serengeti Plains, stretching across the sunburnt savannah to a shimmering golden horizon at the end of the earth. Yet, after the rains, this golden expanse of grass is transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. And there are also wooded hills and towering termite mounds, rivers lined with fig trees and acacia woodland stained orange by dust. Popular the Serengeti might be, but it remains so vast that you may be the only human audience when a pride of lions masterminds a siege, focused unswervingly on its next meal.
Tarangire National Park -Tanzania
Day after day of cloudless skies. The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape, baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass as brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has shriveled to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds of parched kilometers knowing that here, always, there is water. Park size: 2,600 sq km (1,005 sq miles).
Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons. It’s the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem – a smorgasbord for predators – and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared Oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed.
During the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq km (12,500 sq miles) range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire’s mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry. The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.
On the drier ground, you find the Kori bustard, the heaviest flying bird; the stocking higher ostrich, the world’s largest bird; and small parties of ground hornbills blustering like turkeys. More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colorful yellow-collared lovebird, and the somewhat drabber rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling – all endemic to the dry savannah of north-central Tanzania. Disused termite mounds are often frequented by colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their loud, clockwork-like duetting. Tarangire’s pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail.
Lake Natron -Tanzania
Lake Natron is a soda lake at the base of the active Ol Donyo Lengai volcano and the area around Lake Natron is often described as having a desolate and almost lunar beauty. Walks around the lake and to the streams and waterfalls along the nearby escarpment make a fantastic adventure off the beaten track. Lake Natron, in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, practically sends a warning with its color. This bright red lake is the world’s most caustic body of water, but not to everything. An endemic species of fish, the alkaline tilapia, lives along the edges of the hot spring inlets, and the lake actually derives its color from salt-loving microorganisms that thrive in its alkaline waters. Spirulina, blue-green algae with red pigments, passes its pigments along to the Lesser Flamingoes that feed on the alga and raise their young here.
If Lake Natron, in Africa’s Great Rift Valley had a color theme, it would be pink. The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is often colored red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there. And the lake is the only breeding area for the 2.5 million Lesser Flamingoes that live in the valley. These flamingoes flock along saline lakes in the region, where they feed on Spirulina (blue-green algae). Lake Natron is the only breeding location for Lesser Flamingoes because its caustic environment is a barrier against predators trying to reach their nests. The temperatures in the mud can reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), and depending on recent rainfall, the alkalinity can reach a pH of 9 to 10.5 (almost as alkaline as straight ammonia). Even more amazing than the ability of the flamingoes to live in these conditions, is the fact that an endemic species of fish, the alkaline tilapia thrives in the waters at the edges of the hot spring inlets. Because of the unique biodiversity, Tanzania named the Lake Natron Basin to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance on 4 July 2001.