3 Days Tanzania Camping Safari

Day 1 Kilimanjaro International Airport To Moshi

A staff member of Jerry Tanzania Tours will pick you up from the Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). From here you will be driven to your hotel in Moshi and briefed on your upcoming safari. Enjoy a restful night before beginning your adventure tomorrow!

Accommodation: Panama Garden Resort

Day 2 Moshi – Tarangire National Park – Mto wa Mbu

In the morning after breakfast (around 6:00 a.m.) your driver-guide will arrive at the hotel and inform the receptionist that he is waiting for you. After meeting up with your driver you will travel to Tarangire National Park, and by 10:00 a.m. you will already be on your first safari! Tarangire is huge. As you stand at the park gate and look south, it stretches as far as the eye can see. Known as the ‘Elephant Playground,’ this spectacular park contains largest population of these mighty mammals. But Tarangire is also home to buffalo, lion, gnu, zebra and gazelle and the park can rival Serengeti for sheer animal densities. What might you see today? Perhaps a solitary male lion stretched out beneath a tree, perhaps a trio of male cheetah enjoying some lazy bonding-time in the sun. Maybe some graceful Grant’s gazelle or zebra bounding away from the road or a couple of giraffes munching happily from the choicest acacia branches. For Tarangire specialties, look out for kudu and oryx.

Here as in other parks, it pays not to ignore the small animals. It is so easy to be mesmerized by the power and majesty of an elephant or the elegance of the giraffe. Ask your guide to find you an agama lizard, especially a male one who changes colour in front of you according to the temperature! Or a hyrax, known as pimbi, an insignificant-looking creature of around 30 cm in length…who astonishingly is related to elephant!

Not many trees will pass you by without something of avian interest catching your eye. A memorable flash of colour might be a lilac-breasted roller or superb starling. Ostrich are plentiful and it is hard not to chuckle at the sighting of the well-named, studious-looking secretary bird as it awkwardly pads across the grasslands.

The park is also famous for its noble baobab trees, rolling savannah and acacia woodland. It can be dusty – wear a scarf over your mouth - but this is a minor inconvenience for sighting wildlife in such abundance. After a thorough exploration of the park, you will leave and travel to the small multi-cultural town of Mto wa Mbu, situated next to the entrance of the Lake Manyara National Park, where you will spend the night on a campsite.

Accommodation: Haven Nature Camp & Lodge

Meal Plan: Breakfast will be provided by your Moshi hotel. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, provided by the Jerry Tanzania Tours for you to take out on safari. Your evening meal will be a full, cooked dinner created by your safari chef at the Haven Nature Camp & Lodge.

Day 3 From Mto wa Mbu to Ngorongoro Crater, Return to Mto wa Mbu

You will set off after breakfast towards Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera and the heart of the Conservation Area of the same name. On arrival at the park, you will sign in and then begin the winding descent into the crater itself. At one side there’s the Lerai Forest, classic mountain forest landscape with almost tropical characteristics. This is good elephant country, so keep your eyes peeled. By the side of the nearby swampland is what is sometimes called the ‘elephant graveyard’ as the mighty male tuskers at the end of their lives come to chew on the soft, swampland grasses once their teeth have failed them.

The crater has a population of around 120 lions, with well-defined territories; 15,000 gnu, 9,000 zebra, 400 hyenas, and around 50 black rhino. Many gnu and other herd animals are resident, benefiting from the many sources of year-round waters and are boosted by some migrators in season. Buffalo, Serval, Jackal, Thomson’s gazelle and eland are also present in numbers. Hippos can be found in pools and swampland and highland birdlife is colourful and plentiful around the waters. Flamingos can often be seen in Lake Magadi, which occupies part of the crater floor. After a picnic lunch in the crater and some more game viewing, you will leave the crater in the late afternoon and travel back to the town of Mto wa Mbu, where you will spend another night at the Haven Nature Camp and Lodge.

Accommodation: Haven Nature Camp & Lodge

Meal Plan: Breakfast is served at your campsite at Mto wa Mbu. Lunch will be a cooked, hot lunch prepared by your safari chef, for you to enjoy while out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal also created by your safari chef at your Mto wa Mbu campsite.

Day 4 From Mto wa Mbu to Lake Manyara National Park, Return to Moshi

After a leisurely breakfast, you will depart from your campsite for the nearby Lake Manyara National Park. Stretches along the Rift Valley Escarpment, and characterized by its shimmering lake, Manyara is rich in vegetation and the wildlife that thrives here. Enjoy the tranquility as majestic pink flamingoes wade elegantly, picking out a meal of algae from the shallow, alkaline waters. Bird-lovers are in for a treat as over 400 species have been recorded here – everything from bee-eaters to hornbills and everything in-between. And if you visit between February and June, watch out for yellow-billed stork and pink-backed pelicans, two more avian highlights. On land, Manyara’s terrain is compact, yet boasts differing environments such as diverse forests fed by waters seeping from the nearby escarpment. Monkeys are abundant, but look out too for the lions, giraffe, Cape buffalo and comical warthog who all proudly call this park their home. Hold your nose when you reach the hippo pool, because these big semi-aquatic mammals smell! After a morning dedicated to game viewing, you will leave the park and return to your campsite outside the park for a hot lunch before make your way back to Moshi, a distance of 208 km which will take around 3 ½ hours.

Meal Plan: Breakfast will be enjoyed at your Mto wa Mbu campsite. Your afternoon meal will be a full, cooked lunch, prepared and eaten at your campsite, before you drive back to Moshi. As today is the end of safari, please note that dinner tonight is not included in the tour.