Patas

A staff member of Jerry Tanzania Tours will pick you up from the Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). From here you will be driven to Gran Meliá Arusha in Arusha. Enjoy a restful night before beginning your adventure tomorrow!

Note: The hotel cost only includes breakfast. Check-in starts at 2:00 pm.

You'll depart from Gran Meliá Arusha after breakfast for the approximately two-hour journey to Tarangire National Park. Along the way, your eyes will be opened to all the colours and character of Tanzania: perhaps some Maasai herdsmen driving their flocks of goats to new pastures. You’ll get to know your driver-guide, amazed at his depth of knowledge as he effortlessly answers all your questions.Once you've entered Tarangire, you'll begin your game drive across a rich vista of endless golden savannah that surrounds the Tarangire River. 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 an extensive game drive and a picnic lunch, you will leave the park to make your way to the hotel.

After a hearty breakfast you will head out on another game drive in the Tarangire National Park. The varied terrain in itself could be considered a wonder, with riverine woodlands and grasslands, acacia and baobab. Tarangire is a true dry season refuge for the region’s wildlife. Amazingly, some 550 species of birds have been recorded here, and it won’t be long before an air-bound blaze of colour alerts you to something interesting. You might recognize an ostrich or a stork, but if you can’t identify the smaller species, there’s no need to worry – that is what your expert driver-guide is here for!

The birds are exotic and so are the names: what about the ‘white-bellied go-away bird’ or the ‘olive bee-eater’ for example? But of course, you will also see plenty more large mammals today. In the late afternoon, you will leave the Tarangire behind. Passing through the small multi-cultural town of Mto wa Mbu, the higher lands are soon reached and wonderful views of the Maasai Plains and the Lake Manyara open up before you. After the obligatory photo stop, you will make your way to the hotel. Today’s destination is Mawe Mawe Manyara Lodge set at the rugged Rift Valley escarpment.     

Waking up in the Serengeti is something really special. Sights, sounds and smells of Africa are all around you, and ahead is a full day of adventure in the world’s most famous national park. After breakfast, you start today with the morning section of your game drive in Serengeti National Park, marveling at the stunning scenery, ever changing light and always entertaining wildlife, all explained to you by your expert driver-guide.

The Seronera River weaves its way through this area, providing waters for all species of wildlife. You will also see the distinctive rocky outcrops, the famous kopjes which characterize the Serengeti landscape. Kopjes are very hard and often granite. They have been aged at maybe 600 million years old and created even before the earth’s surface was pushed up from the ocean. Lions and other cats frequent these stony places and they are also home to snakes and hyraxes. Slowly weathering in wind and rain, they are peeling off in layers, which you may see on close inspection. Lunch will be an unforgettable experience, enjoyed in the middle of the bush. After lunch, you set off again, searching for wildlife in this awe-inspiring park. Serengeti’s wonders evolve subtly as the day progresses. The myriad animals and birds are the ‘stars of the show’ and Nature’s dramas can unfold at any time. Of course, the animals don’t work to a timetable, so you may find lion or leopard, elephant and zebra, cheetah and antelope at any time on your drives. Look out for the magnificent sight of the world’s heaviest bird capable of flight, the Kori Bustard. The avian equivalent of a lumbering cargo plane, it can weigh up to 15 kg and has a wingspan of nearly three metres! At the end of the afternoon, you return to the accommodation for dinner and some much-needed rest.

Following breakfast, you will have a morning game drive in amazing Serengeti, marveling at its animal inhabitants. With its informative visitor centre, the Seronera area of Central Serengeti is the national park’s most popular area. And it is very popular with the wildlife, too. The Seronera river enjoys year-round waterflow, so there is always something of interest to observe. Several game drives can be undertaken here and might reveal lions in sizeable prides, hippo or herds of elephants - whose populations in the park have risen in recent times. Depending on other attractions, you may choose to call in at the Serengeti Visitor Centre, where there is an excellent explanation of the park’s eco-system and a chance to understand the history of conservation in this area.

In particular, you will find out about the work of Bernhard Grzimek and the Frankfurt Zoological Society who had the foresighted vision of preserving the Serengeti’s eco-system. Even at the center, you may well find wildlife: populations of hyrax and mongoose, as well as many small bird species. After lunch, you will head south-east towards Ngorongoro Conservation Area. If it has not already struck you with its vastness, Serengeti’s ‘endless plains’ will make a deep impression on you as you will take the long, straight road which passes Simba Kopjes (famous from ‘The Lion King’) to reach Naabi Hill Gate, close to the divide between Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Here you can gather information at the gate’s visitor center, clamber up the hill for superb views back over the plains, or look out for a colorful agama lizard among the rocks.

From your accommodation, you will set off after breakfast, a 6am departure to reach the rim and then descend into the vast 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 your morning game drive in this stunning crater and then lunch, you will have a 3 ½ hour journey, covering the 192 km back to Arusha.

On this day, you will have a leisure breakfast at the Gran Meliá Arusha and depending on your departure flight back home, you will be transferred to the Kilimanjaro International Airport.

Note: Hotel check-out is at 12:00 pm. In case you need a late check-out because of an evening flight, you have the option to extend your hotel stay till 6:00 pm for an extra fee.