Overview
Guided by Jim Heck
March 13 – 30, 2023
$19,535
Jim’s signature “Great Migration Safari” has operated annually for more than 40 years. There’s no more perfect itinerary or experienced guide!
The migration of wildebeest and zebra through the massive Mara/Serengeti/Ngorongoro ecosystem is a mostly continuous, circular movement following the rains. They bunch up into groups of sometimes 100,000 animals feasting on the nutrient grasses of the southern Serengeti plains, and the only time these 1-2 million animals stop moving is to calve.
You’ll also visit Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. The awesome crater is the most visited game park in all of East Africa. In Kenya game parks include animals and habitat not found in northern Tanzania: The wondrous Great Northern Frontier is an Arizona-like environment with some of the rarest and most beautiful animals and birds on earth. The 11,000-foot high Aberdare Mountain range is a highland rain forest on the equator!
This is also an exceptional time for birding,too! More than 300 migrant species spend their winters here from the northern hemisphere, raising the area’s avifauna to one of the highest in the world!
Starting in Nairobi Jim introduces you to the dramatic history, politics and cultures of East Africa. Even in the bush Jim shows you more than animals! His passion for early man takes you into the nooks and crannies of Olduvai Gorge, where so many precious finds of early man were found.
Accommodations for the trip are mostly up-market. Despite this being the perfect time for seeing the great migration it’s considered a low tourist season. The lower prices make some of East Africa’s truly over-the-top accommodations reachable. This includes one of the most luxurious properties on the entire continent, Crater Lodge. (Jim’s staff refers to it as “Maasai Versailles.”)
For this safari, you can choose to visit Kenya & Tanzania or just Tanzania. The main Tanzanian safari visits several famous game parks but focuses mostly on the Serengeti. This is where the great migration is found, sustaining a greater biodiversity and range of scenery and habitats than anywhere else in Africa. The optional week in Kenya is designed especially to show you habitats and animals that can’t be found in Tanzania! The wondrous Great Northern Frontier is an Arizona-like environment with some of the rarest and most beautiful animals and birds on earth. The 11,000-foot high Aberdare Mountain range is a highland rain forest on the equator! This lush and beautiful environment is filled with animals, rare birds and monkeys.
2023 | Dates | Sharing | Single |
Kenya | March 13-20 | $ 4,540 | $ 5,360 |
Tanzania | March 20-31 | $ 12,995 | $ 14,140 |
About your guide . . . . JIM HECK
Few people know Africa as well as Jim Heck. For nearly a half century he has worked, lived and guided in Africa. His popular blog, Africa-Answerman, includes investigative journalism of some of Africa’s most critical news stories as well as anecdotes and features of daily African life. His award-winning novel, Chasm Gorge, will soon be followed by a second one, The World by Ole Kulit. His companies have organized safaris into Africa for more than 10,000 visitors including most of the country’s major zoos and conservation organizations. And in 2016 he became the first American to be named an honorary senior elder by Kenya’s Maasai tribe.
Jim was the first westerner allowed to leave Addis after the Red Terror; had canoes overturned among crocs and hippos on the Zambezi; been charged by an elephant that he hit with a plate of waldorf salad; lost in the jungles of Cameroun; marooned in the Ituri Forest and rescued by Rhodesian sanction busters; and was among the few outsiders to travel through Uganda during the time of Idi Amin. Jim has never lost a client or fired a gun.