Tanzania Dry Season, August 2024

The main safari flies east back to Nairobi later this morning as folks prepare to return home. You’ll leave earlier this morning on a flight west towards Lake Victoria, arriving the town of Migori around 9 a.m. A representative from the Tanzanian airline will bus you to the Kenya border post at Isbenia where you’ll pass through customs and immigration before continuing to the Tanzanian airstrip in the town of Tarime. You’ll board a second flight that takes you into the center of the Serengeti, arriving the Seronera airstrip in the late morning. Jim’s Tanzanian staff and vehicles will be waiting to start your safari right away!

The dry season is a stressful time for the veld as many animals move slowly towards areas of more permanent water and grass. One such area in the central Serengeti is the Moru Kopjes. This is a fabulous place characterized by giant boulders, some several billion years old! At a slightly higher elevation, there are more forests and small rivers. The area is not just outstandingly beautiful, but a perfect habitat year-round for thousands of animals, including tens of thousands of large antelope like topi and hartebeest.

Your two nights in the Serengeti will be at an exclusive, authentic adventure camp tucked neatly among several giant boulders. Meals and overnight at Little Moru Camp.
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The Moru is where Serengeti authorities have released back into the wild more than three dozen black rhino. This several decade-long project is just now proving its value as the black rhino was nearly extinct in the wild not long ago. The area of your morning game viewing will also include the forested areas where many of Africa’s largest leopard are found.

Before lunch the safari will try to visit some Maasai rock paintings - although recently lion have been occupying the cave! Morning game viewing will be topped off with a special picnic lunch set on the top of one of the larger boulders in the area. You’ll enjoy terrific views of the surrounding veld.

Meals and overnight at Little Moru Camp.
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Leave the Moru after breakfast and head down the main Serengeti road through the administrative and welcome center known as Naabi Hill. This massive granite hill composed of multiple kopjes pops out of the endless flatland plains and can be seen miles before reaching it. As the driver/guides perform necessary paperwork for your safari here, you’ll be able to climb to the top for absolutely incredible views of the surrounding plains.

Continue down the main road to Olduvai Gorge, perhaps the most famous early man site on earth. You’ll have a brief tour at the site with its impressive new museum. This was where the discovery by Mary Leakey in 1959 of “Nutcracker Man” transformed thinking about evolution and jump-started the science of paleontology. You’ll have a picnic lunch near the site.

Then continue in the afternoon on truly one of the most amazing drives in Africa, as you ascend the massive Ngorongoro Crater. The road weaves through Maasai villages just outside the crater. Then you suddenly arrive at the first view point. ABC’s Good Morning America calls it among the most awesome sites on earth! Continue to Serena Lodge for dinner and overnight. The lodge is built right on the edge of the crater rim!
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Once the world’s largest structure, the super massive volcano Ngorongoro blew its stack three million years ago in what must have been an apocalyptic event. At the time, its top stretched into the stratosphere, and its girth was more than 25 miles. The raging area fires and thousands of years of heavy smoke killed almost everything nearby and was instrumental in creating Olduvai Gorge as such an important early man site.

After an early breakfast you’ll descend the rim onto the crater floor. This is a drive of about 1600 feet down onto the 100 sq. mile crater. Affording obvious natural protection from hunting and poaching, the wildlife in the crater is incredibly approachable and includes free-ranging black rhino.

Few animals remain all their lives in the crater, and contrary to popular belief, it’s very easy for them to go in and out. So, if August is very dry, many of the animals will have left, but not the lions! And they can stay because many of the gazelle don’t need water. So, the dry season in the crater is a season of easy lion-killing and affords you probably your best opportunity to see a take-down.

Few geographic formations on earth can create such a beautiful scene, and animated with Africa’s big game, the crater is truly one of the most special places on the continent.

Enjoy a special picnic lunch on the crater floor before ascending the rim for dinner and overnight at Serena Lodge.
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Morning drive through the enchanting foggy forests of the high crater rim out the park gate into beautiful Tanzania farming country. This is where some of Tanzania’s best coffee is grown and time-permitting, you can stop at a café serving local coffee in the town of Karatu.

Continue further south as the road winds back and forth to the very top of the Great Rift Valley. The Great Rift is a cleavage in the continent regularly noted by astronauts from outer space. It’s where the east side of the continent is methodically moving away from the west side, which over millions of years has caused this dramatic valley. You’ll stop at the best view point for pictures!

Continue a bit further past Lake Manyara, one of the many Great Rift lakes, and finally into Tarangire National Park. Enjoy your picnic lunch near the main gate as the driver/guides process paperwork for entry.

Tarangire is the land of baobabs and anyone who has read the Little Prince will immediately be transported into the fantasy world that Tarangire emulates so well! This is Africa's best elephant park and includes a huge resident population of very wild elephant. Game view the rest of the afternoon into the remote center of the park. Dinner and overnight at Ndovu Tented Lodge.
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Beautiful landscapes of rolling hills, deep valleys and intriguing swamps with lots of buffalo, elephant, giraffe and so much more all near camp. With its formidable sand rivers, Tarangire is actually more like a southern African park than East African, providing the opportunity to find some unusual wildlife like kudu and roan. But the feature of your day will be elephants. See Jim’s blog for many posts about his belief there are now too many elephants in northern Tanzania.

Meals and overnight at Ndovu Tented Lodge.
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Game view this morning through the northern end of Tarangire onto the main highway to Arusha, Tanzania's most important town. Time for shopping and browsing an important art museum adjacent the new Jane Goodall Conservation Center. Continue in the early afternoon to Kilimanjaro airport, where private rooms are available for everyone at the nearby Airport Planet Lodge. The lodge then transfers everyone on demand to the terminals for their departure.
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