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INSTINCT WILDLIFE SAFARI

9 DAYS NORTHERN TANZANIA:

DESTINATIONS

Arusha, Arusha National Park, Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro, Ndutu, Serengeti

DURATION

9  Days

ACTIVITIES & EXTENTIONS

Game Drive, Cultural Activities (Optional)Visit Olduvai Gorge (Optional)

Overview

In this tour, you will have the opportunity to visit the most iconic parks of the northern safari circuit of Tanzania – Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara NP, Serengeti NP, and Ngorongoro Crater.
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Itinirerary

Arrive at Kilimanjaro airport, Meet your Tour guide and transfer to theLodge.

After Breakfast. Set out for a full day spends on Arusha National Park under Mt. Meru, which looms over Arusha town. The montane forest offers us many exciting birds including both Narina and Bar-tailed Trogons. As we head up the mist-enshrouded slopes, the yellow acacia trees become draped in old man’s beard lichen and we search for skulking birds such as White-starred Robin and few other forest birds. The park is also an excellent place to find large herds of buffalo grazing the mountain’s lower slopes. During this day you might drive around the l Mt. Meru to the lark plains. These grasslands are home to the last 200 Beesley’s Larks found on Earth, and we will search long and hard for this critically endangered Tanzanian endemic. Other interesting residents here include Chestnut-bellied and Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, shrikes, wheatears, pipits, and larks. The plains are lined by whistling thorn trees, while hills offer a scrubby habitat that can deliver Red-fronted and White-headed Barbets, Red-throated Tit, and crombecs. The thicket habitat and riparian strips offer many great birds, including Slate-colored Boubou, White-headed Mousebird, Nubian Woodpecker, and the highly gregarious Gray-headed Social-Weaver. A night drive will reveal many bushbabies and perhaps the seldom-seen Striped Hyena. Dinner and overnight at the lodge

Breakfast. From Arusha we head to Tarangire, where we shall enjoy some of northern Tanzania’s finest birding. The low baobab-clad plains and fever-tree groves support many cool species including three Tanzanian endemics: Ashy Starling, Yellow-collared Lovebird, and Rufous-tailed Weaver. We will also make our way to the shores of Lake Manyara, where thousands of waterbirds and a pink haze of flamingos stretch across the horizon.Meals and overnight at the lodge.

Breakfast. We depart after an early breakfast and make our way to the shores of Lake Manyara, where thousands of waterbirds and a pink haze of flamingos stretch across the horizon. The waterbird spectacle here is phenomenal, and among the birds we will find large herds of buffalo and other mammals scattered across the lake fringes. This valley lake is backed up the dramatic Rift Valley wall. Freshwater birds feeds into the edge of the lake creating myriad microhabitats for waterfowl and other organisms. The area is home to the famous tree-climbing lions of Manyara, but we would be very lucky to encounter these beasts in our short time in the park. Once we have been blown-away by the spectacle of the park it will be time to move on and we’ll begin the journey to the phenomenal parks of northwestern Tanzania, our undoubted trip highlight. Dinner and overnight at the Lodge.

Breakfast at the hotel and depart to Ngorongoro highlands.As we climb higher, we’ll keep our eyes peeled for flowering Lions paws; if we find a patch, we might be exposed to the coolest sunbird spectacle in Africa, with the impressive Golden-winged, coppery-colored Bronze, and iridescent purple Tacazee Sunbirds all vieing for nectar from the same flowers. Moving away from the Great Rift Valley, we head for the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge on the edge of the magical Crater. Some 20-km wide, and with vertical 600-m tall walls, descending into the crater is like finding Africa’s ‘garden of eden’, with almost every variety of wildlife packed into it. At a mere 2.5 million years old, geologically speaking, this volcano is a fairly recent addition to East Africa’s landscape.Arrive for lunch at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge. In the afternoon we enjoy an escorted walking safari to the Acacia Lahai forest in the Lemala area as well as some scenic montane forest and grasslands on the crater rim and around our lodge. Here we might see several forest and mountain birds including Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Shalow’s Turacos, flycatchers and bush-shrikes. Dinner and overnight at the Lodge

After breakfast we descend into the crater for a full day with picnic lunch.While in the crater, we will be looking for birds such as, Black-bellied Bustard, Yellow-necked Spurfowl, Long-tailed Fiscal Shrike, Black-faced Go-away, The pink-stained flamingo-infested Lake Magadi shall also impress, and we’ll be sure to look for the amazing large herds of mammals,Lion prides and other small cats eg. Caracals, Serval cats we must focus attention to chance of seeing black rhinoceros on this tour, which number just a handful here, one of the few places they persist in East Africa. Meals and overnight in the lodge.

After breakfast. We descend the Malanja depression and onto the Serengeti plains, where sandgrouse, bustards, and wheatears abound. Grant’s Gazelles are scattered across the plains, while Ostrich and Giraffe walk swaying in the haze. Towards Ndutu we enter beautiful mature Acacia woodland with alkaline lakes and swamps. The lodge’s waterhole is a bird magnet with ever-present Fischer’s Lovebird, a variety of manikins, waxbills, and and the endemic Gray-breasted Spurfowl. The woodlands harbour Chatterers, Woodpeckers, Babblers, and Tits. This is the famous area where wildebeest arrive during the raining season for calving, and up to half a million females may be in attendance with their young, presenting a wildlife spectacle of awesome proportions, impossible to describe and enthralling to experience. The attendant predators, particularly Lions and hyenas, will have followed them south and the vultures await each kill with renewed enthusiasm.Meals and overnight the Lodge.

Ndutu – Serengeti. Breakfast. We explore the vast acacia-studded plains of Serengeti NP, encountering herds of wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, and Giraffe alongside their associated predators. The birds, of course, are party to this drama. We’ll search for Meyer’s Parrot, Black-faced Go-away-bird, and Usambiro Barbet. We’ll be spending one day exploring the western corridor, which should reveal a gamut of interesting birds like the Black-headed Gonolek, Common Wattle-eye, and the recently found Karamoja Apalis. Meals and overnight at the Lodge.

Transfer to KIA. On our final day we drive out, returning to Arusha, for transfer to KIA and the return flight. We shall stop for Lunch at the hotel before continuing to Arusha, stopping at the various Maasai culture centers for curio or gift buying or just to soak up the splendor of the red-cloaked tribesmen. End of North birding among beasts’ safari.

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INCLUSIONS

  • Crater fee
  • Park fees
  • Camping Fees
  • Conservation Fees
  • All activities (unless labeled as optional)
  • All accommodation as stated in the itinerary
  • A professional driver/guide
  • All transportation (unless labeled as optional)
  • All Meals (as specified in the day-by-day section)
  • Roundtrip airport transfer

EXCLUSIONS

  • International flights (from/to home)
  • Additional accommodation before and at the end of the tour
  • Tips 
  • Personal items (souvenirs, travel insurance, visa fees, etc.)
  • Services not mentioned in the program
  • Travel insurance and medical repatriation
  • Items of a personal nature
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SAFARIS

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