Safaris - Northern Circuit

Serengeti National Park Serengeti (the endless plains) is Tanzanian’s largest and most famous national park. Covering nearly 15,000 sq km, its vast, treeless plains are permanent host to tens of thousands of migrating herbivores, constantly with the search of fresh grassland and water. Chief among these are wildebeest, giraffes, zebras, gazelles, elands, impalas and warthogs all share the plain with their main predators, lions, leopards, cheetah, and the scavenging hyenas.

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Arusha National Park Formerly Ngurdoto Crater Highland National park until 1967. The National Park covers an area of about 137sq. km. It is located near Arusha town between the peaks of Mountains Kilimanjaro and Meru. The park and the town derive their name from Wa -Arusha people who traditionally leave in this area. The Ngurdoto Crater, Momella Lakes, the highland Montane forest and the rugged Mount Meru (4,575m) are the four distinctive features of the park. The park has a wealth of wildlife including colobus monkeys, velvet monkeys, bushbucks, buffalos, red forest duikers, hippos, elephants and giraffes. Bird life especially waterfowl is abundant and interesting.

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Lake Manyara National Park Lake Manyara National Park is one of the Tanzania’s smallest and most diverse national parks (330 sq km); Manyara is the more intimate view of African outdoors. Bordered to the west by the Great Lift Valley and to the east by Lake Manyara, the reserve is host of tree-climbing lions, hippos, elephants, and a huge array of birdlife, including tens of thousands of flamingos that make their annual pilgrimage to the alkaline shores of Lake Manyara.

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Mkomazi National Park Mkomazi is a 3,700 sq km National Park in northern Tanzania. It is a spectacular wilderness of dry bush, ancient baobab trees, isolated rock hills, open savannah, acacias and shallow valleys of grassland. To the northwest is Mount Kilimanjaro, to the south the Pare and Usambara Mountains, and to the north Kenya’s Tsavo National Park. Actually Tsavo shares a border with Mkomazi allowing huge herds of elephant to migrate during the wet season. Elephant, buffalo, giraffe, gerenuk, grant’s gazelle, hartebeest, impala, waterbuck, lesser kudu, oryx, stainbok and zebra share the reserve with the large predictors including numerous lion, leopard, cheetah, and hyena. In all, 78 species of mammals have been recorded while a reptile population includes crocodile and python. The birds of Mkomazi are far more numerous with between 400 to 450 recorded species. Bee-eaters, hornbills, guinea fowl, starlings and weaver birds are seen in large numbers but lesser well known species include martial eagles, secretary birds and the violet wood hoopoes. The plants and insects life is probably the most diversified in Tanzania.

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Ngorongoro Conservation Area Ngorongoro Crater (natures grandiose amphitheatre), as for Ngorongoro Conservation Area, central to its 8,000 sq km is the Ngorongoro Crater, a 20 km wide depression teeming with abundant and unique wildlife. This is one of the few areas in Africa where the Big Five (buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhinoceros) can be seen together. So don’t miss it! Take in too the ancient volcanoes and the Oldvai Gorge with its fossil (including 1.75 m year-old Zinjanthropus skull and the 3.5 m year old Laetoli footprints) as well as the Ndutu and Meseli lakes.

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Tarangire National Park Close to Arusha, 118 km away, Tarangire National Park gets its name from the river that threads its way through the length of the reserve. It is famous for its dense wildlife population which is most spectacular between June and September, the dry period. During this time thousands of animals– wildebeest, zebra, eland, elephant, buffalo, hartebeest and Oryx-migrate from the dry Maasai steppe to the Tarangire River looking for water. Lion, leopard and other predators follow the herds. Tarangire is also home of to 550 varieties of birds.

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