Kenya’s Lakes and Tanzania popular safari parks

Day 2: After breakfast, we will drive to Lake Naivasha, arrive with a guided walk at the Crescent Island including a boat. Kindly note there is the option of visiting Hells Gate National park instead of the Crescent Island. Lake Naivasha is particularly famous for its rich birdlife. More than 400 species have been spotted. The shores host abundant birdlife including pelicans, cormorants, and fish-eagles with their haunting cry.  Hippos graze all over us at night then sleep under the acacia or rest in the water by day. Overnight at Naivasha Sopa Lodge.

Day3: After breakfast, we will drive to Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Arrive Mara in time for hot lunch then have an afternoon game drive. This is the most visited and perhaps the most beautiful of all the country’s game reserves. Lying at an altitude of 1650m 5414ft it covers an area of 1,510 sq km (almost 600 sq miles) and forms the northern extension of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The Mara is a Maasai word meaning spotted or dappled. It is a mosaic of rolling grassland dominated by red oat grass, small bush-covered hills and along the Mara River and its tributaries flowing towards Lake Victoria, riverine bush, and Forest. Overnight at Ilkeliani Mara Camp.

Day 4: Today we will have a full day game drive in Mara with picnic lunch provided. All members of the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, African elephant, cape buffalo, and black rhinoceros) are found in the Maasai Mara. The population of black rhinos was fairly numerous until 1960, but it was severely depleted by poaching in the 1970s and early 1980s, dropping to a low of 15 individuals. Numbers have been slowly increasing, but the population was still only up to an estimated 23 in 1999. Hippopotami and crocodiles are found in large groups in the Mara and Talek rivers. Leopards, hyenas, cheetahs, jackals, and bat-eared foxes can also be found in the reserve. The plains between the Mara River and the Esoit Siria Escarpment are probably the best area for game viewing, in particular regarding lion and cheetah. As in the Serengeti, the wildebeest are the dominant inhabitants of the Maasai Mara, and their numbers are estimated in the millions. Around July of each year, these animals migrate north from the Serengeti plains in search of fresh pasture and return to the south around October. The Great Migration is one of the most impressive natural events worldwide, involving some 1,300,000 wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson’s gazelles, 97,000 Topi, 18,000 elands, and 200,000 zebras. These migrants are followed along their annual, circular route by predators, most notably lions and hyena. Antelopes can be found, including Grant’s gazelles, impalas, duikers and Coke’s hartebeests. The plains are also home to the distinctive Masai giraffe. The large roan antelope and the nocturnal bat-eared fox, rarely present elsewhere in Kenya, can be seen within the reserve borders. There is an option of visiting a local Maasai village. Overnight at Ilkeliani Mara Camp.

Day 5: After breakfast, our Kenyan driver/guide will transfer to Isebania border where our Tanzania team will pick you up then drive to Lake Victoria. Overnight at Serenity on the Lake.

Day 6: After breakfast, we will drive to Central Serengeti, with picnic lunch provided, we will have a full day game drive. This is Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park. Also, a world heritage site and recently proclaimed a worldwide wonder. The Serengeti is famed for its annual migration when some six million hooves pound the open plains as more than 200,000 zebras and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle join the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing. Even when the migration is quiet, Serengeti National park offers arguably the most scintillating game viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephants and giraffe, the thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni,  impala and Grant’s gazelle. Overnight at KatiKati Tented Camp.

Day 7&8: Today we will have a full day game drive in Serengeti National Park with picnic lunch provided. The park covers 14,750 square kilometers (5,700 sq mi) of grassland plains, savanna, riverine forest, and woodlands. The park lies in northwestern Tanzania, bordered to the north by the Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Maasai Mara National Reserve. To the southeast of the park is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the southwest lies Maswa Game Reserve, to the west are the Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, and to the northeast and east lies the Loliondo Game Control Area. Together, these areas form the larger Serengeti ecosystem.

The park is usually described as divided into three regions; Serengeti plains: the almost treeless grassland of the south is the most emblematic scenery of the park. This is where the wildebeest breed, as they remain in the plains from December to May. Other hoofed animals – zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo, waterbuck – also occur in huge numbers during the wet season. “Kopjes” are granite florations that are very common in the region, and they are great observation posts for predators, as well as a refuge for hyrax and pythons.

Western corridor: the black clay soil covers the savannah of this region. The Grumeti River and its gallery forest is home to Nile crocodiles, patas monkeys, hippopotamus, and martial eagles. The migration passes through from May to July.

Northern Serengeti: the landscape is dominated by open woodlands (predominantly Commiphora) and hills, ranging from Seronera in the south to the Mara River on the Kenyan border. Apart from the migratory wildebeest and zebra (which occur from July to August, and in November), this is the best place to find elephants, giraffe, and dik dik. Overnight at KatiKati Tented Camp.

Day 9: We will have a sunrise game drive, breakfast then drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Have lunch en-route arrive and check in at the Camp or Lodge for a relaxing afternoon. Overnight at Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge.

Day 10: Today we will have a full day game drive inside Ngorongoro Crater with picnic lunch provided. The main feature of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority is the Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 meters (2,000 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometers (100 square miles). Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 meters (14,800 to 19,000 feet) high. The elevation of the crater floor is 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) above sea level. The Crater was voted by Seven Natural Wonders as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in Arusha. Approximately 25,000 large animals, mostly ungulates, live in the crater. Large animals in the crater include the black rhinoceros, the African buffalo or Cape buffalo, and the hippopotamus. There also are many other ungulates: the blue wildebeest, Grant’s zebra, the common eland, and Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles. Waterbucks occur mainly near Lerai Forest. There are no topis or crocodiles. Impalas are absent because the open woodland they prefer does not exist. Giraffes also are absent, possibly because of a lack of browse species. Tanzanian cheetah, East African wild do, and African leopard is rarely seen. Overnight at Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge.

Day 11: After breakfast we will drive to Tarangire National Park with picnic lunch provided have a full day game drive.  Tarangire National Park is the sixth largest national park in Tanzania, it is located in Manyara Region. The name of the park originates from the Tarangire River that crosses the park. The Tarangire River is the primary source of fresh water for wild animals in the Tarangire Ecosystem during the annual dry season. The Tarangire Ecosystem is defined by the long-distance migration of wildebeest and zebras. During the dry season, thousands of animals concentrate in Tarangire National Park from the surrounding wet-season dispersal and calving areas. The park is famous for its high density of elephants and baobab trees. Visitors to the park in the June to November dry season can expect to see large herds of thousands of zebra, wildebeest and cape buffalo. Other common resident animals include waterbuck, giraffe, dik dik, impala, eland, Grant’s gazelle, vervet monkey, banded mongoose, and olive baboon. Predators in Tarangire include African lion, leopard, cheetah, caracal, honey badger, and African wild dog. Home to more than 550 bird species, the park is a haven for bird enthusiasts. The park is also famous for the termite mounds that dot the landscape. Those that have been abandoned are often home to the dwarf mongoose. In 2015, a giraffe that is white due to leucism was spotted in the park. Overnight at Maramboi Tented Camp.[/caption]

Day 12: After breakfast, we will drive to Arusha, have lunch en-route. Drop off at your accommodation or Kilimanjaro Airport to catch your flight back home or to your next destination.