Budget Camping Trails 2

Day 1   Arusha – Lake Manyara
Morning pick up from Arusha, drive to Mto wa mbu for village visit

Afternoon drive to Lake Manyara National Park with lunch boxes for afternoon game drive. Evening return to your campsite, dinner and overnight at Twiga Camp Site.

Lake Manyara National Park consists of more than 400 species of birds including the flamingos depending on their migration as well as other large water birds such as pelicans and storks. The entrance to the park is through an expanse of an abundant forest where you will view the baboons and monkeys in large numbers. With very good spotting you will also see the elegant bush bucks hidden in the forests. As you drive ahead, you will come to the Acacia woodland where the legendary tree climbing lions are spotted, there are also the elephants, mongoose and the dik-dik. Further ahead you will come across the grassy floodplain where the large buffalo, giraffe, zebra and wildebeests herds wander. Across the grassy plain is the magnificent alkaline lake, the home to the thousands migratory flamingos.

Day 2   Lake Manyara - Serengeti

After breakfast drive to Serengeti National Park. With lunch boxes, enjoy game drive in the Serengeti National Park. Dinner and overnight at Seronera Camp Site.

Day 3   Serengeti

With lunch boxes enjoy a full day game drive in the Serengeti National Park.

Dinner and overnight at Seronera Camp Site.

Serengeti National Park is the largest National Park in Tanzania. The park is located some 320 km to the northwest of Arusha, lying in a high plateau between the Ngorongoro highlands and the Kenya/Tanzania border, and extending almost to Lake Victoria to the west. Aptly named ‘’endless plains’’ by the Maasai people, you immediately experience this vastness as you enter the southeastern plains of the park from Ngorongoro. Declared a protected area in 1921 and gazetted as a National park in 1951, Serengeti is the oldest National Park in Tanzania and undoubtedly one of the most famous wildlife sanctuaries in the world. The principal features of the Serengeti are the short and long grass plains in the south and east, the acacia Savannah in the central areas, the hilly and densely wooded areas in the north and the extensive woodland in the west. Serengeti provides sanctuary to the highest concentration of plains animals in the world. Survey estimates indicate an animal population of about 4 million. The “Big 5”, lions, buffalos, leopards, elephants and the rhinos, are rarely to be missed in this park. Serengeti also boasts to hold the largest population of lions in Africa. The park also supports many further species, including cheetah, Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, topi, eland, waterbuck, hyena, baboon, impala, African wild dog and giraffe. The park also boasts about 500 bird species, including ostrich, secretary bird, Kori bustard, crowned crane and marabou stork

Day 4   Serengeti - Ngorongoro

After breakfast drive to Ngorongoro via the Olduvai Gorge. The Olduvai Gorge, popularly referred to as ‘’The Cradle of Humankind’’, is the site where in 1959 Dr Louis Leakey discovered the skull of Zinjanthropus or “Nutcracker Man” believed to have lived 1.75 million years ago.

With lunch boxes, descend in to the crater for half day crater tour

Dinner and overnight at Simba Camp Site.

Ngorongoro Crater floor, a sheer drop of 610 metres below the crater rim, has an area of 265 sq km, with a diameter of 19 km. The sight of the Ngorongoro Crater is simply stunning. “There is nothing with which to compare. It is one of the wonders of the world…” once wrote Professor Bernard Grzimek. The crater floor is covered with plains animals, including wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, elands, rhino, and a large predator population of lions, hyena and jackal which can all be viewed at close quarters. Cheetah and leopard can also be seen here. The rain season is between November and May. The altitude at the crater rim is about 2286 metres above sea level, and temperatures can get quite chilly in the evening

Day 5   Ngorongoro – Tarangire

After breakfast, drive to Tarangire National Park with lunch boxes

Enjoy full day game viewing in the park. Dinner and overnight at Porini Camp.

Tarangire National Park lies 120 km south of Arusha, along The Great North Road highway, and is very popular for day trips from the town. Tarangire offers a wide variety of wildlife in its area of 2,600 sq km. As in all ecosystems, the vegetation and the types of animals you find are closely correlated. The principal features of the park are the flood plains and the grassland, mainly comprising of various types of acacia trees, and a few scattered baobabs, tamarind and the sausage trees. The Tarangire River, after which the park is named, provides the only permanent water for wildlife in the area. When the Maasai Steppes dry up with the end of the long rains in June, migratory animals return to the Tarangire River, making Tarangire National Park second only to Ngorongoro in the concentration of wildlife. This period stretches between June and November and it is the best season for game viewing in Tarangire. The most common animals found in the park include zebras, wildebeest, lions, leopards, waterbucks, giraffe, elephants, gazelles, impala, gerenuk, lesser kudu and the beautiful fringe-eared oryx. You may be lucky to spot the tree-climbing python for which the park is famous, or the greater kudu and the roan antelope which are rare species in Northern Tanzania. Over 300 species of birds have been recorded in the Park

Day 6   Tarangire - Arusha

After breakfast drive to Arusha.

End of Services.