9 Days – Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Lake Natron, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Eyasi

Your day starts early. Around 6:00 AM, accompanied by a Maasai guide, enjoy some light hiking to the nearby Ngare Sero waterfalls and relax in the cool spray of water cascading down the rocks of this scenic ravine. Make sure to bring your shoes! We return to accommodation by 8:30 AM and finishing up a good breakfast, will head out towards the Serengeti National Park. This road trip takes through variety of sites: towns and villages, savannah and forest, and you’ll be able to spot animals like antelope, wildebeest and zebra. We enter Serengeti in the afternoon. The Serengeti is arguably the most impressive wildlife sanctuary in the world. You will have an afternoon game drive in the endless plains of the Serengeti for a chance to see the great herds of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles or a pride of lions lounging in the shade. A picnic lunch will be done during the day long game drive itself. The eventful day comes to an end with dinner and a good night’s rest in your accommodation.

You can either have a relaxed breakfast and depart for full day game drives around 9:00 AM with packed lunch and return back to lodge late afternoon around 6:00 PM. Or you can depart at 6:00 AM on an early morning game drive. Later return to accommodation for breakfast and relax for a bit and depart on an afternoon game drive with packed lunch. You will explore the central portion of the Serengeti National Park today. The legendary Serengeti National Park is the most renowned safari destination for its incredible population of lions and leopards. The central portion of the Serengeti - known as Seronera area is one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park. It features the Seronera River, which provides a valuable water source to this area and therefore attracts wildlife well representative of most of the Serengeti’s species. During the off season of the migration, one must really look out for the many lion pride that thrive in this region. The interactions and survival of these lion pride provide an excellent game viewing experience all year round. Along with a picnic lunch during the full day game drive, the day will come to a close by around 5PM. The long day comes to an end with a good dinner and a good night’s rest in your accommodation.

After breakfast around 6:30 AM, you will depart with a packed lunch from the camp and have a morning game drive in Serengeti National Park till lunch time. There are several game drive circuits in Central Serengeti and depending on what you have already seen on your safari and your interests, your guide will take you to game drives at one or more of these circuits. You are very likely to see a good number of big cats, especially lions, along with a diverse array of other wildlife. In the afternoon depart for Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Depending on your choice of accommodation, you will be either staying inside Ngorongoro conservation area or exiting from Ngorongoro and staying at a lodge in Karatu. The day comes to an end with a good dinner and a good night’s rest in your accommodation.

On the last day of your safari, you will have an early start. Finishing up with a quick breakfast you will make an early descent at around 6:30 AM into the crater floor. The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. It has a massive floor of about 260 sq kms with a depth of over 2000 feet. The 5-hour game drive on the crater floor will show you a lot of animal action. Keeping the camera ready is definitely recommended. The African elephant, buffalo, Black rhino, Hippos, Hyenas, Cheetahs and Lions are found in plenty. Post the picnic lunch at the beautiful Hippo pool, you will begin a steep ascend to the top exit of the crater. We will drive to our accommodation at Lake Eyasi and relax for the day.

Around 05:30 am, after a light breakfast, you will depart from the lodge and visit the Hadzabe Bushmen. They are the last remaining hunter gatherers of East Africa who are continuing their way of life with very little changes since 10s of thousands of years. You will participate in their early morning activities including bush trek, hunting, and making a campfire. Other activities that might be done during the day are interacting with the Hadza, participating in their honey gathering, baobab fruit foraging, and experiencing their daily life.

Later in the day, you will drive back to the village to meet the Datoga people, another indigenous tribe found in the area. Datogas are skilled farmers and livestock keepers. Some of them are also craftsmen living independently for over decades forging knives, arrowheads, and jewelry for the greater Datoga tribe and for the Bushmen.

Later on, you will return to your lodge for a hot lunch before driving further to Arusha to reach by around 5:00 PM.