With the animals out of the way, let’s move on where we were in Tanzania for this Safari. We spent time in four different areas: Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Serengeti National Park (central near Seronera and northern, near Kogatende). One of the best parts of this trip was seeing so many different areas while on safari, each offering a unique environment, topography, geography and to some degree, different animals.
We flew into Kilimanjaro Airport, Tanzania and our Safari Guide Roja and our travel agent’s local coordinator, Reward, picked us up and took us to Arusha, about 30 minutes away. We arrived pretty late at night and had one night in Arusha at Rivertrees Country Inn, then an early morning pick up and off we went on safari.
First stop Tarangire National Park which was a couple of hours from Arusha to the park gate. Most of the drive was on paved roads, the last handful of miles was our first taste of the roads we’d be spending most of our Safari on, also referred to as the African Massage - they are bumpy!
We spent that first day in Tarangire on a game drive. What’s a game drive you might ask… it’s basically the core of Safari, driving around looking for animals. I’ll come back to my thoughts on this experience in another post. Around 5pm, we headed to our first “camp” in the park, Tarangire Ndovu Tented Lodge. The first day was pretty stellar - we saw two mating lions within a half hour of entering the park and the animals continued to come out to play the rest of the day. The next day was more game driving, similar to the first with a boxed picnic lunch - early to bed, early to rise is definitely the M.O. And the sunsets and sunrises were a-maze-ing.
From Tarangire we drove to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is a crater that is long dormant but now has multiple environments where animals roam and make their home. Arriving was an insane experience, the road climbs up the outside of the crater, starting as almost dry desert before turning into lush jungle. Then just when you thought the roads couldn’t get worse, they do… a narrow road that two trucks can barely pass on, bumpy as all hell along the rim of the crater. THEN you go down, over 2,000 feet in about 1.5 miles - pretty much straight down. More animals, picnic lunch overseeing a hippo pool, then back UP and to our lodge in Karatu.
The next day was a “soft day” as Roja likes to say. We started a bit later, visited an African art gallery / tourist area where we learned a bit about Tanzanite. Then we went to a Maasai village and learned about this unique tribe. Here the men take multiple wives at the cost of about 10 cows per wife, the children help raise the animals (cows and goats mostly) and the young men provide security from the wild animals that surround them. They live in the national park and conservation areas where we are on Safari. Their homes are rudimentary, 5’ in diameter, made of acacia tree branches and cow dung with a thatched roof.
On our ‘soft day’ we also visited a small, local & organic coffee producer and learned a bit about the Iraqw tribe. It was some of the best coffee we’ve ever tasted. While there we also renewed our wedding vows in traditional Iraqw garb.
And from there, ONWARDS towards Serengeti National Park… but first we had to go back up the crater, drive along the rim road again and finally reached Serengeti. This was probably the bumpiest of all the rides and the longest. Roja was a great guide and driver, we arrived safely and well massaged! He also taught David how to “check the tire pressure” in the bush (aka a bush toilet). Later in northern Serengeti I too learned how (with a view of zebras and gazelle!)
Next up, a bush plane (12 seater) flight to Kogatende in the northern region of Serengeti. A short game drive, picnic in the truck and then a long ride to our next camp. We learned this area of Serengeti is really only active during the migration season, June-August, when the wildebeest and zebras cross the Mara River to/from Tanzania /Kenya. It’s quite the sight!
And that was our safari: 9 days of game drives, 11 days in total. 4 lodges/camps, 2 great guides, 3 crossings, 20 or so lions, 4 cheetah, 5 rinos, 2 leopards, thousands of wildebeests, elephants galore, and more.
P.S. send us texts, emails, photos - we’ll be sharing our life on the road, please share your life with us as well - miss you already!
Wow, amazing safari -- your route was pretty similar to our 2017 Tanzania safari -- only you were smart enough to skip Lake Manyara (we went there for a night inbetween Tarangire NP which we loved, and Ngorongoro. You did not miss anything. I was laughing about the lions, when we were down in Ngorongoro, we kept running across this one couple (lions) that were just mating anywhere and everywhere -- the best was when they did it right by our safari truck with about 20 other trucks observing as well. Talk about exhibitionists! I'm going to look at the rest of your pictures but glad you were able to see the Great migration, even if no croc action.