8-Day Mid-Luxury Ndutu Migration Footsteps Dec – April

Welcome to Tanzania! You will be picked up from the airport by a Lion King representative and driven to your accommodation in Arusha. Depending on your arrival time, you will hopefully have time to relax and prepare for the adventure of a lifetime!

Busy Arusha is an essential part of safari life here in northern Tanzania and most travellers pass through at some stage.

Your Lion King Safari guide will collect you from your accommodation after breakfast. This morning, you will drive to Tarangire National Park. The transit drive is approximately two and a half hours on good tarmac roads. The park is named after the Tarangire River which runs through it. This ‘river of warthogs’ is the only source of water for wildlife in the region during the dry season. The park is well known for its elephant families, which can often be seen congregating by the river. You may also see giraffes, bushbucks, and hartebeests. These animals are closely followed by a range of predators, including lions and leopards. There are more breeding species of birds found in Tarangire than anywhere else on the planet! The huge and ancient baobab trees can be seen here. Some of them are said to have lived for more than a thousand years.
Lunch will be at a picnic site inside the park. After your game drive, you will transit to your accommodation in Karatu.

After breakfast, you will drive up into the cooler regions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. There will be a chance to stop and see the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater. You will then transit through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the Serengeti, entering the south of the Park.

The Serengeti is truly spectacular. It is famous for its vast open grasslands which allow for excellent sightings of wildlife. The Serengeti boasts an abundance of wildlife such as impalas, buffalos, crocodiles, and hippos. In addition to the iconic landscapes, you have a good chance of encountering predators and you may see lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

This is another day set aside for game drives in the Serengeti. It is possible to have a more relaxed pace, and do early morning and late afternoon game drives, returning to your accommodation for lunch and some relaxation.
Every day is different in the Serengeti and there is always plenty to explore.

After breakfast, you will wend your way through the Serengeti towards Ndutu, stopping off to experience more wonder on the way! While it boasts abundant wildlife, it is perhaps best known for the annual Great Migration. Vast numbers of wildebeests, zebras, and antelopes move in an annual pattern, constantly seeking fresh grazing. The migration can be found during any given month; you just need to know where to look! At this time of year, the migration is normally in Southern Serengeti / Ndutu (Ndutu is actually part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area). One of the main features of this area is Lake Ndutu. It is an alkaline lake (like most of the other Rift Valley Lakes) and is a treasured source of water.
The overnight stay will be a mid-range seasonal tented camp.

After a hearty breakfast, you will head out to enjoy a full day’s game drive in Ndutu. You will explore the range of different habitats found here including swamps, woodlands, and savannah. With luck, you will see vast crowds of wildebeests, zebras, and antelopes, sometimes stretching to the horizon. The sound of the wildebeests gently mooing is hauntingly beautiful.
During a short time frame (normally in February), many of the female wildebeests give birth to their young, dropping over half a million young in this incredible act of synchronized birthing. The grass provides little cover and the young are easy pickings for a variety of predators (cheetahs, lions, hyenas, and leopards). Wildebeests calves can run minutes after they are born and within 3 days they are normally strong enough to keep up with the herd.

After a full day’s exploration, you will return to your tented camp in time for dinner and an overnight stay.

This morning, you will gently wend your way through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, seeing more animals only the way (it is common to see a journey of giraffe on the lush slopes). You should reach the crater by lunchtime.

When you first see Ngorongoro Crater, it looks like a forgotten world. Concealed by the steep volcanic walls is a pristine wilderness including sweeping savannah, pockets of acacia woodland, and glistening lakes and swamps. The crater was created when a large volcano exploded and collapsed in on itself two to three million years ago. The drive down into the crater is an adventure in itself and when you reach the crater floor, you quickly find yourself amongst large numbers of wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, and more than 500 bird species. The crater provides you with the best chance of seeing the endangered black rhinos, which can sometimes be spotted in the open grasslands.
After an afternoon game drive, you will drive to your accommodation in Karatu.

This morning, you will drive to Lake Manyara National Park. Your final destination on this epic safari! Manyara is a small but diverse park 120km west of Arusha. Everything you’ll see here is on a different scale. It is both compact (this is one of the narrowest parks in Africa) and epic (the Great Rift Escarpment towers over Lake Manyara’s western boundary). The park’s namesake is a shallow, salt lake. It covers a large area of the park, flooding and drying with the seasons, and is home to thousands of wading birds (including flamingos and over 500 other bird species). You may see baboons and elephants in the park’s thick evergreen forest, and watch for the tree-climbing lions that have become famous throughout Africa.
You will enjoy a picnic lunch inside the park.

After your game drive, you will be dropped off at a place of your choosing e.g. Arusha, Kilimanjaro Airport, or Arusha Airport. We hope you have enjoyed your adventure with Lion King!