Migration Trails Mara

After breakfast, you will be picked up from your hotel at 08:00 and drive west to Maasai Mara National Reserve with lunch en route, arriving in time for an evening game drive. Maasai Mara National Reserve is Kenya's finest wildlife sanctuary. Including migrants, well over 450 species of animals have been recorded here. Although July, August, and September are the months when the Mara plains are filled with migrating wildebeest and zebra, there is also resident wildlife year-round. The famous Maasai tribesmen live within the dispersal area of the game reserve. Dinner and overnight accommodations will be at the Jambo Mara Safari camp, with hot showers and flush toilets.

Optional: today, there will be a possibility to take a hot air balloon ride (450$pp). Take to the skies for the ultimate Maasai Mara wildlife adventure, soaring in a hot air balloon over herds of game to the inner reaches of the Mara. You will ascend in the early morning when winds are calmest. Watch as the professional crew fills the balloon with hot air. Slowly the big, colourful bag begins to bulge and take shape.

Otherwise, at 06:00 is a wake-up call. Tea, coffee, and cookies will be served in the camp. At 06:30, set out for an early morning game drive in the reserve. This is usually the most popular game viewing time. During the early hours, temperatures are low, thus providing a favorable atmosphere both for the game and the viewer. Lion, cheetah, and leopard roam the vast grasslands in search of their next meal, it may be an unsuspecting impala or even a small one like the warthog, whatever the players, the spectacle of nature unfolding is always awe-inspiring.

After breakfast, you will be transferred to the famous Serengeti National Park. This park is to Tanzania what the Maasai Mara National Reserve is to Kenya. Covering 14,763 square kilometres, the Serengeti National Park is dominated by vast, open plains with an abundance of wildlife. A picnic lunch will be provided en-route, and the afternoon will be spent viewing the game and absorbing the breathtaking scenery of the almost treeless plains of the Serengeti. Wake up for a pre-breakfast game drive before leaving the camp after breakfast and travelling to cross the border of Kenya and Tanzania (Sirari). Lunch is en route. You will arrive in Serengeti in the late evening. Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Savannah Tented Camp.

Today is set for game viewing and the Serengeti is at your disposal. The best vantage points and worthwhile areas are chosen to give you the best possible chance to observe animals and to capture the perfect photo. You have the chance to witness the great migration with hundred thousands of wildebeests and zebras. During the small rainy season in October and November, you will typically see these herds moving from the Kenyan Maasai Mara through the northwest of the Serengeti to the plains in the south.

After the great rainy season in April, May, and June, the herds slowly travel back through the western and north-western part of the Serengeti. With fluctuations in rainfall, this timetable can change resulting that the animals migrate during different times and routes. Your guide will know where and when to find the animals and will make sure that you can see the animals from the best spot in the national park. You will spend the night at your Serengeti Savannah Tented Camp.

After breakfast, from the famous Serengeti National Park depart for Ngorongoro Crater. You will transfer to the Ngorongoro Crater, option via Olduvai Gorge. Ngorongoro is an impressive 20-kilometre wide volcanic crater with 600 meters walls. The views from the crater rim are breathtaking and there is an ever-present abundance of wildlife due to the permanent water supply on the crater floor. Olduvai Gorge is famed for the discovery of 3.5 million-year-old fossil fragments of early human civilization. You will enjoy lunch overlooking the crater, and the afternoon will be spent at the crater, as you will embark on the full day crater tour. In the late evening, drive back to Octagon Lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

You will be collected from your Lodge towards the small Lake Manyara National Park. The park with its shallow alkaline lake is known for its over 400 bird species, primate-filled forests (look out for the long-tailed Guenon monkeys) and grassy plains. A large area of the park is covered by the alkaline Lake Manyara which is home to colonies of flamingos and other water birds. Apart from elephants, you might also spot giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, and impalas while the forests near the lake are teeming with noisy groups of monkeys and baboons. From the pop-up roof of the safari vehicle, you will be able to absorb the sights and sounds of nature. In the early afternoon, you will leave the Lake Manyara National Park and head to Arusha for overnight say or connect the flight at Arusha Airport (ARK) to Zanzibar at 4:00.