7 Days Northern Safari
As our most common Shelukass package, the 7-day safari experience entails visiting all the major northern circuit wildlife parks. On your safari, you will be game viewing amidst the massive baobab trees of the Tarangire national park, enjoy the scenic year-round Lake Manyara National Park and visit the endless plains of Serengeti. The safari would not be complete without a journey to the animal paradise of the Ngorongoro crater.
Meet our Safari guide at Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport on your arrival the guide or any expert from Shelukass Adventures will greet and help you get your luggage and transfer to the lodge have a short briefing for the next day’s adventure safari and later dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, your driver-guide will pick you up from the hotel, get into the car then the safari will commence. It will take about 3 hours to drive to Tarangire National Park, Tarangire National Park is spectacular in any season and many of the migratory wildlife species can be found in the permanent waters of Tarangire River. Huge herds of wildebeest, zebras, elephants, elands, and Oryx gather until the onset of the rain when they migrate again to good grazing areas and spend the time on a game drive of the Tarangire National Park until the late evening drive to your accommodation for dinner and overnight rest.
Early in the morning, after breakfast you will drive to Lake Manyara National Park. This takes approximately 2 hours to enter the park. The park has a total area of 648.7 km2 of which 262.7km2 is covered by a lake and 386 km2 (240 sq miles) is land. It is part of the much larger Lake Manyara Biosphere Reserve.
The park derived its name from a plant called Euphorbia tirucalli which is known as ‘Emanyara’ in the local Maasai language. It is a common occurrence in the park and the local Maasai would typically use it to ‘fence’ off their dwellings. Lake Manyara National Park is one of the most scenic parks in Tanzania and offers year-round game viewing and attractions. Patches of yellow fever trees are dotted around the grassy lake shores and the rift valley wall is a prominent feature throughout. The entrance of the park is in a very special environment: a groundwater forest offering a beautiful change of scenery from the savannah dominated parks. These forests are home to a few different primates and the combination of it and the lake, attracts over 400 species of birds to the area.
The park gained some additional fame with the filming of its unique tree-climbing lions though they are typically rather elusive. What is in large abundance are great herds of elephants known for their particularly impressive tusks and the birdlife that congregate on and around the lake itself. Lake Manyara is a shallow alkaline lake at an altitude of 960m formed in a depression in the Rift Valley System.
Enjoy the game drive until the evening and later drive to Karatu for dinner and overnight at the lodge.
This morning, you will proceed with a drive to the great Serengeti National Park via Ngorongoro, today you will just bypass this place arrive at Nabi Gate, and start an afternoon game drive in the Serengeti National Park with your picnic lunch box somewhere in the park, you will have chance to spot wildlife, enjoy the good landscape of endless plains of the park. The park has a size of 14763 sq. km. and is a home for giraffes, buffalo, Hyena, Elephants, crocodiles, hippos, and so much more including the famous animal migrations, crossing the Mara River. Don’t forget about predators which include Lions, cheetahs, and leopards, you will arrive at your lodge in the evening for dinner and overnight.
A full day spent out on a safari jeep is the best way to see the range of what the magnificent Serengeti National Park has to offer. It’s good to start on a full stomach, so after breakfast in your lodge restaurant with your fully equipped 4×4 Landcruiser crisscrossing the plains in search of game. Armed with a hat and sunscreen (it gets very hot at midday) you are ready for adventure. spotting, taking photos, and exclaiming at the natural world around you. Many delights are immediately apparent, but it’s the tracking abilities and incredible eyesight of your driver guide, and lunch is served under the shade in a picnic site, as you take a break from scanning the horizons. The game drive is spectacular as you proceed with driving, in the vast Serengeti.
Serengeti means “endless plains” This 6,900 sq. mile (18,000 sq. km) park is inhabited by more than 2 million large animals including more than a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of plains zebras, and Thomson’s gazelles, large predators including lions, cheetahs, and hyenas. Spend your time until the late afternoon you will drive back to your accommodation for dinner and overnight.
Today you will wake up very early to have an early morning game drive before breakfast, to spot the animals when they are more active, and also to have a fantastic sun rise in front of you. The sunrise in the African Savannah is one of the most beautiful experiences one can have. After the game drive, return to the lodge for brunch. Then pack your luggage into the car and start driving to Ngorongoro, the 8th natural wonder of the world. With walls 2,000 ft high and a crater floor that spreads for 102 sq. miles, the crater is a virtual Noah’s Ark, inhabited by almost every species of wildlife indigenous to East Africa including the rare black rhino. The crater has the greatest concentration of wildlife on the planet. It contains a river, several swamps, a soda lake that, from the top, looks like steam, full of flamingos, a forest, and open plains. The large bull elephants that reside here have extremely large tusks, due to the rich mineral content of the volcanic soil and its grasses enjoy the afternoon game drive and the late evening drive to your lodge for dinner and overnight.
Very early in the morning, descend to the crater floor for a day of wildlife viewing in one of the most incredible places on Earth. After a stop for a picnic lunch near the hippo lake, and more wildlife viewing in the afternoon, drive up the steep road out of the crater and return to Arusha or Moshi for dinner and overnight.