Focus: Birds and Natural History of Tanzania.

Itinerary.
Day 1: Arusha.
Upon arrival in Arusha, you will be met by Mbango Safaris airport representative and be transferred to Serena Mountain Village at the outskirts of Arusha.

Mountain Village sits on a hilltop with lush gardens and breathtaking views of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru. Tucked between the trees are fourteen cottages, built in traditional African styles and materials. The rest of the day will be spent relaxing after your long flight with plenty of time to explore the surrounding woodland and coffee plantations. Expect to see your first birds here.

Overnight at Serena Mountain Village, bed and breakfast.
 

Day 3: Tarangire National Park.
A morning’s drive will take us to Tarangire National Park. Tarangire covers 2,600 square kilometers of grassland, marshes and acacia scrub along the Tarangire River and is located around 75 milers southwest of Arusha. The park holds a year-round population of fringe-eared Oryx, Eland, Giraffe, Impala, buffalo, Gerenuk, lesser Kudu and greater herds of Elephant up to 300 strong. Indeed during the dry seasons when the animals crowd the shrink king waterholes Tangangire holds the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti! With such a plethora of prey to choose from it is not surprising that the park is also one of the best areas in Northern Tanzania for predators including Lions, Leopards, the Elusive Wild Dogs and our first opportunity to look for the graceful cheetah. In much of Africa trees are the domain of the Leopard, but Tarangire and Manyara national Parks are one of the very few places where the lions are also fond of lazing on shaded bough, so keep your eyes up as well as down when looking for the king of cats

Amongst the 550 species of birds that have been recorded here are Ostrich Secretary bird, Tawny and Martial Eagles bateleur, a variety of vultures, Kori Bustard (the worlds heaviest flying birds) the mighty Group Hornbill Yellow-collared lovebirds , Brown and Orange- bellied Parrots plus many species of kingfisher bee eater roller, hornbill, barbet, shrike weaver and finch. However perhaps the two striking and memorable species that punctuate the parks bush land are the spectacular Magpie Shrikes and the giant, bottle-shaped Baobab Trees.

We will stop at Gibb’s farm for lunch, a beautiful eco-friendly guest house situated between Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater, five kilometer from karatu the junction town of the crater highlands. This area is surrounded by extinct volcanoes and is an important farming area for the people. After lunch we will take a walk to a nearby waterfalls and visit the farm it self before continuing on into the Ngorongoro conservation area. The approaching the crater itself we climb up through liana covered hillsides and deep jungle-like vegetation. On reaching the top we will find one of the world’s most amazing sights before us as we peer down at the crater floor dotted with animals, trees and lakes. We settle into the Ngorongoro Wildlife lodge which is to our base for the next three nights while we explore the crate in details. The lodge is ideally situated on the crater rim but at over 2,000 metres above the sea level, can be chilly at night.

Lunch at Gibbs Farm, dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Serena Lodge.

Day 6: Ngorongoro Crater.
Eight million years ago Ngorongoro was an active volcano. Its cone collapsed forming a massive caldera, covering 311 square kilometers and creating one of the most scenic spectacles in all of Africa and the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. Over 600 meters deep and 20 kilometers across, the caldera is covered by extensive grassland, patches of forest, marshes and lakes whilst attractive motane forest clings to the rim. Unlike other ecological systems in Africa, Ngorongoro is permanently watered and therefore able to support a resident population of animals. It is home to over 30,000 large mammals including White-bearded Wildebeest, African buffalo, Burchell’s Zebra, grant’s and Thompson’s Gazelles, African Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, hippopotamus, Lion, spotted hyena and Black-backed Jackal. Indeed, Ngorongoro is one of the few places in Africa where the ‘Big 5” (Buffalo, elephant, Leopard, Lion and rhino) can be seen together. The birdlife is no less spectacular. An exciting range of water birds includes many species of ducks, geese, waders, storks and hundreds of thousands of flamingoes. Then there are the bustards, cranes, widowbirds, francolins and cisticolas to be found in the grassland and an equally diverse range of forest species!
 

We will undoubtedly see more of them, but exactly which ones will depend on our luck! In February, however, mammal viewing is at its best. This is the time of year that the vast herds of wildebeest move into the Serengeti from the Masai Mara to the north, in order to drop their calves and feed on the lush grass watered by the short rains of November and December. With the herds come the predators. There is of course, no guarantee that they will all be on your doorstep, but we will endeavor to follow them as far as possible – for sheer mammalian spectacle, there is simply no better coincidence of time and place!

Inevitably this feast of wildlife will eclipse the parks’ birdlife, but the latter cannot be ignored. Huge Ground Hornbills and elegant Secretary Birds stride across the grasslands along with Kori Bustards, grey Crowned Crane and smaller species such as Temminck’s Coursers, Wattled Lapwing, Rosy-breasted Long claw, yellow-Shouldered widowbird and capped Wheatear. Lone bushes or dead trees provide lookout perches for a variety of bee-eaters and rollers, including the beautiful carmine bee-eater, whilst above them soar Martial Eagles, lappet-faced, African White-backed, hooded and Ruppell’s Vultures, the latter four always on the look out for a recent kill. In the lodge grounds and acacia woodlands we should find a plethora of barbets, finches, weavers, Turacos, go-away-birds, glossy starlings and kingfishers.

We will enjoy four nights in the Serengeti Serena Lodge in the heart of the reserve.

Day 11: Lake Manyara National Park.
Making an early start, we will drive, via the Olduvai Gorge, back towards the crater highlands. The Olduvai “Cradle of Mankind” was brought to the attention of the world by Dr. Leakey. Here he discovered the 2-million-year-old remains of the “nutcracker man”, as well as those of prehistoric elephants and giant ostriches. We will have lunch back at the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge and retrace our steps through the crater highlands to Lake Manyara Serena. The hotel occupies a magnificent setting, perched a thousand feet above the park on the very edge of the Rift Valley wall, its views are stunning.

Lunch, dinner & overnight at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge.

Day 12: Arusha.
We will spend the day exploring Lake Manyara National Park which is made up of a wide variety of habitats. Lush forest of towering Fig and Mahogany trees, open grassy plains, acacia woodland and Cliffside scrub all attract a great variety of birds and animals. But, it is the huge soda lake – Tanzania’s Nakuru – that is the greatest attraction. Here, hundreds of thousands of Greater and Lesser Flamingoes present a carpet of shimmering pink that stretches into the distant heat haze, whilst yellow-billed and Marabou storks, African spoonbills, herons, egrets, ducks and waders decorate the shoreline. As mentioned earlier, Manyara is also famous for its unique tree-climbing lions. These can be hard to see, but other game is plentiful in the form of African Elephant, White-bearded Wildebeest, Burchell’s Zebra, Thompson’s Gazelle, Impala, olive Baboon, Blue and Vervet Monkeys, Kirk’s Dik-dik, warthog, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, waterbuck and Black-backed Jackal.

Packed lunch at Lake Manyara National Park and then drive to Kilimanjaro Int. airport for our outbound flight back home.

Grading.
This tour is a tented camps and lodge based Tanzania Birding safari. Please remember that, in the game parks of east Africa, it is generally not permitted for visitors to leave the safety of their vehicles, apart from in our lodge grounds, meaning that we’ll spend quite a lot of time in the safari vehicles! It is, though, the only way to see Tanzania’s unrivalled wildlife and every participant will enjoy a window seat.