10 Days Off The Beaten Tracks

The Elephant Motel is ideally situated along the Moshi – Dar es Salaam road, only half a kilometre from the Same Town. The hotel offers spectacular views of the South Pare Mountains and because of its location, it is the ideal gateway to Mkomazi National Park, the South Pare Mountains and Shengena Forest.

Mambo Village, is on the far northwestern rim of the Usambara’s, is perched on a cliff overlooking the Masaai plains and Mkomazi National Park. Authentic, easy going and a place to experience rural African life as it comes and goes. Rustic Mambo View Point Eco Lodge is in the middle of things and is also the home base for some unique community projects. The beautiful cottages, build in an authentic style, are comfortable and with a beautiful sunset view from your own terrace.

The Maasai Steppe Conservancy is located between the Tarangire National Park and the Simanjiro Plains, within the Northern Safari Circuit. Safaris in the Maasai Steppe provide a wonderfully varied experience for people wanting a combination of wildlife viewing, walking, and authentic, ‘un-canned’ cultural experiences with the Maasai. The Maasai Steppe is a vibrant and important ecological stronghold for the wildlife and people of northern Tanzania. Nearly 92% of this critical ecosystem is designated Maasai village lands where livestock husbandry represents the primary livelihood. Maintaining healthy rangelands is critical to both the Maasai people and the wildlife dependent on this arid environment.

This is a unique opportunity to experience and explore the Tarangire and Manyara ecosystem. Maramboi Tented Camp offers permanent camp facilities and endless vistas of rolling golden grasslands and palm lined desert between Tarangire and Manyara Lake. A visit to the area is essential for anyone interested in evolution and the origins of Mankind and an explanation of the Rift Valley and Africa’s big picture. It is a complete semi-desert experience focusing on game animals on their free range.

After breakfast we are going to leave the awesome lodge, riding on rift valley escarpment towards the Hadza community. Hunters and gatherers in east and Southern Africa exist, we are going to hunt with them on their grounds. We are going to use a car as it will be our sundowner hunt.

The trip will take you East along winding dirt trails away from the lush area surrounding the mountain and out into the savannah scenery of the Maasai plains. You will ride towards the wall of the Great Rift Valley at the base of which stands the mighty volcano Ol Donyo Lengai. The Ol Donyo Lengai is an active volcano which last erupted in the 1970’s. It is revered by the Maasai as the home of ‘Ngai’, their god. It’s almost

perfect cone looms over an area of astonishing barren beauty. At the foot of the mountain there is an area of rocky desert. Here we find the cones of small extinct volcano, and Lake Natron, a huge soda lake, which stretches up to the

Kenyan border. Flamingos come here to breed and in the late afternoon sun, the colourful flamingo colonies make a spectacular sight, adding a dash of colour against the shimmering water.

After breakfast departs for Serengeti National Park arriving at our lodge in time for dinner, we find ourselves deep in the heart of this famous migration corridor. With its wide-open spaces, bright blue skies and creature-filled landscape, over the next two days, we will discover why the fabled Serengeti typifies the dream of “Old Africa.” A large pride of lions laze in the long grasses; plentiful families of elephants feed on acacia bark and trumpet to each other across the plains, while giraffes, gazelles, monkeys, eland and the whole range of African wildlife present themselves in awe-inspiring numbers.

Another full day in Serengeti game viewing, after breakfast this morning, enjoy a game drive. The great diversity of Serengeti wildlife is also evident here—look for buffalo, hippopotamus, elephant, giraffe, antelope, Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, lions, and in season the spectacular migration of the wildebeest. In late afternoon we venture out in another game drive. Everywhere there are animals, monkeys and, yes, birds…but look closely and you will thrill to the huge jungle cats—lion, leopard and cheetah—just watching the world go by. And go by it does. Rhino, gazelle, antelope and massive elephants by the hundreds. Animals in the trees, on the wing, camouflaged in the bush, in rivers and in streams.

A lovely drive takes us to Ngorongoro Crater, where our lodge sits dramatically on the rim of the crater, revealing an awesome panorama of the world’s largest, unflooded and unbroken caldera. Be prepared for some remarkable views down into the crater. The caldera of Ngorongoro marks the ancient walls of a collapsed volcano, which was probably once the size of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Today the completely enclosed circular crater is some twelve miles across, with steep walls of over 2,000 feet. We are at an altitude of approximately 7,500 feet above sea level, the highest point on our trip. After our time on the lower plains, the cooler air here is refreshing. En route you visit Olduvai Gorge and Dr Leakey’s Museum or just go onward to stay at the lodge and admire the view. At the crater floor to explore this natural zoological park, and observe an extraordinary variety of wildlife: elephant, rhinoceros, lion, hyena, zebra, wildebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, reedbuck, and buffalo. The lovely crested crane (similar to a peacock) can be found in great profusion here and maybe you’ll spot a bat-eared fox. The balance of predator and prey in this extraordinary ecosystem is so precise that animals seldom leave. Over 30,000 animals live here: prides of lion, elephant, leopard, cheetah and giraffe, gazelle by the thousands and multitudes of wildebeest. Please note: Only ½ day tours may be allowed while in the crater.

Departure will depend on your flights time vs airport if in Nairobi you will leave very early with good breakfast at the lodge or with breakfast box from; other airports we will link with the timings. Transfers will be on time to catch up your flights on time. If flight it’s too early (before 11) to catch 10TH NIGHT WILL BE SPENT IN ARUSHA TOWN.