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SERENGETI & NGORONGORO

The Ultimate African Bird and Wildlife Experience

Birdquest's Serengeti & Ngorongoro, Tanzania birding and wildlife tour is not just a fantastic birdwatching adventure but also, as we have time to really enjoy them, an extraordinary mammal-watching experience as well (including Lions, Cheetahs, Leopards, Black Rhinos and many others). We do not call our Serengeti & Ngorongoro tour 'The Ultimate African Bird and Wildlife Exerience' for nothing. Join us and see the truth of it for yourself. You are not going to be disappointed.

Saturday 2nd March - Friday 15th March 2013
(14 days)

Leaders: Hannu Jännes and local naturalist-guides

Group Size Limit: 11

Tour Category: Easy

Big cats are a special draw for most of us, and this tour is unlikely to disappoint, with some of the best wildlife spectacles our planet has to offer! Here, two cheetahs settle down with their prey (Nik Borrow)

The most awesome wildlife experience on Earth? This is it! Serengeti and the adjacent, and almost equally famous, Ngorongoro Crater are so remarkable that one cannot do justice to this incredible place in words alone. Over two million large mammals live in this immense African wilderness that has miraculously survived, thanks to the remarkable understanding of the people of Tanzania, who despite all the pressures upon them have kept faith with the vision of the park’s founders. These vast herds still circulate across the Serengeti in the same way as they did when Man’s earliest ancestor’s walked these very plains, followed by their attendant carnivores in a cycle of life that has continued unbroken for millions of years. How incredible that we can still say this about any place on Earth at the beginning of the 21st century, when so much of our planet has been changed out of all recognition!

We shall travel through this magnificent region, where some of the best birding in Africa can be happily combined with the world’s most exciting wildlife viewing, with some really fine driver-guides who are great companions as well as endlessly patient and accomplished individuals who will make sure we really do have ‘the experience of a lifetime’.

We will travel in 4x4 Land Rovers or Toyota Landcruisers that have been specially adapted for safari work, with large roof hatches that make observation and photography easy. These vehicles are a huge improvement on the safari minibuses still used by some bird tours, being more comfortable, more spacious (with a much larger opening in the roof) and better able to cope with any difficult road conditions. They cost a lot more than a minibus, and this must be reflected in the tour price, but we have never met anyone who did not consider these excellent vehicles as worth every extra penny!

The awesome gathering of gnus (wildebeeste), zebras and carnivores on the shortgrass plains of the southeastern Serengeti only occurs between January-April each year. This is absolutely the time to visit the area. It is peak season at the lodges, so the most expensive time for a safari, but there is simply no comparison with the other months of the year.

Commencing our journey at Arusha, in the shadow of the two great volcanoes, Meru and Kilimanjaro, we will first look for a wide variety of forest birds (many of which we will not see further west) and visit the dry bush country towards the Kenyan border before we head off into the wide blue yonder. Next we will explore the thornbush and baobab country of Tarangire National Park, home to large numbers of African Elephants, Yellow-collared Lovebirds, Ashy Starlings and much else besides, as well as bird-rich Lake Manyara National Park.

This will, however, provide just a foretaste of the glories to come, for our next destination is the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, both a scenic and a wildlife wonder of the world. Here we will have some thrilling close encounters of the animal kind, as most mammals in the crater are extraordinarily unafraid of vehicles, and some great birding. Pride of place here goes to the critically endangered Black Rhinoceros, but other stars include Kori and Black-bellied Bustards, flocks of pink flamingoes and some marvellous Hippos.

After this wonderful experience we will descend from the Crater Highlands into the endless plains of the southeastern Serengeti. We shall be visiting the area at the prime season, when the rains have turned the entire area from a parched thirstland into a green paradise that attracts over a million large mammals, the great majority being Brindled Gnus (or Blue Wildebeeste), Common Zebras and Red-fronted (or Thomson’s) Gazelles, to the shortgrass plains. Here we will be based first in the south-central Serengeti and finally in the famous Lake Ndutu area, the finest Serengeti wildlife area of them all.

As well as being a fantastic experience in its own right (chatting round the Ndutu campfire under African skies, quite possibly with Lions roaring in the distance, is something one never forgets!), being based in these remote lodges will get us right in amongst a fabulous selection of birds and mammals, including such dramatic and highly photogenic subjects as Lion, Leopard, the incomparable Cheetah, Secretary Bird, numerous eagles and vultures, the huge Kori Bustard, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse and Southern Ground Hornbill, specialities such as Grey-breasted Spurfowl, Fischer’s Lovebird, Ruaha Red-billed Hornbill and Grey-crested Helmet-Shrike, never mind a sea of gnus and zebras.

The rich bird and mammal life of the Serengeti is awesome enough, but the whole experience is made even more special by the amazingly beautiful scenery, with dramatic cloudscapes and sunsets, seas of bright green and tawny grass, those evocative flat-topped acacia trees, and granite kopjes and distant mountain ridges rising above the plains.

By the time we end our East African odyssey we will have seen so many avian, large mammal and scenic wonders that it will be hard to appreciate that all this has happened to us in just two weeks! Serengeti and Ngorongoro will produce vivid, unfading memories that one will treasure for the rest of one’s days.

Birdquest has operated tours to Tanzania since 1983.

(Note: The above is a summary of the tour. For more information please download the detailed, day-by-day itinerary. The button is at the top right of the page.)

Accommodation & Road Transport: The lodges are of normal Birdquest standard throughout and are often wonderfully situated (the lodge at Tarangire has big walk-in safari tents with proper beds and a conventional bathroom attached). Road transport is by Landrover or Toyota 4x4s and main roads are mostly good or reasonable (but there are also plenty of rough tracks in the sanctuaries and some ‘off-road’ driving).

Walking etc: The walking effort is easy throughout. Walking is restricted to a few specified areas in the national parks/game reserves. This is of little hindrance and indeed we can approach many large birds and mammals far more closely in a vehicle than we could on foot.

Climate: Most days will be warm or hot, dry and sunny, but overcast conditions are fairly frequent and there may well be some rain. At higher altitudes temperatures are cool to warm.

Bird/Mammal Photography: Opportunities are outstanding.

Tour Price: (provisional): $6300 Kilimanjaro/Kilimanjaro. Price includes all transportation, all accommodations, all meals, bottled water, some drinks, all excursions, all entrance fees, all tips for local drivers/guides and for accommodations/restaurants, leader services.

Single Room Supplement: (provisional): $758.

Deposit: 10% of the tour price (excluding any single supplement).

Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency can arrange your air travel in connection with the tour from a departure point anywhere in the world, or you may arrange your own air travel if you prefer. We can tailor-make your itinerary to your personal requirements, so if you would like to travel in advance of the tour (and spend a night in an hotel so you will feel fresh when the tour starts), or return later than the end of the tour, or make a side trip to some other destination, or travel business class rather than economy, we will be happy to assist. Please contact us about your air travel requirements.

The incredible Ngorongoro crater, with its wealth of wildlife, has to be seen to be believed! (Nik Borrow)

View Map Download Detailed Itinerary 661kb

Report From March 2009 Report From February 2010 84 photos View Gallery Photos From SERENGETI & NGORONGORO

We have an excellent chance of finding a fabulous Leopard during our trip (Nik Borrow)

Sightings of Lions are likely to be regular (Nik Borrow)

And it is unquestionably the best place in the world to see the magnificent Cheetah (Nik Borrow)

Stately Kori Bustards stride across the grasslands (Nik Borrow)

A pair of endemic Fischer's Lovebirds live up to their name (Nik Borrow)

The delightful Taveta Golden Weaver is one of several restricted range species that we'll find on this tour (Nik Borrow)

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