Tanzania Adventure

Jambo! Welcome to Kenya.

Your adventure begins with a welcome meeting at 6pm on Day 1.

You can arrive at any time as there are no activities planned until this important meeting; please ask the hotel reception where it will take place. If you can't arrange a flight that will arrive in time, you may wish to arrive a day early so you're able to attend. We'll be happy to book additional accommodation for you (subject to availability). If you're going to be late, please inform the hotel reception. We'll be collecting your insurance details and next of kin information at this meeting, so please ensure you have all these details to provide to your leader.

Nairobi - which takes its name from a Maasai phrase meaning 'place of cool waters' - has a cosmopolitan atmosphere. There are plenty of good bars and restaurants, while markets and shops have most things you could want or need, as well as various arts and crafts from the region.

If you arrive early, you can head out and explore the National Museum of Kenya, the Karen Blixen Museum (author of Out of Africa) or Bomas of Kenya where traditional homesteads of several Kenyan tribes are displayed in an outdoor village.

Optional Activities

National Museum, Nairobi - USD14.00

Karen Blixen museum, Nairobi - USD14.00

Bomas, Nairobi - USD10.00

Carnivore restaurant, Nairobi - USD35.00

Langata Giraffe Sanctuary, Nairobi - KES700.00

Nairobi National Park safari walk, Nairobi - USD20.00

Accommodation

Hotel (1 nt)

Depart early for Arusha on our overland truck, a drive of about 8-9 hours (300 km). The trip includes a border crossing from Kenya into Tanzania so be sure to have your passport handy.

In the late afternoon, arrive at our campsite in the small village of Tengeru about 14 km out of Arusha. As the guests of a local family, there's an opportunity to learn more about the local Meru community. Depending on the time and group interest, head out on a market visit, take a walk to a local drinking house or see how the local coffee is produced - from the bush all the way to your cup.

Take the chance to look around Mama's small farm. If you are interested she will let you milk her cows, feed the chickens and maybe have a taste of the local lemongrass tea. A member of the family can talk you through their ingenious natural gas production system, based around cow poop!

Tonight, camp in their backyard where there's a clean outdoor shower block with cold water (toilets are local style squat facilities).

Included Activities

Local family farm visit and community walk

Accommodation

Camping (with facilities) (1 nt)

Depart Arusha and drive west across the Great Rift Valley to the local town of Karatu, our base for launching into our Serengeti and Ngorongoro safari (170 km, approx 4 hrs). Passing through the lands of the Maasai, we often see them tending to their cattle.

We arrive in Karatu in time to set up camp before lunch.

Included Activities

Village walk; market

Accommodation

Camping (with facilities) (1 nt)

Rise early and leave the truck behind, putting our camping and personal gear into six-person jeeps and heading out for our excursion into the Serengeti.

The wide, open plains of the Serengeti - green after the rains, brown and burnt in the dry season, and home to thousands of hoofed animals and fierce predators - are perhaps the quintessential image of Africa. Flat and rolling with long grasses and dotted with acacia trees, the plains get their name from the Maasai word Siringitu - 'the place where the land moves on forever'.

Game viewing in the Serengeti is amazing and as you camp out at night, don't be surprised to hear lions in the distance as you recount your wildlife sightings from the day. In normal circumstances, we would expect to see the Big Five during our stay in the Serengeti.

For an unforgettable experience, you might like to do an optional sunrise balloon ride over the Serengeti. If you have pre-booked this activity (please see 'Important Notes'), you'll be picked up and driven to the launch site where you receive a safety briefing from your pilot and help inflate the balloon. You'll then float over the Serengeti as the sun comes up gaining an overview of the immensity of the Serengeti, seeing the abundance of wildlife in their early morning activity and sometimes descending to tree height for amazing wildlife photography opportunities. Upon landing, you'll be treated to a five-star bush breakfast before being returned to your accommodation.

Our campsite is within the Serengeti itself so listen out for the sounds of nocturnal animals as you drift off to sleep. The bush camp is quite basic with drop toilets and cold showers. You'll notice many Maasai villages in the region of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. While it's of course fascinating to visit different cultures, past experience has shown that these villages exist primarily as tourism businesses offering somewhat contrived performances of their traditional ways. You'll be charged an entry fee of approx US$20-35 and the Maasai will try very hard to sell souvenirs to you. While many clients still enjoy the experience, others have found it artificial and uncomfortable. We recommend our travelers bypass this activity as our Kenyan colleagues observe that it negatively impacts the Maasai culture and travelers' perception of this culture.

Included Activities

Game drives

Optional Activities

Balloon ride, Serengeti National Park - USD500.00

Accommodation

Camping (with basic facilities) (2 nts)

Game drive out of the park and continue our journey to the Ngorongoro Crater (80 km, approx 3 hrs). Along the way, stop at Olduvai Gorge, better known as the Cradle of Mankind, where some of the world's oldest humanoid skeletons were discovered.

A huge, perfectly intact volcanic crater, Ngorongoro is home to some 30,000 animals including endangered black rhinos, lions, leopards, elephants, impalas, zebras and hippos. The crater floor offers excellent game viewing all year round and the photographic opportunities here are unrivaled.

Our campsite on the rim of the crater overlooks jagged volcanic peaks and rolling grasslands thousands of feet below - you can be sure that there are few campsites in the world with a better view than this. It also has drop toilets and cold showers.

Included Activities

Olduvai Gorge

Accommodation

Camping (with facilities) (1 nt)

After an early breakfast, we descend to the crater floor 600 m below the rim travelling in smaller 4x4 vehicles accompanied by a local driver.

Drive out of the crater and head to Mto Wa Mbu for a look around the town before continuing on to our campsite (140 km, approx 5-6 hrs).

Our campsite is in Meserani, on the outskirts of Arusha, and has flush toilets and showers.

Included Activities

Game drive

Accommodation

Camping (with facilities) (1 nt)

Set off early, heading for the border with Kenya and on to Nairobi (390 km, approx 9-10 hrs).

On arrival in Nairobi we'll be dropped at our finishing point hotel. No accommodation is provided for tonight, but we are able to book you additional accommodation in Nairobi. Please ask at time of booking.

Important: Please don't book any international flights until after 9pm this evening.

This is a transport day to Nairobi. You can finish your trip in Arusha this morning if you wish to travel further in Tanzania or catch a flight.