TANZANIA SAFARIS

Tanzania Parks

Ngorongoro Crater Information

The Ngorongoro Crater, at 2,286m above the sea level, and is the largest unbroken caldera in the world. Ngorongoro is 199km away from Arusha town, which is surrounded by very steep walls rising at 600 meters from the crater floor. The crater as been declared a world Heritage Site. Ngorongoro Crater lies within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which covers by Lake Eyasi in southwest and the Gol Mountains in north. Olduvai Gorge is located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, it here that Dr Louis Leakey discovered the remains of Homo habilis or "handy Man" regarded as mankind's first step on the ladder of human evolution. The gorge is about 50km long, and at its deepest, close to where the main archaeological sites, visitors viewing platform and museum are located. It is about 90km deep. To the north of this, the gorge becomes shallower. The best time to visit the crater is throughout the year.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a huge area containing active volcanoes, mountains, archeological sites, rolling plains, forests, lakes, dunes and of course, Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge.

The views at the rim of Ngorongoro Crater are sensational. On the crater floor, grassland blends into swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and mountains - all a heaven for wildlife, including the densest predator population in Africa. The crater is home to up to 25,000 large mammals, mainly grazers - gazelle, buffalo, eland, hartebeest and warthog. You will not find giraffe as there is not much to eat at tree level, or topi, because the competition with wildebeest is too fierce, nor will you find impala. The crater elephants are strangely, mainly bulls. There are a small number of black rhinos here too. The birdlife is largely seasonal and is also affected by the ratio of soda to fresh water in Lake Magadi on the crater floor.

In the northern, remote part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, you will find Olmoti and Empakaai Craters, Lake Natron and Oldoinyo Lengai, Mountain of God, as named by the Maasai. Lake Natron is the only known breeding ground for East Africa's flamingoes.

The ruins of a terraced stone city and complex irrigation system lie on the eastern side of Empakaai - the Engakura Ruins. Their origins are a mystery as there is no tradition of stone building in this part of Africa

Serengeti National park information
Serengeti National Park is 335km from Arusha town, and is one of the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, it covers about 14763sq km terrain includes various types of vegetation: grassy plains, savannah with acacias, wooded hills and mountains are the backdrop for an extraordinary concentration of animals which reaches its peak during the wildebeest migration. There are said to be 2 million wildebeest on the Serengeti - Mara plains and every year they migrate in search of grazing within an area of about 26,000sq miles. The best time to see the wildebeest migration is from December-July, and the best time to see predators is from June-October

The Serengeti is on of the world's last great wildlife refuges. This vast area of land supports the greatest remaining concentration of plain game in Africa, on a scale unparalleled anywhere else in the world. The name comes from the Maasai 'Siringet', meaning endless plains. Equal in size to Northern Ireland, the Park contains an estimated three million large animals, most of which take part in a seasonal migration that is one of nature's wonders.

The annual migration of more than 1.5 million wildebeests as well as hundreds of thousands of zebras and gazelles is triggered by the rains. The wet season starts in November and lasts until about May. Generally the herds congregate and move out at the end of May. Their movement is a continual search for grass and water - the moving mass of animals requiring over 4,000 tons of grass each day. The exodus coincides with the breeding season which causes fights among the males. As the dry season sets in the herds drift out of the West, one group to the North, the other north-east heading for the permanent waters of the northern rivers and the Mara. The immigration instinct is so strong that animals die in the rivers as they dive from the banks into the raging waters, to be dispatched by crocodiles. The survivors concentrate in Kenya's Maasai Mara National reserve until the grazing there is exhausted, when they turn south along the eastern and final stage of the migration route. Before the main exodus, the herds are a spectacular sight, massed in huge numbers with the weak and crippled at the tail end of the procession, followed by the patient, vigilent predators.

The vegetation in the Serengeti ranges from the short and long grass plains in the south, to the acacia savannah in the centre and the wooded grassland concentrated around tributaries of the Grumeti and Mara rivers. The western corridor is a region of wooded highland and extensive plains reaching to the edge of Lake Victoria.

The Seronera Valley in the Serengeti is famous for the abundance lion and leopard that can usually be seen quite easily. The adult male lions of the Serengeti have characteristic black manes

Lake Manyara National park information
Lake Manyara National Park is 126km away from Arusha town, which covers an area of 330sq km (about 205sq miles), of which about 200sq km is the lake and is very famous for its tree-climbing pythons and tree-climbing lions, which spend most of the day, spread out along the branches of Acacia trees six to seven meters above the ground. The park is also particularly noted for its huge herds of buffalo and elephants, as well as giraffe, impala, hippo and a great variety of smaller animals and birds. The best time to visit Lake Manyara National Park is in the dry season from July-October for large mammals

Tarangire National Park Information
This National Park, gazetted in 1970, is 118km away from Arusha town, which covers an area off 2600sq km that's about 1600 miles and derivers its name from the Tarangire River that flows through the center of the park. The river flows from south to north/northwest and empties its water in Lake Burungi. An exceptional collection of "Acacia tortilis" and baobab trees ahs become synonymous with the name Tarangire National Park. The best time to visit Tarangire National Park to view the wildlife is in dry season, from June-October.
The permanent water supply of the Park means that during the summer, the animal population here rivals that of the Serengeti with wildebeest, zebra, eland, elephant, hartebeest, buffalo, gerenuk, fringe eared Oryx and flocks of birds of many different species. Prime game viewing months are between September and December

Arusha National Park
This National Park is 32km away from Arusha town, which as an area of 137sq kms and was described by Sir Julian Huxley as " a game amongst parks". Arusha National Park, often overlooked, is in fat a treasure, a rich tapestry of habitats, teeming with animals and birds. It consists of three spectacular features - the Ngurdoto Crater, the tranquil beauty of the Momela Lakes, and the rocky alpine height of Mount Meru, where the terrain of the peak is as varied as it is interesting. The best time to visit Arusha National Park is during the dry season from July-November, or after the short rains from December-March. The best time to climb Mount Meru is from June-February, and the best views of Mount Kilimanjaro seen from December-February. Mount Meru, is 4566 meters high scaling can be made through a variety of landscapes, plains, forest moorland, and a lava desert, it is compulsory to be accompanied by am armed game warden because if wild animals. The best month to climb Mount Meru is from July-February