Serengeti National Park- Arusha, Tanzania
Serengeti is easily Tanzania’s most famous national park, and it’s also the largest, at 14,763 square kilometres of protected area that borders Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Park. Its far-reaching plains of endless grass, tinged with the twisted shadows of acacia trees, have made it the quintessential image of a wild and untarnished Africa. Its large stone kopjes are home to rich ecosystems, and the sheer magnitude and scale of life that the plains support is staggering. Large prides of lions laze easily in the long grasses, plentiful families of elephants feed on acacia bark and trump to each other across the plains, and giraffes, gazelles, monkeys, eland, and the whole range of African wildlife is in awe-inspiring numbers. The annual wildebeest migration through the Serengeti and the Masai Mara attract visitors from around the world, who flock to the open plains to witness the largest mass movement of land mammals on the planet. More than a million animals make the seasonal journey to fresh pasture to the north, then the south, after the biannual rains. The sound of their thundering hooves, raising massive clouds of thick red dust, has become one of the legends of the Serengeti plains. The entire ecosystem thrives from the annual migration, from the lions and birds of prey that gorge themselves on the weak and the faltering to the gamut of hungry crocodiles that lie in patient wait at each river crossing for their annual feed. But it’s not just the wildebeest who use the Serengeti as a migratory pathway. The adjacent reserves of Maswa and Ikorongo, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya all allow the animals and birds of the area a free range of movement to follow their seasonal migrations. Indeed, in the wake of the wildebeest migration, many of the less attention-grabbing features of the Serengeti are often overlooked. The park has varied zones in which each ecosystem is subtly different .Seronera in the centre of the park is the most popular and most easily visited area. The Grumeti River in the Western Corridor is the location for the dramatic river crossing during the wildebeest migration. Maswa Game Reserve to the south offers a remote part of the park rewarding in its game-viewing and privacy, and Lobo near the Kenyan border offers a change to see plentiful game during the dry season. Aside from traditional vehicle bound safaris, hot-air ballooning over the Serengeti plains has become a safari rite-of-passage for travel enthusiasts. The flights depart at dawn over the plains and take passengers close over the awakening herds of wildebeest and zebra, gazelle and giraffe. The extra altitude allows guests to witness the striking stretches of plains punctuated only by kopjes. Up in the sky, you have Africa all to yourself. Vast herds, huge predator concentrations, uninterrupted views, river crossings, huge lion prides, great leopard sightings, high concentration of cheetah, some of the best camps in Africa. What more do you want! The Serengeti is one of those very rare places that receives so many accolades yet manages to live up to all the hype. Surrounded by amazing tribes, such as the Masai and Hadzabe, there is even more to this park than meets the eye. In a nutshell, the Serengeti is the mother of all safari parks and the most celebrated wildlife reserve in the world. It is like a lost world. In our view there is nowhere else like it. Absolutely outstanding! Originally created to preserve the path of the Great Migration, the Serengeti and its surrounding reserves cover nearly 30,000 square kilometers. Throughout the year the huge wildebeest and zebra herds move in a clockwise direction around the plains, searching for fresh grazing grounds. To maximize your chance of viewing the herds, choosing the right accommodation, for the time of year you are travelling, is crucial. Have a read of the Great Migration page on the tool bar to gain an understanding of the movement of the herds. Seeing the migration in the Serengeti is really the best you can get from a Tanzania Safari.