This amazing Tanzanian migration safari will be led by Leslie Nevison of Mama Tembo Tours. Leslie prides herself in creating customized itineraries for small groups interested in experiencing an insider’s trip to Tanzania. Though she holds a Canadian passport, Leslie speaks the local language and lives in Tanzania for much of the year. This has allowed her to become very familiar with the local culture and environment.
This is a co-ed trip. Participants should be quite fit and expect to hike up to 12 miles a day though there is no age limit for this program. An openness to experience some rustic camping is a must.
Supply car near Mt. Lengai
Day 1 – February 5
You arrive in Arusha, Tanzania and are met at Kilimanjaro International Airport by your guide and transferred to your accommodation, Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge.
About Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge:
The Lodge, on the slopes of Mount Meru, is set in lush gardens amid forest and crystal clear waters fed by the Ngare Sero springs. Ngare Sero means dappled water in Maa (the language spoken by the Maasai peoples). The snows of Kilimanjaro form a splendid backdrop and sunset on the veranda, while watching the changing colors of the glaciers, is an unforgettable experience. The lodge was created from a farmhouse built at the turn of the last century. It has just ten rooms and provides personal service to Lodge residents only. The gardens contain a profusion of trees and flowers, two hundred species of birds have been recorded. Troops of Sykes and Colobus monkeys inhabit the forest and grounds. The keen angler can try his hand at still-water fly-fishing for specimen rainbow trout. Arusha National Park is close, Kilimanjaro International Airport and Arusha town are just half an hour away.
Day 2 – February 6
A free day to rest and run errands in Arusha, such as changing money, and buying car snacks for the safari. A visit to the self-help women’s program, Bahati House, can also be arranged.
Day 3 – February 7
Depart Arusha after breakfast for Lake Eyasi, (4 + hour drive). Our host in Eyasi is Momoya, a resident guide who allows the group to set up camp on his private, undeveloped land. Under his guidance you will visit the Datoga, his people, as well as the Hadza, the surviving numbers of an ancient hunter-gatherer tribe. Momoya suggests rising before dawn to accompany the Hadza on their first hunt of the day.
Datoga woman
About Lake Eyasi:
For much of the way down from the Crater Highlands Lake Eyasi is in sight–at over 1,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth largest in the country. On the lake’s far side, glowing copper in a setting sun, are the 1,500-meter high cliffs of the Eyasi escarpment, one of the first rifts of the Ngorongoro area that dates prior even to the formation of the highland volcanoes, and which today forms some of the southern border of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. On that side of the lake, away from human habitation, the chances of seeing wildlife are greater.
The Maasai are the primary residents of what is today the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, but the Datoga people arrived before them. The word Ngorongoro may be Datoga, although its origin may be Maasai. The Datoga fought hard against the Maasai, pastoralists like themselves, but they were driven south to Lake Eyasi and beyond to the Mangati Plains.
The Maasai deemed the Datoga worthy opponents and called them “Mangati”–or “Respected Enemy.” It is possible to visit the Datoga’s loaf shaped mud and stick dwellings while in Eyasi. Datoga men dress similarly to the Maasai, but the Datoga women will have on their traditional goat skins–still cured with cow’s urine as in the old days. These were outfits typically reserved for special occasions like weddings, but entertaining tourists now qualifies. These are beaded shifts that tie at the neck and drape over one shoulder, containing an arm like a sling. Long fringes of soft beaded leather fall loosely at the rear of the hides, meant to swing over ample behinds when the women dance. Three concentric rings of scarified welts encircle their eyes like bandits’ masks, and on their right arms they wear layers of brass bracelets, as heavy as door knockers, which double as percussion instruments when they put on a small song and dance performance. These bracelets are more commonly worn singly and are a way to recognize the Datoga when they don Western clothes and move among the urban crowds of Arusha and Dar es Salaam.
For all of the Datoga’s beaded goatskins and facial tattoos, it is the Hadzabe who are Eyasi’s primary tourist attraction. The Hadza–or the Hadzapi, Kindiga, Tindiga, Wakindiga or Kangeju as they are also known–are a small surviving tribe of hunter-gatherers, remnants of man’s ancient beginnings and their exact numbers–several hundred or several thousand–unknown. It is no longer possible for the Hadza to live entirely from hunting. Formerly the Eyasi and Yaeda Valley areas supported large populations of both residential and migratory animals, but now the pickings are slim–some small antelope, wild pigs, hyenas, baboons and monkeys are all that remain. When their search for meat widens, the Hadza must be careful not to contravene game reserve laws which favor paying hunters over indigenous ones. Out of necessity, the Hadza have added the African staple of corn meal porridge to their diet. This has created a dependency on people and places where they can buy it. Hadza cultural survival is tenuous.
Day 4 – February 8
The group remains at Lake Eyasi.
Day 5 – February 9
The group departs Lake Eyasi early for the Ngorongoro Crater in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), a 3 hour drive. You will game drive the rest of the day in the crater, stopping for a picnic lunch. Late afternoon you will ascend the north rim road of the crater to overnight at the Sopa Lodge which is set back from the rim in the forest.
Crowned cranes at Ngorongoro Crater
About Ngorongoro Crater:
In geological terms, Ngorongoro Crater is not a crater but a caldera, the sunken cone of a volcano which collapsed some two and a half million years ago and which probably surpassed in height today’s 5896 meter high Mount Kilimanjaro. The crater’s near vertical walls rise 600 meters from a grassy floor. It is home to some of the last remaining Black Rhinoceros–if you are so lucky to catch sight of them–as well as a wide range of East Africa fauna–lions, hyena, leopards, Serval cats, wildebeests, zebras, elephants, and hippos. Giraffes are noticeably absent: they cannot negotiate such steep walls.
There is talk every so often about paving the steep, winding roads in and out of Ngorongoro. Although the proposal is rejected each time it is raised, the fact that the idea dies only to be re-born suggests the likelihood that it will become reality someday. There are plenty of tourists who make it down the crater’s precipitous walls in its present condition. For all its popularity, the crater shouldn’t be missed.
Day 6 – February 10
This morning you’ll drive a short distance to Nainakanoka village at the foot of Olmoti Crater, one of two attendant craters of Ngorongoro. The hike to Olmoti’s rim and short descent into it will take a few hours. You will return to your campsite for lunch after which you begin your two-day hike along the Ngorongoro Crater rim. Your lighter weight camp gear for fly camping overnight has already left on donkeys with their Maasai handlers. Accompanying you on your hike is the operator’s hiking guide and an armed ranger from the NCA. The terrain is heavily wooded and it is possible to encounter Cape buffalo and elephant. Your destination for the night is a campsite on the crater rim. Approximate combined distance walked today is just over 12 miles.
Lion in Serengeti National Park
Day 7 – February 11
You depart early to finish your hike to Seneto Gate on the south rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. The hike should take about eight hours total, although a waiting vehicle may be able to meet you about one hour’s walking distance from the gate if the track conditions permit it. You may encounter many Maasai and their cattle all along the route. There will also be wonderful views down into the crater. Upon the hike’s completion your vehicles will take you to a private campsite at the foot of the extinct volcano Lemagrut.
Day 8 – February 12
You remain at this campsite for another day and night. Not only is the area breathtakingly scenic, there is plenty to do as well. For those who want more hiking, there is the ascent and descent of Mt. Lemagrut (approximately 4 hours total). There are many Maasai living around the campsite who you can visit with their elders’ permission.
Day 9 – February 13
Today you drive from Lemagarut to the Ndutu area which is on the border of the NCA and the southern reaches of the Serengeti National Park. There are two routes you can take. The first is along the main road of the NCA. If weather and track conditions permit, you will attempt the least traveled and more adventurous way through Endulen and Naibataat (a 4 hour drive). If the timing is good, you may encounter the wildebeest migration through here. In Ndutu, you will sleep in comfort after “roughing it” from the beginning. You will stay in a mobile seasonal tented camp for 2 nights. Tents in these camps are typically large with real beds and attached ensuites. Special attention is paid to service and dining. This break for you also gives the original camp crew a chance to transport the mobile camp to where you will rejoin them on Day 11. (Alternately, you will stay at the Ndutu Safari Lodge, the only lodge in the area and one of the oldest in the north. A favorite of conservation groups and film crews, it is the kind of place where there are always interesting vehicles parked out front such as those owned by The Serengeti Cheetah Project, The Frankfort Zoological Society and BBC wildlife filmmakers.)
Ndutu is where you want to be Jan through March when the migration passes through and wildebeest, zebra and other grazers fill its woods and marshlands. It is also perfect cheetah country, and has about four resident lion prides.
Elephant at Ndutu camp
About Ndutu:
In the early 1970s, the Dutch photographer Hugo Van Lawick spent time in Ndutu, filming and writing for his many projects. A decade earlier, National Geographic magazine sent Hugo to Gombe Stream National Park to film a young Jane Goodall who was habituating wild chimpanzees to her presence in western Tanzania. He and Jane married, although the marriage didn’t last. Hugo died in 2002 and was buried at Ndutu, on a beautiful forested bluff which overlooks the lake and now a private camp site.
Day 10 – February 14
You will spend the entire day in the Ndutu area game driving. Hopefully you’ll see wildebeest foaling on the morning drives.
Days 11-13 – February 15, 16 and 17
You leave Ndutu and drive east to the Gol Mountains which are still within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The entire day is devoted to game driving. The scenery in the Gol Mountains is superb. Sunsets there are some of the best anywhere in the north. If you are lucky, you might see cheetahs or wild dogs, one of Africa’s most endangered species.
The desitnation is Ol Karien Gorge, a narrow cleft between soaring cliffs where vultures nest at this time of year. The gorge marks one end of a 21 mile long grassy canyon used by the migrating herds of wildebeest, zebra, eland and gazelle. From the campsite, there are excellent views of Mount Lengai, Tanzania’s last active volcano which has been putting on a show since July 2007.
Mt. Lengai eruption
There will be much to do on days 12 and 13. The Maasai use the Sanjan River, which flows through the gorge, to water their cattle, sheep and goats. You will also drive through the grassy canyon, game driving along the way, to its opposite where a huge monolith of ancient rock called Nasera Rock is located. You will climb to the top of Nasera, where you will lunch and enjoy the spectacular views of the sweeping plains.
Day 14 – February 16
You travel back through the NCA on your homeward journey. On the way, you will stop at Olduvai Gorge where Louis and Mary Leakey made their fossil finds beginning in the 1960s which proved that man’s origins were in Africa. The destination is Karatu town (a 4+ hour drive). You’ll check in early at Kirurumu Tented Lodge on the Rift Valley escarpment. At 6:30 pm you leave for Lake Manyara National Park and a bush dinner under the stars followed by a night safari. Manyara is the only national park in the north which allows night safaris. This is a special way to celebrate your last night on safari. It’s a late night; you won’t be in bed until after 11 pm.
About Manyara:
Manyara is a small park with some pretty forests and a long and narrow soda lake. It shelters at the foot of the impressive western wall of the Great Rift Valley, an escarpment which the road must ascend to reach the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Lake Manyara is fed by waters flowing down the escarpment from the NCA’s Crater Highlands. In recent years, the water levels of the lake have been low and its flamingo population–which moves from soda lake to soda lake of the Great Rift Valley–has fluctuated also. Up until colonial times, wildlife used to migrate back and forth between Manyara and the Crater Highlands to the west and north, a pattern that was disrupted when the bush the animals used was cleared and cultivated. As this area’s human population continues to increase, safe corridors for animal migrations decrease. Elephants still travel back and forth between Tarangire and Manyara parks. They travel east from Tarangire until they reach Lake Manyara at its southern end.
Day 15 – February 19
After a leisurely breakfast, you return to Arusha (a 3 hour drive without stops). If departing the same night on KLM, arrangements will be made for a day room at KIA Lodge near the airport.
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Costs
With no more than 8 participants: $6,163 U.S. per person/double occupancy.
Price includes: in-country transportation, meals and accommodations. Participant is responsible for on-time arrival in Tanzania.
This trip is limited to 12 people and requires a $1,000 U.S. deposit on a first come, first served basis.
Please make check payable to:
Beth Whitman
PO Box 16102
Seattle, WA 98116
About Leslie, your in-country guide
Leslie splits her time between Vancouver, B.C. and Tanzania, having spent much of her time in this African nation since 2000. Since that time, she has made over 110 visits to Tanzania’s parks and reserves and has become extremely knowledgeable in the ways of African life and culture. Leslie loves Africa and feels strongly about providing her guests with the absolute best experiences that the country has to offer. She relies on repeat business (unlike many tour companies) and has a solid reputation as one of the best guides in the region.
All Photos – Leslie Nevison