INTRODUCING Arusha National Park & Tarangire National Park & Lake Manyara National Park & Lake Eyasi Daatoga and Bushmen & Ngorongoro Crater & Serengeti National Park & Lake Natron & Ol Doinyo Lengai Volcano climb
This is our signature tour, and it has been refined over two decades of taking guests through Tanzania’s most remarkable landscapes. Since 2004, Pure Afro Travels has been building itineraries that go beyond the expected, and this one brings together everything that makes Tanzania unlike anywhere else on earth: walking safaris, national parks across the full Northern Circuit, a morning with the Hadzabe Bushmen, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, the flamingo-fringed shores of Lake Natron, and a pre-dawn ascent of Ol Doinyo Lengai, East Africa’s only active volcano. If you want to understand Tanzania properly, this is the tour that comes closest.
Each option follows the same itinerary and differs only in accommodation type. Whatever your preference, from a luxury tented camp to camping under an open sky, we will make it work.
A note worth knowing: on Day 1 your walking safari in Arusha National Park is led by an armed ranger. You will be safe, and you will get closer to the animals than any vehicle allows.
On Day 2 or Day 7 or Day 8 you have the option to add a hot air balloon flight over Tarangire or the Serengeti, finishing with a champagne toast on landing and a full breakfast prepared and served in the bush.
Before you travel, our Safari Tips and Safari FAQ pages cover everything you need to know about what to pack and what to expect on the road. Our Wildlife section gives you a useful introduction to the animals you are likely to encounter, and our Photo Gallery holds images taken by guests who have made this same journey.
For questions or a quick price quotation, including fully tailor-made programmes, please get in touch. We are happy to help.
ITINERARY:
DAY 1: Arusha – Arusha National Park
The tour begins on foot, which is exactly the right way to start. A two-hour walking safari through Arusha National Park puts you at ground level with giraffe, buffalo, zebra, various antelope and the park’s signature Black and White Colobus Monkeys, their long white tails trailing through the canopy overhead. After lunch the park reveals a different character from the vehicle: the alkaline Momela Lakes shimmer pink with flamingos, and the forested rim of Ngurdoto Crater adds a volcanic drama to the afternoon before the drive to Tarangire for dinner and overnight. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 2: Tarangire
Tarangire earns its reputation slowly and then all at once. Elephant herds are here year-round, sometimes in their hundreds, moving through a landscape of ancient baobabs so old and so large that everything else seems temporary by comparison. As the dry season advances, the Tarangire River becomes a magnet for wildebeest, zebra, eland, buffalo, hartebeest and the rare oryx making their way in from the Maasai steppe, with lions and leopards never far behind. A full day here never feels long enough. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 3: Lake Manyara
Small in size but never in experience, Lake Manyara sits tucked beneath the Great Rift Valley escarpment and manages to pack in forest, floodplain, open shore and more than 400 bird species within its boundaries. Elephants, buffalo, giraffe and hippo are reliably present, but what most guests talk about afterwards are the lions. Manyara’s tree-climbing lions have developed an inexplicable habit of draping themselves across acacia branches six or seven metres up, and seeing it for the first time tends to stop the conversation entirely. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 4: Lake Eyasi – the Daatoga and »the Real Bushmen«
An early start for a day that regularly becomes the most talked-about of the entire trip. The morning begins out in the bush with Haadzabe, East Africa’s only true hunter-gatherer people, whose click language sounds like nothing you have encountered before and whose knowledge of the land around Lake Eyasi runs tens of thousands of years deep. They will take you on their morning hunt, teach you to coax fire from wood without a match, and show you a way of reading the world that most of humanity has long since forgotten. Later, visit the Daatoga, renowned as master blacksmiths. Their intricate metalwork and jewellery reflect generations of skill, tradition, and craftsmanship passed down through time. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 5: Ngorongoro Crater
Down into the crater after breakfast for a full day on the floor of one of the most wildlife-rich places on earth. More than 30,000 animals live within the walls of this collapsed volcanic caldera, and the concentration of predators alone is remarkable. The Big Five are all present, and the chances of encountering them here in a single day are as good as anywhere in Africa. Picnic lunch with crater walls rising on all sides. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 6: Ngorongoro – Olduvai Gorge – Serengeti
A full and varied day. The morning begins with an optional stop at Olduvai Gorge, where some of the oldest evidence of human existence on earth was found in the layers of rock beneath your feet. It is a humbling place, and a fitting one to pause at before the plains of the Serengeti open up ahead of you. An afternoon game drive settles you into the rhythm of the world’s most famous wildlife park. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 7: Serengeti
The first full day on the Serengeti plains belongs entirely to the animals. Lion, spotted hyena, leopard, cheetah, serval, caracal, giraffe, buffalo, topi, hartebeest, waterbuck, impala, hippo, crocodile, warthog and birdlife in astonishing variety. The Serengeti is also where the annual Great Migration plays out, one of the largest movements of wildlife on the planet, and depending on the season you may find yourself in the middle of it. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 8: Serengeti
A second day on the plains, and it will feel nothing like the first. The light changes, the animals move, and the Serengeti has a way of offering something new each time you go looking. There is no agenda today beyond being present in a landscape that has been doing this long before any of us arrived. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 9: Serengeti – Lake Natron
A sunrise game drive along the north-eastern boundary of the park, the light low and golden across the endless plains. Serengeti, in Maa, means exactly that: endless plains. After breakfast the drive heads north to Lake Natron, one of Tanzania’s most visually striking soda lakes and the breeding ground for hundreds of thousands of Lesser Flamingos. The colours of the lake at certain hours are almost impossible to describe accurately. Overnight: Dinner and overnight at Lake Natron
DAY 10: Ol Doinyo Lengai – Arusha
The alarm sounds around midnight, and it is worth every second. By the time the sun rises you will be on the slopes of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai’s Mountain of God and East Africa’s only active volcano, working your way toward the 2,962-metre summit (9,718 ft). The ascent is demanding and the crater at the top is unlike anything else in Tanzania. Descend around midday for lunch at Lake Natron before the long afternoon drive back to Arusha.
End of tour!
