Arusha 

One of Tanzania’s most developed and fastest growing towns, the bustling ‘Safari Town’ of Arusha is a hive of arrival and departure activity as countless 4WD safari vehicles load up with provisions and set off with their passengers into the endless, game-teeming plains of the mighty Serengeti National Park. Established in 1900 as a minor German military garrison, Arusha lies halfway between the Cape and Cairo and was once a major trading post for the local Waarusha and Wameru tribes. Nowadays it is not only the country’s most active tourism centre but also an important regional business and administrative centre and host to a colourful array of street markets, museums, craft shops, Makonde carving workshops, street cafes, restaurants and bars. 

Tarangire 

Second only to the Ngorongoro Crater as a dry-season (June/July) sanctuary for vast herds of migratory creatures, the park’s wildlife tend to follow clearly defined seasonal patterns. First to move north-east, often as far as Lake Natron, are the zebras and wildebeests, which begin their trek in October. After them, trek the gazelles, buffaloes, elands, oryxes and hartebeests. Finally, the elephants move out. The Defassa waterbucks, impalas, giraffes, lesser kudus, Kirk’s dik and warthogs, meanwhile, remain resident. The return of the park’s migratory species begins in June and July; firstly with the oryxes and elands, then the elephants; and finally, the zebras and wildebeest. 

Serengeti 

The name comes from the Maasai word “siringet” meaning ‘endless plain’. This 14,763sq. kms. park encompasses lakes, savannah grassland, wooded hills, rivers, swamps, and volcanic massifs. Due to this diverse ecosystem it is undoubtedly one of the world’s last great wildlife refuges. 

Serengeti is home to over 2 million wildebeest, half a million Thomson’s gazelle, and a quarter of a million zebra, giraffe, eland, topi, kongoni, impala and other antelope. The predators are also well represented by lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. In total, there are nearly 35 species of savannah animals and almost 500 species of birds including lilac-breasted rollers, barbets, and ring-necked doves living in this animal kingdom.

Ngorongoro

In the Great Rift Valley, that great schism in the earth’s crust, lies the wonderful Ngorongoro Crater, one of the wonders of the natural world. It is an extinct volcano that collapsed in on itself around 25 million years ago thus forming a vast superbowl where the largest permanent concentration of African game is on display. 

The central bowl, the caldera, has sides roughly 1,950 feet high and a flattish centre with a diameter of about ten miles. The views from the top of the crater wall are absolutely breathtaking. The crater walls are forested but four wheel drive vehicles will take you down into this primeval paradise of woodland, lake, river, swamp and plain that shelters around 20,000 animals. Many of these are the large grazing animals such as wildebeest, buffalo, gazelle and zebra who depend on the open grasslands in the crater. These attract the attendant predators, the black-maned lion, the leopard and hyena. The elephant found within the caldera tend to be the lone males who have left the herds in the forested crater rim. When the water stocks are low elsewhere the animals within this micro-world turn to the swamps for fresh water and food. 

Elephants feed on the giant sedges and hippo wallow in the pools. The Fever Tree forests shelter monkeys, bushbuck and waterbuck and the few black rhino that have taken refuge here. A soda lake, fed by the Munge river attracts water birds, including flamingos and is a favourite place for predators to make their kill. Wildly beautiful as it is, it is not surprising that Ngorongoro Crater has been called a Garden of Eden.The conservation area also encompasses several other volcanos, one of which, Oldonyo Lengai, is still live. You may struggle to the top, if you wish, to gaze into its open and sulphurous maw but many prefer to admire from afar. 

One of the most fascinating attractions in the area is the Olduvai Gorge, where an old river has carved away the rock to expose layer upon layer of volcanic soil. This is where Dr Louis and Mary Leakey found the remains of hominids “Nutcracker Man” and “Toolmaking Man”. The “Cradle of Mankind” now has a visitor centre where you may hear a short lecture on the work of the Leakeys and their successors and a small museum where you may see some of their finds, including a giant giraffe – it is hard to believe that they were once even taller!