Six of the best Tanzania safari highlights
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by: safariguide
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Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 Time: 7:05 PM
Six of the best Tanzania safari highlights
Perhaps the most famous event in Tanzania is the Serengeti wildebeest migration. This is a fabulous spectacle at any time of year but the best time to visit Tanzania for this event is mostly during the dry months of June to October as the wildebeest swarm off the southern plains and make their way north, tackling the crocodiles of the Mara and Grumeti rivers before settling between the Serengeti's northern plains and the Maasai Mara in Kenya.
Mobile safari camping is another great option through the Serengeti and surrounding areas, including Loliondo and the Gol Mountains. These areas are best from February through to late April when the seasonal rains turn the plains into a paradise of roaming wildebeest, feline predators, and an amazing variety of flowers and huge diversity of birdlife. Mobile safari camps are without a doubt the most exclusive way to experience the Greater Serengeti at your own pace, whether game driving, on a walking safari or a combination of both. These camps give you real flexibility, allowing you to move every few days, and is probably the best way to see Serengeti National Park, Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Crater.
The Ngorogoro Crater is over a third of a mile deep and the scale and perfection of it is quite staggering. Once on the Crater floor, most of the animals at Ngorongoro, whilst totally wild, are well accustomed to vehicles. This means that they mostly ignore them and as a result they can be approached fairly easily. This makes the Ngorongoro Crater an ideal stop on any safari and an excellent place to take children as intervals between viewing different animals are generally short and the game is often close enough that you don't need to look through binoculars.
A great time to visit Ngorongoro Crater is in April and May when the flowers have started to bloom throughout the highlands and most other tourists have gone home. Its a time of sporadic rainfall but this shouldn't deter you. This is the best time to gamedrive in the Crater and walk in the surrounding hills. Tourists or no tourists the Crater itself is one of those sights you really have to see to believe; formed with the collapse of a massive volcano it's been preserved as a perfect bowl some 18 km across. The ground area is just over 260 square km and within this relatively small space most of the major east African habitats and mammal species are represented. What's more you have an excellent chance of seeing them here on your safari.
Flycamping in the Selous is another great experience. Using simple mosquito nets and comfortable bedrolls, visitors can be at one with nature and sleep underneath starry skies. Enjoy good local food, hot showers and endless miles of wilderness. The Selous changes from river to open plains, sand rivers, woodland and lakes and is an environment that lends itself well to exploring on foot. Days can be spent walking in the cool of the day - gentle lumbering walks, and not tiresome hikes while the heat of the day is spent relaxing in deep shade, quietly watching game at a lakeshore, reading and even sleeping.
The next Tanzania safari highlight is chimpanzee trekking in the forests of Mahale. Based in the Greystoke camp and combined with fishing and snorkelling in the lake, this has to be one of the most amazing wildlife experiences in Africa. Time spent in the company of the Mahale chimps is unlike game viewing anywhere else. The steady climb through the quiet of the forest to find them leaves time for the visitor to take in the streams, waterfalls and massive forest trees. But there's a constant hint of suspense, heightened by occasional chimp calls echoing through the tree tops ahead. Occasionally the canopy parts and Lake Tanganyika, turquoise, cool and alluring, is visible several thousand feet below, its waters receding towards the distant shores of the Congo. And then suddenly - the chimps are there, among you. These are habituated animals, entirely oblivious to the presence of humans. They feed, play and fight sometimes within a few feet of the assembled visitors.
Last but not least there is walking and game driving in Katavi during the late dry season (September & October) when the harsh dryness forces the game to congregate close to the diminishing water sources. Whether it's thousands of buffalo, hundreds of hippos and elephants, lion prides feeding off a plentiful supply, or crocodiles hiding in riverbank caves; this is a time of epic African game viewing.
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