1 Day . Tanzania . Nature and Wildlife
Arusha National Park was Ngurdoto Crater Highland National Park until 1967. The current national park covers an area of 137 sq km/53 sq mi, and is located near the town of Arusha between Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. The park and town derive their name from the Wa-Arusha people who traditionally live in this area. On this one-day excursion leaving from Arusha, Moshi or Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) you will get to know the Ngurdoto Crater, Momella Lakes, highland montane forest, and the rugged Mount Meru (4,565 m/14,977 ft). The park has a wealth of wildlife including Colobus Monkeys, velvet monkeys, bushbucks, buffalos, red forest duikers, hippos, elephants, and giraffes. Birdlife, especially waterfowl, is abundant and interesting.
Day 1
This morning drive to Arusha National Park for game viewing. The park is dominated by Mount Meru, Africa’s fifth highest mountain, 4,565m. There is a good range of animal species represented; you can expect to see hippos, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, waterbucks, and bushbucks, although more interesting sightings such as reedbucks, leopards and hyenas are much more occasional. They are also quite alkaline and therefore provide a year-round breeding area for flamingoes.
Note,
Included in the price:
Full board (breakfast, lunch & dinner) accommodation while on safari
All game drives viewing in a custom built 4×4 Safari Land Cruiser
All park and entrance fees
Transportation with 4×4 vehicles with viewing roofs
Professional English speaking driver/guide during the safari.
Bottled water in safari vehicles
Current Government taxes and levies
24-Hour support during the safari from our office in Moshi.
Excluded from the price:
Internal or International flights
Transfers to and from the airport
Entry visa to Tanzania.
Travel and health insurance
Gratuities to your guide, hotel staff, and porters
Meals, drinks, and excursions not described in the itinerary
Any other items of a personal nature, laundry, telephone and postage
Item of personal Nature
Departure from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar on a morning flight for Ruaha National Park. Afternoon game drive. The park is named after the river that flows through a rugged valley in the heart of the semi-arid central highlands of Tanzania. It covers twenty thousand square kilometres and is the largest park in the country. Ruaha is remote and difficult to access (usually by plane) but it offers visitors exceptional game drive opportunities.
Game drives in Ruaha National Park. The Ruaha River, which overflows during the wet season, becomes a very active habitat for animals during the dry season (June–December). Its banks are a favourite hunting ground for lions, cheetahs and leopards.
There are also about twelve thousand elephants and a large population of African wild dogs, which are now very rare. Numerous species of antelope live in the park, whose geographical position makes it a transition environment from eastern Africa’s typical savannahs dotted with acacias to the miombo forests typical of southern Africa.
Transfer to the airstrip and departure for the Selous Game Reserve. As fifty-five thousand square kilometres, Selous is the largest protected area in Africa or anywhere in the world. It is part of an even broader ecosystem, which extends into the Reserva do Niassa across the Mozambique border. The Selous Game Reserve is larger than Switzerland and has no human settlements, so it is a wild universe of great beauty and variety. Only the northern area, crossed by the Rufiji River, is open to tourism. Afternoon boat safari.
Two days dedicated to the exploration of the Selous Game Reserve. The Selous is home to the largest number of animals compared to any other protected area in Tanzania: sixty thousand elephants, forty thousand hippopotamuses, three thousand five hundred lions, one thousand three hundred African wild dogs (now the rarest predators in existence), five thousand sable antelope, one hundred and thirty thousand buffalo, and about four hundred and fifty species of birds. Selous is prevalently flat and characterized by higher temperatures than the parks on the northern circuit, with very different habitats like miombo forests, clearings dotted with baobab trees, ebony, acacias, stony hills with low grass, plains that flood during the rainy season, swamps and lakes amid the meanders of the Rufiji. Here tourists are fewer than in the busier Northern Parks.