This stunning country contains a kaleidoscope of landscapes, wildlife and people that is infinite in variety. Endless stretches of grasslands are teeming with herds of game; lion and cheetah stalk through the tall dry grass and Masai herdsman dance in the warm hues of sunset. Mt. Kilimanjaro, the world’s tallest free-standing mountain with its snow-capped peak, rises out of the savannah plains.
A land of plains, lakes and mountains with a narrow, low-lying coastal belt, Tanzania is East Africa’s largest country. The bulk of the country is a highland plateau, some of it semi-desert and the rest savannah and scattered bush. The highest mountains – Meru and Kilimanjaro – are in the north-east along the border with Kenya. The long rainy season is typically from mid-March to May when it rains almost every day, but it is worth enduring the rain for the Wildebeest Migration. There’s also a short rainy season from November to January, which consists mostly of showers.
The vast plains of East Africa (Kenya’s Masai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti) play host to the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle – the great Wildebeest Migration. Millions of animals – wildebeest, gazelles, zebras – migrate annually thousands of kilometres each year on an endless pilgrimage in search of food and water that is nothing short of spectacular! Even Africans, used to wildlife at our doorstep, are mesmerised by the lines of migrating animals on their path to find food. The wildebeest congregate on the short grass plains on the southern Serengeti in Jan, Feb & March. Here they calf and exercise the new born. After the April / May rains they start the migration towards the north and the Masai Mara. November / December the trek returns to the south, so the cycle can start again.
Known as ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ the Ngorongoro Crater is one of Africa’s best-known wildlife arenas. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it offers a unique biosphere, which has remained virtually unchanged since the dawn of time. Deep within the Crater, enclosed by towering walls, some 25,000 large mammals wander the plains, lakes and forests of ‘the land that time forgot’, dominated by enormous bull elephants, rhinos and lions.
And then you still have Tarangire, Manyara, Selous & Ruaha left to explore.