Tanzania's Northern Safari Circuit

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

Tanzania's Northern Circuit is celebrated for some of the best wildlife safaris in Africa. To embark on a Tanzanian safari will most certainly be the most exciting and memorial adventure you will ever take; returning home with memories that will last a lifetime. However, be warned. Once visited, Tanzania will have you wanting to return again and again to this matchless destination. Tanzania boasts the unparalleled Serengeti, the stunning and unique Ngorongoro Crater and many other extensive parks and game rich reserves. This whole region has a natural abundance of wildlife, the icing on the cake being the last great annual migration left on our planet, when millions of animals thunder across the northern reaches of this vast country.

How to go about this safari adventure depends on your personal preferences. This vast area is best explored by a 4x4 and if your budget allows you, combine this with a flying safari in order to get to the more remote areas. Tanzania offers by way of accommodation on the safari a combination of stylish private camping concessions, luxurious mobile camping or elegant permanent tented camps.

If you want the remote, less traveled area of Tanzania, the exciting, off the beaten track safari locations, then the best option is to fly to the remote reaches where the roads of Tanzania simply do not exist. These parks boast fantastic camps ? sometimes being the only camp or lodge in a million hectares.

If the migration in the Serengeti is high on your agenda then a luxury mobile tented safari is the best option. Usually it is often obligatory to fly to a localized start point for this kind of game safari.

To give a rough guide on price - the differences in quality, remoteness and luxury are directly related to the cost. For example, a private 4x4 Land Rover safari, staying in good quality lodges, will cost around $500 per person per night.

A flying safari staying in moderately priced camps will cost around $800 per person per night. These camps are fantastic quality and fixed in one location, although some in the Serengeti are luxury semi-mobile tented camps. Private mobile tented safaris are luxury mobile camps organized exclusively for your itinerary and are likely to cost a lot more than the permanent camps.

No walking [with a few exceptions] is allowed in the northern parks and game viewing is by closed-sided vehicle. There are possibilities to walk in certain concession areas, such as around Klein?s Camp, outside the Serengeti National Park boundaries and in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Crater Highlands. Oliver?s Camp, in the wilderness area of the Tarangire, offers superb walking safaris with an option to camp out in the park overnight. Also the Western Kilimanjaro offers walking safaris with Maasai guides in the private concessions on the Kenyan border.

The annual migration of herds in Northern Tanzania and Kenya is one of the world's most spectacular wildlife events. Often referred to as the ?Greatest Show on Earth', The Great Migration is a movement of over one million wildebeest and zebra throughout the Serengeti and Maasai Mara ecosystems.

Despite the confusion of the many maps and illustrations showing the path of the migrating herds, it must be said, as with anything in Nature, the actual pattern is unpredictable. The migration depends upon the rains and the rains are unpredictable. If the rain pattern changes, so will the migration. If the rains are late, so will be the migration.

A rough guide to the migration is as follows:

From December to March the Migration congregates around Ndutu, in the far south of the Serengeti.

From April to May, the Migration moves North into the plains of the central and southern Serengeti.

Between June and July the Migration splits in two; one group goes West into the Western Corridor before crossing the Grumeti River, the other heading directly to the North of the Serengeti passing near Klein?s Camp.

From August to October the Migration is usually in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, returning South across the Tanzanian border in November.

I would advise anyone wanting a migration safari to research and speak to a few operators in Tanzania. The semi permanent camps in the Serenegeti are luxury camps that move three or four times per year to follow the migration and in my opinion, these camps are the safest option for being close up and personal with the migratory animals.