Tanzania National Parks, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Tarangire, Kilimanjaro, Mikumi, Ruaha, Katavi, Saadani, Gombe, Arusha N.Park and Udzungwa Mountains, Selous game reserve, Mkomazi, Lubondo Island, Mafia Island.

Arusha National Park is a multi-faceted jewel, often overlooked by safari goers, despite offering the opportunity to explore a beguiling diversity of habitats within a few hours. The entrance gate leads into shadowy montane forest inhabited by inquisitive blue monkeys and colorful turacos and trogons – the only place on the northern safari circuit where the acrobatic black-and-white colobus monkey is easily seen Arusha Park, one of the most beautiful parks in Tanzania. Aside from the abundance of wildlife, fauna and flora with spectacular features, Momella lakes, Meru Crater, and the Ngurdoto Crater.

Lake Manyara National Park; stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”.

Mikumi & Ruaha National Parks; Swirls of opaque mist hide the advancing dawn. The first shafts of sun color the fluffy grass heads rippling across the plain in a russet halo. A herd of zebras, confident in their camouflage at this predatory hour, pose like ballerinas, heads aligned and stripes merging in flowing motion. The game viewing starts the moment the plane touches down.

Saadani National Park; Palm trees sway in a cooling oceanic breeze. White sand and blue water sparkle alluringly beneath the tropical sun. Traditional dhows sail slowly past, propelled by billowing white sails, while Swahili fishermen cast their nets below a brilliant red sunrise is where the beach meets the bush.

Gombe & Katavi National Park; An excited whoop erupts from deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen other voices, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking crescendo. It is the famous ‘pant-hoot’ calls a bonding ritual that allows the participants to identify each other through their individual vocal stylizations. To the human listener, walking through the ancient forests of Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling outburst is also an indicator of imminent visual contact with man’s closest genetic relative the chimpanzee.

An excited whoop erupts from deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen other voices, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking crescendo. It is the famous “pant-hoot” calls a bonding ritual that allows the participant’s to identify each other through their individual vocal stylizations. To the human listener, walking through the ancient forests of Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling outburst is also an indicator of imminent visual contact with man’s closest genetic relative: the chimpanzee.

Katavi National Park, Isolated, untrammeled and seldom visited, Katavi is a true wilderness, providing the few intrepid souls who make it there with a thrilling taste of Africa as it must have been a century ago.

Udzungwa Mountains, Brooding and primeval, the forests of Udzungwa seem positively enchanted: a verdant refuge of sunshine-dappled glades enclosed by 30-metre (100 foot) high trees, their buttresses layered with fungi, lichens, mosses and ferns.

Serengeti National Park, “The Africa Dream” offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa, great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle. The spectacle of predator versus prey dominates Tanzania’s greatest park. Golden-maned lion prides feast on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density of cheetahs prowls the southeastern plains.

A million wildebeest... each one driven by the same ancient rhythm, fulfilling its instinctive role in the inescapable cycle of life a frenzied three-week bout of territorial conquests and mating, survival of the fittest as 40km (25 mile) long columns plunge through crocodile-infested waters on the annual exodus north, replenishing the species in a brief population explosion that produces more than 8,000 calves daily before the 1,000 km (600 mile) pilgrimage begins again.

Tarangire

Day after day of cloudless skies. The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape, baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass as brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds of parched kilometers knowing that here, always, there is water. This National Park enables you to experience an unrivalled landscape of open plains, dotted with thousands of baobabs. Not only does the meandering Tarangire River attract a vast number of wildlife, but the Park is also especially renowned for its huge elephant herds, enabling its visitors the spotting of entire thick-skinned families!

Kilimanjaro Volcanic
Volcanic Activity on Kilimanjaro these days is almost unheard of. Approximately one million years ago, the gentle rolling plains of the Northern regions of present day Tanzania collapsed and sunk to form a basin known as the Kilimanjaro Depression. Around 250,000 and 500,000 years later, a gigantic explosion from three volcanic centres resulted in the formation of the White Mountain, otherwise known as Mount Kilimanjaro.
While two of the Kilimanjaro impressive volcanic centres, Mawenzi and Shira are both extinct, the youngest cone, Kibo remains merely remains dormant. The last reported eruption on the mountain is thought to have occurred some time in the 1700's, although there are still traces of volcanic activity within the centre to this day.

The three volcanic centres of Kilimanjaro vary in height, with Kibo being the tallest at 5896 metres, and Shira being the shortest at 3962 metres. Mawenzi falls somewhere in the middle at 5149 metres and is also the third highest peak in Africa, preceded only by Kibo and Mount Kenya.
The actual summits of the three centres vary greatly. Shira's peak is a wide plateau which stretches across the entire width of the volcanic cone. Similarly, Kibo's summit is also a broad crater that has a cavernous pit at its centre. The summit area of Mawenzi by contrast is a sheer peak bordered by cliffs and gullies, which makes many portions of it completely unreachable.
The sharp ledges making up Mawenzi are made up of slow- cooling, incredibly durable Rocks that are typically resistant to weathering. By contrast, the Shira plateau has eroded substantially since ancient times, but is nevertheless still filled with interesting minerals, such as the obsidian pebbles that you may encounter on the Machame route up the mountain.