THE EXPERIENCE
A day on safari with Makoma
Your own guide and Land Cruiser for the whole trip, with each day planned around the wildlife.
A Day on Safari
Most days follow the light.
Animals are most active during the first and last hours of the day, so that is when you are most likely to be out.
06:00
First Light
Out of camp at first light, coffee in the vehicle. The cats are still active and the air is cool.
09:30
Breakfast
A bush breakfast wherever the morning has taken you, or back at camp.
12:30
Midday
Lunch at camp or a picnic in the field, then the hottest hours off: sleep, relax, or watch the plains from the veranda.
15:30
Afternoon Drive
Back out as the heat drops. The last hour before sunset is often the best of the day.
19:00
Evening
A drink by the fire, dinner, and tomorrow's plan with your guide.
Where you stay
Every camp and lodge we use has been vetted by myself and Willie's team, and we choose them for where they sit as much as for their rooms. Most trips use three types of accomodation:
Lodges, with solid walls, in Arusha and the Karatu highlands, such as Mount Meru Game Lodge and Marera Valley Lodge.
Permanent tented camps: canvas rooms on raised platforms with proper beds, en-suite bathrooms and hot water, such as Korongo Luxury Camp in Tarangire and Tukaone Serengeti Camp at Seronera.
Seasonal camps that move with the herds, used where the migration is, such as around Ndutu in the calving season.
Every itinerary names its camps. "Or similar" means that if a named camp is full, we book one of the same standard in the same area and tell you before you book. If you want a particular camp, or more comfort, we build the trip around it.
Rivertrees Country Inn, Arusha
Matawi Serengeti Camp, Seronera
Korongo Luxury Camp, Tarangire National Park
Marera Valley Lodge, Karatu
How you travel
You travel in an extended Toyota Land Cruiser, used only by your party for the whole safari.
Pop-up roof for standing and photographing
A window seat for everyone
Fridge with bottled water and soft drinks
Charging points for cameras and phones
Binoculars and field guides on board
Your guide drives, so the person spotting is the person who decides where to stop
No other passengers and no set schedule. You decide when to stop, when to move on and how long to stay.
Ready to start planning?
Tanzania’s Northern Circuit
The parks of northern Tanzania sit in a line west of Arusha: Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro highlands, then the Serengeti.
We plan each route around what you want to see and when you can travel. That might mean more nights in the Serengeti for the big cats, the southern plains in February for the calving, or a flight back from the Serengeti to save a day on the road.
Map of Tanzania's northern circuit: Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.
The parks
Almost every northern circuit safari visits these three parks.
Willie has been guiding in these parks for 22 years, and the guides at Serengeti Wilderness Calls know the side tracks and quieter loops that most visitors never reach. We use that knowledge to plan your days around the parts of each park that suit what you want to see.
Tarangire National Park
About 2,850 square kilometres of baobab country, 2 to 3 hours' drive south-west of Arusha. The Tarangire River is the only permanent water in the area. From June to October, elephant, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest come in from the surrounding plains to drink, and the park holds the highest elephant density on the northern circuit. Breeding herds of several hundred move along the riverbanks. When the rains come in November, many of the animals move back out onto the Simanjiro plains to the east.
Most visitors stay in the north of the park, near the river and within an easy drive of the gate. With a full day, we go south to the Silale Swamp, which stays green through the dry months. Elephant and buffalo herds graze its edges, and lion hunt around them. Willie's guides know the tracks down there, and you often have a sighting to yourselves.
Tarangire also has dry-country animals you rarely see elsewhere on the northern circuit, including fringe-eared oryx and gerenuk. Its baobabs are many centuries old, and pythons sometimes rest in their branches.
More than 550 bird species have been recorded in the park. Two of them live only in Tanzania: the yellow-collared lovebird, which moves in noisy flocks through the baobabs, and the ashy starling. Kori bustards, the heaviest flying bird in Africa, walk the open grassland, and ground hornbills and secretary birds are common.
The Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater is a caldera about 19 kilometres across. The volcano's summit collapsed into its own magma chamber, leaving walls up to 600 metres high around a flat floor of about 260 square kilometres. It sits inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, 8,292 square kilometres of highland forest, crater and plains. The area has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, and Maasai families still graze cattle on its slopes.
The crater floor holds all of the Big Five in one place, and it is one of the most reliable places in East Africa to see black rhino. Its permanent water and grazing support resident wildebeest, zebra and buffalo all year, along with some of the highest densities of lion and spotted hyena in Africa.
We go down when the gates open, so you reach the floor at first light. Your guide works the Lerai Forest, where old elephant bulls feed among the yellow fever trees, and the edges of Lake Magadi, the soda lake where lesser flamingos gather. The Munge swamp is good for lion and serval. For lunch there's the hippo pool at Ngoitokitok Springs. Crowned cranes, kori bustards and ostrich are common on the grassland.
The rim sits at about 2,300 metres, and early mornings are cold, so bring a warm layer. On the road west to the Serengeti, you can stop at Oldupai Gorge, where some of the oldest remains of human ancestors have been found.
Serengeti National Park
About 14,750 square kilometres of short-grass plains, acacia woodland, riverine forest and granite kopjes, at the centre of an ecosystem that reaches into Kenya's Maasai Mara. Around 1.3 million wildebeest move through it on a clockwise loop of about 600 kilometres: south to calve in the wet season, west through the corridor, north in the dry months, and back.
The central Serengeti around Seronera holds water in every month. Its kopjes are where lions often hide their cubs, and leopard keep to the river woodland along the Seronera River. Researchers have followed the prides here since the 1960s. Almost every Makoma itinerary includes Seronera for these reasons. In the green season, we can also head east onto the open plains around the Gol Kopjes for cheetah.
Ndutu, on the southern short-grass plains, sits just inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. From January to March the herds gather here to calve, and lion, cheetah and hyena follow them onto the open ground.
The western corridor runs west between the Grumeti and Mbalageti rivers towards Lake Victoria. In June and July the herds string along it. Large crocodiles lie in the Grumeti pools under the fig trees, waiting for the wildebeest to cross.
Kogatende, in the far north, sits on the Mara River, the only river in the ecosystem that flows all year. From July to October the herds cross it back and forth between the Serengeti and the Mara.
Beyond the park boundary lie game reserves and controlled areas: Grumeti, Ikorongo and Maswa to the west and south, and Loliondo to the east. Wildlife moves freely between them and the park. Wild dog, lost from the park in the 1990s, have recently returned to Loliondo.
About 540 bird species have been recorded in the Serengeti, six of which live nowhere else. Among them are the grey-breasted spurfowl and Fischer's lovebird, both easily seen from the vehicle. The rufous-tailed weaver is often found around camp. The plains also hold secretary birds, kori bustards and ostrich, and vultures roost in the yellow fever trees along the rivers each evening.
| When | Where the herds are | What to expect | Our trip |
|---|---|---|---|
January to March Calving |
The southern plains around Ndutu | Around half a million calves are born in a few weeks, most of them in February. Lion, cheetah and hyena stay close to the herds. | The Calving Season |
April and May Long rains |
Moving north through the central Serengeti | Green, quiet and the best value of the year. Rain usually falls in the afternoon, and a few camps close. | The Makoma Northern Circuit |
June and July Dry season |
The western corridor and the Grumeti River | The herds string out along the corridor, and the first river crossings begin. The stretch of the migration most easily reached by road. | The Western Corridor |
July to October Dry season |
The northern Serengeti and the Mara River | The Mara River crossings. Clear, dry days and the busiest time of year for camps. Best reached by light aircraft. | Fly-in safaris |
November and December Short rains |
Heading south again | The herds move back towards the southern plains. Green and quieter, with good light for photography. | The Makoma Northern Circuit |
Resident lion, leopard, elephant and cheetah are there all year. The timing of the migration shifts by a few weeks from year to year, so we plan around your dates and Willie's latest reports.