South East Adventure

Itinerary

DAY 1 - 8

Masai Mara Game Reserve - Arusha - Serengeti National Park - Ngorongoro Crater

We depart Kenya’s burgeoning capital, Nairobi, and make our way to the Masai town of Narok and the magnificent Masai Mara Game Reserve. We spend two nights camping on the edge of the park, and explore the park on afternoon and early morning game drives. The Mara is crossed every year from July to October by large herds of wildebeest and their zebra friends that march from the adjoining Serengeti National Park in Tanzania on a continuous circular migration. The predators and scavengers follow in their wake, relying on the huge herds for food and it’s a spectacular sight. But the Mara is excellent for game viewing at any time of year and with luck we hope to spot some, if not all, of the Big 5 - elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo and leopard.

From here we travel to Tanzania via Nairobi where our next stop is Arusha, Tanzania’s safari capital. After exploring the curio markets, we head to our camp outside of Arusha on the Masai plains. It is from here that we prepare for our three day excursion by 4x4 vehicle to the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.

The Serengeti is flatter and larger than the Mara, game viewing is fabulous and camping out in an unfenced campsite where lion and hyena roam is an unforgettable experience.  The next night is spent camping on the rim of the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater.  At dawn on the following morning, we drive down the steep access road into the crater for a few hours of excellent game driving. With luck we’ll spot lion that literally lord it over the crater - here is the highest concentration of lion in Africa.

DAY 9 - 13

Dar es Salaam - Zanzibar

After our game park excursion, we spend one more night in Arusha before driving to dare s Salaam. We set up camp at our campsite on a balmy beach just outside of the city centre, and prepare for our ferry trip to Zanzibar, the ‘Spice Island’.

Evocative and exotic, Zanzibar conjures up images of idyllic, sandy, coconut palm fringed beaches, romantic winding cobbled alleys and lush tropical forests. Explore the bazaars, shops, mosques, palaces, courtyards and myriad of intricate alleyways of Stone Town on foot.  On the other hand if it’s white sand, sparkling blue sea and hot sun you prefer - head for the northern beaches and enjoy the Indian Ocean at its best. Try snorkelling and diving, eat sumptuous seafood, or simply relax in a hammock underneath a coconut tree with a cocktail and a good book.

DAY 14 - 24

Mikumi National Park - Lake Malawi Beaches - Lusaka - Livingstone - Victoria Falls

We cross back to the mainland by ferry, and spend one more night in Dar, before driving south towards Malawi. On the way we pass through the small Mikumi National Park and with luck, may spot forest elephant or giraffe at the side of the road.  Enjoy a few days on the wonderfully peaceful beaches where there is a full range of water sports on offer in the warm, clear and fresh waters of Lake Malawi. You can also ride a horse through the forests around Kande Beach, even ride bareback and swim with the horses in the lake, and there’s the opportunity to meet some of the Malawi people, easily some of the friendliest in Africa, on an informative village walk.

We leave the lake and pass through rural Zambia crossing the mighty Luangwa River, to Zambia’s capital Lusaka. We spend another night here before pushing on to Livingstone near the Victoria Falls. We set up camp at the Waterfront campsite on the banks of the Zambezi. There are various activities and excursions to choose from including white water rafting, bungee jumping, abseiling, gorge swinging, canoeing, elephant and horse riding, getting a bird’s eye view of the falls from the air by microlight, helicopter or small plane, and off course a visit to the thunderous Victoria Falls themselves is an African ‘must do’.

NB: Camping at the Waterfront in Livingstone is paid from the local payment fund. Please note that at this stage in the tour there may be a change of crew and vehicle and for the sake of practicality food is not included. The campsite restaurant has a good selection of meals and snacks throughout the day and lunch is provided on some of the optional activities such as white water rafting. Allow US$10 a day to cover meals whilst in Livingstone.

DAY 25 - 31

Victoria Falls - Chobe National Park Greater Kruger National Park - Johannesburg

From Livingstone, we head to the Chobe National Park, situated in the northern corner of Botswana and home to some of the largest populations of elephant in Africa as well as lion and abundant bird life, including the famous African fish-eagle. In the late afternoon, we take the delightful ‘fish-eagle’ cruise on the Chobe River - a very relaxing way to see hippo in the shallows and perhaps a herd of elephant come down to the river’s edge for bath time.

We spend a couple of days crossing the vast grasslands of southern Botswana via Nata and Francistown and enter South Africa, to make for southern Africa’s most famed and premier game reserve, Kruger. The fences between borders and private game reserves on the fringes of Kruger have been taken down to form the Greater Kruger National Park with an area of over 24,000 sq km. This is home to a host of African animals in a space bigger than Israel. We spend two nights within the Kruger area. Here you will catch your last glimpse of Africa’s diverse wildlife - lion, elephant, buffalo and leopard, and some of the 500 species of bird that inhabit the park. The landscape is of mainly flat bush and savannah and we explore on game drives and there is also the option of taking an additional night drive with the park authorities to spot nocturnal animals.

Finally we leave the Kruger behind and make our way, via the Panorama region to Johannesburg, where our eventful and action-packed tour ends.