Serengeti Migration Horse Safari

Arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport followed by a short transfer to your first base for the night. Located on a wildlife estate with great views of Mt Meru, and on a clear day Mt Kilimanjaro, the lodge is the perfect place to get acquainted with Africa. Here you will have some free time to relax and get to know your fellow adventurers! Over dinner you will be joined by the lead guide who will give a quick introduction and an overview of what to expect during the course of your safari.

An early start to catch a morning charter flight to one of the airstrips in the southern Serengeti. You may be flown over the Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manayara or Tarangire National Park -a wonderful opportunity to see these iconic sites from the air! After the flight, you will be met by a safari vehicle for your game drive to the camp. Depending on where you fly in, expect anything from 2-4 hours drive.

A short wait whilst you are checked-in at the National Park registration post, then set off driving through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area past impressive rocky outcrops known as “kopjes , river courses and across the Serengeti’s famous short grass plains. Prime grazing area for migrating wildebeest during the early months of the year, with luck (always dependant on the weather!) the plains may be thick with wildebeest which arrive in their thousands after the rains to make the most of the fresh grass. The plains are also the wildebeests’ favoured birthing spot – it is one of nature’s miracles that females delay giving birth until the rains and grass arrive in an effort to ensure their newly born young get the best start in life, a chance to build their strength on lush new grass before setting off on the long march north to Kenya’s Mara plains.

Leave the National Park and NCA and after a drive of about 2 hours, you’ll arrive at the spot chosen for the first camp in the shade of a lovely flat-topped acacia. Meet the team of support staff, settle into your tents and a welcome lunch in the shade of the mess tent. Then, a short siesta, before meeting the horses and their grooms, and time allowing, an evening ride. Return to camp at sunset for hot showers, drinks by the campfire and your first dinner together in the bush, before the adventure really starts!

You will be woken at daybreak with tea or coffee brought to your tent, then breakfast in the mess tent before heading to the horses to mount up at around 8am. Five more days to explore, riding across the open plains, into grassy valleys dotted with picturesque granite outcrops, swathes of whistling thorn and typically East African flat-topped acacia trees. The route and arrangements each day will vary with the weather and movement of game but your guide will aim to ride to at least one or two more camps so you can discover new areas.

On one of the afternoons or mornings the horses will be given a rest and you jump into the vehicles to visit Olduvai Museum, one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world. The museum includes fossils and artifacts of our human ancestors and skeletons of many extinct animals who shared their world. Throughout the safari we will most definitely cross this gorge ‘Cradle of humankind” on one or more occasions on horseback.

The following day, you will have an early wake up at dawn which gives you time to pack up before breakfast. Then mount up to set off to a new camp, riding through areas that have rarely been visited by anyone except on horseback, perhaps passing Masai herdsmen or their small settlements, where tribesmen live off the land as they have done for centuries.

After about 4 hours riding, meet the back-up crew for an al- fresco lunch in the bush and time to rest in the heat of the day, before heading off again, aiming to reach the new camp by teatime. Set up ahead by the backup, the camp might be spectacularly situated in the middle of the vast open plains, where, at peak migration time, the air will be filled with the braying and mesmerizing grunts of wildebeest. A cup of tea or a cold beer when you arrive in camp, followed by hot showers & dinner, listening to the sounds of the bush.

At one point during the safari (weather allowing) you will spend the night in a lightweight fly camp, sleeping under mosquito nets. This morning you jump into the vehicles (there will be a game drive with a picnic lunch on route, crossing the short grass plains and looking out for cats such as cheetah, lion and leopard which thrive here, as well as elephant and the flamingo which gather on the area’s soda lakes. Later in the afternoon you will reach the fly camp in time for sundowners followed by dinner under the stars.

An early wake-up call to say farewell to the horses and crew. The drive this morning will be up the Ngorongoro highlands and breakfast will be en-route overlooking the world-famous Ngorongoro Crater. After checking out at the gate you head to the African Galleria, a great place to buy anything from arts, tanzanite or just a small Tanzanian gift. Shortly after you head to the Manyara Airstrip followed by a 40 minute flight back to the estate where lunch will be served. There will be showers available in a shared dayroom however if you like your own dayroom please let us know and we will book this in advance (extra cost – latest departure 18h00) Thereafter vehicle transfer back to Kilimanjaro International Airport for onward flights.