August 19-21, 2025
Tarangire National Park
Tarangire National Park: “We Are Only Getting Started!”
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Day 2: Arusha Walkabout
August 18, 2025
A not-so-chance encounter with a local guide opens up the city of Arusha to us, including its central market and local shopping districts.
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Day 3: Off To Tarangire N.P.
August 19, 2025
A 4.5 hour, 90-mile drive reveals the real Tanzania — and our first animal sightings. “We are only getting started!” exclaims guide Emmanuel.
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Day 4: Tarangire N.P.
August 20, 2025
Our first, full-day game drive reveals buffalo, giraffe, colorful birds — and amazing encounters with a leopard and a herd of elephants.
Four Points by Sheraton Arusha, The Arusha Hotel
Arusha Central Market
Giraffe (Swahili: Twiga)
African Elephant (Swahili: Tembo/Ndovo)
Waterbuck (Swahili: Kuro)
Burchell's Zebra (Swahili: Punda milia)
Vulture (Swahili: Tai)
Southern ground hornbill
Impala (Swahili: Swala pala)
Cheetah (Swahili: Duma/Chita)
Warthog (Swahili: Ngiki/Ngiri/Gwasi)
Grant's Gazelle (Swahili: Swala granti)
Common agama
Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Lion (Swahili: Simba)
White-crowned Shrike
Von der Decken's Hornbill
Yellow-billed oxpecker
Lilac-breasted roller
Eland
Baobab Tree
Magpie Shrike
Candelabra tree or naboom
Ostrich (Swahili: Mbuni)
Superb starling
Little Bee-eater
Leopard (Swahili: Chui)
Silable Swamp, Tarangire National Park.
Grey-headed kingfisher (Halcyon leucocephala)
African Cape Buffalo (Swahili: Nyati/Mbogo)
White-browed Coucal
Olive Baboon (Swahili: Nyani)
Baby Elephant Walk.
A baby elephant, still nursing, walks with his mother and extended family down to the watering holes on the edge of Silable Swamp.
4° 02’ 00.45 S 36° 07’ 13.90 E
Heading to the Beach.
An extended family of elephants — at least 30 members strong — amble peacefully past us and toward the cool swamp mud beyond.
Near Silable Swamp, Tarangire National Park.
August 21 - 23, 2025
Lake Manyara National Park
& Mto Wa Mbo
Lake Manyara: African “Jungle” and the Very Angry Elephant
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Day 5: Off to Lake Manyara N.P.
August 21, 2025
We descend into the Great Rift Valley for the lush forests of Lake Manyara N.P.
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Day 5: P.M. Game Drive
August 21, 2025
We head down the escarpment and encounter an angry African Bull Elephant.
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Day 6: Mto Wa Mbu
August 22, 2025
Tree-planting at an all-girls boarding school before more exploration.
Escarpment Luxury Lodge Manyara
African grey hornbill
Giant Kingfisher
Black-and-white-casqued hornbill
Migungani One Secondary School, Sequip
Near Mto Wa Mbu ("The river of mosquitos" in Swahili.)
Blue Monkey
Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta)
Nile Monitor Lizard
Egyptian Goose
Blue-breasted bee-eater
Velvet Monkey
Central African rock python
August 23-26, 2025
Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park: Unforgettable
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Day 7: Over The Top To Serengeti N.P.
August 23, 2025
A brutal six-hour, dirt-road odyssey over Ngorongoro crater to the incomparable wonders of Serengeti National Park and TNS Kimarishe Serengeti Lodge.
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Day 7: Short, Eventful Serengeti Drive
August 23, 2025
Going completely off trail on the Kemapsare-Serena Circuit leads to an up-close encounter with a battle-scarred mature male lion.
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Day 8: A.M. Serengeti Game Drive
August 24, 2025
A lion uses the shade of our Land Cruiser to suss out a herd of Zebra. A leopard and her two cubs draws a crowd. Plus: a cheetah and hyenas.
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Day 8: Afternoon Game Drive: Sleepy Cheetahs
August 24, 2025
We explore the plain beneath the lodge and discover sleepy cheetahs, skittish Hyenas, and bones scattered everywhere across the green grass
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Day 9: North to the Great Migration
August 25, 2025
A 9-hour game drive that had it all: hippos, the Great Migration, lions everywhere, a broken leaf spring — even a bit of rain (which I blessed).
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Day 10: Long Transfer to Ngorongoro Crater
August 26, 2025
Another bone-jarring trek across the lower plains of the Serengeti to a Maasai village; then a long circuit of the crater rim to our lodge.
Topi (Swahili: Nyemera)
Coke's Hartebeest (Swahili: Kongoni)
Black-winged stilt
Waterbuck
TNS Kimarishe Serengeti Lodge
Wildebeest (Swahili: Nyumbu Ya Montu)
Martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus)
Thomson's Gazelle (Swahili: Swala tomi)
A young Dik Dik, the smallest antelope in Africa. Fully grown, they stand 12 to 15 inches at the shoulder.
Bat-eared Fox
Topi (Swahili: Nyemara/Paa)
African pygmy-falcon
White-bellied bustard
Common Moorhen
Nile Crocodile (Swahili: Mamba)
Young Lion
Crowned Lapwing
Holub's golden weaver
Kori bustard
Hippopotamus (Swahili: Kiboko)
Nile Crocodile
Pale chanting goshawk
The Great Migration
Lion Kill (Wildebeest?)
Secretarybird
Wildebeest kill next to a lion mother and her two young cubs.
Yellow-billed stork
Breakfast Buffet
Golden Jackal ( Canis aureus )
Maasai Adumu Dance
The Great Migration.
An astonishing 260,000 zebras and 1.7 million wildebeest follow The Great Migration each year. We “only” saw a fraction of that herd, but our bit was awe-inspiring: 10,000 to 20,000 wildebeest in a line stretching to the far horizon.
Daytime Ambusher.
Unlike leopards and lions, which have excellent night vision, the East African Cheetah does not see well in the dark. Instead, it uses its 60 mph sprints to hunt in the day, when larger predators are less active.
August 26-28, 2025
Ngorongoro Crater National Park
Ngorongoro National Park: Into A Lost World
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Day 11: Into The Land That Time Forgot
August 28, 2025
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest unbroken volcanic caldera famous for its wildlife density and timeless “lost world” landscape.
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Day 12: All Good Things Come to an End
August 29, 2025
A 46-hour travel day started with this 8-hour drive back to Kilimanjaro Airport, passing the rich farmlands of Rhotia and the busy streets of Arusha—a fond farewell to Tanzania.
Serval Cat (Leptailurus serval)
Black Headed Heron
Helmeted Guineafowl
Black-backed jackal
Black-bellied bustard
Grey Crowned Crane
Kori bustard
Lesser Flamingo (Swahili: Heroe)
Greater Flamingo
Pied avocet
Great white pelican
Belly Itcher
Emmanuel Alfayo, our extremely capable guide, was chairman of the Tanzanian Guide Association for ten years. He rocked!
Hildebrandt's Starling (Lamprotornis hildebrandti)
The elusive Black Rhinoceros (Swahili: Farul/Kifaru)
Rhino Traffic Jam
Black-winged stilt
Cape Teal (Anas capensis)
Cattle Egret
Ngorongoro Rim Lodge with Zebra visitors.
Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge
Mt Meru
Fond Farewells
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Boss Man
The rest of the pride had gone ahead: alert, predatory. Striding not far behind them was this magnificent jefe, regal as all get out, master of his domain and apex carnivore of the Ngorongoro Crater floor. Is it any wonder that he peed all over the Land Cruiser just in front of us?