| Wednesday July 21 | Travel Day | Delta Flight # DL 2670 Depart Jackson Hole, WY (JAC) @ 9:00 am Arrive Minneapolis, MN (MSP) @ 12:17 pm KLM Royal Dutch Flight # KL 6058 Depart Minneapolis, MN (MSP) @ 3:25 pm |
| Thursday July 22 | | Arrive Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) @ 6:35 am |
| Friday July 23- Monday July 26 | | Andrew will arrive on July 25th KLM Royal Dutch Flight # KL 652 Arrive Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) @ 8:10 am |
| Day 1 Tuesday July 27 | Moivaro Coffee Lodge Arusha Double Room Triple Room | KLM Royal Dutch Flight # KL 571 Depart Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) @ 11:00 am Arrive Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (JRO) @ 8:25 pm Pickup at Kilimanjaro Airport by Deeper Africa guide, Aminel Nnko (“Ammy”), after clearing customs. Ammy will have a sign that says: Krause. He will transport you to Moivaro Coffee Lodge for your evening dinner and overnight. Dinner and overnight at Moivaro Coffee Lodge. |
| Day 2 Wednesday July 28 | Moivaro Coffee Lodge | Breakfast at Moivaro Coffee Lodge. Your next ten days include in-depth opportunities to learn animal identification, wildlife tracking, and spotting wildlife in the landscape in the company of a Deeper Africa naturalist. As well, Ammy will begin to introduce you to conservation issues including human wildlife conflicts, poaching controls and conflicts, and community involvement in wildlife conservation. Begin your wildlife viewing in Arusha National Park which contains savannah, lake, and forest ecosystems. Arusha National Park is rich in herd animals, interesting birds, and you may have sightings of the rare colubus monkey in the forest ecosystem. Seven shallow lakes were formed from the volcanic activity caused by Mount Meru’s eruption. Alkalinity in the lake from different algaes is perfect food for filter feeders, including flamingos. It is also a great habitat for hippos. Between the floor of Ngurodoto Crater and the area called Little Serengeti you’ll have ample opportunities for sightings of zebra, buffaloes, elephants, giraffes, warthogs, and several species of antelope. Focus first on animal identification and learn to distinguish herd species. Enjoy a picnic lunch in the park. While wildlife viewing throughout your safari, you’ll have a cool box in your Land Cruiser stocked with water and your favorite sodas. Morning meet up with your canoe guide. Enjoy canoeing on Lake Momella with great bird watching and hippo watching. Dinner and overnight at Moivaro Coffee Lodge. |
| Day 3 July 29 Thursday | Oliver’s Camp Tarangire National Park Double Tent Triple Tent Laundry included Beverages including alcohol included | Breakfast at Moivaro Coffee Lodge. You’ll drive from Arusha to Tarangire National Park with wildlife viewing as soon as you enter the park traveling south into the remote wilderness. You have exclusive access to this area of the park as there are no other lodges or camps in the area. Off-road game driving and walking safaris are allowed in this wilderness zone within the park boundaries. Your naturalist guide and private Land Cruiser are available for wildlife viewing from 6 am to 6 pm. Tarangire contains a range of ecosystem: from grassland and woodlands in the north, to scrub and wetlands further south. The Tarangire River cuts through the park and empties into Lake Burunge in the west. As water sources dry up in the park after the end of the rainy season, animals migrate to the only permanent water available - the Tarangire River and the Silale Swamp system. Huge numbers of zebras make up the majority of the herds in Tarangire. Wildebeests, buffalos, and antelope are found as well. From the camp, Land Cruiser wildlife viewing will bring you close to Tarangire’s trademark elephants and baobab trees as well as the cats, snakes, and other animals. Sundowners (“drinks at sundown”), dinner, and overnight at Oliver’s Camp. |
| Day 4 July 30 Friday | Oliver’s Camp | Breakfast at Oliver’s Camp. Tarangire boasts one of the largest and most conspicuous elephant populations in East Africa. There are large family groups with many calves being born each year. The population continues to recover from the devastating effects of poaching in the eighties. You will see herds of elephants, and gain up-close encounters with the matriarchs, babies, teenagers, and bulls. Your close contact will help expand your understanding of these incredible animals. Spend several hours surrounded by the herds, and you cannot help but feel their wisdom. Tarangire is also known for its abundant baobab trees, most of which are over 600 years old. Sundowners, dinner, and overnight at Oliver’s Camp. |
| Day 5 July 31 Saturday | Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge Karatu Double Room Triple Room | Breakfast at Olivers Camp. After breakfast Ammy will drive you to Lake Manyara National Park. Setting against the Rift escarpment is Manyara’s evergreen groundwater forest. While it looks like a rainforest, not enough rainfall occurs to sustain this forest. Rather, mineral springs seeping through porous volcanic soil provide most of the water for the huge mahogany, tamarind, wild date palms, croton, sausage trees, and strangling figs. In additional to the evergreen groundwater forest, the park also contains a variety of ecosystems including acacia woodland, grassy plains, a swampy fan delta, and, of course, the lake. This variety attracts a wide variety of mammal, bird, and wildlife species. Flocks of flamingos are attracted to the large amounts of algae in the lake’s soda environment while the forest areas attract large flocks of pelicans, storks, herons, ibis, and egrets. Bird watching is spectacular at Manyara, with over 380 bird species recorded. As well, the primate viewing which includes blue monkeys, vervet monkeys, and very active baboon troops is quite enjoyable. Enjoy a picnic lunch while you observe your surroundings. Elephant, buffalo, impala, bushbuck, waterbuck, hippos, and lots of elephants roam near the lake. There are sightings of klipspringers on the rocky escarpments on the southern side of the rift wall. While at Rhotia Valley consider visiting the children’s orphanage. Rhotia Valley operates a bed & breakfast which puts all profits into the care and well being of orphaned children from the local community who are provided with a safe place to live and a quality education. To learn more about Rhotia Valley Children’s Home visit: www.rhotiavalley.com. You can also take a guided walk through the community, if you choose. Arrive at Rhotia Valley for dinner and overnight. |
| Day 6 August 1 Sunday | Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge | Breakfast at Rhotia Valley Lodge. After breakfast Ammy will drive you to Ngorongoro Crater with wildlife viewing and picnic lunch. The Crater is an expansive environment inside an extinct volcano. Between 20,000 and 30,000 animals wander the floor. The Crater ecosystem showcases an astonishing microcosm of East African wildlife environments: grasslands, wetlands, acacia forest, and soda lake environments - with beautiful flocks of flamingos at the right time of day. Wildlife visibility is excellent, and there are wonderful opportunities for photography. Zebra, wildebeest, and gazelle mingle together; while herds of buffalo graze the long grass areas. Bull elephants and rhino are often seen feeding in green marshes, and there are plenty of hyenas. The lakes and marshes are home to exotic water fowl. Hippos lounge in the water holes and it is not uncommon to see lions. Arrive back to Rhotia Valley Lodge for dinner and overnight. |
| Day 7 August 2 Monday | Dunia Camp Serengeti National Park Double room Triple room Laundry included Beverages and alcohol included | Breakfast at Rhotia Valley Tented Camp. Head out after breakfast for the drive to Serengeti National Park. Picnic lunch at Oldupai Gorge while you stop to visit the famous Leakey digs. The Rift Valley was home to the first humans, and the Leakey family has successfully excavated some of the oldest humanoid skeletons ever discovered. Many people believe that Oldupai is the birth place of humanity. You’ll visit the onsite museum and hear a short lecture about the gorge from the resident anthropologist. Picnic lunch at Oldupai Gorge. The word ‘Serengeti’ is derived from the Maasai language, meaning endless plain. This vast savannah grassland extends northward into the Maasai Mara in Kenya for over five thousand square miles of land, forming one of the world’s largest wildlife refuges. This is land as it was in the beginning; no fences, no settlements, just a perennial migration of wildlife. In a journey that reaches back through time, these herds of animals (currently estimated at 1.25 million) follow the seasonal rains - traveling from the Serengeti into the Mara instinctually moving with the seasonal rainfalls, sometimes migrating as much as 300 miles a year. Wildlife is allowed to roam freely across the Kenyan and Tanzanian borders, uniting the two parks into a single ecological unit that supports the largest concentration of large mammals on the planet. The annual migration is what makes the Serengeti famous. The herds gather on the Tanzanian side of the ecosystem from sometime in November or December through early July. The migration includes vast herds of wildebeest, but also zebra and Thomson’s gazelle. The herds steadily move southward through April or May when the seasonal rains cause them to turn and begin the journey back northward toward the Maasai Mara. Wildebeest are well suited to harvest the short grasses that cover the semiarid plains of the Serengeti. The soils of this region have an underlying hard pan covered by a fertile layer of volcanic soil. Grass growing in this soil is highly nutritious taking up nutrients trapped by the hard pan. Sundowners (“drinks at sundown”), dinner and overnight at Dunia Camp. |
| Day 8 August 3 Tuesday | Sayari Camp Serengeti National Park Double Tent Triple Tent Laundry included Beverages and alcohol included | Breakfast at Dunia Camp. Continue wildlife viewing as Ammy drives you northward to the Mara River area. Picnic lunch. Sayari Camp is located in a stunning area of the Mara River, in the unspoiled and undiscovered northern part of the Serengeti. The Mara River area hosts a very high density of cats, elephants, crocodile, hippo, and antelope. Even though you are at the northern edge of the Serengeti, Sayari is still on parkland and within the boundaries of the Serengeti’s UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve. Lunch, sundowners, dinner, and overnight at Sayari Camp. |
| Day 9 August 4 Wednesday | Sayari Camp | Breakfast at Sayari Camp. This northern section of the Serengeti connects with Kenya’s Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Rolling hills and thorny acacia woodland dominate the landscape. Evergreen forests flank the Mara River, with special habitats sheltering primates and leopard, while the river itself and its swamps are perfect habitat for water birds and crocodiles. The leopards in the forest habitat are very shy, so you will have to be very patient for a sighting. Sayari is ideally located to witness the world famous river crossing of the Great Migration which occurs from time to time during the end of July, August, and November. Lunch, sundowners, dinner, and overnight at Sayari Camp. |
| Day 10 August 5 Thursday | Sayari Camp | Breakfast at Sayari Camp. There are always hippo pods and crocodiles in the Mara River; the river is just a short distance from camp. Plain’s game is plentiful on the “little Serengeti” plains area which is not far from Sayari. There are opportunities for sightings of resident topi, hartebeest, gazelle, wildebeest, and elephant. Many other animals occupy the plains area. This is a remote wilderness area, untouched by the tourists who roam the more populated areas of the Serengeti. There are three lion prides with territories near Sayari camp area and Ammy will begin tracking them as soon as he arrives. There are cheetahs on the “little Serengeti plains” and you may have the opportunity to see a collared cheetah, who actually roams down from the Maasai Mara. The Mara cheetah is being followed by the Cheetah Foundation which operates in the Maasai Mara and the border to the Kenya is only 15 to 20 kilometers away. Lunch, sundowners, dinner, and overnight at Sayari Camp. |
| Day 11 August 6 Friday | Shooting Star Sea View Cottage Zanzibar Double Room Triple Room | Breakfast at Sayari Camp. Morning game drive as you travel to Kogatende bush strip for your late morning bush flight to Zanzibar. Say goodbye to Ammy at the airstrip, as he needs to drive the Land Cruiser to Arusha. He will have your plane tickets for you and picnic lunches for the flight. The pilot will assist you in getting checked in and getting your luggage boarded on the plane. Tanganyika Flying Company bush flight Depart Kogatende airstrip @ 10:50 am Arrive Zanzibar Airport (ZNZ) @ 2:15 pm Pickup at Zanzibar Airport by Deeper Africa driver. He will have a sign that says: Krause . He will drive you to Kiwenga beach and Shooting Star. Dinner and overnight at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. |
| Day 12 August 7 Saturday | Shooting Star Sea View Cottage | Breakfast at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. Activities as you choose: Village walk to nearby Kiwengwa Village Snorkeling at Mnemba Atoll (Additional charge) Deep sea fishing or diving (Additional charge) Sailing trip on traditional dhow (Additional charge) Bicycling (Kayaks available) Sunbathing at the pool or on the beach Beach walking and exploring Lunch, dinner, and overnight at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. |
| Day 13 August 8 Sunday | Shooting Star Sea View Cottage | Activities as you choose. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and overnight at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. |
| Day 14 August 9 Monday | Shooting Star Sea View Cottage | Pick up by One Ocean at 7:45 am for morning snorkeling. One Ocean is the premier dive and snorkeling operation on Zanzibar. They will have you back at lunch time. Visit their website @ www.zanzibaroneocean.com. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and overnight at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. |
| Day 15 August 10 Tuesday | Shooting Star Sea View Cottage | Activities as you choose. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and overnight at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. |
| Day 16 August 11 Wednesday | Travel Day | Breakfast and lunch at Shooting Star Sea View Cottage. Morning activities as you choose. Pickup by your guide @ 2:00 in the afternoon for transport to the Dar es Salaam ferry. We have you booked with first class fare. Upon arrival look for your Deeper Africa driver at the Dar es Salaam ferry departure dock. He will have a sign that says: Krause. Transport to the Slipway Restaurant for dinner. Arrange the pickup time with your driver and he will return to take you to the international airport. KLM Royal Dutch Flight #KL 569 Departs Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (DAR) @ 11:35 pm |
| Day 17 August 12 Thursday | Travel Day | Arrives Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) @ 7:40 am KLM Royal Dutch Flight #KL 6059 Departs Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) @ 10:20 am Arrive Minneapolis, MN (MSP) @ 12:15 pm KLM Royal Dutch Flight # KL 7990 Depart Minneapolis, MN (MSP) @ 5:00 pm Arrive Jackson Hole, WY (JAC) @ 6:26 pm |