Itinerary Highlights
- Duration in days: 10
- Itinerary Category: Combo (Safari and Trekking)
- Destinations: Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, and Mt Kilimanjaro via Machame Route
- Major Attractions: Big Five, Great Migration, The Crater and Mt Kilimanjaro the roof of Africa
- Budget Level: Standard
- Guiding Language: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian
- Start point: Arusha
- End point: Arusha
- Essential items: DigitalCamera with enough memory space and extra batteries, binoculars, light clothes, safari boot, mosquito repellents, sunhat, sunglasses with ultra violet radiation filtering etc
Itinerary Description by Day
Day 1: Arusha Town to Tarangire National Park
Non game-viewing travel time: 2h 46min
Distance: 152.7 km
In the morning after breakfast, you will depart from your hotel in Arusha to Tarangire National Park with a packed lunch. Later, you will go on an afternoon game viewing drive whereby you will have lunch enroute and continue with the game drive until evening. Return dusty to your campsite for dinner and overnight stay.
Day 2: Drive from Tarangire to Ngorongoro Crater for a Game drive
Non game-viewing travel time: 2h 54min
Distance: 152.1 km
In the morning after breakfast, drive from Tarangire National Park to Ngorongoro Crater rim. You will descend down to Ngorongoro Crater floor with a picnic lunch box for afternoon game drive of the wild animals including the big five animals such as the rare black rhino. Continue with the game drive where by evening you will ascend up and drive to the nearby accommodation for dinner and overnight stay
Day 3: Drive from Ngorongoro Crater to Serengeti for a Game drive
Non game-viewing travel time: 1h 56min
Distance: 113.0 km
You will begin your morning after breakfast by proceeding to Serengeti National Park from Ngorongoro Crater with picnic lunch boxes continued by an en-route game drive in the park. Return dusty for dinner and overnight at the Seronera campsite.
Day 4: Half day game drive in Serengeti and then later drive to Arusha
Non game-viewing travel time: 2h 44min
Distance: 154.1 km
In the morning after breakfast, you will have a half day game drive in Serengeti National Park with a picnic lunch box. Have the encounter of the great migration of the Wildebeest in Serengeti. Have lunch enroute and then drive back to Arusha. Dinner and accommodation will be in your booked hotel in Arusha city and preparation for tommorrow Kilimanjaro trekking.
Day 5: Registration at Machame Gate and climb through Montana forest
Distance: 11 km / 7 miles
Trekking time: 5-7 hours
Zone: Rainforest
Have breakfast early in the morning and then transfer from Arusha to Machame Gate. Perform registration formalities at Machame Gate. The climb starts from Machame gate (1800m) after a short walk through the attractive banana and coffee farms of Machame village. The path follows a ridge through dense Montana forest. This is the richest forested area on the mountain, and also the water on Kilimanjaro originates. On sunny days, and especially in the dry season is very lush and beautiful. It can also be a very muddy experience, particularly if it has rained recently. We have lunch at halfway clearing, a small opening in the trees, and continue climbing steadily.
Day 6: Trek through Shira Camp
Distance: 5 km / 3 miles
Trekking time: 4-6 hours
Zone: Moorland
Our shorter day begins by climbing up a steep ridge to reach a small semicircular cliff known as picnic rock. There are excellent views of kibo and the jagged rim of Shira Plateau from here and it is a good rest point. The trail continues less steeply to reach the Shira Plateau. We camp near Shira Hut (3840m) which has some of the most stunning views on Kilimanjaro.
Day 7: Trek Kilimanjaro through Moorland Plateau
Distance: 10 km / 6.2 miles
Trekking time: 6-8 hours
Zone: Alpine desert
A morning of gentle ascent and panoramic views, leaving the moorland plateau behind to walk on lava ridges beneath the glaciers of the Western Breach. After lunch near lava camp (4540m) we descend to the bottom of the Great Barranco Valley (3900m), sheltered by towering cliffs and with extensive views of the plains far below.
Day 8: Trek through Southern Ice Fields.
Distance: 9 Km
Trekking time: 8-10 hours
Zone: Alpine desert
A steep climb up the Barranco wall leads us to an undulating trail on the south-eastern flank of Kibo, with superb vistas of the southern ice fields. Lunch is normally taken at camp, the last water point, in a steep valley. After lunch, the terrain changes to scree and we climb steeply to reach the Barafu Hut (4600m.) by mid afternoon. The remainder of the day is spent resting in preparation for the final ascent before a very early night.
Day 9: Trek through Mawenzi and Uhuru Peak
Distance: 5 km
Trekking time: 7-8 hours ascent/ 4-6 hours descent
Zone: Arctic
We normally start our ascent by torchlight around midnight so that we can be up on the Crater rim by sunrise. The steeply climb over loose volcanic scree has some graded zigzags and a slow but steady pace will take us to Stella point (5735m.), in about 5-6 hours. We will rest there for a short time to enjoy the sunrise over Mawenzi. Those who are still feeling strong can make the 2hours round trip from here along the Crater rim to Uhuru Peak (5895m.). The descends to Barafu campsite is surprisingly fast. After lunch and other refreshments, we continue to descend to reach our final campsite (3100m.). Most of us will be too tired to notice the beauty of the forest surrounding the crowed campsite.
Day 10: Retracing through Tropical Forest
Distance: 10 km
Trekking time: 3-4 hours
Zone: Rain Forest
A sustained descend on a well maintained trail through lovely tropical forest alive with birdcalls and boasting lush undergrowth with considerable botanical interest. We will start our route to the National Park Gate at Mweka (1650m.) and on through coffee and banana farms to Mweka village. We will be transferred to Arusha for dinner and overnight stay.
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