NGORONGORO CRATER

Indisputably one of Africa's true wonders of nature and an extraordinary place of haunting beauty, with its grand majestic mountain ring and lake, pinkly shimmering in the blue grey haze. Ngorongoro covers an area of (264km/102m) and is the largest intact caldera in the world, its enduring charm stems from its overwhelming physical beauty and the abundance of wildlife permanently resident on the crater floor. The beautiful Rosy-breasted Longclaw, waders and flamingo can be seen around the lake, whilst on the crater rim the Abyssinian Nightjar is often seen at dusk.

Olduvai Gorge

Between Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park lies Olduvai Gorge. This remote spot has become famous as the archeological site where Dr Mary Leakey, in 1959, discovered Ausralopithecus Boisei, the fossil skull of early man dated 1.75 million years ago. Remains of prehistoric elephant, enormous ostrich and giant-horned sheep have been painstakingly unearthed in the high gorge wall, and there is an excellent small museum, which explains the significance of the geology, fossils and artifacts.

The Serengeti

The Serengeti (14,500 sq.kms/5,600 sq.m) is undoubtedly the most famous wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and the greatest concentration of plain game anywhere. It lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the East and Kenya's "Serengeti" - the Maasai Mara, to the northwest. Hills rising out of the seemingly endless plain, riversand small lakes, magnificent rocky outcrops and the occasional swamp all add to the park's fascination. In addition to the vast herds of wildebeest, Zebra, Thomson's Gazelle and other plain game, the Serengeti is reknown for its lion and other plain predators, including the wild dog, spotted hyena and jackal. Leopard may often be seen along the Seronera River. The wealth of bird and water fowl. During May and June, or sometimes earlier, Lake Ndutu at the foot of the Ngorongoro highlands is the starting point for one of the great natural wonders nature, the serengeti migration. Nearly two million wildebeest and a quarter of a million Zebra move in winding columns several miles in length towards the Maasai Mara to the north and west.

Lake Manyara National Park

In earlier years, Lake Manyara (318Km/ 123m) was a famous hunting ground, now it is one of Tanzania's most attractive sanctuaries. Nestling into the steep Rift Valley wall, its shallow alkaline lake is surrounded by ancient baobabs, ground water forest of fig and mahogany and open grassland. Buffalo feed in the forest, zebra and wildebeest wander in small group, whilst elephants and the famous tree climbing lions sprawling indolently overhead, enchant all visitors to this park. Birdlife is prolific, with breeding colonies of pink- bellied pelican, ibis, herons and egrets occurring when conditions are favorable.

Tarangire National Park

Originally a hunting area, Tarangire lies just 60 km from Arusha, south of Lake Manyara. It takes its name from the river which runs through the Park and which attracts elephant, buffalo, lion and the greater kudu. Tarangire is the only home of the fringe eared oryx in Tanzania. This is a smaller park, particularly attractive because of the lack of tourist vehicles. There is a privately run safari lodge and a new Sopa Lodge.

SELOUS GAME RESERVE

Selous Game Reserve covers over 50,000 square kilometers, it is the largest game reserve in Africa, There are over 51,200 elephant, 109,000 buffalo and big herds of other large and small animals found in Africa, most importantly, some wild dog the Selous is another park with all this hyperbole which is desperately unsold. Selous is one of those places that calls you back, one of Africa's great parks for sure we also think is one of the most subtle. Selous Game Reserve is the place where people enjoy dosing off to the sound of a fish eagle as much as they do chasing around the bush in search of big game, the winding Rufiji River, sunset over the Beho Beho mountains is what makes Selous a special place, especially when you compare it with the typical race around the Northern Parks of Tanzania.

Unlike most of the other major safari parks of Tanzania, Selous is at low altitude. Being near to the coast, this means that the climate of the area is similar to that prevailing in coastal circuit, which is to say that it is a typical tropical climate, hot and humid all year round. In Selous there are over 789,000 major mammals, 40% of the total in Tanzania and perhaps 9% of the total world Elephant population. Most of these elephant spend their time in the inaccessible swamps which occupy the majority of the park, but there are usually plenty in the game-viewing areas to the North as well as 2500 - 3500 lion, there are also wildcat, servalcat, caracal and leopard, there are also so many giraffe in some areas, additionally the rivers play host to large populations of hippo and crocodile, as well as an elusive population of dugong down in the Rufiji delta

Selous Game Reserve was first set aside as a wildlife reserve as early as 1905, the park takes its name from renowned hunter and soldier Frederick Courtney Selous. In 1982 the Selous Game Reserve was designated a World Heritage Site. One of the most attractive aspects of the Selous is the incredible diversity of the environments within its ecosystem, miombo woodland (deciduous hardwoodland), open grassland, rocky acacia clad hills, palm woodland, seasonally flooded sand rivers and swamps, lakes and riverine forest. The miombo woodland, second in biodiversity only to the rainforest, contains a plethora of wonderful hardwood tree families such as brachystegia, julbernadia, isoberlina, pterocarpus (bloodwood), dalbergia (blackwood), combretum (leadwood) in fact most of the 2,149 species of trees and plants that are found in the reserve .
It is at its absolute best in the 'green season' (December to June); all the trees have new leaves and flowers; all the grasses and shrubs are luscious and in bloom, and consequently almost every flower, animal and bird that it is possible to see in the Selous is there in abundance as such the reserve is ecologically one of the most important habitats in Africa,

The fact that Selous remains a game reserve rather than a national park is one of the main reasons that walking safari is still permitted. This is fantastic news, because to approach animals on foot is a completely different experience than doing it in a vehicle. A lot more scary for one, but very rarely dangerous so long as you do what your guide says at all times. Don't necessarily expect to see a great variety of large game whilst out on a walk, you usually don't cover enough ground for that, but enjoy the detail of the flora and fauna, whilst bearing in mind there might be a huge bull elephant around the next corner.

The park is pretty seasonal, although as we always say, "there is no bad time to be in the bush.

RUAHA NATIONAL PARK

Ruaha National Park covers an area of 10,300 square kilometers, is the third largest game conservation area after Selous and Serengeti. Located in south central Tanzania, it is a remote a wild place which is way off the routes taken by most visitors to the country receiving a paltry number of visitors each year. In consequence Ruaha is considered to be one of the great "undiscovered" wilderness areas of East Africa, it is actually at the heart of a much larger ecosystem, which extends across the Rungwa and Kizigo game conservation areas (hunting blocks), which totals an area five times the size, the main feature of the park is the Ruaha river, which rises in the swamps to the south and sweeps north and eastward through the park, turning back south and passing through the Iringa Highlands in deep-cut gorges to reach the Great Rufiji in the region of the Beho Beho mountains in the western Selous, it is the presence of this river which brings life to the broad valleys that make up the main portion of the park, sustaining the wildlife through the dry season, along the northern border of the park runs the Northern Escarpment.

Ruaha is a wonderful place to visit, which if done correctly can offer some superb game-viewing. One interesting little feature down here is the little rope bridge spanning one of the tributaries of the Ruaha, which when in flood cuts off Ruaha River Lodge from the airstrip and was thus installed to make sure that guests could arrive and depart on schedule. It is a pretty precarious affair. Across the centre of the park lies a seemingly endless swathe of featureless dry scrub, made up of combretum and comifora bushes ... which you may not have heard of now, but you will get to know pretty well out here. They are remarkable for their red flowers and orange seed pods, which are the largest flying seed pods that we've ever seen.

The area immediately around the Jongomeru sand river is a particulary nice section of mature riverine woodland, which presumably plays host to a wide variety of game. Unfortunately everything is so shy down here that it legs it at the first sight of you. One particular highlight in the area is a good hippo pool, with a few dozen chubby chaps and quite a few good sized crocs too.