6 days safari:

Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and walking with masaai

You will be picked up at your hotel in Moshi or Arusha and drive to Lake Manyara (about 2 hours from Arusha). Then you will unpack at a camp site before you continue to Lake Manyara National Park. Lunch will be served inside the park with a beautiful view over the lake and Great Rift Valley. The park has a dense forest so you will get very close to Black monkeys, Blue monkeys and baboons. Also, you can get very close to elephants, giraffes and hippos. If you are lucky you can see lions on the trees. The park has a very nice lake with plenty of birds. After the game drive you will return to the camp site where dinner will be served. The campsite is close to the village called “Mosquito River” so you can take a walk there in the evening.

Wake up early and drive to Serengeti National Park. This is a long drive so you will eat lunch on the way to the park. You will pass Ngorongoro crater and can take a look down from a good view point. On the way to the camp site inside Serengeti you will do a game drive. Dinner will be served at the camp site where you will sleep.

If you are not lazy, you will have a game drive in the early morning when the sun is rising. At this time many animals will be more active than later on the day when the sun is stronger. Breakfast will be served when you return to the camp. After resting, you will continue with the game drive for the rest of the day, only broken by lunch served at the camp. You can see zebras, giraffes, elephants, buffaloes, antelopes, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hippos and many different birds. Dinner will be served in the evening at the camp where you sleep.

Get up early and drive to Ngorongoro crater after breakfast. Descending the crater (it is 600 altitude meter in difference from the rim to the bottom). Game drive and picnic lunch down in the crater. If you are lucky you can see the Big 5 (elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino) inside the crater. There is also a small lake in the crater with 1000 of flamingos. Usually you can also see many antelopes, zebras, gnus and hippos. When you have lunch watch out for the hungry black birds! They can come too close some times. In the afternoon drive to Nainokanoka masaai village. Walk up to Olmoti Crater and see the waterfalls (1 hour). Walking back to Nainokanoka for dinner and overnight in tents in special camp.

Day 6

Walk from Nainokanoka to Bulati (3-4 hours). This is an easy walk passing the Bulbul depression. Its open landscape with no trees, just grasses. On the walk you will pass many masaai bomas. Lunch will be served at Bulati.

Alternative 1: After the lunch you walk from Bulati camp and up to Empakaai crater rim. This is a hard walk since it’s up, up, up. When you reach the top you will have a fantastic view down to the Empakaai crater. Dinner and overnight at Empakaai special camp a few meters from the rim.

Alternative 2: After lunch you will drive to a Masaai boma where you can get into the Masaai house and see how a family is living. The women and men will also perform their traditional dance. After learning more about the Masaai culture you will drive to the Empakaai crater rim where dinner will be served and you overnight in the special camp.

After breakfast you will descend down Embakai crater. The descent is 250-300m to the floor through dense forest with old and strange trees. It is a small and beautiful crater filled with a lake that is often full of flamingos. A ranger will follow you and take care of the buffaloes if they come too close. The ascent is steep so relax and enjoy the view. After walking you will have lunch before being driven back to town.

NOTE: When you are walking in masaai land you will meet many people who will be curios. If you ask polite you might take pictures of them. Some want money for doing it, and some they don’t want at all to be taken picture of. Please respect their culture and ask before taking pictures.
Many women and children will sell you jewelers. This is a golden chance to get real masaai things instead of buying it in a souvenir shop. And you will know that the money stays to those who have made it.
 

Map over the walking area you find here.