8 Days Wildlife Safari in Southern Tanzania

Day 1: Dar es Salaam to Selous Game Reserve

In the morning, you will depart to Selous Game Reserve with picnic lunch. The journey will take about five hours. In the late afternoon, you will have a boat safari along the mighty Rufiji River, which will bring you into close contact with hippos, crocodiles, and fantastic birdlife. Crocodiles glide into the water as your boat approaches and hippos appear in frightening proximity, grunting and blowing steam. Dinner and overnight will be at Selous Ngalawa Camp. Lunch and dinner will be served.

Driving time could be up to 7.5 hours.

Day 2: Game drive in Selous Game Reserve

You will spend a whole day in the Selous Game Reserve. You will have your exploration of the reserve by a four-wheel-drive vehicle. You will be permitted to have good photographic opportunities and the chance to explore different sections of the vast park. Dinner and overnight will be at Selous Ngalawa Camp. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served.

Day 3: Walking and game drive en-route to Morogoro town

In the morning after breakfast, you will have a walking safari in the wilderness with the guidance of an armed ranger. It will take two hours. The walking safari will give you a particularly intimate feel for the African wilds. Sometimes the guide also performs and it is dressed as a bushman in an authentic African costume. After that activity, you will get your vehicle and proceeds with a game en-route to Mikumi National Park. This journey is the most amazing and truly wild and untouched areas of Tanzania.

The drive will take you up into the Uluguru Mountains across rivers and past small local villages and farms. The drive is tiring, but possibly the most rewarding and adventurous on the southern circuit. Dinner and overnight will be at Oasis Motel. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served.

Driving time could be up to 7.5 hours.

Day 4: Morogoro town to Ruaha National Park

After breakfast, you will be transferred to Ruaha National Park, with a stopover in Iringa town for lunch. After lunch, you will proceed to the park for a short game drive till sunset. You will be able to look for Roan and sable antelope, hippo, crocodile, waterbuck, reedbuck, and buffalo that venture to the river's edge to drink, attracting the attention of lion, leopard, hyena, wild dog, and jackal. There are many birds in the park, including Eurasia migrants that come to visit the park twice a year. Dinner and overnight will be at Old Msembe Bandas. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served.

Driving time could be up to 7.5 hours.

Day 5: Ruaha National Park

After breakfast, you will have a full-day game viewing drive in the park. A fine network of game-viewing roads follows the Great Ruaha and its seasonal tributaries.

During the dry season, impala, waterbuck, and other antelopes risk their life for a sip of life-sustaining water and the risk is considerable, not only from the prides of 20-plus lions that lord over the savannah, but also from the cheetahs that stalk the open grassland and the leopards that lurk in tangled riverine thickets. This impressive array of large predators is boosted by both striped and spotted hyena, as well as several conspicuous packs of the highly endangered African wild dog.

Dinner and overnight will be at Old Msembe Bandas. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served.

Driving time could be up to 7.5 hours.

Day 6: Ruaha National Park to Mikumi National Park

After breakfast, you will have a game viewing drive en-route to Mikumi National Park. Dinner and overnight will be at the Mikumi Bush Camp. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served.

Driving time could be up to 7.5 hours.

Day 7: Mikumi National Park

On this day, you will have a full-day of game viewing drives around Mikumi. There is a rich variety bird species as well as large numbers of giraffes, buffaloes, and elephants close to the water holes, also lions, leopards, and hippos. Furthermore, you can see zebras, lions, wild dogs, pythons, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephants, impala, warthog, eland, and other antelopes.

There are several observation towers that enable you to overview the park in its entirety. Mikumi National Park is mostly miombo woodland with gently rolling hills. Dinner and overnight will be at the Mikumi Bush Camp. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served.

Driving time could be up to 7.5 hours.

Day 8: Mikumi to Dar Es Salaam

After breakfast, you will proceed with your safari activities at Mikumi before you return to Dar Es Salaam with an arrival in the late afternoon or early evening. You will be transferred back to the hotel in Dar es Salaam. Only breakfast and lunch are included for this day.

This safari adventure will take place at Selous Game Reserve, Ruaha National Park, and Mikumi National Park in the southern part of Tanzania. The Selous Game Reserve is the largest in Africa, covering 54,600 square kilometers. Selous is famous for its elephants, commonly seen are lions, wild dogs, buffaloes, bushbuck, impalas, elands, baboons, zebras and greater kudus.

Mikumi was gazetted as a National Park in 1964 and is named after the spindle shaped Borassus palm trees. The Mkata plain supports vast herds of plains game such as wildebeest, impala, zebra, and giraffe, hunted by their associated predators.

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Selous Ngalawa Camp provides varieties of meals. Breakfast is a buffet consisting of hot cinnamon rolls, eggs and toast, served with coffee or tea, and juices. The lunch is a buffet or a simple packed lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and cakes if you are going out on a full-day drive. The dinner is a three-course affair, often taken out on the terrace under the stars weather permitting.

The starters are served at your table, think tempura vegetables, or an onion soup with warm bread rolls. The main course is a buffet of various meats, pasta, curries, and vegetarian dishes. Dessert was a sponge cake with chocolate sauce, a little bit bland, but Selous Ngalawa Camp was told that it is hard to get a lot of ingredients so far out in the bush. If you are lucky, the Bushmen may entertain you while you eat and during the walking safari, with singing and dancing.

Cultural visits

You can visit a local village on the outskirts of the Selous Game Reserve, and walk around on the farms, seeing the different crops planted by the villagers in this area, and maybe even the difficulties of running a small farm near a game reserve. On the village trip, you will also be able to visit the local school and may be invited into local homes as well as join into village dances if they are being held as well as the odd football match might be visited.

Hot springs and Selous grave

There are several hot springs or “Maji Moto” as they are called in Kiswaheli, hidden within the Beho Beho Hills and surroundings in the Selous Game Reserve. Some of these hot springs are easy to reach by vehicle or by a small walk into a ravine surrounded by lush vegetation.

Hot sulfurous water flows from the rocks, pours down the mountain in little streams forming a series of picturesque pools. A hot spring like this one has been the source of that legendary water which was supposed to have made the warriors of the 1905 “Maji Maji” uprising invulnerable against the bullets of the German colonial troops.

On the way to the hot springs one will pass the Grave of Frederic Courtney Selous, a naturalist, explorer, hunter, and soldier, who was killed in 1917, during World War One near the Beho Beho Hills. Along the entire safari, one will be able to watch the game as well.

• Daily game drives
• Park entrance fees
• 7 nights accommodation
• Daily meals as mentioned in the itinerary
• 6-seater 4x4 safari vehicle with a roof hatch
• Airport and seaport transfers before and after the trip
• Services of a knowledgeable English speaking driver-guide
• Drinking water

• Visas
• Airport departure tax
• Local or international flights
• Optional activities
• Alcoholic and other beverages
• Items of personal nature
• Laundry
• Personal and baggage insurance
• Soft drinks
• Tips to the staff
• Travel or flying doctors rescue services

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• A reservation requires a deposit of 20% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
• The rest of the payment should be paid on arrival.