Oliver’s Camp- Tarangire Conservation Area.
Oliver’s Camp is situated at the heart of Maasai land, East of the Great African Rift Valley. Tarangire’s rolling landscape together with the wildlife concentrations in the dry- seasons, has made the Camp popular to visitors seeking spectacular and the pleasant area.

The Camp is located on Tarangire’s eastern side of the park. It opened in 1992 and relocated to the park’s semi-wilderness area in 2001. It is basically placed to access the yearly shifting of wildlife throughout the ecosystem, and to view the impressive concentrations at waterholes for a five to six month season every year. Oliver’s Camp has got the freedom to provide walking excursions close to the Camp, and longer walking explorers in the endless woodlands and plains habitat that surrounds it, and it is important to note that it gets this freedom from the fact that it is in the wilderness zone.

Unlike other parks in northern Tanzania, Oliver’s Camp has got carefully planned off road driving in the Camp’s open vehicles, which makes the guests enjoy visiting the area.

The Camp has got 5 guest tents only. Of these, two have got twin bedded tents, one has three-bedded tent, while two containing a large double bed plus an additional single bed. Therefore, with this, Oliver’s Camp can easily cater for couples, families, as well as mixed groups comfortably and sensitively. Two of the five tents are closer to each other mainly for families and groups of friends, while the other remaining three are well far from each other. All the five sleeping tents are believed to have solid wooden furniture, beautiful cloth and practical en-suite facilities. However, bathroom services at this Camp are bucket type with long drop eco-toilets.

Culinary and Dining Experience at Oliver’s Camp.
The meals at this Camp are freshly prepared and they are normally followed by superb wine.

After open vehicle or on-foot explorers cut in the surrounding Tarangire ecosystem, guests are offered a relaxing break by drinks and library tents.

The stone fireplace is still the camp’s focal point, from which the views tend to be excellent.

Activities at Oliver’s Camp.
§ Maasai village visits.
§ Night wildlife spoting and game driving safaris.
§ Highly specialized walking safari around Tarangire Conservation Area.
§ Specially planned dinners in the bush.
§ Day wildlife spotting and game driving safari.
§ Ornithological safaris.

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Naitolia Eco Lodge - Tarangire Conservation Area.

This lodge is located deep in the Savannah, acacia and baobab ecosystem of Tarangire Conservation Area, a 40,000 - acre wildlife management area that includes the wildlife migration route into Tarangire National Park. The lodge has got an environmentally friendly modus operandi, which has attracted attention from many different eco-tourism organizations, while the innovative design which it has got and the unique appearance have already won praise. The facilities have been carefully got from these very sources to form a simple wooden lodge, full of character and charm with the design of the fittings and utilities making ingenious use of off-cuts, wood and organic materials to an innovative effect.

The lodge has got an interesting scope of options in addition to an exclusive lodge and personalized service, which makes a night at Naitolia better than just the quality of the accommodation. You might need to consider a night drive while at Naitolia, if the thought of going further the usual limits of a game drive and taking risks at night to spot the wildlife is one that has appealed to you.
There is an interesting thing about driving through the African Savannah at night, with fleeting views of migrating wildlife, hulking shadows of elephants and faint unsteady light reflections of prowling eyes to keep you alert to the unchanging natural theatre around Naitolia. Also, a foot safari or gentle nature walk in the area around the eco-lodge is an opportunity to encounter the bio-diversity of Tanzania because it is not normally accepted in most places.

Constructed entirely from local materials with low stone and grass walls, Eco-Lodge is covered by grass-thatched roof in the form of the traditional African banda.

Culinary and Dining Experience at Naitolia
Eco Lodge.
During the meals, a candle is lit around the dining area for six guests, bar and small library, opening out onto the flat-topped acacia and open savannah-with elemental textures and colours forming a relaxed intimacy in natural harmony with the surroundings.

Activities at Naitolia Eco Lodge.
§ Ornithological safari.
§ Walking safari around Tarangire Conservation Area.
§ Day wildlife viewing and game driving safari.
§ Maasai village visits.
§ Specially planned dinners in the bush.
§ Night wildlife viewing and game driving safari.

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Kikoti Camp- Tarangire Conservation area.

Kikoti a Maa word “the place where life began” got its name from the local Maasai upon an ancient pre-Jurassic Kopje in the Tarangire ecosystem, in recognition of its enduring permanence and dominant status in the surrounding ecosystem. When owners of Kikati Camp began working with local communities in the area, it appeared to be the right name for the new safari camp, showing respect for the Maasai community that have been travelling around the area for generations, and the owners admiration for the game-rich wilderness in which the camp is situated.

For every client, a Community conservation fee is paid to the local villages and this fee is used to up lift the status of community-chosen development projects, for example water boreholes, dispensaries, schools as well as roads. The camp provides an opportunity for every intimate encounter with the wildlife and people of Tanzania because of the fact that it is situated in a remote place, open wilderness, offers unassuming luxury, plus room to move around the area.

All the ten tents have sewn-in floors and plumbed en-suite facilities, and have been laid out in the traditional safari manner with wooden beds, fresh linen and a veranda from which to admire the views of the Silale wetlands in the below. The tents have been raised on platforms of natural timber and appointed with good views of the plum-purple sunsets smeared across the opening savannah. The camp has got good bathroom facilities, which include flush toilets and showers.

Culinary and Dining Experience at Kikati Camp.
Excellent sundowners evening snacks and drinks are held on the Kikoti Rock high up in the air with panoramic views of the landscape so well shown.

The meals are prepared in a tasty traditional Tanzania flavour by the local chefs. Most evenings, the hosts for the camp also get dining prepared in a wilderness area few meters from the main camp enclosed in wooden fence as a perfect example to the Maasai homestead known as the En’kaang.
Maasai of Tarangire-the owners of the land Kikoti Camp was built on, keep on presenting the traditional music and folklore, which normally follows dinner.

Activities at Kikoti Camp.
§ Maasai village visits.
§ Ornithological safari.
§ Day wildlife watching and game driving safari.
§ Specially planned dinners in the bush.
§ Night wildlife viewing and game driving safari.
§ Highly specialized walking safari around Tarangire Conservation Area.

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Tarangire Ecosystem.
Tarangire National Park is 1020 square miles (2,642 square kilometers) and has got 4 game control areas, which are; Mkungenero in the South, the Mto wa mbu in the North, Lolkisale and Simanjiro in the East and Kwakuchinja in the West. The first time, visitors may easily fail to notice the existance of these control areas, but common visitors to the park often notice the migration of large herds of elephants coming from the South entering the park to drink form the main water artery; Tarangire River.

Tarangire National Park allows guests who want a discerning experience to visit the area in an uncommon approach, because of the fact that the park’s ecosystem extends over 10 times the size of the park. Not many lodges and camps have taken this approach, which is a good experience due to the fact that is allows a mix of guests to see two parts of the Tarangire, stay at accommodations that support the Maasai people who are the direct beneficiaries of the visits that guests make, and they also take part in activities, for example walking safaris and night game driving, all while making certain that the environment is conserved.

There are three different experiences through which wildlife spotting can be done and these include; walking safaris with Oliver’s Camp, Day game driving in Tarangire National Park and night game driving in the Tarangire Conservation Area. Walking safari and night driving are not allowed in the park. Due to the wildlife management reasons, the park is divided into different areas in four different zones, with 75% of the park being sanctioned for visiting guests while the other remaining 25% has no road networks.
When entering the park, you enter the area called Leniyon, which has got a lot of bird activity and herds of antelopes and zebras.

When you cross a few hundred meters, you will be led to a point where guests is staying at the Tarangire Safari Lodge can spot the reed bucks, wildebeests, leopards, and elephants adorn the panoramic landscape. When you go on to the Tarangire Sopa Lodge, you will then cross over the Engelhard bridge, a point where African Mecca guests can spot a variety of bird species on the stream, that include the Pelicans, Saddle Bill stork, and Marabou storks crossing over the firm soils of the water waiting for the occasional fish, tadpoles as well as other organisms. Going further to the heart of the Tarangire leads one to spot massive herds like the buffalos, elephants, Eland, waterbucks and zebra.

In a s far as botanical experience is concerned, Tarangire National Park has got mixed vegetation which aids many creatures there, for example; the lions use the plains grass to lie low, the pythons move around the branch of a tree, and the elephants are basically known for having a field day in the swamps at Gursi and Silale. The vegetation in Tarangire include; plain grasslands, yellow Fever Fig, Tamarind trees, Baobab, Acacia, Sausage and Candelabra.

For Geologists, Tarangire offers a good sample of what happened around the borders of the Great Rift Valley many years back. This is shown in the existance of 3 main forms of rock formations that include; the very well known Black cotton soil, red alluvial deposits and the pre-Cambrian rocks. The Black cotton soil can be realised during the rain days, when precipitation makes the soil keep the water like a slithering and flexible clay pot than can twist and twin without causing a decline in the level of the water; the red soils can be spotted at the bottom and banks of the rivers which carries the deposit to the lower level of the areas’ wile the pre-Cambrian rocks are the hills sighted in the distance. As the climate continues to change, these hills get reduced to smaller mounds, which serve as a birds eye for the predators for example lions to land and stay on.

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Tanzania Holiday and Adventure Travel Tanzania

Reasons for visiting Tarangire National Park.
There are various reasons as to why people wish to visit Tarangire Park and among others are the following: -
§ Superb landscape and vegetation: Tarangire has got a landscape and vegetation which makes it a worthwhile visit to experience something new. This is because of the common parks visited on the northern safari circuit in Tanzania that include; Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Serengeti, none has got such a landscape and vegetation.
§ Multiple Adventure Activities: Tarangire offers an adventure seeker the opportunity to select three different activities in one single ecosystem. That is to say; game driving which enables you track biodiversity to add to your checklist, walking safaris that come close to nature as much as possible, and night game driving to see animals not seen during day time.
§ Eco-Tourism Approach: Tarangire National Park offers very hospitable services. For example at Kikoto Camp, guests can experience a personal touch with some of the owners of the land and these welcome the guests, they take pride in being their porters, servers, they guard the visitors at night, and on top of that, they keep on entertaining their guests, which makes most visitors feel at home.
§ High concentration of Animal and Bird life: Tarangire National Park has got the highest number of elephants in the whole of the northern Tanzania parks, exceeding lake Manyara plus Serengeti.
Those who love watching birds are also sure of spoting them in this park because there has at least bean a 550 bird species recorded in the park. More still, are the various species of wildlife, which Tarangire has, and these include; Maasai giraffe, Coke’s hartebeest olive baboon, elephant, African buffalo, lesser and Kudu, bohor reed buck, Impala, cheetah, lion, fringe-eared orxy, common water buck, leopard, spotted hyena, common zebra, white-beard wildebeest, eland, gerenuk, bush buck, warthog as well as bat-eared fox.

§ Excellent Accommodation Experiences: More than any other park on a northern Tanzania safari circuit, Tarangire provides a very good experience to the guests. You can decide to sit on your chair on the tent deck to perform wildlife behavioural game watching or you can choose the elevated levels in a Baobab tree house.

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Animal migration at Tarangire Park.

While Serengeti’s animal migration has not attained exciting fame, for tourists, little is known of Tarangire annual migration. The seasons of animal migration mainly differentiate the two parks, that is to say; animals in Serengeti migrate away from the park during the dry season (June to October), while animals in Tarangire migrate to the park from Maasai Steppe. Therefore, migrating seasons seem to be real opposite in the two parks.
Animals basically move to Tarangire park as they continue to quest for water that Tarangire River provides and predators move along questing for preys.

This period therefore makes the park have the largest concentration of animals than in any park in north Tanzania.

Wildlife inTarangire National Park.
The park is known for migrant animals and birds. However, it is important to note that all animals in the park are migratory, some of them stay there and can be spoted throughout the year. The migratory animals include wildebeest, zebras, hartebeest as well as elephants and these can best be spoted between June-October. Meanwhile other animals that can be viewed throughout the year include; Eland, giraffes, lesser Kudu, leopards, gazelle, rhinos, Impala plus waterbuck.

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TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK;
Days of cloudless skies.
During this period, the fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape, thereby baking the earth a dusty red and the grass itself becomes so miserable, while the Tarangira River shrivels to a shadow of its wet season self, however, it is filled with animal life. Normally, many animal keepers trek to lot of kilometers to this place looking for water, as they assume that there is always water in this place.

Tarangire Wildlife Safari
Large herds of about 300 elephants scratch the riverbed for underground streams, which at this moment are so dry, while migratory wildebeest, impala, gazelle, zebrala, eland, hartbeest as well as buffalo gather around the shrinking lagoons. It’s the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem-a smorgasbord for predators-and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope for example the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are often spoted.

The seasonal visitors scatter over a distance of 20,000 sq. km (12,500 sq. miles) range during the rainy season, and here they consume the green plains until they get them exhausted while the river calls once more.

The most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world normally crowd the swamps, which are believed to have an added green colour throughout the year. Infact, these swamps are said to shelter about 550 bird varieties.

Some birds however, like crowding the drier ground and these include; the heaviest flying bird, the stocking-thighed ostrich, the small parties of ground hornbills blustering such as turkeys, kori bustard, as well as the world’s largest bird.

There are also colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their clockwork-like duetting that they make loudly, and these are believed to normally frequent the termite mounds, which are no longer used.

Still, there are species that prefer climbing trees. For example, Tarangire’s pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit to the sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail.

Noting more about Tarangire National Park, it is basically of 2,600 sq. km (1,005 sq. miles) and it is located 118 km (75 miles) South West of Arusha. Getting to Tarangire National Park requires one to mainly use two means of transport that is to say, Charter flights from Arusha and the Serengeti, or just an easy drive from Arusha or Lake Manyara following a surfaced road to within 7 km (four miles) off the main entrance gate; and here you can even continue to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.

Holiday and Adventure Tarangire
Much as guests may visit Tarangire National Park throughout the year, the dry season of June-September is preferably better for larger numbers of animals. The park has got activities which include; guided walking safaris, day trip to Mbarara and Barabaig villages, as well as to the hundreds of ancient rock painting in the vicinity of Kolo on the Dodoma Road.

With accommodation at Tarangire National Park, we can note that the park has got one lodge, one luxury tented camp inside the park, one tented lodge, campsites in and around the park, another half-dozen exclusive lodges and tented camps immediately outside its borders.

Its got a large number of baobabs-the majestic trees which occupy the gently tolling countryside and they seem to dwarf-the animals that feed beneath them yet even at entering Tarangire National Park, they are the first capture of the guest’s eye.

It is important to note that the park got its name from Tarangire River that flows across the area. The park has got very thick vegetation of acacia and mixed woodland while the area around Tarangire River is so occupied by huge baobab trees and old doum palm trees to a lesser prominence, plus black cotton grass. With its unique aspect of the arrival animal migration that takes place during the dry season, Tarangire is believed to provide the same attractions as other parks in the north, though still, it is not as well known as other parks in the north.

Accommodation
Tree Tops Tarangire Conservation Area
Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Tarangire Safari Lodge
Porini Camp
Tamarind Camp
Swala Tented Camp
Oliver’s Camp
Naitolia Eco Lodge
Kikoti Camp

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Accommodation:
(a). Seronera Wildlife Lodge:
Seronera wildlife lodge is situated at the heart of the Serengeti plains to capture the migration of wildebeests.
It is on the edge of Seronera river, which is a very good beginning point for safaris setting out to see lions, cheetah as well as other animals. This lodge, which is built on “Kopjes”, provides 75 self-contained guest rooms and has also got a restaurant as well as a very nice bar over looking the savannah.

(b). Lobo Wildlife Lodge:
Built entirely of wood and glass a mid the rough and ragged contours of an enormous rocky headland to the north of Serengeti, Lobo Wildlife Lodge, which blends very well with its surroundings is one of the finest buildings of its type. It provides 75 rooms with private bathroom and it has got a restaurant as well. The lodge has got an ideal location which favours the witnessing of woodland ecosystem, and it is important to note still, that the airstrip is 10 minutes drive from Lobo Wildlife Lodge.

(c). Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge:
This lodge is located on a hill with breath taking vistas of sweeping grasslands as well as wilderness landscape of the Serengeti plains, which is not easy to be spoiled. With a simple but stunning design, Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge is inspired by a traditional African Village, separate rondavel “huts” house of the vast Serengeti plains with all the 66 guest rooms having private balconies.

(d). Serengeti Sopa Lodge:
Situated on the slopes of the Nyarboro Hills in the southwest of the Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Sopa Lodge provides magnificent views over the 14,763 sq. Km (5,200 sq. miles) expanse of the National Park, Tanzania’s largest wildlife conservation area and it is believed to be the only tourism development in the southwest of the park. Located 35 km from the Seronera airstrip, the lodge is said to provide the same comfort as Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge and it has got 75 rooms as well as a swimming pool.

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Serengeti Balloon Safari; Tanzania.
There is a certain feeling that people get when the excitement of a Serengeti hot air ballon safari crosses their emotion of self-control and independence. Normally, when you close your eyes, you feel your body lift up, with you having no control over it, and inside you a certain part is felt saying to yourself, I am crazy for taking this Serengeti ballon safari.

The feeling is unusual and so hard to describe, crispness of the African air, chill in the wind that hits your face as your Mara hot air balloon increases, smoothness in your process of breathing out, and the excitement to view and learn more. When reading this, one’s physical presence can be felt on the plains of the Serengeti.

Usually, when you are at your safari lodge in central Serengeti, you get a wake up call during the early hours of the morning, and this is when your trip begins as thoughts about our wildlife spoting from an elevated position begins to run around your mind. There, you get prepared for a “mission” by the Tanzanian traditional hot tea and coffee that quickly awaken you.

You a rive at the hot air balloon site in the Serengeti at around 6:00am, and as you get to the site, the ballon appears bigger than you thought it would be, this makes the experience a new one that you have never visited, and indeed you are about to have a trip forever.

The hot air balloon safari begins at 6:15am and the Captain tells you to relax and continue watching the wonders under the African sky. As you finally begin to spot on the elevation, there is an automatic smile that appears on one’s face and it is obviously not necessary to explain why one gets such a smile on the face.

You then begin spoting wildbeest moving in big numbers across the Serengeti plains, the beauty of the landscape when the rising sun’s bright orange colours are shown, the gazelles plus zebras moving quickly with short light steps as though they have never seen an alien object in the sky before, as well as the elephants at the water pool.

People are normally happy and satisfied with ballon safari by 7:15am and this is almost touch down time. There is a celebration, and those who like a toast, champagne is served, meanwhile in the bush, hot breakfast continues to be prepared. There after, you will wonder whether what you have been experiencing is a reality, as the sweetness ands aroma of the African coffee and tea gets a round you and you are served fresh eggs as well just as you like it, you hope for another ride, and wish for the continuation of such luxury. No wonder therefore, by the time you finish your Serengeti bush breakfast, you may end up deciding to immigrate to Tanzania for it is the only place where such life is found.

You are then declared a champion by 9:00 am, and a mighty Certificate of completion, which you hope to show in your home country, to family, co-workers as well as friends, is handed to you. You there and then become proud to achieve a trip as wonderful as this because the clapping and participation by everyone present makes you feel so. By then, you hear a blaring sound of music or even an annoying buzz, you turn around and switch off the alarm clock. Your eyes wide open, you realize that you have to re-visit Tanzania, to Serengeti is only you don’t want to get mad by the recurring dreams that keep on coming to your mind.

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Western Serengeti corridor:

Grumeti River crossing.
By the time the month of June comes, the movement of the wildebeests, zebras and antelopes should be in the western corridor or should be in coming in the days a head. The western Serengeti corridor is named like that due to the Serengeti National park “historical thumbs up” shaped boundary, and how the moving wildlife seems to squeeze through and turn around later heading northwards. The park limits go as far as Lake Victoria, the park can be reached from northwestern Tanzania region from Mwanza town. If one has not noticed it by now, there is variation in the vegetation: from plains grass to mixture of acacia woodland and savannah plains grass. The additional wildlife sighting opportunities also brings a different attitude as you have the opportunity to sight crocodiles, more hippos, and leopards staying around on the acacia trees next to riverbeds of the Grumeti, which flows into Lake Victoria.

Two interesting scientific questions have yet to be answered about
Western Serengeti corridor.
One, wildebeests moving from the south stop and mix with “resident wildbeest of the western corridor, and do not join the current movement. Question is why?

Two, if the movement’s main target and aim is looking for water and greener grass, then at the depth of the migration in the western corridor, why do wildebeest not continue on wards to Lake Victoria, which has enough fresh water, but instead perform a complete turn around and continue their journey northwards traversing plains and rivers and facing gruesome challenges posed by predators?

Tanzania Guide

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