21-Day Grand Tanzania Safari

A private transfer meets the flight into Kilimanjaro International Airport and continues to a lodge at the foot of Mount Meru, Tanzania's second highest mountain, among fields and shade trees just outside Arusha.

The evening is free, a quiet start to three weeks that will cross almost the whole of the country, from the northern parks to the remote west.

The first drive of the safari runs north around the flank of Kilimanjaro to the Kilimanjaro Conservancy and Ndarakwai Ranch, a private reserve on the mountain's western slopes, in country that elephants use as a corridor between Kilimanjaro and Amboseli.

Lunch is taken on arrival, and the afternoon game drive follows, with the great snow capped bulk of Kilimanjaro rising above the acacia whenever the cloud allows.

A full day on the ranch's private wilderness, with none of the crowds of the national parks. Elephants move through here on their way between the mountain and the plains, and eland, giraffe, lesser kudu and gerenuk all live here too.

Morning and afternoon drives cover the ranch, and on a clear evening the snows of Kilimanjaro turn pink as the sun goes down, a sight to linger over.

The road runs south west, past Arusha and across open Maasai country, to Tarangire National Park, known for its baobabs and its elephant herds. Lunch is taken on arrival.

The change from the mountain's slopes is total: dry, open woodland, huge grey baobab trunks, and the Tarangire River winding through it all. The afternoon is for settling in and a first look at the park.

Tarangire has one of the highest densities of elephants in Tanzania, and a full day in the park is spent among them. Through the dry season the herds come down to the river in large numbers, and the drives follow them along the banks in the morning and late afternoon.

The park is rich in birdlife, and lion, leopard, zebra, wildebeest and buffalo all share the river. The baobabs, their bark stripped where elephants have fed, give every scene its character.

A last game drive in Tarangire at first light, and then the road runs north west to the Ngorongoro highlands, with a stop along the way in Lake Manyara National Park, where the groundwater forest, the escarpment wall and the lake shore make a compact and very different park.

The night is the first of two in the highlands, at a lodge among the green hills and coffee farms near the crater.

The road climbs to the rim and then descends two thousand feet into the Ngorongoro Crater, where the floor is one of the best places in Africa to see the Big Five in a single morning. Black rhino, lion, buffalo, elephant and hippo all live inside its walls, alongside great herds of zebra and wildebeest.

After the crater, the rest of the afternoon is spent back in the highlands, walking the lodge grounds or simply resting in the cool air.

A short flight carries the safari west from the highlands to the Serengeti, the land below flattening into the endless grass plains that give the park its name. The transfer to camp doubles as a game drive, so the first animals appear almost at once.

The night is the first of four in the Serengeti.

The first of three full days on the plains, and the day the scale of the Serengeti sinks in. The grass runs out to every horizon, broken only by the granite kopjes and the acacia along the rivers.

Drives run in the morning and afternoon, following lion prides, cheetah on the open ground, and the great herds of wildebeest and zebra that move through the park with the rain.

The second full day follows the herds wherever the month places them. Between December and March they calve on the short grass plains of the south; in the middle of the year they move north and west; by August they reach the Mara River in the far north.

Wherever the herds are, the predators are with them, and the guide builds the day around the best of what the plains offer.

The last full day in the Serengeti is a good one to spend on the kopjes, the granite outcrops where resident lions sprawl on the warm rock and leopards sometimes rest in the trees that grow from the cracks.

The drives run in the morning and afternoon, and the evening at camp closes the northern part of the safari before the journey turns south.

A flight south carries the safari to Ruaha National Park, one of Tanzania's largest and least visited parks, on the banks of the Great Ruaha River. From the air the landscape turns to rolling hills, baobabs and the wide, braided channels of the river.

The first game drive follows that afternoon, along a river where elephant, hippo and crocodile gather.

Ruaha sees a fraction of the Serengeti's visitors, and the first full day makes the most of that. The park sits where East and Southern Africa meet, so its wildlife includes species rarely seen elsewhere in the east: greater and lesser kudu, sable and roan antelope. It is also known for its big lion prides and its elephants.

Drives run in the morning and afternoon, and it is common to go an hour without seeing another vehicle.

The second full day follows the Great Ruaha River, which draws the animals through the dry season, across river country and baobab studded hills. Lion, leopard and wild dog hunt along its banks, and elephants dig for water in the sand of the dry channels.

The evening is the last in Ruaha, with the sounds of the river carrying into camp.

A flight west reaches Katavi National Park, remote even by Tanzanian standards and one of the wildest parks left in Africa. From the air it is a landscape of floodplains, woodland and meandering rivers, with barely a road in sight.

The afternoon game drive gives the first sense of it: very few people, a great many animals, and the feeling of being a long way from anywhere.

Only a handful of visitors reach Katavi each year, and the first full day shows what they come for. The floodplains carry huge herds of buffalo, and as the dry season goes on, hippos crowd by the hundred into the shrinking pools along the Katuma River, a sight found almost nowhere else.

Lion, leopard and crocodile follow the water, and the drives, morning and afternoon, often have the park entirely to themselves.

The second full day crosses Katavi's floodplains and miombo woodland, following the river and the herds. The light here, low and golden over the grass, and the deep quiet of the place make it one of the most memorable stops on the whole safari.

The evening is the last in Katavi.

A flight carries the safari to Mahale, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, one of the deepest and oldest lakes in the world. Forested mountains rise straight out of the clear water, and the camp sits on a white sand beach between the two.

The day ends with the sun going down over the lake, and the hills of Congo on the far shore.

Mahale is home to a habituated community of chimpanzees, and the first full day begins with the trek to find them, following their calls up through the forest beneath peaks that run straight down to the lake. Sitting quietly as they feed, groom and call to each other is an extraordinary experience.

The afternoon is for the lake: swimming in the clear, warm water, a boat trip along the shore, or simply time on the beach.

The second full day is shared between forest and lake, with another chimpanzee trek for anyone who wants more time with them, and the warm waters of Lake Tanganyika for the rest of the day.

The evening is the last of the safari, and a fittingly quiet one on the beach.

A charter flight leaves Mahale and connects through Ruaha to a scheduled flight to Dar es Salaam, arriving in time for the onward international flight.