8-Day Fixed Camping Safari Nyerere, Mikumi & Ruaha

In the morning, you depart to Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve) with a picnic lunch. The journey will take 4 hours. Upon arrival at the campsite, you will have a hot lunch and rest for a bit. You can wander around the camp and watch primates including vervet monkeys, black-and-white colobus monkeys, etc. In the late afternoon at 16h00, you go on a boat safari along the mighty Rufiji River with a skipper-guide who will bring you into close contact with hippo, crocodile and fantastic birdlife. Crocodiles glide into the water as your boat approaches and hippos appear in frightening proximity, grunting and blowing steam until sunset. Dinner and overnight will be at the Selous River view Campsite.

Pre-breakfast, embark on a 2-hour local Bushman walking safari at 06:30, guided by an expert local Bushman (traditional tracker) and accompanied by an armed ranger for safety. This intimate walking experience allows you to walk in the footsteps of ancient inhabitants of the park area. Learn about their traditional ways of life, survival skills, medicinal plants, animal tracking (spoor reading), bird calls, and how people lived harmoniously with nature long ago. Feel a deep connection to the land and wildlife up close. Return to the campsite for a hearty full breakfast, then set off on a full-day game drive with a packed lunch, exploring until sunset. Dinner and overnight at Lake Tagalala Campsite.

After breakfast at 07h30, proceed with a game drive en-route to the outskirts of Mikumi National Park. The journey takes you through the most amazing and truly wild and untouched areas of Tanzania. The drive will take you 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 the Mikumi Campsite No.1.

Today you will have a full day of game-viewing drives around Mikumi. There is a rich variety of bird species and large numbers of giraffes, buffaloes, and elephants close to the waterholes, as well as lions, leopards, and hippos. Furthermore, you can also see zebras, lions, wild dogs, pythons, hartebeests, wildebeests, elephants, impalas, warthogs, eland, and other antelopes. Several observation towers enable you to look at the park in its entirety. Mikumi National Park is mostly miombo woodland with gently rolling hills. Dinner and overnight will be at the Mikumi Campsite No.1.

Breakfast is followed by a transfer to Ruaha National Park with a stopover in Iringa town for lunch. Thereafter, you proceed to the park for a short game drive until sunset. Look out 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 Eurasian migrants, that come to visit the park twice a year. Dinner and overnight at the Ruaha Msembe Campsite.

Breakfast is followed by a full-day game-viewing drive in the park. A fine network of game-viewing roads follows the Great Ruaha and its seasonal tributaries, where, during the dry season, impala, waterbuck, and other antelope risk their life for a sip of life-sustaining water. 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 hyenas as well as several conspicuous packs of the highly-endangered African wild dog. Dinner and overnight will be at the Ruaha Msembe Campsite.

After breakfast at 07h30, we drive from Ruaha National Park to Udzungwa Mountains National Park via the Maasai village. On this tour, we will observe their lifestyle, culture, dancing, and handicrafts introduced by the elders, and have a hot lunch on the way. Later, you will arrive at Twiga Campsite for dinner and overnight.

Have an early breakfast at 07h30, then start trekking to the Sanje Waterfalls (200m). It takes 6 hours (ascending and descending) via the fabulous viewpoint overlooking the Kilombero Plains through the tropical rainforest. Watch the different primates including vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, red Iringa monkeys, colobus monkeys, and Sanje crested mangabeys. See some of the more than 450 different bird species not found anywhere else in East Africa. The pool of the waterfalls is natural and wonderful for swimming. After lunch, drive back to Dar es Salaam where we will drop you off at your hotel.