Alpine Ascents Luxury Migration Safari Extension

Congratulations on your Mt. Kilimanjaro climb with Alpine Ascents! Now it’s time to relax and explore the best of Tanzania, the Great Migration and the incredible wildlife that inhabit the area.

You will be picked up at The Arusha Hotel this morning and set out across the floor of the Great Rift Valley to Lake Manyara. This park has been described as one of the most beautiful places in Africa. As you progress into the park, the tall forest gives way to woodlands, then grasslands, swamps, and finally the alkaline lake itself. The bird life is prolific with over 350 species.
The park is also known for its tree-climbing lions! Enjoy a picnic lunch in the park and later this afternoon you will drive up the escarpment to your luxury tented camp near the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

Overnight at Entamanu Camp. All meals, local drinks, laundry and private guide and 4×4 safari vehicle included.

Today descend into the Ngorongoro Crater; the crater is the World’s largest intact volcanic caldera, a World Heritage Site and one of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders. Due to its size and diversity, the crater floor is comprised of several distinct areas, ranging from forest, swamps, lakes and springs, to open grassland and some sandy dunes. It’s an awesome wildlife experience! Due to the ideal location of your luxury camp, you may decide to return to camp for lunch or take a picnic lunch and spend all day in the Crater.

Overnight at Entamanu Camp. All meals, local drinks, laundry and private guide and 4×4 safari vehicle included.

Bid your private guide farewell at the Manyara Airstrip and meet the light aircraft flight to the far Northern reaches of the Serengeti. You will be met by vehicle(s) and guide(s) from your luxury tented camp and head to camp unpack and have lunch.

Southward-moving herds of the Great Migration pass through the vicinity from August through November, and your camp’s location seven miles from the main concentration of game lodges in the park’s northeastern Lobo district means a sense of privacy rarely achieved in the far more visited western and southern park corridors. One further advantage: The camp is within driving distance of the other great wildebeest crossing point, the Mara River, on the border region between the Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara National Park.

This area of lush, rolling grassland and tree-lined watercourses is the hub around which the Serengeti migration circulates. During the dry season, the herds mass on both banks of the Mara River, frequently crossing – and braving the crocs – in response to local weather patterns that only they seem to understand. The landscape is reminiscent of scenes from Out of Africa, and there is plenty of freedom to roam and explore. Away from the river, this area of rolling savannah, boulder-strewn hillsides and fig-tree groves, is littered with inconceivably enormous herds of wildebeest, topi and zebra – as well as all the predators that gorge on this movable feast. Needless to say, the game-viewing you have access to is world-class. Cheetah, lion and elephant especially make for fantastic sighting, but it’s not unheard of to see the Big Five in a day.

You will explore with your camp guide on shared game drives. Three nights at Migration Camp. All meals, local drinks and laundry included.

You will rise before dawn one morning for the transfer you by Landrover to the hot air balloon launch site. Here you will meet your pilot, receive a briefing and watch the inflation of your balloon. At dawn you take off, rising as the sun rises and float in whichever direction the winds of the morning take you. Your pilot can precisely control the altitude of your balloon: sometimes flying at treetop height, sometimes lower, offering a unique perspective and great photographic opportunities of the wildlife below. At other times, he will ascend to 1000′ or more to see the enormity and wonderful panorama of the Serengeti. From time to time the pilot must put more heat into the balloon with the powerful whisper burners. In between these burns, there is silence apart from the natural sounds below.

The flight is about one hour depending on conditions, and eventually you must land. You celebrate in the traditional manner with sparkling wine before sitting down to a full English breakfast. Around 9:30 AM you arrive back at your lodge.

After one last game drive in the African wilderness, you will meet the light aircraft back to Arusha. You have a dayroom at KIA Lodge, where you will be reunited with your climbing luggage. You have time to relax and repack before the 10-minute transfer to the Kilimanjaro Airport to meet your departing flights for home. All meals included.