12 Days Intrepid Expedition

Arrive at the Kilimanjaro International Airport where you will be warmly welcomed after clearing customs. From the international airport it is about an hour's drive to Arusha where you will overnight at the Arusha Coffee Lodge.

Arusha is a city in East Africa's Tanzania, located at the base of volcanic Mt. Meru. It's a gateway to safari destinations and to Africa's highest peak, 5,895m Mt. Kilimanjaro, lying some 100 kilometers northeast. To the west lies Serengeti National Park, home to wildlife including lions, rhinoceros, giraffes and leopards. Annual migrations feature huge herds of wildebeests crossing its plains.

Fly from Arusha to spend three nights in the Serengeti National Park, one of the most famous wildlife areas in the world and home to the annual wildebeest migration. It covers 5700 square miles of grassland plains, open savannah, riverine forests and woodlands.
This northern Serengeti 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. Unlike the southern plains of the Serengeti that dry out, forcing all but the hardiest of species to leave, this area remains lush and green. There's a collective sigh of relief from the resident game when the one and a half million migrating wildebeest - and the madness that follows them - leave town for a few months. Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives, capped off by sundowners. Walking safaris are also on offer and give you a real sense of place as you walk the land.

From the Serengeti take a 3-4 hour flight in a bush plain to the remote Katavi National Park to spent three full days exploring. Access limits visitors to this park, thus only about 1000 people visit each year. Perhaps because of this, it feels untouched, almost like travelling back in time. The park centers on a series of wide flood plains, blond with waist high grass in the early dry season, green and flooded like a mini Okavango Delta after the rains. Connecting the main flood plains – Ngolema, Katisunga, Katavi and Chada - is a network of fragile seasonal rivers. It is these rivers that form the focus of the game viewing for which Katavi is renowned during the dry season.
Actives at Katavi include morning and afternoon game drives, walking, and one evening you’ll experience a night game drive, looking for nocturnal species such as bush babies and leopard.

Fly one hour from Katavi to Mahale where you'll take a boat across Lake Tanganyika to your lodge. Named after the Mahale Mountain range that runs through the Park, Mahale is 625 square miles of road free wilderness, where the only trails you’ll follow are the forest paths and tracks made by animals over the years.
The park is home to some of the Africa's last remaining wild chimpanzees; a population of roughly 800. Some 60 individual forming the ‘‘M group'' were habituated to human visitors by Japanese researchers from Kyoto University in the 1960s. Each morning, with a specialist guide and trackers, you’ll hike in a group of no more than six to spend an hour with the chimps as they eat, forage, play, and squabble. Getting to the chimps can require up to a few hours of hiking so be prepared. After your magical visit return to camp for lunch and time in the afternoon to reflect, swim, fish, or take a boat trip along the deserted shore. Each evening is capped off with stories around the campfire while millions of stars wheel overhead.

Spend one last morning at Mahale walking in the forest or swimming in the lake, before lunch and your boat trip to the airstrip. The flight to Arusha takes about 4 hours depending on the number of stops, and you will arrive into the Kilimanjaro International airport in time to connect to your onward international flight. Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch.