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Northern Tanzania - one of the classic African safari destinations
Report by John
Over the last few years many of the Aardvark team have visited Tanzania while I have remained in sunny Hampshire. In November I thought it was time I reintroduced myself to northern Tanzania after a gap of three or four years to see what’s changed.
Northern Tanzania is arguably ‘the’ classic safari destination, home to Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti and Lake Manyara to name the biggies. Over the decades countless wildlife films and coffee table books have documented the wildlife and scenery in this area. It is a superb and diverse region with few equals and quite deserving of its reputation.
The downside of this notoriety is the large number of tourists and their accompanying minibuses which in some areas can seem impossible to avoid. The Aardvark mission was to try and see how best we can recommend camps in Tanzania so our clients get the same feeling of remoteness and exclusivity that we can easily arrange in other countries.
With this in mind, David and I picked up an old Land Rover, a few jerry cans of diesel, lots of water and some wine gums, and set off on our expedition.
First stop was Mount Meru National Park, an hours’ drive from Arusha. This is one of the northern parks I’d not visited before and what a gem it is. It is generally quiet, excellent value and has very different and unique flora and fauna to other better known parks. With comfortable climate, stunning views of both Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru and high concentrations of buffalo and giraffe all around Hatari Lodge where we stayed for the night I wondered why more people don’t stay in this pretty park. A two to three night stay here is something I wish could be arranged more often
The next morning we set off for the long drive to Tarangire. Within an hour there was sudden scream of protest from the engine and our Land Rover died. After a long and hot wait by the side of the road we were picked up and towed back to Arusha where we took on a second vehicle, a seasoned veteran Toyota Land Cruiser. 
We soon realised it had a rather vague connection between the steering wheel and front wheels but otherwise felt like a reliable old dog. After another stop to fix a puncture while surrounded by elephants at the entrance of Tarangire National Park, we eventually got to the new Oliver’s Camp where we were to spend the first of our two nights in the park. Tarangire has more diversity of habitat than any other park in Tanzania and therefore an enormous variety of game; it also supports the highest elephant population in northern Tanzania. The highlight of our stay here was some wonderful walking with some great guides.
From Tarangire we set off for Lake Manyara National Park. As we followed the shores of the vast soda lake, tinged pink by thousands of flamingos, the enormous cliff walls marking the boundary of the Great Rift Valley hove into to view. Truly one of the great African landscapes.
The next day we wound our way up to the Ngorongoro Crater. As you head higher the temperature cools and the vegetation thickens and once you reach the rim itself it’s impossible not to be awed by one of the most spectacular sights in Africa. From the viewing point you look inside a hollow mountain and down to the vast crater floor (10 miles across) which, way down below is littered with tiny dots of game milling between open plains, soda lakes, marshes and woodland. Through binoculars you can identify the bigger dots as buffalo, elephants and if lucky, like us, rhino. Spectacular.
Driving down the other side of the crater on the dusty escarpment road towards the Serengeti, you pass through the Masai Highlands where you see herdsmen grazing their stock before reaching the hot dry and pan flat plains of the southern Serengeti.
We planned our trip to be at the quietest tourism time in Tanzania between late November and early December. However we took a driving risk as this time of year is traditionally the end of the short rains period. Luckily for the driving, but unluckily for the Tanzanian people and wildlife, the rain had been very sparse and nowhere on our journey was this as evident as in the Ndutu area. Last time I drove myself here it was teeming with wildebeest, with grass and clover so high that even hundreds of thousands of nature’s mass lawnmowers could not keep the grass down. Now it was brown and scorched without an animal in site.
After a nights’ camping and a game of ‘spot the animal’ the next morning we had scored lots of marsh and Montagu’s harriers, two very handsome male lions, a single cheetah, hyena, jackal giraffe and a clutch of antelope. Not bad for an area that could not support a single blade of green grass.
After another night we continued to explore Moru Kopjes area and then Seronera in the central Serengeti. It was amazing how quickly we had left the never ending flat plain to suddenly having rock kopje and hill ranges all around the horizon.
At Seronera we had to stop for some fuel and on the way there we saw a lovely leopard shinning down the tree in front of us. ‘That’s the Big Five ticked off’, Dave mentioned. ‘Quite impressive’, I thought considering we were not really trying.
Fuelled up and ready to go we headed west along an area of the Serengeti known as the ‘Western Corridor’. Another stunning drive took us through high concentrations of zebra and wildebeest making their way south in search of grass. The scenery and vegetation kept changing constantly. 
Only a few miles from Grumeti, our final destination for the day, we came across an area that must have been blessed with decent rains and drove into a lush green oasis teeming with game. On our drive in to camp we saw loads of wildebeest, zebra, breeding herds of elephant, a pride of lion and good antelope. On the afternoon game drives we hardly left the camp area and saw all of the above plus feeding crocodiles, fighting hippos, colobus and vervet monkeys, baboon and great birds.
We left early the next morning for the new Singita Grumeti Reserve which is a new 140,000 hectare, privately funded project. The area itself acts as a massive wildlife buffer zone between the national park and local communities and was for years a big game hunting area. The hunting licences are now gone and the reserve is quickly turning this in to one of the most exclusive private game viewing areas in Tanzania. Singita Grumeti has built three of the most luxurious but interesting camps I have ever seen.
Waving goodbye the following morning to the most comfortable beds I have stayed in, wireless broadband and a Michelin Star chef we had a bit of a reality check driving through local community villages. These community lands had also been lucky to have rain and all the people we saw in their brightly coloured clothes looked happy and healthy, and their small fields were full of lush green crops.
This safari day off and day driving through ‘real’ rural Africa was for me a privilege of my job and one of the best days’ driving of the trip
Our next destination, and one of the main points of the trip for me, was the far north west of the Serengeti. 
Historically, this area has been regarded as one of the prettiest parts of the park but has been largely forgotten for decades, left to the mercy of poachers and considered too wild for safari operators to promote.
Now after a lot of work from the National Parks Authority and pressure from private safari operators, it is a little gem. The area has attracted two or three really good safari companies and is a great place to see regular river crossings and good game far away from other busier parts of the Mara and Serengeti. I can see it getting busier, but hopefully not for a while.
The camps here are all small seasonal (moving to make the best of game concentrations) comfortable tented camps. We stayed at Sayari Camp which is positioned very close to the Mara River and overlooking the Masai Mara itself. It was strange seeing the Mara so close and imagining friends and colleagues in camps there, yet not being allowed to pop over the border for a drink and chat. You get all that is good in the Masai Mara here without any of the crowds, amazing.
From here we drove straight back across the park and out into the communal areas of Loliondo where we spent a couple of days driving on empty roads with stunning scenery all around hoping the old banger would keep on going.
From Suyan Camp in Loliondo we drove through wild countryside to Lake Natron (five hours straight). This was really my idea as it was somewhere I wanted to visit ten years ago but was regarded at the time bandit country and I was advised not to go. In the last five years or so it seems to have calmed down.
The drive is tough, but like most real travel the hardship was well worth it. Stopping above the escarpment and looking at the pink tinged soda lake below was a special moment of the trip. As we crept down the crater on the road winding round Oldoinyo Lengai, the volcano erupted for us. 
The statistical chances of this happening as we rounded a bend were tiny. You would probably have a better chance seeing a pangolin and an aardvark together, in broad daylight, playing a game of chess. We were whooping with delight and taking endless pictures as black smoke and ash were being blown out of the volcano. I’ve never seen an active volcano so this really did feel like a privilege and a champagne finale to what had been a great adventure.
We stayed at the rather rustic and strange Lake Natron Camp. I promise I have not visited one, but it felt like we had stumbled across a remote Al-Qaeda training camp. All the tents were army style camouflage – which although slightly weird did blend very well with the surrounding area. Positioned close to the salt flats, and just a short walk from the thousands of flamingos that nest here, the camp has amazing views on the one side to Oldoinyo Lengai and the other to Lake Natron.
It’s a simple bush camp, relatively inexpensive and an interesting place to have stayed. At only 600m above sea level, it’s a pretty harsh environment (very hot and dry) so one night for me was plenty. Hardier souls could do another night and climb Lengai itself.
On the way back to Arusha, we calculated that we’d covered 1,250 miles on tough roads, visited eight different national; parks, reserves and community areas. We had slept in a different bed for 14 nights and visited 24 camps and lodges. It was though, one of the best educational trips I’ve done for a long time. Driving your own vehicle through some of Africa’s most stunning areas had been great fun, exciting at times and again a privilege. I think we also achieved what we set out to do: to better understand and find a way of travelling Northern Tanzania in an exclusive way, away from the crowds.