We went on a 4d3n private camping safari (a variant of this itinerary) with Meru Slopes right after our Mount Meru trek (also with Meru Slopes). Highly recommended combination. After four days of physical exertion, it was a nice change to be resting in a car and enjoying the company of wildlife outside.
During this safari we visited Tarangire National Park, then Serengeti, and finally Ngorongoro Crater.
1) Tarangire exceeded my expectations - we arrived close to noon so I was not expecting to see anything in the woods, but somehow in this park you are able to get very very close to the animals (we were literally in the middle of a herd of elephants at one point). We also saw a good variety of bird species.
2) Serengeti was quite a long drive away. It's basically an endless savannah with rock features and some acacia trees randomly placed. You will see plenty of herbivores like wildebeest, gazelle, impala, zebras, elephants. However the stars of any safari are usually the big cats, and they tend to be closer to water bodies, trees, rocks, or other features. This means that you could be snoozing most of the time in the car as you move from place to place in Serengeti. However, if you do come across something exciting, it's usually really special. In our 24 hours there, we were very fortunate as we saw a cheetah with her cubs, a pride of about 14 lions (9 cubs I think), a leopard sleeping on the tree, three cheetah brothers hanging out, and five lions resting on a tree at noon.
3) Our last day was in Ngorongoro Crater, which is a breathtaking lush caldera teeming with life and action. We first stopped to wait for sunrise at the crater rim. Then as we drove in, we saw a family of lions digging in the ground to attack a honeybadger (also a rare creature). We saw a brief chase by the male lion but the badger managed to escape into another burrow. We also spotted a rhino (incredibly rare on safaris) having a stare-down with another pride of lions in the distance about a kilometre away. These highlights are on top of the other plentiful wildlife scattered throughout the crater. Makes for a wonderful morning game drive.
We were assigned an amazing duo by the company for this safari:
Our guide-cum-driver was Asantael, who is a very gentle big guy, incredibly knowledgeable about the wildlife we saw along the way. My wife and I are avid birders, so we were not only looking at the typical four-legged animals, but also the feathered residents of the parks. Asantael could tell us the names and behaviours of the animals we saw, helping us put a name to the hundreds of photos we took with our camera. We learnt a great deal from him.
Our cook was Moshi, a very affable and humorous man with some legit culinary skills. Apparently he worked at a hotel/restaurant before and was also a cook for mountain treks in his younger days. We were very well taken care of by Moshi everyday, as he whipped up delicious pilaus, pizzas, banana fritters, pasta dishes, etc. He even invited us into the kitchen to learn how to make pilau (we're going to do it when we get home).
We stayed in a lodge for the first night and in tents for the next two nights. The lodge was so-so (toilets, showers, big room, can't complain) but the tents were fun - we had an elephant in the camp on the last day. Pack enough for cold weather though if you're camping like we did at Ngorongoro. Temperatures at night and early morning were as low as 10 degrees C (we went in early Jan).
This 4-day itinerary is actually very balanced because the three parks we visited were very different in terms of terrain and climate. We were initially skeptical as we wanted to focus on Seregenti, but we're glad we went with this tour instead. Very highly recommended!
I had an unforgettable experience with Meru Slopes Tours and Safaris and highly recommend to anyone who is considering a safari trip.
We booked a 4 day/3 night safari with a mix of lodge and camp accommodations. We visited Tarangire National Park, Central Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Crater.
Geoffrey, the manager, was extremely helpful in answering our many questions, organized, and extremely friendly. Transportation to/from the airport as well as accommodations before and after the safari. He was always be available to help out with any requests during our stay at the Arusha Tourist Inn, and genuinely wanted to ensure that guests were comfortable and happy.
Jacob, our guide and driver, is extremely knowledgeable not only with the region’s animals, but also other fauna (birds, reptiles) and flora. Our group had endless questions and he was able to answer most, if not all, of them. He went out of his way to ensure we had enough time to observe what we wanted, but also knew to keep things on schedule without feeling at all pushy. He also seemed to know all the good spots to observe wildlife and had a skilled eye for spotting animals even at a considerable distance! Although we didn’t see any rhinos on our trip, we did see a leopard which is quite rare! He is a lively, energetic, and cheeky guy; his energy always lit up the room (or safari car in this case) and it made our trip so much more enjoyable. He is also a very skilled driver and navigated the sometimes rough roads without issue.
Moshi, our chef, is an exceptionally talented and dedicated chef with a warm heart. From start to finish, the food he prepared was hearty, plentiful, and just hands down delicious with a lot of variety. He also accommodated for our group’s dietary restrictions and food preferences with the limited resources he had. For days where lunch was eaten during the drive, he would wake up at 3/4 am to prepare our lunch in advance (which would still be hot by the time we had lunch at 12-2 pm) and then start on our breakfast - all before any of us had even woken up. I did have a little bit of heat exhaustion (make sure you are drinking plenty of water - the safari car is definitely well stocked), and during that time, he checked up on me multiple times, brewed some ginger-honey-lemon tea, gave me some of his personal balm to treat a headache, and shared some very thoughtful words with me. His kindness and compassion really lifted my spirits, and I will never forget these interactions with him.
Geoffrey, Jacob, and Moshi, asante sana for the wonderful time and memories! It was a pleasure to have you as our guides and chef.
Fantastic experience. We absolutely loved everything. Accomodations were fantastic we could see and hear the animals very close. The food in the hotels and lunch was very nice. The decision to take a private toor was the best thing we did. Our guide Iddy was very good, he was always in contact with other guides and the radio and we managed to see the big 5, great conversations and I must say that even the tour was in English his Spanish was very good as well, I am sure he will be ready very soon to do tours in spanish.
As a negative point we would like to say that the hotel in Arusha is not the best, we were actually scared how the rest of the accomodations in the safari would be but the rest of the accomodations were fantastic.