Things to do in Northern Circuit Tanzania

For the first tourist to East Africa, Tanzania offers an authentic experience of the classic African environment shown in several films, album covers, and inexpensive cologne advertising. The nation possesses one of the most progressive conservation strategies in Africa, with an amazing 38% of its territory designated as protected wilderness areas.
For the traveler, the nation is partitioned into two distinct regions, or ‘circuits’. The Northern Tanzania Safari Circuit is the more renowned and often visited of the two, encompassing the region surrounding the town of Arusha. The primary attraction of the Northern Circuit is the expansive Serengeti environment, which includes the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands, recognized as one of the largest remaining animal migration corridors globally. The northern safari circuit also includes the lesser-known Tarangire, Arusha, and Lake Manyara National Parks.

Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park, known as Siringitu in Maasai, translates to ‘the area where the land moves on forever.’ The site of humanity’s initial footprints and the phenomenon of the Great Migration. The ancient biosphere on Earth. Undulating golden meadows, flat-topped acacia trees, and distant azure hills. Giraffes, lions, and cheetahs. How can one articulate the essence of the Serengeti without resorting to the clichés prevalent in travel literature? In the words of author Alan Moorehead, in the preface to his classic work ‘Serengeti Shall Not Die’: “Anyone who can visit the Serengeti and does not is irrational.”

However, extend your stay, return once more, and you will discover the Serengeti that the tourist brochures have overlooked. The arid, charred hills of the Lobo region are decorated with granite formations and scorched by numerous grass fires. The turbid, sulfurous waters of a dam were agitated into refuse by the furious hooves of a million migrating wildebeest. A vulture sat on a lifeless tree, contrasting with a light blue sky, observing the expansive, unadorned short-grass plains of the prolonged dry season. These are the more challenging, less readily appreciated facets of Africa’s most renowned national park; nonetheless, for those with sufficient time to fully explore the Serengeti, such vistas remain undeniably spectacular.

It is unmistakable that, regardless of the duration of stay in the Serengeti—be it days, weeks, or months—contemporary Tanzania offers travelers an abundance of state-of-the-art, luxurious, and creatively designed safari lodges and camps, each serving as distinct yet consistently gratifying bases for exploring the world’s most renowned wildlife region.

Highlights of Serengeti Wildlife The Great Migration

During the Great Zebra and Wildebeest Migration in Tanzania, over 1.5 million wildebeest, along with thousands of zebras and gazelles, traverse the plains, while Grant’s and Thompson’s gazelles populate the terrain and topis perch atop termite mounds, vigilant for threats. Predators are abundant in the Serengeti, with lions, hyenas, leopards, and cheetahs frequently observed.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Crater is more accurately characterized as a caldera, specifically the largest intact collapsed volcanic caldera globally. Calderas form when the inside of an active volcano collapses during a phase of dormancy, resulting in a substantial cavity within the mountain. As the cavity expands, the mountain ultimately becomes unstable, resulting in the fall of the volcano’s upper cone. The summit of the Ngorongoro volcano is believed to have surpassed Kilimanjaro in elevation prior to its collapse approximately 2.5 million years ago.

The Ngorongoro Crater, encompassing 100 square miles and featuring an average wall height of 600 meters, presents a microcosm of African habitats, including grasslands, swamps, lakes, rivers, and forests, all distributed across a very compact area. The diversity of animal and bird species mirrors that of the landscape—bachelor herds of large elephants traverse the crater floor, foraging amidst the knee-deep yellow beitens flowers that blanket the region each spring; they ascend only upon receiving a signal, imperceptible to human ears, indicating that one of the females residing on the crater’s rim is in estrus.

Lions, habituated to game-viewing vehicles that hardly elicit a response, recline in the swampy grass of the Mandusi Swamp. In the Lerai jungle, hordes of baboons vociferously scold the indolent figure of a leopard reclined on a yellow-bark acacia branch. Flocks of vibrantly colored flamingos, with heads tucked between their feet, wade in the saline waters of Lake Magadi. The crater’s bottom is characterized as ‘a living Ark,’ where numerous species survive harmoniously within a landscape of exceptional natural beauty.

Ngorongoro, which includes the crater and the adjacent three thousand square miles of dense rainforest, volcanic highlands, and rolling plains, is not a national park; it is a conservation area that serves as both a nature reserve and an ecosystem, with its protection and management encompassing the welfare of the indigenous people who regard it as their traditional homeland. The Maasai collaborate in the stewardship of the region, herding their livestock to the crater floor for water and salt during the day, and returning to their traditional homesteads in the vicinity at night.

Highlights of Ngorongoro Wildlife:

The Ngorongoro Crater is the premier location to observe the ‘Big 5’ in Tanzania. The majority of Tanzania’s wildlife species are located in this picturesque caldera. Lions and hyenas are abundant, and the lake is tinted pink by the numerous flamingos foraging in the shallows.

Lake Manyara National Park

Less prominent and more subdued than its renowned neighbors, Lake Manyara National Park is a slender expanse situated between the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley’s eastern wall and the soda-laden waters of Lake Manyara. The park is predominantly comprised of dense woods, irrigated by springs originating from the Ngorongoro Highlands, some of which emerge at temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius. Due to its limited expanse, Manyara possesses an ethereal quality, with the dark green, towering escarpment creating the illusion of a concealed kingdom, isolated from the external realm.

Large flocks of flamingos periodically manifest on the alkaline waters of the lake, vanishing overnight in pursuit of fresh feeding areas. Despite the absence of flamingos, Lake Manyara remains a haven for birdwatchers, and even individuals with minimal interest in ornithology cannot help but be entranced by the spectacle of a hundred white pelicans fishing in unison on the serene blue expanse of the lake, resembling a fleet of maritime vessels. At twilight, the rosy hue of the sky is mirrored in the water, while pelicans return home, gliding over the lake in a long formation.

Simultaneously, along the lakeshore, a pride of lions ascends acacia trees, the majestic felines draping languidly like ripe golden fruit, while a portion of the park’s substantial elephant population indulges in dust baths within a parched riverbed. Buffalo immerse themselves in the water to cool themselves, remaining still like statues and submerged up to their necks. A solitary, tawny wildebeest stands at the lake’s edge, staring longingly towards the distant hills, as if contemplating migration.

Highlights of Lake Manyara Wildlife:

Lake Manyara, recognized as one of Africa’s finest parks, is celebrated for its bird diversity, featuring pelicans and millions of flamingos foraging in the shallow waters. In addition to its remarkable avian population, Manyara is renowned for its herds of elephants and buffalo, as well as its tree-climbing lions.

Tarangire National Park

Throughout Tarangire’s dry season, consecutive days of clear skies appear to extract all moisture from the terrain, transforming the swaying grasses into a platinum blonde hue, as fragile as straw. Enormous baobab trees dominate the landscape, seeming swollen and squat, with stout, root-like branches extending skyward and trunks worn by centuries of damage from elephants that remove their bark during periods of scarcity. The expansive plains, both within and beyond the park, are arid and desiccated, with the sole water source being the Tarangire River, which is shallow and brackish, nevertheless serves as the vital sustenance for the park’s substantial herbivore population and their associated predators.

Herds of three hundred elephants excavate the moist soil of the riverbank in pursuit of subterranean springs, while wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, and gazelle congregate alongside less common species such as eland and oryx around each diminishing lagoon. Python ascends into the shade of the trees bordering Tarangire’s expansive southern wetlands, suspended there like colossal, malevolent fruit, with coils meticulously placed over the branches in a flawless sphere. Leopards and lions also climb trees, their limbs relaxed and tails twitching in the midday heat, anticipating the arrival of night and their impending feast of impala, buffalo, or hartebeest. Tarangire hosts substantial troops of baboons, audaciously strutting down the center of the road or vocalizing in alarm from the treetops upon the arrival of a predator, with diminutive infants grasping their mothers’ abdomens, wide-eyed and inquisitive.

During the wet season, mammal populations disperse
throughout the adjacent plains of the Maasai steppe, the park’s splendor manifests in vibrant green pastures, lush marshes, and expanses of shimmering wildflowers mirroring the azure sky. Tarangire’s diverse avian population, which boasts the highest number of breeding species in a single environment globally, encompasses plovers, larks, bustards, and grouse, observed wading in swamps, sitting on shrubs, or traversing arid terrain, with vigilant eyes attuned to potential threats.

Tarangire’s large herds of elephant rival the park’s baobab trees as its most celebrated feature – ancient matriarchs, fierce young bulls and small, stumbling calves are ever there to astound tourists with their grace, intellect and might. During the dry season, elephant populations are notably concentrated in the park’s accessible northern areas, when herds of cows with calves and large lone males traverse the roadways in search of grass, shade, or water.

The expansive wilderness area of Tarangire, sometimes unknown to casual visitors, is an ideal destination for walking safaris, which is the sole permitted form of tourism in this valuable southern region. Visitors may traverse the rivers, swamps, and plains of this expansive region of untamed Africa on foot, camping overnight in fly-tents either beneath shaded trees or along to waterholes, while acquiring skills such as tracking and stalking that have mostly been forgotten by humanity.

Highlights of Tarangire Wildlife:

The park is characterized by elephant herds and towering baobabs that engage the senses. The dry season witnesses an aggregation of animals at the river, attracted by its vital waters. Predators are plentiful, and Tarangire is highly esteemed for its avifauna, hosting about 500 species, many of which reproduce within the park.

Arusha National Park

Frequently disregarded, Arusha National Park presents a diverse array of habitats, frequented by the numerous animals and birds that inhabit the area. The park’s topography is diverse and intriguing, ranging from the verdant swamps of the Ngurdoto Crater to the serene allure of the Momela Lakes and the rugged alpine elevations of Mount Meru. Zebras graze on the park’s crimson grasslands, while leopards conceal themselves under waterfalls in the dimly lit forest. Arusha National Park is home to over 400 bird species, both migratory and resident, as well as uncommon primates like the black-and-white colobus monkey.

The gratifying ascent of Mount Meru traverses woodlands adorned with hanging Spanish moss, blanketed in clover before ascending to open heath punctuated by colossal lobelia plants. Fragile klipspringer antelopes observe hikers from the summits of massive boulders, while perennial flowers adhere to the alpine desert below. Upon reaching the rugged pinnacle, one is rewarded with a stunning view of Mount Kilimanjaro at daybreak.

The optimal time to visit Arusha National Park is during the dry season from July to November, or following the brief rains from December to March. The optimal months for ascending Mount Meru are from June to February, whereas the most favorable views of Mount Kilimanjaro are between December and February. The park is situated 25 km east of Arusha, making it an excellent destination for a fulfilling day trip from either Arusha or Moshi.

Highlights of Arusha Wildlife:

Despite being eclipsed by the renowned parks to the north, Arusha National Park is a noteworthy site in its own right. Impressive vistas and exceptional birdwatching contribute to an ideal location for hiking and outdoor tours. Wildlife comprises leopards, hyenas, hippopotamuses, zebras, and giraffes.