8 Days Safari Southern Tanzania

Day 01: Safari Selous Game Reserve

After breakfast pick up from the hotel for your drive to Selous Game Reserve (Diving some 5-7 hours). (Flight is also possible from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar). After midday, you reach yur luxury tented camp, located right at the banks of the Rufiji River. After lunch and settling in your activities start with a boat ride at the legendary Rufiji River at Selous for a sunset boat safari. You expect to enjoy great scenery as well as see animals like hippos and crocodiles as well as aquatic and non-aquatic birds as they fly by. Overnight at Selous Mapumziko Lodge a nice mid-range lodge by the banks of Rufiji River. All meals included.

This full day of game drives at Selous Game Reserve which was named after the British former military and explorer; Frederick Selous. The Selous Game Reserve in the Southern Tanzania safari circuit is the largest protected wildlife reserve. The game reserve is also a UNESCO World Heritage site and a pristine uninhabited area spreading vast plains and woodlands measuring larger than the entire country of Switzerland. The beautiful topography of the park varies from rolling savannah woodland, grassland plain, and rocky outcrops which were cut by the legendary Rufiji River and its various tributaries. Selous has the world’s largest number of big game – elephant, buffalo, and rarely black rhinos. The Selous is also home to wildebeest, eland, giraffe, waterbuck, zebra, impala, hippo, leopard, and lion, but more notably the wild dogs which can be seen easily in this Game reserve than anywhere else in a natural habitat in Tanzania. There are about 350 species of birdlife. Overnight at Selous Mapumziko Lodge. All meals included.

After breakfast at the lodge, you will go for a walking safari which may entail a village walk with a local guide and your driver then thereafter traversing across the Selous Game Reserve with a game drive on your way to Mikumi Township. Arriving in the late afternoon at your camp just outside the Mikumi National park you will check-in for relaxation, dinner, and overnight.
Overnight at Camp Bastian. All meals included.

After breakfast, depart for Ruaha National Park via Iringa. We arrive in time for picnic lunch and an afternoon game drive follows until later at 6.00 Pm when you will be driven to your lodge just near the park for dinner and overnight. Just like the Selous, you expect to see a lot of big game in the Ruaha National Park but contrary to the northern parks, animals in the Ruaha are still ‘truly wild’ and therefore quite timid. It takes patience and great anticipation and when you spot the animals it is only you and the animals in what is the ‘real African safari’ setting. Overnight at Ruaha Hilltop Lodge or Tungamalenga Lodge. All meals included.

After breakfast, you enter the park again for a full day of game drives at Ruaha National Park with a picnic lunch.
Ruaha, with an area of 20,226 sq. km is currently the largest park in Tanzania after the addition of the Usangu Game Reserve and other important wetlands that surrounded the park prior to their gazettement into a part of the Great Ruaha. Ruaha is also prominently the second largest elephant sanctuary in Tanzania. The great Ruaha River that flows along its entire eastern border, creating spectacular gorges and scenery, features a large number of hippos and crocodiles. The wide variety of animals includes Greater and Lesser Kudu, roan and sable antelope, and many other rare animals that can only be found in this ‘real wilderness’. Birdlife is rich in Ruaha as well, with over 370 species recorded.
Overnight at Ruaha Hilltop Lodge or Tungamalenga Lodge. All meals included.

Pick up by your safari driver from Ruaha you will start on your drive to Mikumi National Park via Iringa town again. The park is nestled beautifully nestled between the Uluguru Mountains of the Ancient Eastern Arc Mountains to the East and the Great Rift Valley Escarpments to the parks Southwest. Not very far from Ruaha and on a good tarmac road, the transfer from Ruaha to Mikumi takes about 4 – 4.5 hours. You will arrive around noon and go straight for game drives around the park with packed lunch at a picnic site. Later in the afternoon, we drive to Camp / the lodge for dinner and overnight. Overnight at Camp Bastian. All meals included.

Spend a full day with game drives around the Mikumi National Park with a packed lunch or do morning and afternoon game drives with a lunch break at the lodge/tented camp. Mikumi National Park is part of the larger Selous Ecosystem together with the Selous Game Reserve and harbors remarkable numbers of bird species and animals. Among the animals that can be spotted at Mikumi includes giraffes, elephants, buffaloes, hippos, impalas, warthogs, zebras, wildebeests, elands, and many other antelopes. Apart from game drives in the park, you can also go for a guided walking safari guided by an armed ranger (at extra cost). Overnight at Camp Bastian. All meals included.

After breakfast, we can go on a game drive again if you wish until time to Check out of the park around noon and after lunch drives back to Dar es Salaam where the safari ends. You will be dropped at The Ferry or at The Airport Depending on your plans.