11 Days 10 Nights - Best of Southern Circuit

11 Days 10 Nights - Best of Southern Circuit

This tour takes you to most of the Southern favourite attractions, it's a combination of wildlife, landscapes, scenery, hiking and walking. Boat and canoe safaris are also offered in this experience together with cultural tours to interact with the locals. There is also a visit to a historical site, Isimila Stone Age, the site that yielded very important fossils that enlighten us about the origin of mankind.

Itinerary

Day 1: Depart to Selous Game Reserve & An Evening Boat Safari

Stop At: Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania
Pick you up at the hotel in Dar es Salaam at 7:30 am, then drive to Selous Game Reserve (a 5 - 6 hours drive), arriving in the afternoon. On arrival, check-in at Selous Kinga Lodge and have hot lunch.

In the evening, your driver guide will fetch you and transfer to the “Great Rufiji River” for a boat safari. In this relaxing activity, you will experience the aquatic life mostly crocodiles and hippos, also you may be able to spot some animals come for drinking, also you will see quite number of bird species. Over 440 known species of birds have been identified; it is a very comfortable and enjoyable boat safari while experiencing an amazing reserve's sunset from a distance.

Your driver guide will come fetch you and transfer you back to the lodge, rest and later get your hot dinner and stay the overnight at Selous Kinga Lodge (lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 2 hours

Meals included:
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Selous Kinga Lodge

Day 2: Full Day Game Drive at Selous Game Reserve

Stop At: Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania
Early breakfast at 07.00 and then drive to the Selous Game Reserve for a full day game drive. All day game drive in a specially modified safari vehicle with a professional guide, in which you should see and learn much about a large number of animals, including all the great favorites.

Selous Game Reserve: It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to its wildlife diversity and undisturbed nature. Some of the typical wildlife of the miombo inhabits the reserve, such as African bush elephant, black rhino, hippopotamus, lion, East African wild dog, Cape buffaloes, Masai giraffe, Plains zebra, and Nile crocodile. Great variety of bird species, wonderful scenery, with varied topography: wetlands, dry grassland, light acacia forest and higher ground with long views to far-off mountains. It is one of the largest game reserve in Africa, covers an area of 55,000 sq. kms, with 14,000 sq.kms accessible for game drive.

Packed lunch and time to rest. Your guide will select a location with shade and water nearby to watch animals coming to drink – a place with a clear view all round so that no predator can creep up unseen!

After lunch, go on with the game drive across the enormous Selous until early evening.

.Back to the camp by 6.30 pm, rest and later get your hot dinner and stay the overnight at Selous Kinga Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 8 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Selous Kinga Lodge

Day 3: An Early Morning Walking Safari & Depart to Morogoro

Stop At: Selous Game Reserve, Morogoro Tanzania
An early morning walking safari with a Bushman across the reserve's environment to learn various histories (including traditional trees for used for medicines and healings, various animals’ footprints and other small animals which you cannot see during the game drive). You may also be able to spot some animals heading to the river for drinking and hippos returning to their dwelling after their forage.

Back to the camp for breakfast, thereafter drive for 6 - 7 hours to Town of Morogoro with packed lunch boxes while crossing in the middle of the Selous Game Reserve - this once again provides you a chance to enjoy and experience the abundant wildlife of the Selous, arriving Morogoro in the late evening.

On arrival, check in and later have a hot dinner and stay the overnight at Mbuyuni Farm Retreat (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Mbuyuni Farm Retreat provides a relaxing country experience, its bungalows are located in a quiet and peaceful setting and are surrounded by beautiful gardens plus a nice distant view of the famous Uluguru Mountains. Here you can stroll around the farms of chili, moringa and herbal tea, and watch the activities or explore the farm’s forested areas which include many bird species. Birdwatchers have identified over 230 species so far!

Duration: 6 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Mbuyuni Farm Retreat

Day 4: Depart to Town of Ifakara for Canoe Safari at Kilombero River

Stop At: Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Kidayi Tanzania
After breakfast, depart to Town of Ifakara (a 4 hours drive), arriving in the early afternoon. On arrival, collect your lunch boxes while waiting for the set up of your canoe safari.

With the start of canoeing, you can relax while you are punted upstream with a long pole. Its likely you’ll see hippos, crocodiles, Nile monitor lizards and many many birds, including the endemic Kilombero Weaver and if you’re really lucky, a shoebill. The canoe trip can be as long as you wish, from just half an hour, to a full day with a picnic on a sandbank. You’ll see many fishermen, The Wandamba tribe in their smaller dugout boats fishing. The canoe safari in Kilomero River is excellent for birding enthusiasts!

In the late evening, drive back to the lodge, get your hot dinner and spend the overnight at Udzungwa Falls Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 3 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Udzungwa Falls Lodge

Day 5: Hiking the Udzungwa Mountains & The Popular Sanje Waterfalls

Stop At: Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Kidayi Tanzania
After an early breakfast, collect your packed lunch boxes while waiting for your driver guide to pick you up and transfer you to the starting point of the hike. This is a hike through the beautiful forests and landscape scenery up to an amazing waterfall.

Udzungwa Mountains National Park: The park covers an area of 1,990 sq. kms, the habitats contained within the national park include tropical rainforest, mountain forest, miombo woodland, grassland and steppe. There are more than 400 bird species, 2500 plant species (25% of which are endemics) and 6 primate species. The Iringa red colobus and Sanje crested mangabey are only found in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, the mangabey species was undetected by biologists prior to 1979. It has the second largest biodiversity of a national park in Africa. The most common walk is the “Sanje Waterfalls” trail which takes approximately four hours to complete and allows the visitor access to the stunning 170 m waterfall and includes swimming in the waterfall plunge pools as part of the activity. It is an exclusive hiking and walking safari park. Udzungwa is the magnet for hikers which offer an excellent network of forest trails.

During hiking with a professional guide, you will learn about various trees used for traditional healings and others poisonous, and the view of the largest Tanzania sugarcane plantation (Kilombero Sugarcane Valley) from the waterfall is just incredible.

Back from the mountain in the late afternoon, then picked-up by your driver guide who will transfer you back to the lodge, rest until evening, get your hot dinner and stay the overnight at Udzungwa Falls Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 4 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Udzungwa Falls Lodge

Day 6: Depart to Ruaha National Park (with En-Route Cultural Visits)

Stop At: Ruaha National Park, Great Ruaha River, Iringa Tanzania
After breakfast, depart with packed lunch boxes to Ruaha National Park. Drive for 4 - 5 hours to Iringa and stop for lunch.

Then after lunch, pay a local cultural visit of about less than an hour to "NEEMA CRAFTS CENTRE" - The Centre was founded in 2003 by the Diocese of Ruaha, to provide training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities through handicrafts in the Iringa region of Tanzania. It also aims to change negative attitudes towards people with disabilities in the local society.

You'll then pay a little visit of about 15 minutes to IRINGA LOCAL MARKET - a market built by the Germans during their colonial rule era.

After the cultural visits, you’ll then drive for 2 - 3 hours to Ruaha National Park, arriving in the late evening.

On arrival - check in and have your hot dinner, and spend the overnight at Ruaha Hill Top Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 6 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Ruaha Hill Top Lodge

Day 7: Full Day Game Drive at Ruaha National Park

Stop At: Ruaha National Park, Great Ruaha River, Iringa Tanzania
After breakfast, collect your packed lunch boxes and depart for a full day game drive across this largest park in the country to experience its abundant wildlife until sunset.

Ruaha National Park: This is the largest national park in the country, currently bigger than The Serengeti; it has the size of 20,226 sq. kms, the name of the park is derived from the ‘Great Ruaha River’ which flows along its southeastern margin and is the focus for game-viewing. The park is one of the few Tanzania’s famous wilderness area where one can have a rare experience of game viewing spiced up by the fascinating landscape. The park is rich of plants and animals and boasts of her almost untouched and unexplored ecosystem, making visitors’ safari experience very unique. Magnificent mammals such as both greater and lesser kudu can be spotted here. The park has high diversity of plants and animals including elephants, buffalos, antelopes and some of rare and endangered species like wild dogs with a great number of birdlife, over 570 species have been identified so far.

In the evening, you’ll drive back to the lodge, rest and later have your hot dinner and spend the overnight at Ruaha Hill Top Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 8 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Ruaha Hill Top Lodge

Day 8: Full Day Game Drive at Ruaha National Park

Stop At: Ruaha National Park, Great Ruaha River, Iringa Tanzania
After breakfast, collect your packed lunch boxes and depart for another full day game drive through this enormous park to once again explore and experience its wildlife until sunset.

You’ll get back to the lodge by 6:30 pm, get some rest while having a magnificent view of the Ruaha River from the lodge, later you’ll have dinner and stay the overnight at Ruaha Hill Top Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 8 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Ruaha Hill Top Lodge

Day 9: Visit the Isimila Stone Age Historical Site & Depart to Mikumi National Park

Stop At: Isimila Stone Age Site, Iringa Tanzania
After breakfast, collect your packed lunch boxes and drive for 2 - 3 hours to Isimila Stone Age Historical Site.

ISIMILA STONE AGE HISTORICAL SITE: A Walk through The Canyons – It is well-known for its archaeological sites, some of these sites yielded very important fossils that enlighten us about the origin of mankind.

In the late 1950’s archaeologists unearthed some of the most significant stone age finds ever identified. Most of these finds were tools, estimated to be between 60 000 and 100 000 years old. They also found fossilized bones of mammals; an extinct hippopotamus and something similar to the modern day giraffe but with a shorter neck.

There is evidence which shows that the area around the Isimila site was a small lake. This would have been a perfect hunting ground for hominids who lived there between 300 000 to 600 000 years ago. The tools found there confirm this theory. Looking at the site today you might be able to imagine how the land was eroded from a lake to a large canyon. Harder rock types more resistant to erosion has remained, leaving thin rock towers as high as 30m.

Later, drive for another 4 - 5 hours to Mikumi National Park, arriving in the late evening, check-in and have your hot dinner and spend the overnight at Tanswiss Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 6 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Tanswiss Lodge

Day 10: Full Day Game Drive at Mikumi National Park

Stop At: Kinole Waterfall, Kinole Village, Morogoro Tanzania
After breakfast, collect your packed lunch boxes and depart for a full day game drive to the beautiful Mikumi National Park to explore its wildlife until evening.

Mikumi National Park: Established in 1964, it is the fourth largest park in the country covering an area of 3,230 sq. kms. The landscape of Mikumi is often compared to that of the Serengeti. The road that crosses the park divides it into two areas with partially distinct environments. During game drive at this park, you can see a rich variety of bird species, as well as large numbers of giraffe, buffalo and elephants. You may also be able to spot lions, leopards and African wild dogs. Likely to be seen animals include zebras, hippos, hartebeest, wildebeest, impala, warthog, eland and antelope.

In the late evening, you’ll drive to the lodge, rest and later have your hot dinner and stay the overnight at Tanswiss Lodge (breakfast, lunch & dinner included)

Duration: 8 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Tanswiss Lodge

Day 11: Half Day Game Drive at Mikumi National Park & Depart to Dar es Salaam

Stop At: Kinole Waterfall, Kinole Village, Morogoro Tanzania
After an early breakfast, go for a half day game drive across the enormous beautiful Mikumi National Park until noon.

The Mkata flood plain is an attractive point of the park where you can easily spot a large number of animals including elephants, buffalos, zebras, giraffes, wild dogs, and impala and spot a rich number of bird species. The vegetation of this area consists of savannah dotted with acacia, baobab, tamarinds, and some rare palm. In this area, at the furthest from the road, there are spectacular rock formations of the mountains Rubeho and Uluguru.

In the early afternoon - depart to Dar es Salaam, lunch break on the way, arriving at Dar es Salaam in the late evening; take you back to the hotel/airport catch your flight back home (breakfast & lunch included)

Duration: 4 hours

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
No accommodation included on this day.