Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti, Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park, is a world heritage site and recently proclaimed a 7th world wide wonder. The park is renowned for its annual migration of six million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle, who trek for fresh grazing. The migration is a frenzied three-week bout of territorial conquests and mating, followed by a 1,000 km (600 mile) pilgrimage. The park offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa, with great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala, and Grant’s gazelle.
The Serengeti is dominated by the spectacle of predator versus prey, with golden-maned lion prides feasting on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density of cheetahs prowls the southeastern plains. The park is also home to all three African jackal species, alongside the spotted hyena and a host of more elusive small predators.
The park is not just about large mammals, as it is also home to gaudy agama lizards, rock hyraxes, 100 varieties of dung beetle, and over 500 bird species. The Serengeti Plains offer a liberating sense of space, stretching across sunburnt savannah to a shimmering golden horizon at the end of the earth. After the rains, the golden expanse of grass is transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. The park also features wooded hills, towering termite mounds, rivers lined with fig trees, and acacia woodland stained orange by dust.
The Serengeti is vast, and visitors may be the only human audience when a pride of lions masterminds a siege, focussed unswervingly on its next meal. The park covers 14,763 sq km (5,700 sq miles) and is located 335km (208 miles) from Arusha, stretching north to Kenya and bordering Lake Victoria to the west.
Visitors can reach the park via scheduled and charter flights from Arusha, Lake Manyara, and Mwanza, or by driving from Arusha, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, or Ngorongoro Crater. Activities in the park include hot air balloon safaris, walking safaris, picnicking, game drives, and bush lunch/dinner arranged with hotels/tour operators. Visitors can also explore neighboring attractions such as Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, OlDoinyoLengai volcano, and Lake Natron’s flamingos.
The best time to follow the wildebeest migration is from December to July, while the best time to see predators is from June to October.