Have a wonderful early breakfast at your hotel in Arusha and let the adventure begin on the road to Lake Manyara National Park (famous for its alkaline lake, birding and tree-climbing lions).  If this is your first trip to Africa, you’ll learn that the journey is half the fun!  Watch for donkeys, cattle and all sorts of new flora and fauna on your way to the Park,  then enjoy your first afternoon game drive inside Lake Manyara National Park.  You are likely to see hippos, warthogs, Cape Buffalo, zebra, and giraffes.  Possibly even the famous and unique tree-climbing lions, so keep your eyes open!  Likely, too, to see all sorts of birds; egrets, spoonbills, storks, bee-eaters, lilac-breasted rollers, kingfishers, herons of various types, and many, many more.  As the evening approaches, you will be ready to stop and relax for the night with a delicious dinner at your evening’s accommodation.

This day will be spectacular.  After breakfast, descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a full day of game drives.  You will see the large numbers of animals living in this (relatively) small space, a World Heritage Site.  The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest inactive, intact volcanic caldera formed when the Ngorongoro volcano exploded some 2 million years ago.  Some 25,000 animals live in the Crater, including Cape buffalo, hippopotamus, wildebeest, zebra, eland and many other species.  You may even have a chance to see the endangered black rhinoceros.  Your guide will point out birds as you explore, but you won’t need his or her help to find the masses of pink flamingos that congregate on lakes inside the crater!  The pink spectacle explodes all around you.  Stop for a delicious picnic lunch under the yellow fever trees, and then continue your game drives all afternoon.  Imagine the Maasai walking their cattle down into the crater for grazing for the day, and then back out again before nightfall!

Today you will see the massed herds of wildebeest that make up the Great Migration.  Too many hundreds and even thousands to count.  You may feel like you’re in a National Geographic or BBC nature documentary, but you will discover how different these scenes are when experienced with all your senses, ‘in real life!  The smell of the wildebeest may not be the most pleasant, but you certainly know where you are!  Hear them bellowing and calling to each other.  Watch the grass fly under their hooves.  If your timing is spot on (and there’s no way to control this as the precise timing of the calving depends entirely on the rains each year!) you may see wildebeest calving in their thousands.  Watch how the herds circle around and protect the mother and baby.  See how quickly the baby is up and moving!  Try to imagine how the babies can distinguish their mother’s calls from all the other mothers calling around.  You’re also likely to see large numbers of predators who come to feast on the newborn wildebeest.  You may not know whether to cry or to cheer them on, but the excitement is undeniable.  Spend your entire day moving from one sight to the next – and make sure you keep your camera batteries charged with the charger in your safari vehicle!

Today head up into the Central Serengeti, a hot spot for animals and birds.  Depending on when you come exactly, you may even find parts of the Great Migration herds moving through the Central Serengeti area.  Enjoy a drive around the Kopjes and see what you can spot on the rocks.  Lion and cheetah often hang out here.  Watch for Grey-breasted Spurfowl, Fischer’s lovebirds, D’Arnaud’s barbets, Verreaux’s Eagle-owl, Sandgrouse, Rufous-tailed Weavers, Grey-Crested helmeted shrike, and many, many more birds as you pass through the various types of terrain on the way to and in the Central Serengeti.  If there’s a particular bird on your wishlist, let your guide know as he or she may know particular areas that are good for spotting that particular bird.

Savour your last morning game drive in the Serengeti as you head down towards the Naabi hill Gate.  As you leave the Serengeti, you may want to walk the trial at the gate and enjoy your last views – and see what birds you can spot here!  Then head down towards Lake Eyasi, which during the rainy season fills with shallow water and birds that come from far and near to breed in these waters.  See if you can spot a honeyguide; the birds that are said to help the Hadza tribes locate bee’s nests in trees.  Go out on a ‘hunting’ adventure on foot with the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers, one of East Africa’s oldest tribes who still live by hunting and gathering.  You will get to see their skill with bow and arrow, and how they follow tracks, and possibly even how they track mice by listening for movement under the sand.

Enjoy a full day of game drives in Tarangire.  See how many different varieties of birds you can spot, as your guide is quick to point them out.  Watch for leopards if you’re lucky.  With a full day available to you, you may well choose to drive down to the Silale Swamp where you can watch elephants and hippos eating their fill in the reeds, and see more birdlife than you have probably ever imagined.  Egrets, Egyptian Geese, storks, eagles, ducks, lilac-breasted rollers, and many more birds hang out near the swamp and enjoy the lush greenery and plentiful water.  Stop for your packed lunch whenever the mood suits, and let your guide show you the many natural wonders to be found in Tarangire.  Maybe spot banded mongoose stretched out over termite mounds enjoying their afternoon naps, or see a lost baboon calling for his tribe.  Discover what will become your most memorable sighting in Tarangire.