We will pick you up from the agreed point and set off early for Ruaha with lunch in Iringa Town, then continue to the National Park, where we arrive in the afternoon. You can go on a short game drive in the park or relax at camp in the evening.

• Meal plan:
  • lunch
  • dinner
• Accommodation:
  • budget: Ruaha Bandas
    
  • midrange: Ruaha River Lodge 
  • luxury: Ikuka Safari Camp

After breakfast, we take a full-day game drive to Ruaha National Park. Several breeds of gazelle and antelope, including roan and sable, as well as buffalo and various bucks, go down to the banks of the river to drink. This attracts lions, leopards, hyenas and other carnivores. For the avid birder, there are also many avian species to observe.

After breakfast you will be accompanied by an experienced, armed  Rnager guide on a walking safari. On this walk, you experience a true feeling of the African bush, just like the famous explorers before you, back to camp for lunch. The afternoon is spent game viewing in the park, and it is also a spectacular event.

Early morning after breakfast, a game drive en route to Udzungwa Mountain’s National Park. Lunch on the way and dinner and overnight at the camp.

After breakfast in your accommodation, you set off for an enriching walk in this beautiful park to enjoy its natural beauty. A picnic lunch on the trail and observe various primates in stunning landscapes on the way down. Later, we head off to Mikumi National Park.

The morning after breakfast, with packed lunch and full-day games, drive in the park. Mikumi’s vegetation includes woodland, swamps, and grassland, with two water holes, Mkata and Chamgore. Apart from the saddle-bill stork, hammer kop and malachite kingfisher, you will also find a monitor lizard and perhaps a python inhabiting the pools. After lunch, proceed with afternoon game drives in the park home to Elephant, Lion, Wild Dog, Zebras, Hyena, Buffalo, Wildebeest, Eland Hartebeest, Crocodile, Lizard and other residents.

• Meal plan: 
  • breakfast
  • lunch
  • dinner
     
• Accommodation:
  • budget: Tanapa Bandas
    
  • midrange:  Camp Bastian
    
  • luxury: Vuma Hill Tented Camp

An early morning start, and we head to Nyerere National Park via Morogoro over the Uluguru Mountains. We will cross the river and pass local villages and farms. The journey, which is full of interest, will take up to seven hours due to road conditions, but we will take breaks whenever needed. In Nyerere, it will be a game drive en route to the camp.

Straight after breakfast, we venture on a full-day game drive. Selous is home to many elephants, many buffalo and wild dogs. Other species commonly seen are lion, bushbuck, impala, giraffe, eland, baboon, zebra, kudus crocodile and hippo.

Accompanied by an armed ranger to get close to the animals, your walking safari will be an unforgettable experience. Please note that armed rangers love wildlife and are very knowledgeable about it. In the event of dangerous animals coming close, which rarely happens, a shot in the air is enough to see them off. You will have a picnic lunch in the bush and then transfer to Rufiji River for an afternoon boat excursion on the Rufiji River.

You will see large family groups of hippos and many crocodiles. Perhaps some elephants or carnivores are coming down to drink, and there are many interesting birds. At sundown, a short drive takes you back to your camp.

After an early sunrise game drive, we return to the camp for breakfast. Then, we leave with a packed lunch to drive to Kilwa Masoko via Kivinje. Kilwa declined when the Portuguese arrived. At first, the Portuguese, under the leadership of Vasco da Gama, threatened to attack the town unless a tribute was paid.

They eventually decided they wanted Kilwa’s prosperity and took the island by force in 1505. The Portuguese constructed a large coastal fortress called Gereza. The island was under Portuguese control until an Arab mercenary and his men liberated the island in 1512.

After breakfast, you will embark on a local dhow to Kilwa Island. Kilwa Kisiwani was to become the principal trading port of the Indian Ocean. Its wealth came from exchanging gold and iron from Great Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa. Ivory, slaves from mainland Tanzania, textiles, jewellery, porcelain and spices from Asia were all traded here. By the 13th Century, Kilwa had become the most powerful city along the coast, exercising political and trading domination as far as Pemba Island in the north and Sofala, the present-day Beira in Mozambique, in the south.

An Arab chronicle lists over forty sovereigns who reigned at Kilwa in five hundred years. Pedro Alvares Cabral, the Portuguese navigator, was the first European to visit. On its way to India, his fleet anchored in Kilwa in 1500. Kilwa was then a prominent and wealthy city, possessing, it is stated, three hundred mosques.

After breakfast, we drive you to Mikindani Village. There is some debate over the origins of the name Mikindani. Some say that the town was named after a man from the Makonde tribe who killed the sister of the first immigrants from the Makonde Plateau. An alternative and more plausible story is that Mikindani was named after the young palm trees (*mikinda*) that grow around the town.

Today, we will explore the village of Mikindani on foot. Mikindani is a fascinating old town with winding streets and an interesting blend of thatched mud and coral houses influenced by Arabic architecture. The first settlers to the area were members of the Makonde tribe, who settled northwest of the lagoon.

In the 9th century, they were joined by Arab immigrant settlers from the Arabian Peninsula. A further influx of Arabs settled in Mikindani in the late 17th century during the reign of Seyyid Said, Sultan of Oman.  In the afternoon, we will take you on a 35 km drive to Msimbati for dinner and an overnight stay directly on the Indian Ocean.

During these days, you can explore the unspoiled, untouched natural white sand and azure water of southern Tanzania*s coastline.  Msimbati is an exceptional site for nature lovers. It lies in the middle of a marine park. Msimbati has beautiful beaches on a peninsula close to the border of Mozambique.

The ocean floor is ideal for wet-suit diving as much for the beauty of its underwater scenery as for the fauna (the Napoleon or humphead wrasse, turtles, tuna, sea rays, barracuda) and its flora  (giant gorgons, coral, etc). Msimbati is a wonderful place to combine chilling out with exploring nature.

This day depends on the flight time; we will transfer to Mtwara Airport to catch the flight back to Dar.