Serengeti

The Serengeti’s Great Migration is Africa’s most famous wildlife event and is often referred to as the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth. Consisting of up to 2 million wildebeest, 3-500,000 zebra and 200,000 antelope, the Great Migration moves in a circular manner between Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and Kenya’s Masai Mara. Where as Kenya can only lay claim to hosting the Migration for a couple of months a year, it is in fact possible to view huge herds within the Serengeti at any time. For more information on the Great Migration we have dedicated a page to the movement of the herds. Follow this link to read more - Serengeti Migration

The Serengeti National Park is broadly divided into five distinct areas:

Southern Serengeti: The short grass plains and Ndutu (December through to March)

The Southern Serengeti is made up of miles upon miles of short grass plains.  It is the most fertile area and subsequently the location of choice for the Great Migration to calve at the beginning of each year. The middle two weeks in February is calving season, when approximately 8,000 young wildebeest are born every day.  It is a phenomenal time of year to be in this area but the plains are very seasonal, hold little resident game, and are therefore unproductive at other times.  The only permanent lodges here are Ndutu Lodge itself and A&K’s Kusini Camp but the Serengeti’s mobile camps operate in the area throughout the Migration season.

Central Serengeti: The Seronera River Valley – (great at any time of the year)
 
The Seronera valley is the heart of the Serengeti, a vibrant wildlife area with the best resident game of any area of the park.  The region is mainly wide open grassy plains and rock kopjes, patched together within a network of rivers that ensure year-round water supplies and keep this region incredibly rich in wildlife.  Over the years, however, Seronera has become exceptionally busy with large hotels springing up and a number of public campsites.  We tend not to send people to the heart of the area due to the high traffic, but we do keep clients in the smaller camps on the edges of the valley.  The large commercial hotels of Serena, Sopa, Kempinski and Wildlife are not places we suggest clients stay.  Asilia’s Dunia Camp is the best camp in this region whereas the Serena hotels' Mbuzi Mawa is a next best option.  The Serengeti mobile camps operate in the area throughout the Migration season.  Game viewing is superb at any time of the year but the Migration will move through after calving from March to June, and again in November/early December when they come back down.
 

The Western Corridor follows the path of the Grumeti River up towards Lake Victoria.  This area is the second best region of the Serengeti for resident game (after Seronera) and provides superb wildlife viewing action when the Migration passes through from late May to the middle of July.  River crossings at Grumeti are uneventful due to how shallow the water is; but camps such as Grumeti River Camp, Mbalageti and Kirawira are great at this time of year.  Only a couple of the Serengeti’s mobile camps, specifically &Beyond’s Serengeti Under Canvas and Nomads' Serengeti Safari Camp operate in the area throughout the Migration season.  To the North of the Western Corridor lies Singita’s Grumeti Reserves, home to Sasakwa, Faru Faru and Sabora.  This private reserve takes accommodation in the Serengeti to a completely new level.  The owner books out the whole reserve for the entire month of July.
 
The Northern Serengeti: Lobo and Wogakuria/Kogatende  - the Lamai Wedge. (late July through to early November)
 
The northern reaches of the Serengeti remain fantastically quiet and unvisited, due to their relative inaccessibility.  Previously inaccessible swathes of National Park at Wogakuria, close to the Masai Mara border, have been opened up to flying safari options.  This region is a keen favourite of ours and it's here that you'll see the amazing Mara river crossings as the herds run the crocodile gauntlet.  The only permanent lodges in the area are Asilia’s Sayari Camp and Nomad Tanzania’s Lamai Camp - but all of the mobiles operate in this area from mid July to the beginning of November.  Further South, in Lobo is Elewana’s beautiful Migration Camp, but this only gets the Migration for a brief two week period in late July.
 
The Eastern Serengeti: The Loliondo Game Reserve (care needs to be taken when booking here)
 
Loliondo is a reserve that runs down the Eastern side of the Serengeti.  Due to its location outside the park, camps are able to night drive and are also permitted to do walking safari.  The issue with Loliondo however is that the resident game is poor and it is VERY difficult to predict when the migration herds will pass through.  As a result we never use Loliondo as a stand alone Serengeti destination; Loliondo is an add-on that we might use solely due to the fact it can provide night drives and walks.  &Beyond's Kleins Camp is in a private reserve in the far North of the Loliondo, and due to the fact that the Grumeti runs straight through the heart of the reserve, it is the only area in Loliondo that can stand in its own right as a game viewing destination.  The other camp to mention is Nomad Tanzania's Nduara....but in all honesty, we very rarely use this camp.  In fact, we rarely send clients to Loliondo, Kleins is the only exception.


For more information on the famous Serengeti mobile tented camps, visit this link.