MIKUMI DAY TRIP: 4X4 SAFARI FROM DAR ES SALAAM

In the morning Get an early start with a 5:30 am pickup at your Dar Es Salaam or Morogoro hotel, and take in views of the rolling Tanzania landscape on the 3-hour, 45-minute drive to Mikumi National Park. Pause for coffee in Chalinze, then continue to the park for your first game drive of the day. Watch for giraffes, elephants, zebras, and buffalo against the backdrop of the mountains that surround the park—the 1247 square mile (3230 sq. km) park is contained by the Uluguru mountains, the Rubeho mountains, and the Lumango mountains. In the afternoon Break for lunch at 1 pm, then spend the afternoon on a second game drive: explore the varied terrain of the park, which includes a floodplain, the ‘little Serengeti,’ and hippo pools where the enormous creatures wallow in thick mud. Mikumi National Park is on the northern border of Africa’s largest game reserve, the Selous, part of a sprawling wilderness area that reaches almost to the Indian Ocean. Visitors to Mikumi National Park occasionally spot rare tree-climbing lions, and other resident animals include eland, impala, kudu, black antelope, baboons, and wildebeests. In Mikumi, expect to see animals such as Lions, Buffalos, giraffes, Wildebeest, Zebras, Impalas, Warthogs, elephants, hippos, more than 300 bird species, and different plant species. Departure Conclude your game drive at 4 pm, and return to the park entrance for the return trip to Dar Es Salaam or Morogoro. Finish the day with drop-off at your hotel.