tanzania: the northern circuit and the coast

Because Randilen is not park land.

It is a wildlife management area on the northeastern edge of the greater Tarangire country, stewarded by the Maasai community that owns it, with the lodges on it run jointly by that community and the tourism companies.

The camp therefore builds its own days rather than working to a park timetable, so the two nights at Olkeri Camp buy a different shape:

• Ordinary game drives in the park itself
• A guided walk in the cool of the morning
• Fly camping under the stars, if you ask us to add it
• A spotlit drive after dinner for genet, civet and the smaller cats daylight rarely shows

The camp keeps eight tented suites with wooden floors, hot showers, flush loos and wide verandahs, its mess and bar set over a waterhole that pulls elephant and buffalo into view of the fire.

Not likely, and it is fairer to treat one as a bonus than as a plan.

The Moru animals are the park's main population and it is a small one: a 2023 genetics study of the rhino there counted around forty, all descended from three founders.

The history explains the size. The Serengeti held about 700 black rhino in the mid 1970s, poaching all but finished them, and a survey in 1993 found evidence of only three left at Moru.

They are guarded and monitored closely now, they use thick cover among the granite, and most people who see one see it at distance through binoculars. Three nights at Dunia Camp puts you in the right country and your guide will know where they have been lately, which is as far as honesty stretches.

One night is the usual allowance and it works here because of where you sleep.

Laba Ngorongoro Lodge stands at around 2,200 metres on the wooded southern rim, minutes from the gate and the descent roads, so you are on the floor while vehicles from lodges further out are still driving in.

That matters, because the caldera is 610 metres deep with a floor of about 260 square kilometres and no room to spread out, and it is crowded in every month of the year.

Down there you have lion, elephant and buffalo in plain sight, flamingo on the soda lake and a chance of black rhino at distance. Driving inside the conservation area runs from six in the morning until six at night, and the descent gate shuts at four.

June to October suits both halves, and July to October is the strongest part of it.

Tarangire's elephant herds come in to the river, the grass on the crater floor is short, the resident lion, leopard and cheetah of the central Serengeti are easy to find, and Zanzibar is in its cool, clear spell. They are also the fullest and most expensive weeks.

If you want the migration itself to pass the Serengeti camp, the herds move north through that country around March to June and come back in November and December, while February scores well with us too, for the calving further south and a settled coast.

November to January are the calm ones, green and good for birds.

March to May are the wet ones, at their worst in April and May, when tracks turn heavy and dive centres on the coast shut.

The tide writes the timetable here more than on most coasts.

This side of Zanzibar has two high waters and two low waters a day, and the difference between them runs from roughly one metre on the smallest tides to about three and a quarter on the biggest, so at low water the shallows drain a long way out and the sea is a walk away.

High water is for swimming, sailing, snorkelling and diving. Low water uncovers a wide apron of reef and sand flat, which is worth walking out over rather than sitting out.

Because the tide falls about fifty minutes later each day, the good hours shift through your stay, and every villa at Xanadu has a plunge pool for the rest of the time.

By road between the parks and by air to the coast, as the route is written.

Once you leave Arusha the roads are gravel, and the longest leg is the day from the crater rim into the Serengeti, which doubles as a game drive rather than a straight transfer.

The coast is reached by air: roughly two hours in the aircraft, though the timetable often adds a landing or two, and the airport is then about ninety minutes by road from Dongwe. Each passenger is allowed 15 kilograms on those flights, hand baggage included, and the airlines ask for soft bags.

If the driving days do not appeal, we can fly you between the parks instead, usually aboard a Cessna Grand Caravan, and any leg can be taken as a private charter.