The Sanjan valleys run through the Rift between the eastern Serengeti and Lake Natron, under cliffs and gorges that reach towards Ol Doinyo Lengai. Charlie Sanjan opens here in the green months, from November 15 to May 15, when four canvas tents take six guests on exclusive use. Sheer wall, sand river and open Rift country: all of it is walked.
Cheetah cross the open flats, and oryx move through the dry riverbeds.
Guides read tracks in the sand-river beds, work the gorge rims and drop into the shaded slots below. Routes run from gentle valley walks to long, demanding hikes. Cheetah cross the open flats, and oryx move through the dry riverbeds. Maasai herds come down the valleys to water. Game drives cover the wider ground, out to escarpment viewpoints and the far end of the plains.
Four walk-in canvas tents stand for a season and no longer, with camp furniture, lantern light and a mess shelter for six. The flysheets lift off, and the beds lie open to the Rift sky. Bathrooms are shared, screened behind the tents, with bucket showers filled on request. Lighting and charging run on solar, and everything else is carried in and carried out again.
The flysheets lift off, and the beds lie open to the Rift sky.
Rain greens the valleys from November, leaving pools in the gorge floors, and the walking season begins. By mid-May the tents come down. Guests are sixteen and over, which suits the long days on foot and the shared washing arrangements.
The Sanjan valleys lie between the short-grass plains of the eastern Serengeti and the alkaline flats of Lake Natron, a stretch of cliffs, deep gorges and riverine woodland opening into wide Rift country, with Ol Doinyo Lengai on the skyline. From November, storms green the pastures and leave pools in the gorge floors, softening ground that lies hard and pale for the rest of the year. Access is overland, three to four hours from Ndutu over rough tracks, and the camp shifts within the valleys as the season moves.
Mornings start early, with coffee at the tent and a route chosen for the light and the wind. The gorges are walked from the rim and from the floor, and the two are different days: one gives distance, with raptors riding thermals off the escarpment walls; the other gives shade, narrow water-cut passages and the sound of boots on stone. A senior walking guide leads, with an armed scout alongside. Routes are set to the group and not to a schedule, and the pace belongs to whoever is walking that morning.
The gorges are walked from the rim and from the floor, and the two are different days.
Cheetah hunt across the open flats, and oryx cross the dry riverbeds. Bat-eared foxes forage at dusk and again at dawn, while golden wolves work the valley edges. Big-game numbers are not the point here; the pleasure lies in reading ground that few people walk. Maasai families move cattle through the same country the walking routes cross, and herders’ calls carry off the rock long before the herds come into view. The sand rivers hold the night’s traffic in their beds, and much of the day on foot is spent reading it.
The expedition character has stayed. Game drives now sit alongside the walking, so a party can cover more ground in a day, out to the escarpment viewpoints and the far end of the plains. Evenings are simple: dinner cooked over fires and eaten under the sky, then the fire and the stars through the mesh roof afterwards. With four tents booked as one, the only itinerary is the one the group and the guide agree over breakfast.
accommodation
Four walk-in canvas tents take a maximum of six guests, booked on an exclusive-use basis. Inside are camp furniture and lantern light, and the flysheets lift off the mesh roofs so the beds sleep under the stars. Bathrooms are shared and screened behind the tents, with bucket showers filled on request. Minimum age sixteen.
activities
Walking leads, from gentle valley explorations to long, demanding hikes along the gorge rims and floors, led by a senior guide with an armed scout. Game drives extend the range to escarpment viewpoints and open plains. Sundowners at a vantage point, stargazing from the tents, and unhurried encounters with Maasai herding families.
conservation
A conservation fund established in 2007 channels guest contributions into wildlife, education and healthcare projects across Tanzania, including work with the Honeyguide Foundation in the Serengeti and Tarangire. The camp is dismantled at the close of each season, and the crew is almost entirely Tanzanian.
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Fly to Ndutu airstrip on the southern Serengeti plains, then three to four hours by road east over rough tracks into the Sanjan valleys, the timing the camp's own fact sheet gives. Coastal Aviation's timetable, valid to the end of May 2027, flies Arusha to Ndutu three times a day with a stop at Lake Manyara, leaving at a quarter to eight and landing at ten to nine, at a quarter to eleven landing at a quarter to twelve, and at three landing at a quarter to six, with connections from Kilimanjaro and from Dar es Salaam via Zanzibar; Regional Air flies the same route in the morning. The first flight is the one to take, because the drive needs the whole afternoon.
We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, from Arusha or Kilimanjaro into Ndutu at a time that suits the drive. The transfer is part of the safari rather than a chore: the track leaves the park boundaries behind and crosses Maasai grazing country towards the Rift, with the volcano on the skyline for the last stretch. Soft bags only on the light aircraft, fifteen kilograms a person including hand luggage.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts the whole of Tanzania below 1,800 metres at high risk of malaria and says there is no risk above that height, and the CDC draws its line at the same 1,800 metres. The Sanjan valleys run down from the Serengeti's eastern plains towards Lake Natron on the Rift floor, well under that line on both readings, and both sources list antimalarial tablets and bite avoidance among their recommendations for it. The camp's season is also the green season, when standing water and mosquitoes are at their most plentiful.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so the choice of tablets sits with you and your doctor or a travel clinic, ideally a month or more before you fly. What we can add is practical: the tents are mesh-roofed and mesh-sided, dusk is the hour for long sleeves and repellent, and the same neutral colours that suit walking keep the biting flies off.
Sixteen, for the camp and for every walk, and it applies at all four Charlie locations. The gorge routes are the reason: some days are long, demanding hikes along rims and down into narrow slots, the bathrooms are two shared units behind the tents, and the camp is unfenced with askaris walking guests to bed after dark.
Taken as a whole, one party of up to six, the camp suits a family of walkers with older teenagers as well as it suits a group of friends, and the guide sets each day to the slowest pair of legs. Tell us the ages and we will say straight away whether it works or suggest a camp that takes younger children.
Green, warm and changeable. The short rains open the season in November and December, January and February usually bring a drier, hotter spell with afternoons near 29 degrees and nights around 17, and the long rains build from March, with April the wettest month; the camp closes the camp in mid-May as they end. Rain here comes as afternoon storms more often than all-day drizzle, and the low Rift country is hotter than the Serengeti plains above it.
Pack for hot walking with wet afternoons: trail shoes or light boots with grip that you do not mind soaking in the gorge pools, long trousers and long sleeves in neutral colours, a light waterproof, a hat with a brim, strong sun cream, a warm layer for the first hour of the morning, a head torch, and a dry bag for the camera. Soft bag, fifteen kilograms on the light aircraft including hand luggage, and there is no laundry at the camp.
No wifi and no mobile signal, which the camp states for every Charlie site. Solar lanterns light the tents and the mess awning, and the game-drive vehicle carries three-pin and USB sockets, so batteries charge while you drive rather than in the tent. A satellite phone travels with the crew for emergencies, and we include medical evacuation cover as standard.
Download maps, books and anything else you want before you fly, and tell us before departure if anyone needs to be contactable; we will plan the nights either side at a camp with wifi, because nothing quicker than that exists out here.
The two most natural pairings share the same airstrip. From December to March the plains around Ndutu fill with calving wildebeest, and the camp's permanent camp, Kusini Serengeti, sits among kopjes just west of them, so two or three nights there before the drive east gives the big spectacle first and the quiet Rift walking second. In the same months the camp also pitches a second Charlie in the south-west Serengeti, the same four tents on open plains rather than in gorges, for anyone who wants a fortnight entirely on foot.
Nights add up quickly with a drive of three to four hours each way, so we would give Sanjan three nights at least, and land the arrival flight in the morning so the afternoon is the transfer and not the whole day. The camp's season ends in mid-May and the roving camps do not reopen anywhere until July, so a late May or June trip needs a different plan.
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