Adventure and Exploring

Mbamba Bay Sunset in Mbamba Coffe of Mbinga Leopard in Ruaha

Description

Tour suitable for real adventures who are interested in exploring and experiencing the real essense of the country.

The road transfers are sometimes long as no proper faciities are avaialble on between two locations. We are talking, however, about roads that are amazingly scenic.

Some Hotels are the best that can be find in the areas slected but be basic. (although clean and safe).

Program

Day 1:
DAR > KIBAHA 1 h 40 min (42,0 km)
Arrival at Nyerere International Airport, where you will meet your guide who is there to assist you with the last formalities and to escort you to your hotel. You can finally rest after the long journey.
Accommodation - BB:

Day 2:
KIBAHA > IRINGA - 7 h 40 min (495,0 km)
After breakfast you will start towards Iringa.
You will cross the Mikumi National Park where in addition to sighting various species of animals, with a little luck, you will be forced to give way to a herd of Elephants or Lions that will cross the road.
Along the way, you will stop to have a quick picnic lunch, and then continue the journey characterized by changing views and a thousand colors.
Iringa is a town in central Tanzania. It sits on a cliff overlooking the Ruaha River Valley, in the Southern Highlands region. The town center has German colonial buildings and a popular market. The Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery memorializes soldiers who died in local battles during WWI and WWII. From Gangilonga Rock, which was once an important chieftain meeting spot, views stretch over the town. You may want to go and explore the town or you may just rest and be ready for the following day. Would you wish to have a sundowner, you can enjoy an amazing view of Iringa from Gangilonga Rock and the nearby bars.
Accommodation - LBB:

Day 3:
IRINGA > RUAHA NATIONAL PARK - 2 h 50 min (136 km)
After breakfast, you will start your journey toward the Ruaha National Park. If you are interested in learning more about the history of the Hehe tribe and its leader Mkwawa, ask the guide to let you visit the Kalenga Museum that you will find on your way. Although the structure would need careful maintenance, it houses a number of interesting findings and anecdotes about the Chief Tribe, who is famous for the strenuous resistance he opposed to the German invaders. Colonel Freiherr Friedrich von Schele managed to conquer the fortress of Mkawawa, located in the village of Kalenga, only on October 28, 1894 and then he had to wait until the month of July 1898 to definitively eradicate the bloody guerrilla organized by the heroic leader. The Chief preferred to commit suicide, rather than fall prisoner of his enemy. At the entrance of the park you will complete the formalities relating to entrance permits and then you will immerse yourself in an enchanted panorama. The guide of the lodge, who is waiting for you on board a safari vehicle, will accompany you to the camp. You will find yourself surrounded by a natural and uncontaminated habitat populated by wild animals: Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Leopards, Hippos, Antelopes, and many others no less amazing than their older brothers, including thousands of bird species. The camp staff is waiting for you to give you a warm welcome and all kinds of information necessary to make you appreciate this exciting experience and to experience it in complete safety. If conditions allow, you will also have the opportunity to enjoy a fantastic dinner under the stars.
Accommodation - LDBB:

Day 4:
RUAHA NATIONAL PARK
After the alarm clock rings at dawn and after breakfast, you will leave to explore other areas of the park.
Ruaha National Park extends in the south-central part of the country and is considered an unspoiled ecosystem. With its 13,000 square kilometres, it is the third largest nature reserve in the country and yet one of the lesser known areas in Tanzania. Germany gazetted the Saba Game Reserve in 1910 and the British colonial authorities changed it into the Rungwa Game Reserve in 1946.Only in 1964, the southern portion of the reserve was excised and elevated to full park status and named it Ruaha National Park.
Ruaha safaris offer intense experiences. About 1,600 plant species grow here, which is significantly more than in other parks. The landscape and vegetation are different. Giant baobabs and acacias embrace mountainous, hilly and flat landscapes, crossed by different rivers (Mwagusi, Mdonya, Jongomero, Great Ruaha).
In the darkness of the night you can admire the sky which is full of stars as only in the real tropical lands.
You will appreciate the "silence" of nature and full contact with the natural elements. Enrich your collection with breath-taking views that will forever remain in your eyes and hearts.
Accommodation - LDBB:

Day 5:
RUAHA NATIONAL PARK > IRINGA - 2 h 50 min (136 km)
With a little regret, you will depart after breakfast to leave the park. During the safari you will have the opportunity to meet those animals that you have not yet seen. You will enjoy the last glimpses of the bush before leaving at the same time you entered. You may want to dedicate the afternoon to do some shopping in Iringa or continue to a very cosy farm where you will be warmly welcomed.
Accommodation - LDBB:

Day 6:
KISOLANZA
Enjoy a lazy morning walking around the farm, letting you be pampered by a massage or just relax in the wonderful garden. After lunch, if you are interested, you could go to Isimila Stone Age and visit an area where some archaeologists brought to light, in the late 1950s, very significant findings dating back to the Stone Age. Among these, worth to be mentioned are the bones of extinct mammals, such as an ancestor of the current hippopotamus or a giraffe with a much shorter neck than the current one. As confirmed by the tools found, this area was a hunting area for hominids who lived between 300,000 and 600,000 years ago. The study of the conformation of the site, allows to get a fairly precise idea of what the area was like before erosion originated the current large canyons, where the hardest rocks, resisting over time, formed pillars that are even 30m tall.
Accommodation - LDBB:

Day 7:
IFUNDA > NJOMBE 3 hr 3 min (186.6 km)
In total relax, you will leave in the morning towards Njombe.
The views make the route immensely interesting. Njombe is the capital of the region and one of the most important agricultural centres in the area. Populated by the Bena tribe. It is a simple place but which offers fascinating viewpoints It is normally known as one of the coldest cities in Tanzania.
You can decide to go for a nice walk to visit the Ruhudji Falls, which are located near your hotel, then you can go to the discovery of the city.
Accommodation – BB:

Day 8:
NJOMBE > MBAMBA BAY - 6 h 09 min (392 km)
After a good breakfast, set off again for your destination.
You will pass through Songea, a city located at 1000 meters above sea level, which extends in a chaotic way but which, as a whole, is an extremely relaxing place.
Inhabited by the Ngoni tribe, it is surrounded by hills full of sunflowers and pastures.
Reach Mbinga with its coffee plantations and, in season, you can stop to see the processing and shipping process of these fine beans.
You will arrive in Mbamba Bay in time to enjoy a fantastic sunset over the lake and immediately enter in a still genuine, wonderful and extremely simple Africa.
The hostel run by the nuns is very simple but also very clean. The sisters, still not so much used to dealing with foreign tourists, will go out of their way to offer you their sincere and simple hospitality.
The rooms are small and sparsely furnished but with a comfortable bed, a working mosquito net and impeccable cleanliness but above all with a fantastic view. It is however essential to be able to adjust and to be flexible.
Accommodation - BB:

Day 9:
MBAMBA BAY
The guide will take you to visit deserted beaches where you can enjoy the relaxing day on the warm sand.
You can decide whether to have a lunch prepared to take with you or if you want to go back to the convent to have lunch at your leisure.
Lake Malawi is also known as Lake Nyasa or Niassa. It is the fifth biggest sweet water lake in the world per volume, the ninth biggest for size and the second dippest in Africa. it gives home to a variety of birds including fish eagle.
Residents of the nearby countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania) found in the lake their nourishing suplier due the numerous species of fish, some of them endemic and only living in these waters.
Accommodation - BB:

Day 10:
MBAMBA BAY > SONGEA - 3 h 49 min (166 km)
If winds allow you you can take a boat and do some snorkelling searching for the endemic fish of the lake.
You will have the opportunity to see the local fish market with all the DAGAR, small freshwater sardines, that are exposed to the sun to dry.
In the afternoon you will head up back to Songea.
Accommodation - BB:

Day 11:
SONGEA > LINDI 8h 25min (608 km)
After an early breakfast you will start your journey back to the east coast in a quite and panoramic road.
Accommodation - DBB:

Day 12:
LINDI > KILWA MASOKO 2h 26min (136km)
For over a thousand of years Kilwa Masoko area has been inhabited by the Mwera people. The name Masoko means "markets" in the Swahili language. The town of Kilwa Masoko, as we know it today, was founded as the head of the Kilwa district after the British built a deep-water port for their ships in 1918. When Tanganyika became independent in 1961, the government chose to keep Kilwa Masoko as the district headquarters. In 2008, the city obtained its own government from a ward to a municipal authority.
It is located on the mainland from where you can reach the small island of Kilwa Kisiwani (Kilwa on the island) where you will visit the ruins in a half day trip. The ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site due to their influence on the birth of Swahili culture.
What is now a fishing village was, a thousand years ago, a major port occupied by Shirazi Arabs. In around 800 AD the Shirazi Arabs travelled by dhow from modern-day Oman, when Europe was still embroiled in the dark ages.
The island became a commercial centre for the Islamic world and beyond. Mosques, a market place and an ostentatious palace were built. These can all be seen today in various states of ruin, as well as the thousand-year-old resting place of the Sultan and his family.
Over the centuries Kisiwani’s fortunes fluctuated with changing gold-prices and the arrival of the Portuguese Vasco da Gama, who built the crenulated gereza-fort which greets you at the harbour.
You will travel over in a traditional dhow and will be shown round the island by a local guide. You will head back to your hotel in order to remain the rest of your evening.
Accommodation - DBB:

Day 13:
KILWA MASOKO > DAR 5h 31min (327km)
Departure to go back to Dar es Salaam and be ready to your final destination
Accommodation - BB:

Day 14:
DAR > AIRPORT
According to your flight schedule you will be driven to the airport and go back to your home country or be ready forthe next adventure.

Price includes

- All transfers included in the progrma
- Entry fees in the mentioned parks,
- All park concessions fees and the safari package
- All meals indicated in the progrma L = Lunch, D = Dinner, BB = Bed and Breakfast
- Taxes and VAT
- Flying doctor emergency evacuation program

Price does not include

- International and internal Flights
- Entry Visa in Tanzania
- Drink
- Gratuities
- Meals not mentioned in the program
- Personal expenses

Itinerary

Accommodations provided in each place