Welcome to Arusha:The Geneva of Africa

Arusha is a city of northern Tanzania surrounded by some of Africa’s most famous landscapes and national parks. Beautifully situated below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, it has a pleasant climate and is close to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, and Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as having its own Arusha National Park on Mount Meru. Arusha is the capital of the Arusha Region and has a population of 270,485 (2002 census).

GEOGRAPHY & CLIMATE

Despite its proximity to the equator, Arusha’s elevation of 1400 m on the southern slopes of Mount Meru keeps temperatures down and alleviates humidity. Cool dry air is prevalent for much of the year. The temperature ranges between 13 and 30 degrees Celsius with an average around 25 degrees. It has distinct wet and dry seasons, and experiences an eastern prevailing wind from the Indian Ocean, a couple of hundred miles east.
Arusha is considered to be one of the best African cities when it comes to great weather and tourism combined.
Almost within the entire city; if you go north you will be going up hill, and going south is always down hill.

Visit the Arusha National Park

Arusha National Park covers Mount Meru, a prominent volcano with an elevation of 4566 m, in the Arusha Region of north eastern Tanzania.The park is small but varied with spectacular landscapes in three distinct areas. In the west, the Meru Crater funnels the Jekukumia River; the peak of Mount Meru lies on its rim. Ngurdoto Crater in the south-east is grassland. The shallow alkaline Momella Lakes in the north-east have varying algal colours and are known for their wading birds.

Mount Meru is the second highest peak in Tanzania after Mount Kilimanjaro, which is just 60 km away and forms a backdrop to views from the park to the east. Arusha National Park lies on a 300-kilometre axis of Africa’s most famous national parks, running from Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in the west to Kilimanjaro National Park in the east.

The park is just a few kilometres north east of Arusha, though the main gate is 25 km east of the city. It is also 58 km from Moshi and 35 km from Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA)
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WILDLIFE
Giraffes in Arusha National Park
Arusha National Park has a rich variety of wildlife. Despite the small size of the park, common animals include giraffe, buffalo, zebra, warthog, the black-and-white colobus monkey, the blue monkey, flamingos and more.

Wildbeasts of the Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in Serengeti area, Tanzania. It is most famous for its annual migration of over one million white bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 200,000 zebra.
History
The Maasai people had been grazing their livestock in the open plains which they knew as an endless plain for over 200 years when the first European explorers visited the area. The name Serengeti is an approximation of the word used by the Maasai to describe the area. German geographer and explorer Dr. Oscar Baumann entered the area in 1892. [1] Baumann killed three rhinos during a stay in the Ngorongoro crater.
The first Briton to enter the Serengeti, Stewart Edward White, recorded his explorations in the northern Serengeti in 1913. Stewart returned to the Serengeti in the 1920s, and camped in the area around Seronera for three months. During this time he and his companions shot 50 lions.[2]
Because the hunting of lions made them so scarce, the British decided to make a partial Game Reserve of 800 acres (3.2 km2) in the area in 1921 and a full one in 1929. These actions became the basis for Serengeti National Park,[3] [4] which was established in 1951. The Serengeti gained more fame after the initial work of Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael in the 1950s. Together they produced the book and film Serengeti Shall Not Die, widely recognized as one of the most important early pieces of nature conservation documentary.
As part of the creation of the park, and in order to preserve wildlife, the resident Maasai were moved to the Ngorongoro highlands. There is still considerable controversy surrounding this move, with claims made of coercion and deceit on the part of the colonial authorities.
The Serengeti is Tanzania’s oldest national park and remains the flagship of the country’s tourism industry, providing a major draw to the Northern Safari Circuitry, encompassing Lake Manyara, Tarangire and Arusha national parks, as well as Ngorongoro Conservation Area
GEOGRAPHY & WILDLIFE
The park covers 14,763 ² (5,700 square miles) of grassland plains and savanna as well as riverine forest and woodlands. The park lies in the north of the country, bordered to the north by the national Tanzania and Kenyan border, where it is contiguous with the Masai Mara National Reserve. To the south-east of the park is Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the south-west lies Maswa Game Reserve, and to the western borders are Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, finally to the north-east lies Loliondo Game Control Area.

Human habitation is forbidden in the National Park with the exception of staff for TANAPA, researchers and staff of Frankfurt Zoological Society, and staff of the various lodges and hotels. The main settlement is Seronera which houses the majority of research staff and the park’s main headquarters, including its primary airstrip.

As well as the migration of ungulates, the park is well known for its healthy stock of other resident wildlife, particularly the “Big Five”, named for the five most prized trophies taken by hunters: the lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo. These species remain the key attractions to tourists, but the park also supports many further species, including the cheetah, gazelle and giraffe, as well as a large and varied bird population.

The Ngorongoro Crater:The 8th Wonder of the World!

Ngorongoro Crater is set in northern Tanzania, sharing part of the Serengeti plains to the north-west and with the towns of Arusha and Moshi, and Mount Kilimanjaro, to the east, and forms part of the unique Serengeti ecosystem. A major ecological survey of the Serengeti Reserve (which at the time included the Ngorongoro) by Dr. Bernhard Grizmek and his late son in the 1950’s resulted in the establishment of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in 1959. The oversight and management of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was provided by the the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area was a pioneering experiment in multiple land use where pastoralism, conservation and tourism could all co-exist under agreement. At the same time, the Serengeti National Park was enlarged and extended northwards towards Kenya border, where is border the Masai Mara National Reserve.Ngorongoro Conservation Area which includes the famed Ngorongoro Crater was awarded World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve Status.The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Including Ngorongoro Crater covers an area of 8292 square kilometers and ranges in altitude from 1020 to 3587 meters (60% of the height of Mount Kilimanjaro at its highest point).
The Ngorongoro terrain embraces several distinct habitats from open grasslands to mountain forests, and from scrub bushland to highland heath. The area contains sites of international palaeontological and archaeological importance. Around 25000 animals live in the the Ngorongoro Crater throughout the year, where the numbers can increases to 2.5 million when the complete Ngorongoro is considered, depending on the time of the year.

A Brief Safari Back In To History Of The Ngorongoro

Two main geological rifts run through the Ngorongoro area. Nine volcanoes in the Ngorongoro highlands were formed during the past four million years. One of these, Oldonyo Lengai (Mountain of God) is still active. Over millennia the ash and dust from each eruption has been carried by the winds to form the fertile soils of the Serengeti Plains. The earliest sign of mankind in the Ngorongoro is at Laetoli, where hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 million years ago. Further north on the tourism circuit, Olduvai Gorge has yielded a wealth of hominid and animal remains.

The Maasai Community Of The Ngorongoro

For thousands of years, a succession of cattle herding people moved into the Ngorongoro area, lived there for sometime and then moved on, sometimes forced out by other tribes. About 200 years ago, the Maasai arrived and have since colonized the area in substantial numbers with their traditional way of life allowing them to live in harmony with the wildlife and the environment. The Datoga, Nilo-hamitic speaking pastoralists who arrived more than 300 years ago were subsequently forced out of the Serengeti-Ngorongoro areas by the Maasai, who moved outside the Ngorongoro and settled in the Lake Eyasi basin and beyond. Today there are some 42,000 Maasai pastoralists living in the areas around the Ngorongoro with their cattle, donkeys, goats and sheep. During the rains they move out on to the open plains; in the dry season they move into the adjacent woodlands and mountain slopes. The Maasai are allowed to take their animals into the Ngorongoro Crater for water and grazing. but not to live or cultivate there. Elsewhere in the Ngorongoro, they have the right to roam freely. Visitors normally stop the Masaai cultural homestead, one on the road to the Serengeti National Park and another close to the Serengeti Sopa Lodge at the Irkeepusi Village.

The Tarangire National Park

It is the vast number of baobabs that first capture the eye as you enter Tarangire National Park. The gently rolling countryside is dotted with these majestic trees, which seem to dwarf the animals that feed beneath them.The park is spectacular in the dry season when many of the migratory wildlife species come back to the permanent waters of Tarangire River. Huge herds of wildebeest, zebras, elephants, eland and oryx gather to stay in Tarangire until the onset of the rains when they migrate again to good grazing areas. But this annual migration is threatened by increasing agriculture in the areas surrounding the Park. For wilderness areas like Tarangire to survive, conservation measures must go hand in hand with appropriate rural development. The commitment shown by the Tanzanian government to promote these ideals is important. Tarangire National Park covers approximately 2600 square kilometers and, in the dry season, is second only to Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area in concentrations of wildlife. Tarangire lies to the south of the large, open grass plains of southern Maasailand, and derives its name from the Tarangire River, which provides permanent water for wildlife in the area. Special Thanks to Thomson Safaris and Tanzania National Parks for contributing Tanzanian information
DAY AFTER DAY OF CLOUDLESS SKIES
The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape, baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass as brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has shrivelled to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds of parched kilometres knowing that here, always, there is water.
Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons. It’s the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem – a smorgasbord for predators and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed.
During the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq km (12,500 sq miles) range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire’s mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry.
The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.
On drier ground you find the Kori bustard, the heaviest flying bird; the stocking-thighed ostrich, the world’s largest bird; and small parties of ground hornbills blustering like turkeys.
More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colourful yellow-collared lovebird, and the somewhat drabber rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling all endemic to the dry savannah of north-central Tanzania.
Disused termite mounds are often frequented by colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their loud, clockwork-like duetting.
Tarangire’s pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail.
ABOUT TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK
Size: 2850 sq km (1,096 sq miles).
Location: 118 km (75 miles) southwest of Arusha.
GETTING THERE
Easy drive from Arusha or Lake Manyara following a surfaced road to within 7km (four miles) of the main entrance gate; can continue on to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.
Charter flights from Arusha and the Serengeti.
WHAT TO DO
Guided walking safaris.
Day trips to Maasai and Barabaig villages, as well as to the hundreds of ancient rock paintings in the vicinity of Kolo on the Dodoma Road.

WHEN TO GO
Year round but dry season (June – September) for sheer numbers of animals