Luxury Migration Safari (Mpingo Ridge and Ndutu Plains)

Mpingo Ridge Tented Camp
Mpingo Ridge boasts an excellent heritage, being the latest addition to the Lemala family of luxury safari camps, renowned for their superb locations and high-quality guiding.

Mpingo is located on a high ridge in the centre of Tarangire National Park, close to the Tarangire River. The river is Tarangire’s life source, and attracts huge herds of buffalo, elephant and assorted plains game throughout the year.

The camp consists of 15 luxurious tented rooms, positioned high on the ridge where they enjoy a cool breeze and great views of the surrounding wilderness. Each room features a private deck with outdoor lounger (convertible into a siesta bed), and an outdoor bathtub. The units are spaced well apart to ensure privacy.

Mpingo Ridge’s lounge/bar and dining area are furnished in a modern style, with polished wooden floors, glass doors and contemporary features. Other facilities include swimming pool and a fully-equipped spa.

Tarangire National Park provides excellent game-viewing, boasting a density of wildlife matched only by the Ngorongoro Crater. Birding is particularly good here. The Tarangire swamps, tinged green year-round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties – the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.

As for the bigger game, Tarangire is perhaps most famous for its elephant, which roam the park in huge herds. Large antelope, including oryx, kudu and eland – not commonly seen elsewhere in northern Tanzania – are also regularly spotted in Tarangire, while sightings of hyena, leopard and even python, who have made a home of Tarangire's iconic baobab trees, are not uncommon.

Equally notable is the park’s unique topography and flora. The Tarangire landscape is dominated by wide-boughed baobab trees, whose dramatic formations fascinate, while its rugged kopjes and year-round wetlands provide a marked contrast to the vast savannah plains of the Serengeti.

Lemala Ndutu Camp
Lemala Ndutu Camp is a mobile camp situated in the Ndutu Plains region. This vast expanse of savannah grasslands forms part of the Serengeti ecosystem, though it is in fact located within the boundaries of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It attracts far fewer visitors than the central Serengeti and Seronera regions, and is a wonderful place to see the famous wildebeest migration, which typically settles in the Ndutu region to calve between December and March (though the herds can be seen as early as November and as late as April).

Lemala Ndutu is wonderfully luxurious. Stunning canvas rooms sit raised on platforms that can be dismantled and taken away. Everything within the camp is locally sourced and made by talented Tanzanian artisans. There are 9 tented rooms decorated in a vibrant style with great use of colour and texture from the wooden floors to the crisp, bright, linen bedding. The rooms are large and each has an indoor seating area and an outside deck with chairs positioned to make the most of the African sunset. The bathrooms are en-suite and come with bucket showers, flush loos and a dressing table.

The main guest areas include a comfortable lounge/bar and dining area. There is also a small library with a good selection of wildlife reference books for guests to enjoy. In the evening, you’ll be served an aperitif in front of the camp fire, before sitting down for dinner with your fellow travellers.

Game drives onto the Ndutu plains near the border with the southern Serengeti will enable you to witness the great migration at close quarters. Here the rich grasses provide food for the huge herds of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle who choose this spot to give birth to their young. The ever-present predators follow and watch the herds waiting for an opportune meal. Four days here at the right time of year will provide an incredible wildlife experience!

Il’kiginga is very much an authentic Masai village. Here you won’t find reconstructed bomas, but rather a modern Masai settlement, providing a genuine insight into Masai lives as they are lived in the 20th century. You’ll explore a coffee plantation, and a vegetable garden where potatoes, tomato, bananas and maize are cultivated. You’ll also visit the local knife maker, and a Masai women’s group engaged in beadwork. Many of the Masai homes in Il’kiginga are still designed to accommodate livestock, and you’ll learn more about how the homes are constructed with this purpose in mind.

Late afternoon, transfer to Kilimanjaro airport for your evening international flight home.