6-Day Mara River Crossing Fly-In Safari, Northern Serengeti

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1

   Arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport and Arusha

   You land at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where our team meets you after immigration and drives you about 50 km (one hour) to Arusha. Depending on your arrival time, you can rest at the hotel, take a short walk in the gardens or visit the craft market in town. Our safari planner calls in during the evening to go over the flight times for tomorrow and the luggage rule for light aircraft: 15 kg per person in a soft bag is the usual limit on Serengeti bush flights, so any extra luggage can stay at the hotel until you return. This is also the moment to talk about what you most want from the crossings, whether that is the big set-piece on the riverbank or quieter time with the herds and the cats that follow them. Dinner and overnight at Arusha Coffee Lodge or Gran Melia Arusha.

   • Airport pick-up
   • Arusha Coffee Lodge or Gran Melia Arusha
   • Dinner
2. Day2
   

   Fly from Arusha to Kogatende, Afternoon at the Mara River

   After breakfast you transfer to Arusha airport for a scheduled light-aircraft flight north to Kogatende airstrip. The flight takes about two and a half to three hours, usually with a stop in the central Serengeti, and gives you a view of the plains and kopjes from above. Your guide meets you at the airstrip with the vehicle, and you drive to camp for lunch. The Serengeti National Park covers 14,763 square kilometres, and the far north around Kogatende and Lamai is where the herds reach the Mara River after leaving the central plains. In the afternoon you head to the river to see where the herds are gathering, check the crossing points and get a feel for the crocodiles and hippos in the water. Dinner and overnight at Lemala Mara River Tented Camp or Sayari Camp.

   • Fly to Kogatende, afternoon at the river
   • Lemala Mara River Tented Camp or Sayari Camp
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
3. Day3
   

   Full Day on the Mara River

   Crossings cannot be booked, so today is about patience and position. You leave early with a picnic breakfast and lunch so there is no need to return to camp. The herds collect on the bank, sometimes for hours, before a lead group commits and thousands follow, scrambling down the bank, swimming against the current and climbing out past waiting Nile crocodiles, some longer than five metres. Our guide keeps a respectful distance so the animals are not blocked from the water, then moves in once a crossing starts. Between crossings there is plenty to watch: lions resting near the river, hyenas working the banks and vultures over the remains of the last crossing. Days with no crossing at all are part of the season, which is why this trip gives you three nights here. Dinner and overnight at Lemala Mara River Tented Camp or Sayari Camp.

   • Full day at the Mara River
   • Lemala Mara River Tented Camp or Sayari Camp
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
4. Day4
   

   Mara River and the Lamai Wedge

   You have another full day in the north. If the herds have crossed to the far side, our guide will take you over the Kogatende bridge into the Lamai Wedge, the strip of the Serengeti between the Mara River and the Kenya border, where fewer vehicles go and the herds spread out over open grassland. If the herds are still on the southern bank, the day is spent along the main crossing points again, waiting for the next one. Either way, this is the best area in the park for seeing the full sequence: the build-up, the crossing and the predators that move in afterwards. In the late afternoon the light turns the river gold, and it is often the most productive hour for photography. Dinner and overnight at Lemala Mara River Tented Camp or Sayari Camp.

   • Mara River and Lamai Wedge
   • Lemala Mara River Tented Camp or Sayari Camp
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
5. Day5
   

   Drive South Through Lobo to the Central Serengeti

   After breakfast you leave the river and drive south through the Bologonja and Lobo areas, a game drive of about five to six hours with a picnic lunch on the way. The country changes from open grassland to granite kopjes and wooded valleys, and the Lobo hills hold resident lion prides, elephants and klipspringers on the rocks. You reach the Seronera valley in the central Serengeti in the afternoon. Seronera has water year-round, so it keeps a large resident population of lion, cheetah and leopard even when the migration is elsewhere. An evening drive along the Seronera River gives you your best chance of the trip of finding a leopard resting in a sausage tree. Dinner and overnight at Kati Kati Tented Camp or Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge.

   • Game drive to Seronera
   • Kati Kati Tented Camp or Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
6. Day6
   

   Seronera Morning Game Drive and Flight to Arusha

   You have a last early game drive in the Seronera valley, looking for the big cats around the kopjes and along the river while the air is still cool. After breakfast our guide takes you to Seronera airstrip for the scheduled flight back to Arusha, about one hour and fifteen minutes. You are met on arrival and transferred to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your international flight, or to a hotel in Arusha if you are staying on (not included). If you would like to finish on a beach, this is the point to fly on to Zanzibar instead.

   • Morning drive, fly to Arusha
   • Breakfast