The Great Southern Circuit 6-Day Safari

Morning pickup from Dar es Salaam and the drive west to Mikumi National Park via Morogoro, where a hot lunch stop breaks the six-hour journey. You enter the park in the afternoon. And the Mkata plain delivers immediately: elephant families at the waterholes, lions resting in the acacia shade, Masai giraffes silhouetted against the afternoon sky. The evening game drive extends until sunset, then dinner at Camp Bastian and an early night before the long drive to Ruaha tomorrow.

An early breakfast and then the drive to Ruaha. 274 kilometres via Iringa through some of the most beautiful countryside in Tanzania. The road climbs through the Iringa highlands, passing tea farms, rolling hills and traditional villages before descending into the dry savanna of the Ruaha landscape. You enter Ruaha National Park in the afternoon. And the landscape transformation is dramatic: ancient baobab trees of extraordinary size, the Great Ruaha River glinting through the thornbush and the first lion sightings of a park legendary for its predator density.

The first full Ruaha day. The park's extraordinary lion density is the defining feature. Prides of up to 20 individuals hunt along the Great Ruaha River and the morning circuits consistently deliver close encounters with these magnificent animals. Beyond the lions: cheetah on the open ground, leopards in the river's fig trees, elephant herds of 200+ gathering at the river's pools. The Ruaha River circuit is the game drive of the safari. Following the river's bend from one wildlife concentration to the next, with picnic lunch at a riverbank spot where crocodiles surface from the water.

A second full Ruaha day explores the park's remote circuits. Away from the main river and into the vast baobab woodland and miombo that covers the park's interior. The remote circuits are where wild dog packs move across their large territories and where the buffalo herds number in the thousands. The Ruaha River's lower reaches reveal a different river character. Shallower, wider, with hippo pods in every pool and the endemic Ruaha hornbill calling from the riverside trees. A full day of extraordinary, uncrowded, genuinely wild Africa.

Breakfast at Ruaha Hilltop Lodge, then the return drive to Mikumi with packed lunch en route. You arrive at Mikumi in the afternoon. Back on the open plains after three days of Ruaha's baobab wilderness. And a final Mikumi game drive covers the hippo pool, the flood plain and the Mwanambogo Dam circuit before returning to Camp Bastian for the last dinner of the safari.

Early breakfast at Camp Bastian and a final en route game drive through Mikumi as you head toward the gate. The park's early morning hours consistently the best for lion activity on the flood plain. Then the six-hour drive back to Dar es Salaam, with a packed lunch for the journey. You arrive at your hotel, the Julius Nyerere ferry terminal or the airport in the afternoon. Six days after the journey began.