Savanna Dawn - Overland Trip

Accommodation

Camping based tour

Kitty Notes

2 meals per day (on average), all accommodation & transport and some activities - contact us for full details.

Itineraries (Nairobi - Harare)

Our Kenya to Zimbabwe safari begins! We depart Nairobi early morning and immediately find ourselves in hot savannah grasslands with thorn trees and acacia providing the only shade. We should see some game, usually zebra and giraffe as we head south and cross into Tanzania and the town of Arusha. Here we use a local African safari travel company to guide us through Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Parks. On the crater floor you can spend the day viewing the abundant wildlife including Elephant, Lion, Cheetah, White Rhino, Buffalo, Hippo, Antelope, Crocodile and Pink Flamingos. From here you can also choose to go into the Serengeti for a day where vast herds of wildebeest roam the plains. There is also the option, for those who wish to visit a local Maasai Village and learn about their culture and way of life.

En route to Dar Es Salaam, we will pass a number of small towns and villages along the way and, if we are lucky, we may see the towering peak of Kilimanjaro. At Dar Es Salaam we camp for about 4 nights in a campsite on a beautiful Indian Ocean beach. From here most people take the ferry out to Zanzibar for the full four days and venture into the narrow bustling streets of Stone Town and its famous spice markets, old slave forts and dungeons. There is also time to enjoy yourself on Zanzibar\'s famous white beaches before returning to Dar Es Salaam.

After meeting the Zanzibar ferry we begin the journey through the interesting and often mountainous hinterland of Tanzania. In the afternoon, after negotiating some appalling roads, we pass through the peaceful Mikumi National Park. African safari travel is synonymous with wildlife, and in this national park we usually see Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra and Antelope from the roadside. We now pass rivers and small waterfalls as we head for and enter Malawi which is dominated by its huge fresh water lake.

The next 2 days marks the midpoint of this Kenya to Zimbabwe safari and will be spent on a small laid back campsite on the edge of Lake Malawi. Camping here sums up the spirit of an Africa overland tour with Oasis Overland. From here we follow the lake shore south and spend a further 2 or 3 nights on one of the fully equipped larger camps where you can windsurf, scuba dive, water ski etc. If you are more inclined to just relax there is no better place than on the shores of Lake Malawi. This really is a warm friendly country and some people will go off for a couple of days and stay in one of the many villages nearby, or visit a school or one of the craft markets, where artisans produce some exquisite pieces of furniture and carvings out of ebony and mahogany.

From here we continue on to Blantyre in the south of the country where we stop for two nights. Here we organise our Mozambique visas and if possible, visit the local brewery - which is always eagerly anticipated! From Blantyre we cross into Mozambique and head for Zimbabwe to continue our African overland tour. We follow the infamous Tete Corridor which was well known in the days of Mozambiques long running civil war as the Gun Run. Thankfully these days things are a lot different! We enter Zimbabwe and travel to Harare where we spend two nights to round off the first leg of the Savanna Dawn overland safari. Those on the 21 Day Kenya to Zimbabwe tour finish here in Harare, while those on the 31 Day tour carry on to Victoria Falls.