17 Days 16 Nights Zanzibar Tanzania, Zanzibar Island, Zanzibar - Dar Es Salaam and Dar Es Salaam - Marangu Holiday Package

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Evocative and exotic, Zanzibar conjures up images of idyllic, sandy, palm fringe beaches; romantic winding cobbled alleys and lush tropical forests. You will find all these here and an intriguing history. Zanzibar was the base of the great 19th century explorers such as John Hanning Speke, Richard Burton and David Livingstone and once was a major trading center of spices.

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Enjoy free time on Zanzibar and transfer to the northern beaches from Stone Town. Relax on the sun kissed beaches of Kendwa, northwest part of the island, take an optional diving trip to the rich colorful reefs or grab a snorkel and goggles to explore these from above.

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Browse markets or enjoy hanging in a hammock with a cocktail and a good book. The beach is a great place to catch up with the locals who will pass by selling their wares, offering henna tattoos and inexpensive massages. Round the day off with a sunset dhow cruise or chilling to the tunes from the nearby beach bars.

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Adjusting to the lazy ways of the northern beaches is easy to do in such picturesque surroundings. Enjoy your last day on the island swimming in the warm ocean, snorkeling in the crystal turquoise waters and enjoy time at leisure in this tropical haven.

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We have the morning to do any last-minute shopping or enjoy one last swim before catching the ferry back to the African mainland to Dar es Salaam and onward to our campsite on the coast for the evening.

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Departing early from Dar es Salaam, we head north past the Usambara and Pare Mountains in the Eastern Arc Mountain Range to Marangu, nestled at the base of the famed Kilimanjaro. The camp takes its name from the surrounding area. Marangu means full of water in the local Chagga language, and the lush green surroundings demonstrate the truth of this. If weather is clear we will gain a view of the magnificent snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa/’s highest mountain (5895 m).

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We drive past the town of Moshi and eventually reach Arusha ; a city situated exactly mid-way between Cape Town and Cairo. This is Tanzania/’s safari capital, a city of some 2 million people, a bustling melting pot of markets, vehicles and people all nestling in the shadow of the brooding Mt Meru (4556 m). With time to explore town we head out to our camp just outside the city at the edge of the Masai plains.

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This morning we transfer to smaller more /‘game park friendly/’ vehicles and drive west across the Great Rift Valley, passing through Mto Wa Mbo and enter the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. We pass into the park and drive around the /‘Crater/’s rim and down onto the Serengeti plains. Green after the rains, brown and burnt in the dry, this is home to an enormous variety of grazing animals, predators, and bird life.

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We drive out of the plains, game driving en route, and after lunch ascend the outer wall of the Ngorongoro Crater. We spend the night camping on the rim (you may need a jacket; it can be cold at night due to the high altitude here), where wildlife also roams free. At 326 square kilometers in area the Ngorongoro is Africa/’s largest intact caldera and a World Heritage Site. If the view from the rim (2400 meters above sea level) is spectacular, the site from the Crater floor (some 600 meters below) is equally enjoyable.

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We wake early and descend the steep dirt road of the Ngorongoro Crater for a morning of game driving in this spectacular wildlife haven. All the major mammals are present except giraffe (which cannot manage the steep slopes leading down onto the Crater floor). After our game drive we ascend to our campsite on the rim for a final view over the Ngorongoro Crater, pack up our camp and have lunch before retracing our steps to Arusha and our campsite at the Meserani Snake Park where we will overnight.

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We say goodbye to the crew, truck and others in the group who are not climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and catch a mid-afternoon shuttle bus to Moshi and are transferred to our accommodation. After settling in you will be briefed on what to expect on the trek the next day, make any final preparations (If you chose not to pre-pay the adventure pass you will make you payment for Mt Kilimanjaro at this time, hiring of any other hiking gear, purchasing of snacks etc.) We enjoy a restful afternoon evening by the swimming pool relaxing and preparing for the trek.

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After breakfast and a briefing from your guide, we leave Moshi and drive for 45 minutes to Marangu Gate on the eastern side of the mountain. We begin our trek here, walking through forests tall eucalyptuses, home to a range of bird life and colobus monkeys which we may see jumping through the canopy.

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We rise early and continue our trek after breakfast, hiking through rainforest glades and follow an ascending path up through unique mountain heath land on the slopes of the Mawenzi massif consisting of giant lobelias and groundsel vegetation, some which reach over 3 meters high. Continuing we enter an area of low shrubs and moorland where we take lunch.

If feeling energetic, you could rise early this morning and catch great photos of the sunrise over Kilimanjaro. After breakfast we set off and climb through the dwindling moorland which blends into a rocky moonscape as you enter the sweeping saddle connecting Mawenzi and Kibo. Stopping for lunch we have great views of the peak and will be able to view the summit route we/’ll be taking early tomorrow morning. This afternoon we cross the surprisingly wide saddle of alpine desert, to the foot of Kibo at Kibo Huts.

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We wake at midnight to a light breakfast and leave camp at 1 am for the ascent. Our goal is to climb before dawn so that we reach Uhuru Peak shortly after sunrise. Setting off, we take switchbacks across a large scree slope and reach Gillman/’s Point on the crater rim at 5,861 m between 5 - 7 am.

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Today after a hearty breakfast we descend back through moorland to the Mandara Huts. We have lunch there before our triumphant return through lush forest to the park gate. We should reach there by approximately 2 - 3 pm. Saying our goodbyes and tipping our cooks, porters and guides we transfer back to our hotel in Moshi, where it/’s time for a celebration and relax!

After a leisurely morning we board a scheduled shuttle bus back via Arusha, to Nairobi We cross the Maasai Steppe to the Kenyan frontier. Completing formalities at Namanga border post, we drive the last stretch of road to Nairobi, Kenya/’s capital, where our tour ends. The expected time of arrival back in the Kenyan capital is 1830 hrs /– 1930 hrs.