Serengeti National Park

Walking Safari on Ngorongoro Highlands & Serengeti

A walking safari through the Ngorongoro Highlands and into the Serengeti is fundamentally different from a vehicle-based game drive — and that is exactly the point. On foot, you experience the bush at ground level. You hear the alarm calls of birds warning of predators. You smell the sage-like scent of wild herbs crushed underfoot. You read animal tracks in the dust and learn to distinguish between the prints of a leopard and those of a hyena. This is how the Maasai have moved through this landscape for centuries, and walking alongside an armed ranger and a Maasai guide connects you to that tradition. The trek begins on the forested rim of the Ngorongoro Crater and descends through highland meadows grazed by Maasai cattle and dotted with wildflowers during the green season. The route passes through Empakaai Crater, a smaller caldera with a deep soda lake and resident flamingo population, before crossing the Rift Valley escarpment toward Lake Natron — the breeding ground of East Africa's lesser flamingos and one of the most remote landscapes in northern Tanzania. As you walk toward the Serengeti, the terrain shifts from highland forest to open savannah. Wildlife encounters on foot are more intimate and more thrilling than from a vehicle. A giraffe watching you from 30 meters, its ears swiveling to track your movement, is an entirely different experience than seeing one from a car window. Nights are spent in mobile fly camps set up by a support crew that moves ahead of the trekking group. Meals are prepared over open fire, and evenings are spent around the campfire under some of the clearest night skies in Africa. This is not a safari for everyone — it requires a reasonable level of fitness and a willingness to leave comfort zones — but for those who choose it, nothing else compares.