Lake Natron Safari

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport where you will be picked up by your outfitter and driven to thirty minutes to the Polo Club where you’ll spend the night. Here your accommodations are in spacious luxury tents with ensuite plumbed bathrooms, about 150 yards away from the clubhouse with full restaurant and bar. The day ends with dinner when the safari briefing takes place to prepare everyone for the next day’s adventure.

The following morning after a big English breakfast there is a 4.5 hour drive to the fly camp, North of N’garuka Village. Upon arrival the crew will await the guests with welcome drinks and opened arms to join the safari team. After introduction to the bell tents, lunch is served and a safari briefing takes place. After lunch each guest is given his or her horse for an afternoon ride to get comfortable in the saddle. The day ends around the bonfire.

Everyone is woken up to some tea or coffee, thereafter breakfast is served. The day’s ride is scenic and cultural and the ride passes through Masai bromas to encounter herdsmen out grazing their cattle. Around midday stop for a lunch break when all have some refreshments under a nice shaded three. The lunch is either vehicle supported or carried in saddle bags. Thereafter the journey continues to try to cover ground to reach the night stop before the sun hits the horizon.

Early wakeup call followed by an English breakfast before mounting the horses. Directions are northbound for the day, with Gelai mountain overlooking from the East. The day’s ride leaves the Masai villages behind and enters the beautiful, almost dreamlike, scenery of the Natron region. Perhaps an encounter with a big herd of zebras and wildebeest roaming the open landscape will also take place. A lunch break is taken in the bush before taking directions for the night’s camp.

Early wakeup with coffee and tea before a bush breakfast. Thereafter everyone mounts their horse and the safari continues. Today riders will explore the areas around the active volcano Oldonyo L’Engai (Mountain of God). Late lunch back in camp with time for a siesta. The afternoon is for everyone to relax, allowing riders’ and horses’ muscles to rest.

After a full English breakfast it’s time for the longest and toughest ride. You will be covering about 60 km, leaving the volcano behind as you enter a river bed that offers some shade. Next you’ll cross the open landscape before stopping for a lunch break in the shade of some big acacia trees. This should help sustain your energy for the final stretch of the day’s ride. The night is spent close to the hot springs, overlooking the lake.

After breakfast a 45 minutes walk takes place heading towards the springs which enters the soda lake on the eastern shores. After experiencing the heat and dust a rewarding dip adds to the enjoyment of the days adventures. Enjoy lunch in the springs and walk or drive back to camp. A late evening ride takes place, enjoying the cooler hours before darkness with good chances of seeing hyenas and jackals searching for food on the mud flats of the lake.

Today there is an early morning departure, leaving the dry, desolate and hauntingly beautiful lake behind, following the well know riverbed back to the lush, green grassland on the foot of Oldonyo L’Engai. The night is spent in a place now familiar to everyone.

Everyone wakes up after a good night’s rest, it’s time to leave camp. A sad farewell is due to happen, and everyone has to say goodbye to the camp crew. It is time to pack your bags and mount your horse for the last time on this journey for a three hour ride to the airstrip, where a chartered plane is waiting to fly us all back to Arusha.