CAU > Seminars and Study Tours > The Heart of Africa: A Serengeti Family Safari

The Heart of Africa: A Serengeti Family Safari

December 19-30, 2007

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Overview

For all intrepid explorers, from Mr. Stanley and Dr. Livingstone to Teddy Roosevelt, an African safari has always been the ultimate adventure. But unlike Dr. Livingstone, this CAU family safari to Tanzania won't strand us in the Congo for two years, and unlike President Roosevelt, the only animals we'll bring home are those we capture with our digital cameras. We've selected Tanzania because it possesses the finest array of east African landscapes and animal habitats, not to mention one of the most important sites in the history of the search for human origins. With our top-notch team of safari outfitters, our talented faculty, delightful Cornell counselors, and the good company of expert guides and drivers, we know this will be a memorable and exciting expedition. We hope you'll join us!

Faculty

Cornell biologists Cole Gilbert, associate professor of entomology, and Linda Rayor, assistant professor of entomology—both of whom have received rave reviews from CAU adults and families—will be our mentors, helping us examine and appreciate the life forms we see (from elephants, hyenas, and lions to dung beetles and spiders), the landforms we traverse (from Africa's Great Rift Valley to the amazing Ngorongoro crater and the splendid Serengeti plains), the search for human origins (at Olduvai Gorge, where "Lucy" was discovered), and the ongoing effort to protect and preserve these irreplaceable sanctuaries of African wildlife. Our eager team of counselors will supervise the younger members of the group with special outings and activities on many days, and younger safari members are always welcome at Cole and Linda's lectures.

Itinerary

After a good night's rest at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Arusha, our arrival city in Tanzania, we'll make our first acquaintance with this lively, stable country during a visit to the village of Sakila, nestled on the slopes of Mount Meru. Here, we'll get a taste (literal and figurative) of daily life in a typical farming community, see the houses where the locals live, join in a quick game of soccer with the neighborhood kids, stop for a traditional lunch at our guide's home, and take an afternoon walk into the forest in search of colobus and Sykes' monkeys.

The following morning we'll depart Arusha for Tarangire National Park, Tanzania's fourth largest. Here we'll find a geologic landscape as diverse as the wildlife, with nine distinct vegetation zones ranging from grassland to woodland, from deep gully vegetation to scattered rocky hilltops. Among ancient baobab trees and dramatic vistas of the Tarangire River valley we'll seek out the abundant wildlife, from elephant, lion, cheetah, and buffalo, to a variety of colorful birds. After a midday rest and swim at our home base, the Tarangire Safari Lodge, we'll enjoy a late-afternoon wildlife excursion, and a second full day of outings, lectures, activities, and relaxation at the lodge.

From Tarangire we'll head west to Ngorongoro Lodge, located on the lip of one of the most amazing habitats in the world: Ngorongoro crater, a collapsed caldera whose sunken floor is an enormous, verdant valley and a magnificent wildlife haven. Here, a nearly perfect balance of predator and prey exists within the 102 square miles of the crater floor. We'll enjoy several excursions into the crater to view its unforgettable spectacle of African wildlife: a teeming world of elephants, rhinos, lions, hyenas, zebra, and wildebeest, to name a few, living in harmony (so to speak) in this self-contained environment (don't ask how rhinos and elephants managed to climb into the crater in the first place; we do, however, know why they haven't gotten out).

Leaving Ngorongoro we'll make several marvelous stops en route to Serengeti National Park. We'll visit the local Maasai people at a nearby boma, a village of cow-dung huts, where you'll see the Maasai adorned (as they always are, not just for tourists) in their distinctive deep-red cloths and herding their prized cattle, the only form of wealth the Maasai recognize. (We may also encounter teenage Maasai boys wearing strategically placed ceremonial gourds—we'll explain more about that if we see it.) We'll stop at the famed Olduvai Gorge, where some of the earliest remains of our species were unearthed by the Leakey family, and visit the Gorge Museum, which explains the Leakeys' methods and exhibits their remarkable finds, including the jawbone of Zinjanthropus man.

From Olduvai we will begin the classic African safari journey into the Serengeti National Park, the most celebrated wildlife sanctuary in the world. The sight of giraffe, lion, ostrich, zebra, and warthog will dazzle you, as will the sight of herds of animals swiftly crossing vast open spaces and of predators stalking their prey. Our comfortable (we might almost say luxurious) home in the Serengeti will be the private Classic Camp; you'll thrive with sumptuous meals and excellent service, but don't leave your cameras and binoculars lying around; monkeys will grab them. After a final morning of game viewing we'll fly back to Arusha, enjoy day rooms at Mount Meru Game Lodge and Sanctuary, and have time for shopping or a swim before heading off to Kilimanjaro International Airport for the flights home.

Program Cost and Travel Arrangements

The program fee of $6,895 per adult (double-occupancy), $5,895 per youngster age eight through eleven, and $6,295 per youngster age twelve through seventeen, includes all lodgings, meals, site visits, game-viewing expeditions, land and air travel in Tanzania, full escort services, emergency medical-evacuation insurance, all taxes and gratuities, and the full educational program. Currently, group air from the U.S. on Northwest/KLM is an additional $1,600 per person (adult and youth), but you are free to arrange your own international air if you prefer.

Physical Requirements

This is not a physically rigorous trip, but we will be in safari vehicles every day with some long drives over rough roads. Weather this time of year should be delightful; dry and warm but not extreme during the day, quite pleasant in the evening.