Adventure Safari

For travellers who find the standard game drive format sitting in a vehicle, moving between sightings insufficiently active or adventurous, Tanzania offers a growing range of safari experiences that engage the body as much as the eyes. A cycling safari through the landscapes surrounding Arusha or along the base of Mount Kilimanjaro covers terrain that no vehicle can access and at a pace that allows the kind of granular, ground-level attention to the landscape the insects, the plants, the soil types, the agricultural patterns that faster modes of travel inevitably miss. The physical effort of cycling through the African bush adds a dimension of genuine exertion to the experience that many active travellers find more satisfying than the passive observation of the standard vehicle safari.

Water-based adventure options add a further dimension to the Tanzania safari experience for those willing to venture beyond the northern circuit parks. Kayaking on Lake Tanganyika one of the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lakes offers encounters with the lake’s extraordinary endemic cichlid fish through the crystal clear water, while the surrounding mountains and forest provide a backdrop of dramatic beauty. White-water rafting on the Rufiji River in the Selous ecosystem, canoe safaris through the palm-fringed waterways of the Selous’s lake system, and multi-day hiking on the slopes of Mount Meru — Kilimanjaro’s less-visited but equally rewarding neighbour all offer ways to engage with Tanzania’s landscapes through physical effort and direct environmental contact that the vehicle safari, for all its undeniable pleasures, cannot replicate.