MORNING
Depart your Arusha hotel at 6:00 AM for the scenic 3.5 to 4 hour drive northwestward through the extraordinary Great Rift Valley landscape — past the dramatic Gelai and Kitumbeine volcanoes and through beautiful traditional Maasai pastoralist country — arriving at Lake Natron by approximately 10:00 AM.
Your first sight of Lake Natron is an almost overwhelming visual experience — the vast alkaline lake stretching to every horizon in extraordinary shades of red, orange, and brilliant pink with the dramatic volcanic silhouette of Ol Doinyo Lengai rising magnificently above the western shore. Your guide leads a beautifully rewarding flamingo viewing walk along the extraordinary lakeshore — approaching the vast breeding flamingo concentrations as closely as the birds’ comfort allows for the most intimate and most overwhelming flamingo encounter available anywhere in East Africa.
MIDDAY
A short drive to the beautiful Engare Sero Waterfall — a magnificent cascade of cool crystal-clear fresh water tumbling through ancient volcanic rock into a beautiful natural pool. A refreshing swim in the waterfall pool — one of the most joyful and most memorable moments of the entire day trip — before a beautifully prepared picnic lunch served in the extraordinary Rift Valley landscape with Ol Doinyo Lengai views.
AFTERNOON
Visit the extraordinary Engare Sero Footprint Site — where ancient human footprints dating back approximately 19,000 years are preserved in volcanic ash near the lakeshore providing a profoundly moving connection to the ancient human story of the Great Rift Valley.
A final Maasai community visit to one of the most traditional and most authentically remote Maasai communities in all of Tanzania — experiencing genuine cultural exchange with a community whose ancient pastoralist lifestyle has remained essentially unchanged for centuries in this extraordinary and remote Rift Valley landscape.
Depart Lake Natron and drive back to Arusha arriving approximately 7:00 to 8:00 PM — concluding one of the most extraordinary and most visually overwhelming day trips available anywhere in northern Tanzania.
