There’s nothing like a new year for fresh starts, clean slates, things to be made new… and – though it may not have occurred to you to consider it – there’s nowhere that quite epitomises this like the Southern Serengeti. When all of us have gone back to work, the weather is grey and the frivolity of the festive season is but a warm memory – the Serengeti is absolutely stunning, frolicking and abounding with freshly minted life.
Emerald season is our favourite diamond in the rough. It’s overlooked by those not in the know, and this makes it all the more enchanting: the wild with no one else around is impossibly precious, and we’re delighted when the rain sweeps in because it spells endless potential for extraordinary safari alchemy.
There’s a magical window of time between the end of January and the beginning of February: a gift from the heavens just as we have got the year underway. The rain lifts, and golden sunshine pours over lush green plains, illuminating newness everywhere. Flora flaunts fresh foliage, alive with birds and butterflies; fauna tests out shaky new legs with playful gambolling in the wildflowers – and the entirety of the Great Migration is on our very doorstep.
The Greater Serengeti Ecosystem (and the well-worn wildebeest route therein) stretches from Tanzania all the way into Kenya. Here, at its southernmost reaches, it is a patchwork of Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area – and hundreds of thousands of acres of Legendary Expeditions’ privately managed, exclusive concessions.
That’s nice, you might think; perhaps it’s not immediately obvious what this means. But when you’re out here, this kind of exclusivity – in a private expanse vaster than the Masai Mara – translates into a truly game-changing advantage to your safari.
The wildebeest calving is a spectacle that draws the crowds, and rightly so. But why would you come all the way to the wilderness to be part of a crowd? Luckily, if you’re on a private concession, you need never answer this question: you’ll hardly see another soul. All of this space? It’s yours. It’s your personal playground, and you get to dictate the terms on which you explore it.
The infinity of the landscape is inescapable… there’s something about the clarity of light in the clean, fresh air and the magnitude of the sky. It makes your soul want to give itself over – to get lost in it. It makes you want to roam as endlessly and freely as the wild beasts do. And you can.
You want to walk through the wildebeest herds and watch a calving on foot? No problem. You want to stay out on the plains as the sun sets the sky ablaze before conceding to billions of stars sparkling holes in the velvet night – and drive home with a spotlight divulging the secrets of the nocturnal world? Sure thing. How about far-flung fly-camping in a tent made of nothing but netting, lying in plush comfort gazing straight up at the full moon, and listening to the noises the wild makes in the darkness? Let’s go. A helicopter flight plunging thousands of feet into the Great Rift Valley, skimming a glassy lake in a pink cloud of flamingos? Just say the word.
The Legendary Migrational Camps are set on the edge of the short grass plains, looking onto the Migration’s calving grounds and with unfettered access to the infinity of the Serengeti wilds, while Mwiba Lodge and Mila Tented Camp are tucked away among the granite boulders and coral trees of Mwiba Wildlife Reserve, in lands roamed by Hadzabe hunter-gatherers and a wealth of wildlife alike. All three offer an exquisite home while you immerse yourself in emerald magic.
In short, there are safaris, and there are safaris… so why do it any differently when you could experience the herds without being part of the herd? Step beyond the ordinary and into your own unique, tailormade take on the wilderness – in the only spot that has the herds all to itself.
Inspired? Speak to us