Serengeti North serves as an essential corridor for the Great Migration connecting the southern green season short-grass plains in the south with the dry season areas up north.
It is a little-visited portion of Serengeti National Park and is overlooked. Let us try to correct this.
The northern Serengeti is unspoiled and beautiful and quiet in comparison to the southern Serengeti plains. The area stretches from the Lobo Hills southwards to Seronera and is typified by green rolling hills, which is a pleasant diversion from the much flatter southern plains. As the area is much denser in terms of vegetation, wildlife viewing is more difficult and does not match up to the plains south of Seronera. However, as the northern Serengeti is much quieter in terms of tourist traffic, it may be worth considering this slight drawback as it means that you may go on a game drive without seeing a single other vehicle. Just imagine crossing this landscape of open grasslands with sprinkles of dense woodlands in complete privacy.
The best time to visit northern Serengeti and Lobo is during September (earliest) and October, when the Great wildebeest migration passes through the area on the southward leg from the Serengeti Mara area and the Masai Mara back to the to the southeastern Serengeti Plains. The area sometimes also hosts large numbers of wildebeest in July, but only in wetter years when the northward migration uses a more easterly route. It must be said that the timings, to see the migrating herds, are unpredictable. But even at other times of year, there is plenty to see in this part of the Serengeti. This area supports most of the park's elephant population (the Lobo area in specific is very good for elephants, much more so than the rest of Serengeti National Park), and the Lobo Hills are known for hosting several large lion prides. Cheetah, leopard, spotted hyena and bat-eared fox are also common, as is the elegant serval, a small spotted cat most often seen darting through open grassland shortly after sunrise.
Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) is not part of Serengeti National Park but functions as an integral part of the Great Migration route through the Greater Serengeti ecosystem. The area is accessed through Klein’s Gate (20 kilometers north of Lobo) and extends more that 4,000 kilometers along the northeastern border of Serengeti National Park and the northern border of the Ngorongoro Crater Area. Loliondo is inhabited by the Maasai, and functions as a buffer zone to Serengeti National Park. The Maasai graze their cattle here alongside wild animals. Several safari lodges and camps are within the Loliondo Area, on concession areas that range from a few dozen to a few thousand hectares in size. The best and largest of these concessions is Klein’s Camp, and is often dubbed as one of the finest wildlife viewing destinations in Tanzania, or Africa. The Klein’s Camp concession functions as an exclusive private reserve, and offers superb wildlife viewing, and as the camp is not within national park boundaries also night drives and safari bush walks.
