Northern Serengeti
The Mara River and the crossing season
The north is different country from the rest of the Serengeti. It has rolling hills, denser woodland and longer grass, and the Mara River runs through it towards the Kenyan border and the Masai Mara beyond.
For much of the year it's one of the emptiest parts of the park. For a stretch in the second half of the year it holds the event most people picture when they think of the migration.
Why visit Northern Serengeti
River crossings are what bring people here. The wildebeest arrive from the south and cross the Mara, often many times and in both directions, depending on where the grazing is better in any given week.
Be realistic about two things before building a trip around it. Crossings happen when the animals decide to cross, and that can mean several hours on a riverbank watching nothing at all. One night here is a lottery ticket, not a plan. Three gives you a real chance. And this is peak season in the north, so a crossing may be watched by a lot of vehicles.
Outside the crossing window the north appeals for the opposite reason. Resident game is decent, the country is beautiful, and you can go a long time without seeing another car.
Practical notes
Wildlife
Wildebeest and zebra in very large numbers during the crossing season. Nile crocodile in the Mara River year-round, and large hippo pods. Resident elephant, buffalo, giraffe and eland. Lion throughout, and the north holds some of the park's larger prides. Leopard in the riverine cover.
What to do there
Game drives, and time spent waiting at the river crossing points. Some areas permit walking with a licensed guide.
Getting there
A long drive north from Seronera, so most visitors fly in to one of the northern airstrips. Flying is the sensible option if you're only here for the crossing window.
Best time to visit
Roughly July to October, when the herds are usually here. Very quiet, and green, outside that window.
The Mara River and what a crossing is really like
The northern Serengeti covers the Kogatende and Lamai sectors, running up to the Kenyan border. Most people know it for one thing: the Mara River crossings. Be clear about what a crossing actually involves, because the television version sets an expectation the river rarely meets.
The herds arrive at the bank and wait. Sometimes they wait twenty minutes. Sometimes they wait six hours. They mill around, walk up and down, go to the water and turn back.
Then something sets one animal off and several thousand follow. You get a few minutes of real chaos: dust, noise, crocodiles, and animals going down a bank no sensible creature would choose. Then it stops. The far bank is full, the near bank is empty, and it is over.
You may sit at a crossing point for a whole day and see nothing happen. On any given day that is the normal outcome. It is why serious crossing trips budget three or four nights instead of one. It is also why a guide who is honest with you about the odds beats one who makes promises.
The country up here looks quite different from the rest of the park. You get rolling hills, open grassland broken by rocky outcrops, and riverine forest along the Mara. It is greener than the centre in the dry months because it catches more rain, which is exactly why the herds come here once the south has burnt off.
The window, and how narrow it really is
In most years the herds are in the far north from some time in July until some time in October. August and September are the busiest. That is the whole window. Outside it, the north is very quiet.
We cannot be more precise than that, and it is not because we are dodging the question. The migration follows the rain, and the rain varies by weeks from one year to the next. In some years the front of the herd reaches the Mara in early July. In others there is nothing north of the Grumeti until August.
The herds also cross back south and then north again, over and over, through the season. So "the crossing" is not one event. It is dozens of them, in both directions, spread over three months.
In practice, that means this. If the crossings are your reason for coming, travel in the second half of August or in September. Budget at least three nights in the north. And accept that you are buying good odds, not a guarantee. Anyone who promises you a crossing is either misinformed or lying.
Outside July to October the north is beautiful and almost empty of both animals and people. It is hard to justify the drive. Resident animals stay all year, including elephant, giraffe, topi and a good resident lion population along the river, but not in numbers that repay a full day of driving.
The far north is also the coolest and wettest part of the park. Mornings there in the crossing season can be genuinely cold.
The single most important logistical fact about the northern Serengeti is the distance. Kogatende is roughly eight hours by road from Seronera in the centre, and much more from the crater. A driving itinerary that includes the far north spends two whole days getting to it and back, which on a seven-day trip is nearly a third of the holiday spent looking at the inside of a vehicle.
Fly. Scheduled flights run daily to Kogatende and Lamai airstrips from Arusha, Seronera and the Ngorongoro area during the season, the hop from Seronera takes under an hour, and the cost of the flight is frequently less than the cost of the extra vehicle days it replaces.
A sensible seven-to-nine day shape is: Tarangire and the crater by road, then central Serengeti for two nights, then fly north for three nights in the crossing season, then fly out to Arusha or straight to Zanzibar.
Camps in the north are almost all mobile or seasonal, set up for the migration months and struck afterwards. They are generally smaller and more expensive than their equivalents in the centre, and they book out a long way ahead for August and September. Twelve months isn't unusual for the better ones.
Note that the Mara River here's the same river that runs into Kenya's Masai Mara. The Tanzanian crossings and the Kenyan crossings are different points on one system, and the herds use both.
Lamai, the Bologonja side and walking
The north isn't only the river. Two areas either side of it matter when you're choosing a camp.
The Lamai wedge sits between the Mara River and the Kenyan border. It is high, rolling, rocky country with excellent visibility and a resident lion population that doesn't leave when the herds do. Camps here are north of the river, which matters in the crossing season: you're on the side the herds are heading to, and you aren't dependent on a bridge to reach a crossing point.
The Bologonja area to the east is quieter still, close to the old Kenyan border crossing, with more woodland and good elephant. Very few vehicles get out there.
Walking safaris are permitted in defined areas of the northern Serengeti with an armed ranger, and the north is the best part of the park for them: the terrain is varied enough to make a walk interesting and the resident game is used to being approached slowly. A walk isn't a substitute for a game drive but it changes the scale of the place in a way three hours in a vehicle can't.
If you're here for crossings, ask specifically which side of the river your camp sits on before booking. It is the single most consequential detail in the north.
Visiting Northern Serengeti
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