One Nature Nyaruswiga

The Nyaruswiga Hills Above Seronera

One Nature Nyaruswiga sits in the Nyaruswiga Hills, a 25-minute drive from the Seronera airstrip, looking out over the Seronera Valley from a slightly elevated position that gives every tent deck an unbroken view of the plains. This is the geographic center of the Serengeti and the richest resident-game area in the park, which means the lodge delivers reliable game viewing in every month of the year rather than only when the migration passes through.

• Big Cat Country: The Seronera River and its tributaries are minutes from camp, and the lodge sits inside the territories of several resident lion prides. Leopard, lion, and cheetah on the same morning drive is a realistic expectation here.
• The Migration Passes Twice: The herds move through the Seronera Valley heading north in May and June and south again in November and December, so guests in those months see both the resident cats and the migration without leaving the central circuit.
• A Hub for the Central Serengeti: The Seronera River, Makoma Hill, Retina Hippo Pool, and Maasai Kopjes are all short drives from camp, and the Moru Kopjes and Sametu Marsh each make an excellent full-day excursion.
• Open Year-Round: Unlike the seasonal camps of the North and South, Nyaruswiga is permanent and open twelve months a year.

The lodge is unfenced. Elephants walk through camp, zebra graze outside the tents, and lions have been known to argue within earshot of the decks after dark. Maasai askaris escort guests to and from the tents, and a hot water bottle waits in the bed.

The Big Cat Capital, Year-Round

One Nature Nyaruswiga sits in the middle of the most reliable predator country in Africa, with five distinct regions within a short drive and two more that make superb full days out.

• The Seronera Valley: The valley takes its name from the Maasai word for the bat-eared fox, but it is better known as the Big Cat Capital of Africa. Its perennial rivers keep a huge resident prey population in place through every month of the year, which in turn supports the densest and most diverse concentration of predators on the continent. A single day’s drive here can realistically produce lion, leopard, cheetah, and hyena, with serval, caracal, and jackal in the supporting cast. The landscape is the quintessential Serengeti: endless golden savanna broken by ribbons of riverine forest, umbrella acacias, and granite kopjes where lions sprawl in the sun. It has been the backdrop for more wildlife documentaries than any other place in the park, and the migration pours through twice a year, north in May and June and south in November and December.
• The Seronera River: The largest of the four green fingers that wind across the valley floor, lined with yellow-barked fever trees and sausage trees, is widely considered the best place in Africa to see leopard. A long-term study recorded one leopard per ten square miles along this river, one of the highest densities ever documented, and because the trees along the banks are relatively sparse, spotting a tail twitching from a sausage tree branch is a daily event rather than a lucky one. The riverbanks also hold the largest and most stable lion prides in the park, including the Seronera, Maasai Kopjes, Makoma Hill, and Campsite prides, which have been studied continuously since 1966 by the Serengeti Lion Project. Hippo, crocodile, waterbuck, and reedbuck live along the pools.
• Makoma Hill: The wooded hill that forms the western wall of the Seronera Valley is one of the top highlights of the central circuit and only a short drive from camp. Between the hill and the river lies the Makoma Plain, a small stretch of long grass that works as a natural bottleneck for game moving between wet and dry season ranges, and in the middle of the plain rise the Thatch Kopjes, headquarters and den site of the Makoma lion pride. The pride is famous for its visibility, lounging on the boulders by day and ambushing buffalo herds of 100 or more in the tall grass. Makoma is also one of only eight places in the southern Serengeti with a resident, non-migratory cheetah population, and its spotted hyena clans are legendary for their running feud with the lions. Black-backed jackals and bat-eared foxes work the termite mounds. A hidden track on the back of the hill leads to a secluded viewpoint over the plains that is one of the best private bush lunch spots in the Serengeti, with giraffe browsing the slopes behind you.
• Retina Hippo Pool: About five miles north of Seronera, the Seronera and Orangi rivers converge in a deep, swirling basin that is the hippo headquarters of the Serengeti, with roughly 200 animals huddled together. It is one of the few places in the park where you can step out of the vehicle: a natural viewing bank ten feet above the water puts you a few yards from the pod, close enough to hear the squabbles and smell the pool. Nile crocodiles bask on the far shore, elephant families drink along the quieter stretch to the west, and the riverine forest is busy with baboons, grey crowned cranes, lilac-breasted rollers, and kingfishers. A short nature walk along the bank is the best leg-stretch of the central circuit.
• The Maasai Kopjes: Standing like sentinels at the eastern entrance to the valley, these towering stacks of two-billion-year-old granite are home base for the Maasai lion pride, one of the largest and most studied prides on Earth. The lionesses use the crests to survey the plains and the swamp below as an ambush site for prey coming to drink. The swamp on the south side is also the best place in the park to find the rare bohor reedbuck, and the rocks themselves teem with hyrax, mongoose, porcupine, and electric-blue agama lizards. Leopard and cheetah stage ambushes in the vicinity, and ostriches perform courtship displays on the open fringes.
• Moru Kopjes (Full Day): Southwest of the valley, 45 square miles of smooth granite monuments and candelabra euphorbia trees rise out of golden grassland in what Kay Turner called the most beautiful scenery in the Serengeti. Moru is the park’s last stronghold of the black rhino, a population rebuilt from two survivors after a legendary bull named Rajabu walked 70 miles from the Ngorongoro Crater to find them, and now numbering around 19 under round-the-clock protection. A short climb leads to the Maasai rock paintings and Gong Rock, a boulder that rings like a bell when struck, with 360-degree picnic views from the top. Lake Magadi draws flamingos and the lions that ambush at its shore, elephants climb the kopjes, and in May the migration stalls here for the wildebeest rut. From Nyaruswiga, Moru is a full-day excursion with a picnic lunch and one of the best days of any central Serengeti stay.
• Sametu Marsh and Kopjes (Full Day): East of the valley on the remote edge of the short-grass plains, Sametu is widely regarded as one of the top three highlights of the entire Serengeti, and it is a place few vehicles ever reach. A cluster of granite island-kopjes rises from a flat sea of grass with a permanent spring-fed marsh at its feet, the only year-round water for miles and a magnet for cheetah, hartebeest, gazelle, and warthog, with honey badger and African wild cat as the occasional surprise. The kopjes are home to the Sametu pride, the largest lion pride in the Serengeti and the subject of Jeanette Hanby’s book Lions Share; the great-great-granddaughters of the original lionesses still hold the same rocks today, and hunts at the marsh are frequent. Maasai wells carved into the bare rock centuries ago still hold clear water. From Nyaruswiga, Sametu is a full day out with a picnic lunch, crossing the Ngarenanyuki River onto the true Siringet, the endless plains, and in the green season the migration is often spread across the grass on the way.

In Camp

Elephants walking through camp, a male lion guarding a kill a few hundred feet from the gym, zebra outside the tents, and giraffe running past the fire pit at dusk are all regular guest reports. Lions have been heard scuffling just outside the tents at night; by the third night most guests sleep straight through it.