“You can’t think of anything you’ll want or need that isn’t available,” says Alice Gully of Aardvark Safaris about the extraordinary prize on offer to ICAS members and students. “It’s a real little gem of a place.”
The £12,000 safari competition, organised by ICAS in association with Aardvark, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The winner and a person of their choosing will go on an exclusive, eight-day safari to Tanzania, taking in the stunningly beautiful Lake Manyara National Park, the colossal Ngorongoro Crater and the expanses of the Serengeti Plains.
The winners will stay in the exclusive Tree Lodge in Lake Manyara National Park
“We in Aardvark are delighted to be offering this prize in association with ICAS,” says Gully. “It’s a thrilling prize, and an amazing opportunity for the lucky winner.”
The trip offers the chance to see wondrous wildlife up close and personal, and to take in views usually only seen on TV or cinema.
It begins in Lake Manyara National Park, where the winner will stay in the park’s only accommodation, the Tree Lodge.
A long and narrow site of immense natural beauty, it was in Lake Manyara that Iain Douglas-Hamilton, recognised as a global authority on elephants and elephant conservation, carried out in-depth research into the behaviour of wild elephants.
The wildlife in Lake Manyara is spectacular
The park is also famous for its tree-climbing lions; seeing members of a pride climb the park’s acacia tree is a wonder to behold.
From Manyara, the winners will travel north to the Ngorongoro Crater. A self-contained eco-system, the crater is 2,000 feet deep and 100 square miles in area, and often described as one of the natural wonders of the world.
“Somehow Mother Nature has placed the right amount of ‘ellies’, and the right amount of lions [and so on],” says Gully.
The accommodation overlooks the Ngorongoro Crater
There are only four lodges surrounding the Crater, but three of these are somewhat removed from its rim. The winner of the ICAS-Aardvark competition will stay at the fourth lodge, which sits directly overlooking the crater. “You have to pinch yourself,” says Gully.
Once they move to the Serengeti plains, the winner will stay in two lodges: from the first there will an opportunity to go game driving in an environment like the one seen on TV’s ‘Big Game Diaries’.
The second will be a movable camp, located wherever is best to the massive migration of wildebeest and zebras. Behind these follow the predators: jackals, cheetahs and hyenas.
The winners will follow the migration of zebra and wildebeest
The pace and content of a typical day is dictated by the winner, though people are encouraged to get out early to see game, then return for an extended brunch during the hottest part of the day, before driving out again in the afternoon.
As well as seeing stunning wildlife, the winners will have time to relax inextraordinary surroundings
The prize also includes discounts on an additional trip to the fabled beach at Zanzibar, and on additional people joining the safari.
Gully says that people often take a couple of days in Zanzibar before the safari, to relax, get out of a work mind-set, and prepare for the “feast for the senses” to come.
Full details of the competition and rules on how to enter are available on the Aardvark website: http://www.aardvarksafaris.co.uk/competition-ICAS.php
Further information about Aardvark Safaris is available here: www.aardvarksafaris.co.uk