Faru Faru Lodge is situated overlooking the Grumeti River and alongside a waterhole that is frequently visited by wildlife.

Singita Faru Faru Lodge is located in the Ikona Wildlife Area, which borders the northern side of the Serengeti National Park. The camp is ideally positioned on the route of the Great Migration of over two million herbivores and also offers excellent game viewing all year.

Activities offered at Faru Faru Lodge include morning and afternoon safari drives in the Grumeti and Ikona Reserves, walking safaris with a trained guide, hot-air balloon trips for eagle's-eye views over the Serengeti grasslands, and cultural interactions with the local Maasai people.

Located on a gently sloping hill, Faru Faru is built in the style of a classic East African safari camp, with the suites and lodge areas decorated as a throwback to the timeless Colonial era. The lodge is a mix of contemporary, organic style and the quirky practicality of a traditional botanist’s camp. With such close proximity to the river and plains, guests have the unique opportunity to experience a very close connection with the wilderness.

Faru Faru offers 9 luxurious guests suites, one of which is a family suite that accommodates 2 adults and 2 children and another two-bedroom suites that accommodates 4 adults and has its own private pool.

The lodge's main guest area comprises a lounge, dining area, and café-style bar. Large outdoor decks provide plenty of views in all directions. Just outside the lodge are two swimming pools with decks and a popular campfire area. For those who want extra pampering, the Wellness Centre offers massages and beauty treatments and a fitness centre is available as well. Shopping is offered at the Singita Boutique and Gallery.

Singita are one of Africa's leading safari operators and they strive to minimize energy consumption at all their camps. Faru Faru Lodge is connected to the national grid with a backup generator available. Strict eco-friendly environmental standards are maintained so that no harmful chemicals or waste is allowed to enter the pristine ecosystem of the Serengeti.

About the Serengeti

The Greater Serengeti is part of an extensive ecosystem that includes Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and other reserves, wildlife management areas, and game controlled areas.

The Greater Masai Mara (directly to the north in Kenya) includes the Masai Mara National Reserve, as well as numerous private Mara conservancies. Together, the combined Greater Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, which combines the areas described above, covers roughly 15 000 square miles (39 000 sq kms).

The Serengeti-Mara is home to a very large number and diversity of wild animals and is also the location of the well-known "Great Migration" of over 2 million herbivores (read more below). This is arguably Africa's greatest overall wildlife destination.

Wildlife densities in the Greater Serengeti are some of the highest in Africa, with commonly seen herbivores including blue wildebeest, plains zebra, Thomson's gazelle, topi, Grant's gazelle, hartebeest, giraffe, elephant, buffalo, impala, waterbuck, bushbuck, warthog, and many others. Predators seen often include lion, leopard, spotted hyena, cheetah, serval, and jackal. Hippo and crocodile are found in large numbers in the larger rivers, including the Mara River and the Grumeti River.

ABOUT THE GRUMETI GAME RESERVE

The Grumeti Game Reserve was created by the Tanzanian government in 1994 in order to protect the path of the annual wildebeest migration and the indigenous biodiversity of this vast and important ecosystem. In 2002, the Grumeti Community and Wildlife Conservation Fund, a not-for-profit organization, was granted the right to manage and conserve these 350 000 acres for the benefit of Tanzania, Africa and the world.

Four years later, Singita took over the management of the property, at the request of the concessionaire and began the task of generating, via low-impact tourism, the funds necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the reserve through conservation and community partnership.

Ikona Wildlife Management Area
Bordering the Grumeti Reserve on its northeast is the Ikona Wildlife Management Area. Ikona was established in 2007 as a "mixed-use" area and is managed by the local Maasai community.

Singita leases land in Ikona and has built three lodges there (Sasakwa, Faru Faru, and Singita House). Ikona covers 94 square miles (243 sq kms) of prime safari territory and guests at any of the Singita camps in both Grumeti and Ikona can access both reserves for game drives.

The Great Migration

One of nature's greatest living spectacles is the Great Migration, a term given to describe the year-long, circular, clockwise march of over two million herbivores across the Serengeti and Masai Mara grasslands. The migration animals are made up entirely of two species: the blue wildebeest and the plains zebra (the majority of which are wildebeests).

The migrating herds follow their instincts to seek out fresh grazing and so the migration is ongoing, with the herds ever moving and taking a full year to complete a cycle across the Serengeti and Masai Mara. The animals move not as one herd, but as tens of thousands of animals in multiple herds of various sizes and spread out for many miles as they move.

The wildebeests and zebras take advantage of strongly seasonal conditions, spending the wet season (November through May) on the plains of Tanzania's Serengeti and the dry season in Kenya's Masai Mara. The wildebeests give birth between January and March on the short grass plains in the southern Serengeti.

The timing of the migration is rarely ever the same year-to-year, as local conditions influence grass growth and as such, the location of the bulk of there animals cannot be known precisely. Rains and other unknown conditions seem to direct the timing of the migration, but generally, it is known within several weeks when the animals will be in a general location.

The animals spread out to cover a vast area, but the main bulk of the animals moves south into the northern Serengeti around late-October and continue moving south towards the Serengeti's southern plains, arriving there sometime in January to graze on the rich grass growing on the volcanic soils. It is here on these short-grass plains, between January and early March, when the wildebeests give birth to their young en masse, producing some 500 000 baby wildebeests.

The herds remain on the southern short-grass plains until late March, giving the young animals time to grow and become strong, before heading north and west again. Many of the animals move towards the Serengeti's Western Corridor and Grumeti Reserve and the rest straight north into Central and Northern Serengeti, where they remain during June and into July. The herds move back into Kenya starting in late July, with the bulk moving into the Masai Mara in August.

Although many visitors time their visit to the Serengeti to coincide with the Migration, any region within the Serengeti offers very good wildlife viewing outside of the months when the migration may be present. This is because it is only the wildebeests and zebras that migrate, while the rest of the animals, including the major predators like lion, leopard, spotted hyena, and cheetah, as well as all the other herbivores, including springbok, gazelles, elephant, topi, hartebeest, and many others, do not migrate.

A popular aspect of experiencing the Great Migration is observing a herd as it crosses the Mara River, which requires animals swimming through waters inhabited by large Nile crocodiles that wait for a chance to get their first substantial meal in many months.

The dramatic river crossings (which take place along the Mara River in both Kenya and Tanzania) are certainly a spectacle and not for the faint of heart, with many of the wildebeest and zebras taken by crocs or succumbing to drowning or trampling in the chaos. The best chances for seeing a Grumeti River crossing is in June, while Mara River crossings are best in July and August.