Wow the Serengeti!

Africa » Tanzania » North » Serengeti National Park
June 12th 2008

Published: June 13th 2008

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Les and Peter

the wedding party

We came upon these people walking to their wedding. The 1st wife had to walk behind the 2nd wife with her head down.

(Side note: We're in Zanzibar now and there is no electricity on the island...there hasn't been for weeks. The subsea electrical cables broke...everything's on generators and internet is verrrrry slowwww...don't think we'll be eating meat for a while! Will upload rest of Serengeti pics in London airport)

Nothing could have prepared us for the Serengeti, it was incrediable. Serengeti is the Maasai word for endless plain, and it seemingly goes on forever. Scattered around the the plains are Kopjes. Kopjes are granite rock outcrops that burst out of the ground a couple of million years ago as lava. Once the volcanoes from the Ngorongoro volcano range erupted, they spewed volcanic ash over the land to make the crust that comprises the Serengeti plain. The Kopjes were the highest peaks of the lava plumes and they are homes and nesting places for all kinds of animals including hiding places for lions 😊

On our way into the park we stopped at a Maasai village (Boma). Audi knew the Maasai here and we had a tour of the village. We were invited into a house to chat. I kept my fleece on out of respect. As one Maasai said to Peter

2nd wife

She wouldn't look at the camera. Audi said this is the way that she is supposed to act.

"we don't want to see your stuff". As if it wasn't hot enough outside, when we entered the hut, they had a fire lit...blazin! They were very open about everything and don't seem to have the same inhibitions as we do about personal topics. I tried to keep cool... but after talking about female circumcusion, I felt like jumping out of my skin, but instead kept a pensive look on my face with beads of sweat rolling down my forehead... I'm sure they could see through.

The women are really amazing. They're strong and gentle. One women or Mama as they're called, if they have children, took a little shine to me and ...I hope the picture of her and I is downloaded because well... it's pretty funny. Somehow I don't look quiet as exotic as they do...?

After entering the park, my childhood fanatisies of the Serengeti we're coming true. We weren't there 10 minutes and we saw 2 Cheetas on the side of the road. About 20 minutes later lions and the list goes on. It's the strangest place, every so often after driving through what appears to be the dryest place on earth a green

The family

The husband is far right, his best man in the middle and his 1st wife on the left.

lush oasis pops up and is home to huge families of Hippos and cat fish.

As I mentioned earlier, all of the parks in Tanzania are really expensive and the Serengeti is no exception. Peter and I payed $200 US just to enter the park! We chose to camp because the lodge cost $400 A NIGHT! Audi brought us to the lodge to eat since, we didn't have any food with us. This lodge was really something, it was built on and around a kopje. It looked like something from a 70's James Bond movie. After paying for a $65 buffett, that was delicious, we decided that the lodge was too rich for our blood and cooked baked beans from the can on a camp fire our second night. Peter bought a bottle of wine and he cut a water bottle in half to make wine glasses. As we watched the sun set in the Serengeti we had smiles on our faces from ear to ear....then the lions wooed us to sleep with their grunting and groaning ...serious!

Again I hope the pictures can describe some of what we saw.

Off to Zanzibar today..birthplace of Freddy Mercury...yippy!