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14th to 16th August Day 19 to 21 Serengeti Safari, Tanzania
3 safari vehicles arrived at camp this morning to take us on our 3 day excursion into the Serengeti National Park and Ngorogoro Crater on safari. We split into 3 groups….the 3 accommodated passengers went off on their luxury trip while the rest of us piled into the remaining 2 vehicles. Love God our driver and guide introduced himself before we hit the road and made our way towards the park entrance via the Ngorogoro crater, although we wouldn’t be entering the crater itself today just driving around the top of the crater.
We stopped off on the way to visit a Masai village…..I’m not a big fan of organized village tours as they usually turn into a bit of a staged event and end with donation boxes but I was curious to see the village and the inside of a hut. We were welcomed with a dance from the men and woman before we were led in small groups for the tour and as I’d expected the whole thing did seem very staged and the main event was a tour of the many necklaces, bracelets etc that had been made for us to purchase.

We hit the road again and entered the Serengeti Park and after a few km’s we stopped on the side of the road to pop the top of the vehicle and start game driving our way to our camp. We spotted many of the usual impala and gazelle but were also treated to a sighting of a cheetah lying at the base of a tree….my first cheetah, although we did think it was a leopard until our guide set us straight! Also sighted were hyena, Tope (a type of antelope), Kudu and Waterbacks. Oh and Troy Boy Brown.....we saw another little Dik Dik and yes I thought of you :-)

We arrived at camp to find out tents already set up (such a treat!) so sat back and waited for our dinner to arrive…..spag bol again…..not my favourite meal in the world but the cream of cucumber soup for starters was lovely and after a couple of beers and a few games of cards we were asleep dreaming of cheetahs and leopards……………

We woke up early the next morning and had a quick coffee and biscuit before loading the vehicles for a morning drive. Along with being treated to a beautiful African sunrise we also saw elephants although they were acting strangely around a small ellie lying on the ground…possibly dead but we couldn’t really tell. Our guide also showed us a gazelle hanging from a high branch of a tree…no the gazelle hadn’t jumped high up there; a leopard had dragged it up and was saving it for later on.

We made it back to camp for a huge hot brunch and were excited to see buffalo and zebra about 100 metres away from where we sat. On the way out of the park we found a group of elephants enjoying a bit of cool water and just around the corner we came across a lioness stalking a group of impala…..we watched in excitement as God Love tried to battle with the other many vehicles to make sure we got the best view. We watched as one after the other the impala made their break to freedom and came to the conclusion that we’d found a lazy lioness. So we didn’t get to see a kill but it was still interesting watching the stalking process in action and seeing the lioness getting pretty agitated.

We had to make a sprint to the park gate as we had to be out by 4pm so God Love had his foot to the floor a lot of the trip and we arrived just in time and then drove towards the crater rim where that nights camp was located. We arrived to find a group of zebra in the camp and later a lone elephant with the biggest tusks I’ve ever seen came to visit, thankfully standing a small distance away from our tents. As we were up on the crater rim and high above sea level we had a freezing night in our little tent and cursed the lack of a warm camp fire.

We were excited about spending our last day in the crater itself as we’d been told that there should be more animal sightings and that there were many lions. As we made our way down into the crater we came across a couple of cheetah lying beside the road having a bit of a snooze. Further down the road near the Crater Lake we found ourselves in the middle of a huge herd of wildebeest making their way somewhere but where we’re not sure as they kept changing direction and were almost going in a circle.
We also saw a large amount of lion and hippos as well as the usual suspects….impala etc. We sat down by a small body of water for lunch and watch the hippos wallowing in the water before we made our way back out of the park and drove back to Arusha via a couple of craft shops.

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