Camping in the Serengeti...there is nothing quite like it!

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After arriving in Tanzania and trying to readjust to the lifestyle here, we quickly embarked on our safari adventure. We met out driver, Joshua on Thursday and the poor guy has been stuck with us since! Although I admit we have had a lot of fun, he will probably be happy when he is finished with us. We always bug him about how lucky he is and call ourselves his 6 muzunga wives lol! You can tell that he absolutely loves his job!

Our adventure started by spending two nights at the Lake Manyara Serena Lodge and enjoying safaris around Lake Manyara the first two days. During that time we saw elephants, giraffes, baboons, blue monkeys, velvet monkeys, hippos, impalas, warthogs, wildebeast, zebras and flamingos.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Serengeti National Park. It is amazing to me how so many different ecosystems can exist in such close proximity. On the way from Lake Manyara to the Serengeti we passed through desert, prairie and forested areas. The road was pretty bumpy and a couple of us felt pretty sick for a portion of the drive. Luckily as soon as we arrived in the park the scenery made us forget about the crappy road that we were driving on. Saturday night Joshua took us out for a game drive. We found lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants, hyenas, warthogs, cape buffalo and zebras. The most amazing thing was seeing lions up close. At one point we were less than 10 feet from them! On our way back to the camp, we saw the sun setting and what a beautiful sight it was. Watching the sun set on a safari in Africa has always been on my bucket list. Apparently on this trip I am checking a lot of items off!

Sunday we had a full day drive around the park. For the most part we saw the same animals, but driving down a dirt road and seeing herds of elephants, zebras walking down the road and hippos lazing in the water NEVER gets old! While we were driving a herd of elephants actually surrounded our vehicle. They are SOOOO quiet and were not bothered by us at all. They walked right up to our truck and then walked past! Such a neat experience! While in the Serengeti, we stayed in tents. Our camp had 10 tents and then a food tent! I am so happy that we decided to camp while we were here, the experience just isn't the same unless you experience sleeping in a tent listening to animals outside. The people at the camp told us that lions, elephants and giraffe frequent the camp and told us what to do if we came up against an animal! The highlight of the safari trip, hands down, was waking up to the sound of a giraffe eating branches and slurping water out of our shower bucket, RIGHT outside the window of the tent!!!!!!

It is our last night in Africa and we are about to go for dinner. On my way to the computer I ran into a huge group of baboons walkig down the path....CRAZY...but so fun! It is going to be hard to go home, but what an amazing time I have had! Can't wait to see everyone and show pictures. There truly aren't enough words to express everything, but hopefully pictures will be able to do it some justice!

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