Tanzania - Ngorongoro and Serengeti

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So lucky to be staying on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 metres deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometres. Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 metres high.

We set out with our guide Suleiman at 6am for a seven hour game drive, we were lucky to see a number of lion prides. Early morning we were able to watch the lions eating and roaming the park, by midday they were all sleeping, a couple just on the side of the road. The crater is home to numerous zebra, elephants and wilderbeast among the thousands of other animals.

After two nights at the crater we drove around the rim and down into the plains, it took five hours over bumpy dusty roads to reach our lodge in the Serengeti National Park. The spectacular landscape was barren and dry, but still stunning. The name, Serengeti, is derived from the Maasai word siringit, meaning “endless plains.” An accurate description considering the whole ecosystem stretches over 30,000 square kilometres.

On our game drives in the Serengeti we were able to watch lions hunting, and were excited to spot a leopard, the only animal of the big five we were missing. After two nights we moved to the Kirawirra tented camp, the most luxurious accomodation we had stayed in during our time in Tanzania. As well as seeing numerous lions, giraffe and hippos we were very lucky to witness the wilderbeast migration from this camp. Because of the drought conditions, we thought the Wilderbeast had already headed north to Kenya. But on our morning game drive and with the help of our excellent guide Selemani, we found thousands of them gathering and readying themselves for their race across the river. Selemani set-up a breakfast picnic while we watched them galloping by. After breakfast we followed to see where they would cross, at one point our vehicle was completely surrounded, we were the only vehicle there. The herd were quite agitated running back and forth waiting for the the brave ones to go first. Then all of a sudden they were off like a stampede as they fought to get through the narrow crossing. A truly amazing site. We were sad to leave the Serengeti park after two nights at Kirawirra, we had been very lucky to witness what was possibly the last of the Serengeti migration in this area for the year.

Four hours driving got us to Mwanza, a port city on the shore of Lake Victoria, our two night rest stop before flying to Zanzibar and our next adventure.

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