Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania) and Nairobi (Kenya)

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The Serengeti was our next stop, so it was into land cruisers for the 4 hour journey there. We passed through the Ngorongoro crater, which is a collapsed volcano, the climb is pretty high but you get some great views down into the crater and then down area where the Masai tribe live. They were moved here from the Serengeti when the government made it into a national park. The Serengeti itself is huge and extends for 15000km2. There were 1000’s of wildebeest here getting ready for the great migration, which goes from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara, which in comparison is only 1500km2.

We camped in the middle of the Serengeti and were woken to noises of lions roaring in the night. The first game drive earlier that day we had seen lions and leopards at a distance. Lions here can climb trees and it was amazing to see 2 of them in a tree. Serengeti lions are one of the few breeds to be able to climb trees our game drive the next day allowed us to see lions and leopards much closer as well as 4 cheetahs, 3 were in a group perched on a rock and the 4^th was in the process of killing a warthog to eat, our presence there had made him delay this, so we moved on. As well as the big cats and the usual giraffe, buffalo, zebras and elephants, one of the most memorable things about this park was the sheer number of wildebeest here and how zebras mingle with them. Wildebeest have poor eyesight so zebras are their eyes and wildebeest help protect the zebras (to a degree) due to the quantity of them surrounding the zebra. As we left the park we encountered some vultures eating te remains of a wildebeest after a lion kill. Storks were waiting next to the vultures until they finished. Vultures are interesting creatures and they reminded me of the cartoon vultures from the Disney Jungle Book film with the way they walked, except these were not voiced by the Beetles.

It was surprisingly chilly in the Serengeti and this intensified as we camped on the Ngorongoro crater, we heard buffalo in the night here and the crater reminded me of the outer Hebrides more than Africa (just with much cooler animals). The crater itself was an incredible experience. Here we were lucky to see so many more lions up close, some that had just been on a kill, 4 female lions who walked right next to our vehicle, some lion cubs and then 2 lions humping. We also saw elephants fighting, the usual swarms of wildebeest and zebras as well as warthog, storks and even hyenas. The game drive seem to get better and better. Hopefully here the pictures will do the talking.

The trip ended in Nairobi, Kenya. This is a very busy city and extremely polluted due to the sheer volume of traffic. We managed to escape the city to see a Giraffe Sanctuary which look after giraffes who have been injured or orphaned. You can also feed them and because their saliva is an antiseptic they can’t get human germs and vice versa, you can then feed a giraffe through your mouth, which is hilarious as their long tongues are like sandpaper, which is a good facewash!! Later we checked out an elephant sanctuary set up by David Sheldrick where orphaned elephants from across Kenya go to be rehabilitated back into the wild. This normally takes around 3 years. Their stories are quite sad, with many elephants losing their parents to poaching or simply human cruelty. It was so nice to see them up close and recovering after quite an ordeal that some of them had and a great way to finish an incredible trip. Yet again Africa has not disappointed and has been an incredible continent.

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