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Published: November 10th 2017
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Geo: -2.4492, 34.5932
It has taken us several days to pluck up the courage to tackle the Crater and the Serengeti National Parks. Both of these spots are World Heritage Sites which translates to more Tanzanian bureaucracy then either Darren or I could stomach. The list of Rules and regulations make these two like Boot Camp. Permits to entry are issued for a 24 hour period which results in Safari Operators charging around the parks (particularly the Serengeti) in a completely uncontrolled manner on roads that are hazardous to say the least. If they are fortunate enough to come upon one of the big cats stalking prey and making a kill this is prime watching for the hordes of tourists in the back of the vehicles. Trouble is this event takes at least an hour and then they have to reach the gate by their permitted sign out time or big fines. The only solutionis to drive like a mad thing with absolutely no consideration for the health and wellbeing of their passengers or other road users (us).
We did camp in the Serengeti which was one of those wildlife experiences that is great after but unsettling at the time. Our camp was surrounded by giraffe, cape buffalo, zebra, various antelope things (Darren's official name for stuff jumping off the side of the road across the car) and wilder beast. Fortunately all seemed quite on the predator front. The herds seemed calm hence we assumed we were fine. We did eat dinner early and made sure we were up in the tent shortly after dark regardless. In the morning we were up early (that permit thing again, before sunrise eating breakfast and ready to drive at 6.00 am). We had the most amazing game drive seeing more lions and cheetah than we had ever imagined within about 4 kms of our camp. Hmmm! We were glad we had only booked in for one night camping. In summary the Serengeti is a fantastic park but we are glad we do not have to come back again
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