The rocky/bumpy/LONG ride to the Serengeti


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Africa » Tanzania » North » Serengeti National Park
August 12th 2009
Published: August 31st 2009
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Barack standBarack standBarack stand

Come and get it! All your tourist needs.
We had a long journey to get to the Serengeti by the end of the day, so most of the day was spent in the car. It was interesting to pass through the villages, most towns had buildings which were little more than shacks and generally were built with logs and mud and thatched rooves whilst other houses/shelters outside of the towns were made of anything that was available - sticks, logs, canvas bags and corrugated iron. We also noticed:

1. Speedbumps - there are little to no warnings (generally the latter) for each speedbump, so sometimes they could come as an unfortunate surprise, especially for those who are taller than others (James didn't come out so well after some fun bumps).

2. Roadblocks - heaps of roadblocks were setup with spikes along the highways and roads, which look incongruous to the surrounds as generally there doesn't seem to be a reason for one, but apparently it is mostly for 'financial gain' which usually goes to the police. They take bribes to let you through - just part of the massive corruption problems in Africa, part of which is because the average African police officer only gets paid a
Olduvai GorgeOlduvai GorgeOlduvai Gorge

The geological formation in the background offers evidence dating back 2 million years. Our little friend Nick was down there somewhere wondering around.
pittance - something like $150 AUD a month.We were lucky as they don't tend to stop tourists or diplomatic plates (like we had with Fi & Paul) as they try to be a tad subtle about these things. Yeah, right.

3. As we had 'tourist' pretty much stamped on our foreheads and our safari truck, we were always swamped by locals trying to sell us things wherever we stopped; jewellery, masai blankets, keekois (looks like a sarong/pashmina made of cotton mostly) and various bits and pieces.

We were highly amused by the way in which the Tanzanians and the Kenyans had embraced with fervour the new American President Barack Obama. We saw keekois and blankets everywhere with Obama's face printed all over them, as well as stalls with his name on them. Apparently the Kenyans weren't so crash hot on Obama recently though, mostly as he hadn't visited Kenya on his recent trip to Africa as his family is originally from Kenya and they took it a tad personal. Geez, a tad fickle huh?

Anyway, we stopped off for lunch where we checked at the famous archaeological dig, Olduvai Gorge otherwise known as 'the Cradle of Mankind'.
GiraffeGiraffeGiraffe

Giraffe in the Serengeti!
The gorge is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world as it provides archaeological evidence of the earliest evolution of humans, dating back to over 2 million years ago. Pretty impressive stuff and we soon lost our resident archaeologist, Nick, and later discovered him through our zoom lens - he had made his way down about 100m to the actual dig site and was wondering around! heh heh, very funny.

From there, we endured more of the roads and finally hit the gates of the Serengeti. The Serengeti National Park covers over 15,000skm and geez, I was a little worried we weren't gonna spot anything in an area so big! Phfft, nothing to worry about there. We saw heaps, and that was just on the drive through to our campsite! Okay, so, we saw a couple of new animals including the Secretary Bird (a large bird of prey) which apparently gets its name due to the crest feathers which resemble the feather of a quill.

We also saw our first drop lion!! Yay - we were very excited as we hadn't managed to see one in Lake Manyara, but we had found a lioness just chilling in a tree in the Serengeti - very cool. We couldn't quite work out why they climb up there, was it to get a better view of prey? Was it to avoid other animals i.e. hyenas or elephants? Hmm, jury was out on that one, she just looked to be having a doze.

We managed to see another heard of elephants and somehow get amongst them which proved to be a tad disconcerting, especially when one of the big ones seemed to be giving us the 'evils' and moved towards us with intent - hence, we floored it to get out of her way - you don't want to get on the bad side of an elephant!



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Drop lionDrop lion
Drop lion

Awww, isn't she cute? Just having a snooze.
Awake drop lionAwake drop lion
Awake drop lion

I think all the cars started to wake her up. She didn't seem too worried though.


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