What will the most famous Serengeti offer us?

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It’s on the road again after breakfast; it goes from a tight winding dirt road with a sheer drop down the side of the mountain to long straight flat areas where the Maasai graze their herds of cattle and goats alongside the zebra and wildebeest.

We listen to more Don Williams, we have learnt that Roman likes all music but most of all he likes country music (he only has with him only one Don Williams cassette and one African music cassette, so we know them both well now), he would like to buy a guitar and be a country/western singer. He’d like a pair of wrangler jeans, denim shirt (“a nice soft one, not hard thick denim”), a cowboy hat and boots.

It only takes a couple of hours to get to the Serengeti National Park entrance where we wait for Roman to get permits, more waiting time…

These things are never quick, usually there is only one person doing them and lots of drivers needing them.

While we wait we have a look in the information office and buy ourselves a map of the area, you know, in case we feel like going for stroll - not! But it does include a map of the migration and it shows at the moment it’s on the very Western edge the Serengeti preparing to head into Kenya.

We ask Roman when he gets back where we will be and we are in the central Eastern part called Seranora. We are both disappointed thinking we won’t see much. But you can’t be everywhere at the right time can you?

THE ENDLESS PLAIN

And we’re in, there is 14,765 square km to the Serengeti. Serengeti means ‘Endless Plain’ and at the start you can see why. It’s flat, grassy and goes on forever.

We don’t see much apart from the usual few gazelles and a spattering of zebras and the odd wildebeest here and there. Then all of a sudden we see them, Wildebeest, thousands of them!

Then there’s loads of elephants!

Then when we think it doesn’t get any better we see a few zebra and wildebeest at first then we get closer and it’s zebra and wildebeest as far as the eye can see! I have never seen, or heard, anything quite like it.

The zebras sound like a donkey and the wildebeest kind of sound like a cow, but not, perhaps like a sad cow… But the noise is deafening and visually it’s mesmerizing. The patterns on so many zebras close together almost make it look like those weird 3D pictures made just with patterns that some people insist on having on their toilet walls… And then you have the wildebeest who plod along in their old man way and then spontaneously one or two will just start running around like a 2 year old after eating an entire block of chocolate.

The zebra are REALLY skittish and will take off in a mad gallop the second they think something is too close. Apparently it’s because of the zebras eyesight and good sense of direction that they pair up with the wildebeest who are lacking in those areas but have a great sense of smell, so the wildebeest can smell when there is fresh food to move on to and the zebra will get them there. The zebra are also a little smarter, so when it comes to river crossings they will send the wildebeest in first and while the crocodiles are busy with them, the zebras will go across a lot more safely!

Right next to all of this commotion and chaos is the first of many hippo pools in the Serengeti. There must be more than 20 in there, all huffing, puffing and splashing.

While all this is going on I notice one of the biggest differences between here and Ngorongoro Crater is the lack of masses of safari vehicles congregating at every sighting. I think is probably due to the huge size of the Serengeti, the other plus thing I’ve noticed is the weather - it’s warm!

IN TANZANIA THEY REPECT THE DUNG BEETLE

We go to the information centre where we have lunch. There are loads of dwarf mongoose and hyrax (looks like a guinea pig but is about the size of a rabbit) hanging around the picnic tables, you’re not meant to feed them, but it seems tourists are messy eaters and food seems to fall on the ground, hhmmmm.

We end up on a tour through the information centre with a guide that Roman has teed up, we probably could have walked around and read everything for ourselves but then we wouldn’t have found out that in Tanzania you can be fined for killing a dung beetle! They are considered an important part of the circle of life here and so Thou Shall Not Kill Thy Dung Beetle!

THE WORST HOTEL RECEPTION STAFF - EVER

We check in at the Serengeti Serena Hotel, and experience the absolute worst welcome. Apart from the one porter who greets us at the car, gives us a drink, a face washer and then carries our bags to the room, the rest of the staff to this point are just terrible.

The guy managing the reception desk goes through all the formalities as though he was checking us into prison after we’ve been found guilty of robbing him personally; there was definitely no love there!

Even something as getting internet time he makes painful, maybe customer service shouldn’t have been his chosen area of career, or maybe we just got him on a really bad day.

The hotel itself is really cool; there are individual 2 story huts with one room on each floor. Outside our balcony are 2 little Dik Dik’s, the tiny gazelle that only gets to 5kg. The Serengeti Serena Hotel stays in keeping with a very eco friendly theme that all their hotels have and tries to have as little physical impact on the environment as possible. They are all similar but different so they blend with their environments.

OUR ANIMAL COUNT FOR THE DAY

Lions
Grand gazelles
Wildebeest
Zebra
Thompson gazelles
Giraffe
Warthog - big!
Elephant - lots
Topi
Hippos
Dwarf mongoose
Impala

OUR BIRD COUNT

Ostrich
Kori Bustard
Ugandan Crown Crane
Helmeted Game Fowl
Coqui Francolin

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Comments

[Ros]

Sooo many animals
Must have been amazing seeing so many wild animals in one place.