Serengeti, Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya


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Africa » Tanzania » North » Serengeti National Park
June 10th 2017
Published: June 11th 2017
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Driving through the Tanzanian countryside we frequently saw the Maasai people walking the roads and fields. Colourfully dressed in red and blue, they could mostly be seen herding their goats and cattle. With their culture permitting men to have multiple wives, we passed a village where one man has an entire school devoted to the children and grandchildren he has with his 32 wives!!

We entered the Serengeti National Park in a 4x4 open top safari vehicle; eyes peeled and cameras at the ready, excited and elated for our last game drives in Africa. Our goal? The illusive leopard who had managed to escape us thus far. The result? Better than we had dared to hope.

The Maasai people called the Serengeti National Park "the place where the lands move on forever". Neither of us were prepared for it's vastness or astonishing beauty. She teased us first with some ostriches, zebra and antelope. But before long we were emersed in a world of lions and cheetahs.

Etosha gave us our first elephant, rhino and lion. Chobe gave us our first buffalo and a couple of hundred more. And a month into our search for the Big Five Game, the Serengeti gave us the best gift of all - a lone leopard sleeping in a tree. And then for two more days she just kept giving. Hippos, hyenas, lion after lion, a breathtaking sunset, pumbas (or for those of us who aren't obsessed with the lion king - warthogs), giraffes, elephants and eagles. We would happily have gone home there and then (only teasing Annie and Marie but on the bright side only 10 months to go).

High on life, we left the Serengeti and set off for the last highlight of our Africa trip - a night in the Ngorongoro Crater and one last game drive. What were we hoping to see? Well once you have seen the big five what more is there to see, right? Wrong. You start to get a little greedy. You don't just want to see another elephant. You want one so close that you can almost touch it. You've seen a rhino at night time but you want to see one during the day. You want to see lions hunting. You want a cheetah on the bonnet of the safari vehicle when your driver shows you a photo of it happening a few weeks earlier!

We got greedy but luckily the Crater, home to a very high concentration of animals, including the big five, was happy to oblige - except for the cheetah on the bonnet dream (next time!). We drove past lions that were mere inches away. An elephant crossed the road metres from the vehicle. Zebras and wildebeests provided amazing Kodak moments. It was the perfect end to the Africa leg of out RTW trip.

The last stop on our 40 day camping trip was Nairobi. It was a flying visit as we spent less than 24 hours there before flying on to Dubai. Our brief stay left impressions of a much more urban city than we had encountered elsewhere and chaotic traffic! Our last day was tinged with sadness as we learned that our driver for the 40 days and friend Bombastik had contracted malaria along the way having only been diagnosed in hospital that day after dropping us off at our hotel.

And so the first chapter of our RTW trip, Africa, is complete. Having started in Capetown 47 days ago, and travelled 10,165km through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Milawe, Tanzania and Kenya, we have said our goobyes to Africa and the great people we were lucky to share our African adventure with.
Dubai is home for the next 24 hours before we start our next adventure in India. We are enjoying some home comforts (beds, toilets, warm water, familiar food) that have been scarce over the past few weeks. Heaven!



Additional photos below
Photos: 39, Displayed: 24


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Hippo pool. Hippo pool.
Hippo pool.

A pod of hippos. Not the most pleasant of smells.
Two cheetahsTwo cheetahs
Two cheetahs

Ignoring our calls to climb aboard the bonnet for a photo shoot. Next time.
HyenaHyena
Hyena

Breakfast on the go #fastfood
Another lion. Like dogs to us now these days. Another lion. Like dogs to us now these days.
Another lion. Like dogs to us now these days.

Very close to where we had stopped to change a flat tyre in the park!
TIA - This Is AfricaTIA - This Is Africa
TIA - This Is Africa

Posing above the Ngorongoro crater


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