Safari II - The Majestic Serengeti


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Africa » Tanzania » North » Serengeti National Park
January 7th 2018
Published: January 12th 2018
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Ngorongoro Crater to Serengeti


This will be a short blog as the Serengeti is something beyond words - something only pictures do justice to. We drove for about three hours on the morning of Day 3 passing through Masaai territory. We passed many Masaai farmers, clad in their colourful wraps, herding their goats and cows. Outside the Serengeti, wildlife is plentiful and the Masaai are allowed to hunt but only for their own consumption. We entered the Serengeti at Naabi Gate. This area contains over 200,000 zebra and 350,000 gazelles who attract an incredible concentration of predators including lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyenas.

We spent the two days doing 'game drives' at a slow pace. Chris has a fantastic eye for spotting game - they blend in with the terrain so much that our untrained eye simply overlooks most of the animals. We camped at Seronera in the centre of the Serengeti. The park is nearly 15,000 square km. and stretched out in all directions from our camp. We were happy to have the campsite to ourselves and most of us used the opportunity to shower and refresh.

The highlites of these two days included the hippo pool and spotting a leopard lounging on the branch of a tree. We still reacted strongly to every lion sighting but they were getting more common and seemed to do little besides lie around and sleep. We exited the Serengeti at the west end - the Ikoma gates - and drove on to Bonda where we again enjoyed the luxury of having a camp site all to ourselves.

The following include 30 of the animals we observed - I am sure I am leaving out a few: baboon, black faced monkey, black rhino, buffalo, cheetah, crocodile, dik dik, elephant, gazelle, giraffe, grey crowned crane, guinea fowl, hippo, hyena, impala, euro, leopard, lion, lizard, ostrich, rock hyrax, secretary bird, spotted hyena, tawny eagle, topi, vulture, wart hog, white vulture, wilder-bee, and zebra.

We awoke on Day 5 of our safari to find the garbage scattered around. Hyenas had moved in to our camp overnight. During breakfast a family of baboons approached looking for food but we drove them away. The Serengeti is a sight that no one should miss.


Additional photos below
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Masaai woman outside the gatesMasaai woman outside the gates
Masaai woman outside the gates

Monica had just given her an apple and the kids some balloons

Yetta on cooking dutyYetta on cooking duty
Yetta on cooking duty

Chris giving instructions
african storks.african storks.
african storks.

these guys are the garbage pickers of the Serengeti... they clean up everything
ImpalasImpalas
Impalas

the locals call them MacDonalds because they have a white patch on their rump that looks like the golden arch
Male preparing to chargeMale preparing to charge
Male preparing to charge

time to move out in a hurry


12th January 2018

What...no Stanley cranes?!
...And we had to look up dik-diks! Sounds fabulous guys!

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