African Safari in the Serengeti

Well, we've been in Africa now for over a week. Our trip over from Bangkok was seamless. About 9 hours in the air to Nairobi, 4 hours at the Nairobi airport, then one more hour to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania. It was morning on the flight from Nairobi and a clear day, so we were rewarded with fantastic views of Mt Kilimanjaro right out our plane window.

Kili from the plane. We won't be climbing it. Too expensive, and, hey, we probably had the best view right here!


After walking past the taxi drivers who wanted to charge us USD $50 to take us to Arusha (50km away) we found the free shuttle that got us to town in a snap. First impressions of the area, and stepping off the plane was a relief at how fresh the air felt. It was overcast, cool and not humid. Such a change from everywhere in SE Asia. Arriving into the town of Arusha we were greeted with a slightly different style of touting. Of course every westerner that comes to Arusha is looking for a safari. So as we step out of the bus, we are greeted with several business cards. Despite our pleas that we are extremely tired and in no rush to book a safari, one of the gentlemen manages to stay by our side the entire way to our hotel of choice. A very nice man, giving us loads of good advice along the way, but the heart of the matter of course is that he wants us to book safari with his company. We tell him we need a nap, and yes, we promise to come visit your office. We wake up from our nap, and he's waiting outside our hotel room! We tell, him please, give us a day to recoop, and yes, we promise to come to your office. We manage to spend the rest of the day walking around, eating, and collecting more safari operator business cards.

Our hotel was less than great, so we moved....and made a point to move early so that we could do so before Alex showed up again (our tout friend). Sure enough, we run into Alex later, and he says, "I came to your hotel this morning with a car, but you weren't there!" Talk about persistence! So we spent the rest of that second day inquiring at several different tour operators. It was hilarious. It is low season now, and we are just about the only tourists in town and thus are a very sought after couple of white faces. We would walk out of one office, and literally be ushered into the car of the next waiting company and driven to their office. Our shopping around paid off, as we ended up getting a very good deal. When you go on safari, you have the option to camp or stay in fancy lodges. Naturally, we figured we'd be camping, but with low season, the price to stay in the lodges is the same as camping. So...twist our arm, we'll stay in fancy lodges with all you can eat buffets! The most bizarre thing with all this safari shopping, is that right after we booked with our company we didn't get one more tout approach us trying to sell us safari. It's like a bulletin went out: "The couple from the US has booked safari. Stop all efforts to sell."

We highly recommend anyone thinking about going to Serengeti to do it in the low season. Low season is technically the rainy season. This means cooler temps, and beautiful, green scenery. Also with the low season you get far fewer other people driving the roads of the park looking for the same elusive leopard in the tree. Plus, it is WAY cheaper. Still an expensive outing, but we were very pleased with the price we got.

So anyway....on to safari. We chose a 5 day, 4 night trip that took in three different parks. Leaving Arusha, 5 of us plus our driver, David, piled into a well worn Land Rover and we drove about 2 hours to Lake Manyara. The Land Rovers have quite comfortable seats, everyone gets a window seat, and a completely removable roof, so you end up standing on your seat most of the time for the best view and fresh air.

On safari. Luckily, we ended up with a very cool group of people to travel with!


On the way out you pass many Masai people. These are a nomadic people whose lives revolve around their herds of cattle. Of course, now they are not as nomadic and are becoming more reliant on tourism. Yes, we had to pay to take this picture:


Of course Lake Manyara was fantastic, because it gave us our first sightings of everything. The guides must find the first day hilarious. Stop! It's an elephant! A giraffe! An impala (really pretty antelope)! Stop! A warthog! Another antelope! Stop! Stop! We have to take a picture! Even though he assured us we'd see more and see them a lot closer, it didn't matter. The first of anything you see in the wild is pretty cool. And sure enough, by day 5 we were giving the giraffe, impala and elephant nothing more than a passing glance. The Lake Manyara park is 2/3 lake and 1/3 land and sits on the valley portion of the great Rift Valley. Lots of wildlife. The more elusive, being the tree climbing lion. Lions don't usually climb trees, but in this park they have learned how out of necessity in order to escape the flies that torment them in the grasses. On our way out, a jeep in front of us reported that they saw a lion napping off in the distance, so we backed up and were able to spot her. Our first lion! So we sit and watch her through binoculars oohhing and ahhing. Then we get a special treat when she gets up, walks towards us, crosses the road right in front of us and climbs a tree! How cool.

Here is our friend climbing the tree:


Elephant at Lake Manyara.


That night we stayed in a beautiful lodge overlooking the lake. Way too luxurious for us, but we weren't complaining and made the most of the all-you-can-eat buffets. I don't think we've been hungry for about 7 days now!

The next day was a long drive into the Serengeti Park, where we stayed in another fantastic lodge for 2 nights. In between those nights you go out in the Land Rover on game drives lasting 3-4 hours. Most of the time you are looking for animals, but it is funny how much time you also spend tracking other Land Rovers. Look! There are three jeeps stopped over there....what are they looking at? Let's go find out! So you can imagine what high season is like....makes me feel bad for the animals sometimes. The Serengeti consists mostly of vast plains, with a smattering of rock outcroppings called kopjes. Looking from a distance you wouldn't expect that so many animals live there. So what did we see? Everything....gazelles, impalas, hippos, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, hyena, lions galore, a cheetah from VERY far away, a leopard sleeping in a tree, migrating wildebeest, zebra, topi, warthog, jackal, vultures, some of the biggest birds we've ever seen and some of the smallest and most colorful.

Some photos...most are self-explanatory:


One of the thousands of wildebeest:


Zebras. Apparently their heads and necks are heavy, so when they want to rest they find a friend and rest their heads on each others backs. So cute!


Some of our favorite moments were watching the lions move around and snuggle with each other, gazing at the thousands of migrating wildebeest and zebra (we were lucky enough at this time of year to witness a small part of one of the last great migrations on earth...where 2.5 million wildebeest are constantly on the move for greener pastures between Tanzania and Kenya), watching sunset across the plains, and waking in the middle of the night to a strange rhythmic crunching sound only to find a hippo right outside our window chowing down on the grass.

Evening light on the Serengeti after a short rainstorm. Yes, we were actually there in the middle of this scenery. Unbelievable.


Close up with the lions:


After the Serengeti, we spent our last day exploring the Ngorongoro crater. This is a massive crater (11 km across) holds the largest concentration of wildlife on the planet. So with not much driving, you get to see a lot of wildlife. More of the same, but we got to add rhino, eland (largest of the antelope) and flamingo to our list. Other treats in the crater included a huge pride of lions (maybe 10 of them) that took advantage of the shade from the vehicles surrounding them, and watching a different pride of lions walking through the tall grass in single file hunting for lunch. We never did see a kill, but to watch them prowling like that was pretty cool. The lodge at the crater sat on the very rim and had spectacular panoramic views of the whole thing.

Lions hunting in the Ngorongoro crater:


A long drive out and we were back in Arusha by 5:00. And back to reality. No more being catered to and no more huge meals (a good thing I'm sure). Yesterday, we were able to dodge the bus touts and got on the Dar Express, which turned out to be a reasonabe ride (the 'Express' part was accurate) and within 9 hours we arrived in Dar Es Salaam on the central, eastern side of Tanzania. Dar is a huge city, and we haven't seen much of it yet besides our margninal and expensive hotel room and this internet place. Not much really to do here anyway, but we'll get a ferry tomorrow to Zanzibar which is the tourist destination of this area...known to some as part of the Spice Islands. It's hot back down here at sea level, and we're looking forward to hitting the ocean.