Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Park

Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater

Growing up with the discovery channel has blown my expectations for Tanzania's Serengeti up quite a bit, so I was worried it wouldn't live up to the hype.  However, it did.

The land just before entering the national park is flat. It looks like an ocean of grass. Gazelles spot the landscape, but also Masai with their herds of cattle. It's incredably dry.  Apparently the gazelles can go 4 months without drinking. Quite a feat, and a much needed adaptation in this arid climate.  Jackals cross the road in front of us and howl for their kin.  A little farther in, large boulders spot the landscape. It appears they were dropped from the sky, they seem so out of place.

We arrived in the actual national park in the evening.  This first animals we spotted were leopards. Amazing, beautiful, strong looking cats. They were resting in trees and difficult to spot.

We were also lucky enough to have a serval cross our paths. It's a small spotted wild cat and not usually seen.

That evening we camped in the middle of the Serengeti, no fences, nothing keeping the animals out. As I was walking back from the bathroom after brushing my teeth, a hyena was about 15 feet from me. She had been drawn into camp by the smell of food. She seemed rather skittish and wary of me, keeping her distance.  That night a group managed to knock over a garbage can and you could hear them feasting on our scraps.

The next day we observed a lot of animals.  There was a pride of 17 lions chilling in the shade. One of the males gave us quite a show by walking right up to a truck.

We saw elephants herding zebras. Apparently they wanted the zebraas to go the water first to make sure it was safe.

There were tons of hippos lying in a small pond. Their heads are huge! We even saw one on land. They are really fat animals.

The highlight of my day, and perhaps my life, was finding a female cheetah with three cubs. They were about 8 months old.

We spent the night on the edge of the Ngorongoro crater. The views into the crater at sunset were stunning. It was also really cold where we were camping, and we had to bundle up. The chef for our trip made us an appetizer of popcorn, which he placed outside our circle of tents on a metal table.  We munched for a bit, leaving some on the plate.  We weren't aware there was a lone bull elephant in the area.  He helped himself to our popcorn, knocking over the table, making a mess and leaving elephant slime on the plate. Our chef came back and thought we had knocked over the table, and we explained that "The elephant did it!" Best excuse ever.

The next day we headed into the Ngorongoro crater. The volcano that created it erupted 500 mya.  The makeup of the fauna was similar to the Serengeti: zebras, antelopes, hippos, lions, etc. We saw a pride of lions attempt to break up and chase down a herd of zebras. Sadly there was no kill.

Overall, a very successful safari. The leopards rounded out the big five: lions, rhinos, buffalo, elephants and leopards