Serengeti Safari

Safari

Early on Saturday morning we packed our safari truck and left for our 4 day adventure into Africa’s national parks. We were accompanied by our knowledgeable guide, talented cook (both named Peter) and an Australian Rotarian named Tony who is also staying at the school.

After 5 hours of driving we arrived at Ngorongoro Crater.  This is a caldera the size of Lake Taupo that supports an amazing diversity of wildlife.  We were able to spend the afternoon viewing lions, zebra, giraffe, cheetah, the rare black rhino and many other native birds and animals in the crater. As we were not allowed out of the truck we were pleased to discover that the roof pops up allowing us to stand and take photos of the amazing views and animals.  The crater is like a natural zoo, we were able to get within metres of all the animals.  The scenery and wildlife changed at every bend, it was breathtaking to take in the huge diversity that exists within such a small area.

In the valley’s adjoining the crater are many Masaai villages, where the Masaai people still live traditional lifestyles that revolve around grazing cattle.  The valley is dotted with boma (groups of Masaai homes) and Masaai people wearing their vibrant coloured blankets.  Each day the children take their family’s herd of cattle 600m down to the crater floor for water, then return to the valley for grazing in the afternoon.  The Masaai women work hard collecting firewood, water and cooking while the men appear to sit, drink and gossip.  Ross and Brian seemed to think this a good system. 

The rim of the crater where we stayed was 2600 meters above sea level (about the height of Mt Taranaki) so we were quite unprepared for the cold night we experienced at the camp site that night. Luckily the rest of our journey was hot and sunny to make up for this.

The next day we drove through part of the Serengeti and were lucky enough to see more of the animals that we saw in the crater as well as baby leopards and baboons. Along the way we found ourselves in the middle of the wildebeest migration and were surrounded by thousands of what may possibly be the most unattractive animals known to man. Peter informed us that 2.5 million wildebeest and 1.9 million zebra take part in this 800km migration south in search of food every year.

In the evening we camped at Seronera in the heart of the Serengeti, a beautiful spot to admire the plains, watch lightning in the distance and view the stars. In the middle of that night some of us were lucky enough to be awoken by the sounds of lions roaring near our tents while others of us were so tired we slept through it.  Day 3 we went on a morning game drive and witnessed hippos wallowing in a pool before undertaking the return drive out of the park.  The Serengeti is stunning both by its diversity and vastness. 

After 3 days without showering we were happy to arrive at our campsite near the appropriately named Mosquito River as it had running water. We also discovered Keisha Castle Hughes and the film crew for Intrepid Journeys staying there filming an upcoming episode of the show for NZ television.

On our last day we went into Lake Manyara National Park. The environment there is vastly different from the other parks we had seen so far as it was a combination of rainforest and plains. It was here that we encountered an elephant family and were able to watch as they ripped branches off trees to eat.

We all agree that this safari was an amazing once in a lifetime experience that showed us a very different side of Africa, words can really not describe it. We saw everything we hoped we would see as well as much more and it was definitely a highlight of the trip.