Tanzania : Day 10 : Arusha to the Serengeti National Park
Having left Arusha early, we were now driving in 5 individual 4 wheel drive trucks with either 6 or 5 crew on board each! I was with Jenny and the boys - Brian, Troy, Dave & Andy which was a complete hoot !! It was a very bumpy and dusty ride to get from Arusha to firstly the Ngorgoro Crater where we stopped for lunch ...
Whilst we were enjoying a packed lunch, some of our crew were dive bombed by a massive brown eagle looking bird ... check it out, I think it may have been a Brown Kite but it was quite scary to have this massive bird swoop down and practically take some people's ears off !!
We had to drive around the rim of the Crater to get to the Serengeti but I was so excited to be there ...
The Serengeti is where the wildebeest gather for their birthing every year and apparently, 8,000 new wildebeest babies are born a day (!!) during the birthing season so it is game on !! Fortunately, for us, despite the lack of the migration being in the Serengetili there was still plenty of game to be spotted and we saw heaps of lion and got so close to a herd of elephants that we ended up in the middle of them which was a bit hair raising but they were quite placid and didn't seem too concernd about us. We also saw a zebra carcass which had been freshly killed and hundreds (literally!) of vultures and Maribu Storks in the surrounding trees all waiting to get their share of the action ... and hyaenas were hanging around for the leftovers!
As we were heading towards our campsite, we saw a big leopard hanging out of a tree in a very typical perch which was brilliant to witness ... he/she ? didn't seem to have a care in the world and if you look carefully, you may even notice the "smile" on his/her face?!
Our campsite was again the bare basics and we were not allowed to get out of the tents at night due to wildlife having free range within the campsite! Here the drop hole facility was reportedly terrible, however, some of our team who were struggling to cope were brave enough to venture there! I couldn't face it and chose the bush instead!!
The Serengeti is an amazing place ... it is so vast and really lives up to it's name "Endless Plains" ... being very hot and dry did not help either but we had some brilliant game viewing here which was so exhilarating! In addition to all this excitement, whilst in the Serengetic, we also saw crocodiles, hippos, zebra but few giraffe and no rhino ... and lot of birds and buck ... read tomorrow's entry for more ...
Whilst we were enjoying a packed lunch, some of our crew were dive bombed by a massive brown eagle looking bird ... check it out, I think it may have been a Brown Kite but it was quite scary to have this massive bird swoop down and practically take some people's ears off !!
We had to drive around the rim of the Crater to get to the Serengeti but I was so excited to be there ...
The Serengeti is where the wildebeest gather for their birthing every year and apparently, 8,000 new wildebeest babies are born a day (!!) during the birthing season so it is game on !! Fortunately, for us, despite the lack of the migration being in the Serengetili there was still plenty of game to be spotted and we saw heaps of lion and got so close to a herd of elephants that we ended up in the middle of them which was a bit hair raising but they were quite placid and didn't seem too concernd about us. We also saw a zebra carcass which had been freshly killed and hundreds (literally!) of vultures and Maribu Storks in the surrounding trees all waiting to get their share of the action ... and hyaenas were hanging around for the leftovers!
As we were heading towards our campsite, we saw a big leopard hanging out of a tree in a very typical perch which was brilliant to witness ... he/she ? didn't seem to have a care in the world and if you look carefully, you may even notice the "smile" on his/her face?!
Our campsite was again the bare basics and we were not allowed to get out of the tents at night due to wildlife having free range within the campsite! Here the drop hole facility was reportedly terrible, however, some of our team who were struggling to cope were brave enough to venture there! I couldn't face it and chose the bush instead!!
The Serengeti is an amazing place ... it is so vast and really lives up to it's name "Endless Plains" ... being very hot and dry did not help either but we had some brilliant game viewing here which was so exhilarating! In addition to all this excitement, whilst in the Serengetic, we also saw crocodiles, hippos, zebra but few giraffe and no rhino ... and lot of birds and buck ... read tomorrow's entry for more ...
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