Serengeti

After a good night in the bar courtesy of Ma & BJ, we split into groups again and headed off to the Serengeti in 4WD's. Our group remained pretty much the same, although the 'newly engaged couple' swapped with the 'about to be married couple'. Our driver this time was named Livingstone and was much more informative and talkative then our driver in the Masai. As we drove through some villages he would give us a bit of information on them as well as the other game parks or national parks we passed. There were many souvenir shops lining the road and Claire was looking forward to being able to do a spot of shopping. At one stop we were encouraged to buy Masai blankets as the temperatures in the crater get to zero. We had sleeping bags that we thought would handle it, so we held off.

Our day of driving started at about 8am and finished after sunset. In order to reach the Serengeti we travelled around the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater. There were a couple of good vantage points where we could glimpse the lake in the centre. As it was dry season it was only a fraction of the size it can be.

On the edge of the crater. That small patch of white over Steve's shoulder is the lake

One of the highlights of the day occurred at Simba Camp on the edge of the crater. We had dropped in to use the toilets (apparently they are the best in the area, well the only ones in the area) and found 2 bull elephants at the camp. This camp is huge and the toilet block is at the opposite end to where the elephants were so no one was concerned. After 15min or so we noticed that the elephants were heading our way, so we got back into the 4WD's. A group of French travellers chose to abandon their nice picnic lunch and head into the toilet block for safety. The elephants took particular interest in the mattresses that had also been left out. We thought the tents might have been in danger but Livingstone explained that elephants have poor eyesight and see a tent as a big rock, so won't go near them. After playing with the mattresses for a while the elephants had a bit of a tussle and then headed for the food. Our 4WD blocked them off and eventually both elephants wandered off into the bushes. It was at this point that Livingstone told us we would be camping right here the next night!!


After that excitement we continued towards the Serengeti, finding one of the other 4WD's stopped on the side of the road after the brakes had over-heated on the way down from the top of the Crater. Our driver seemed to be in charge so he got out and had a bit of a tinker, pronounced the other 4WD OK and off we went again.

Some kids came over to investigate

The next stop was at the gate to the Serengeti where the drivers paid for our admission to the national park. The staff at the park definitely used African time, as it took over an hour. Apparently they only took credit cards, and they had lost their phone connection, so we were at a standstill. It was then that we discovered that the other 4WD had a faulty alternator and did the first of the many battery changes to get underway.

We were all expecting to see animals straight away, as we had done in the Mara but it was a good hour of very boring driving over a flat and brown landscape before we saw anything other then Gazelle (of which there were 100's). Eventually a few trees started to appear and in the hour before sunset we saw Cheetah, Hippo, Lions and Giraffe. When the sun started to set we were all mesmerised at the colours. Unfortunately we couldn't stop for long as we were hadn't got to camp and it was nearly dark.

Hyena

Feeding time.

Jackal

Cheetah

Hippo's

Our campsite at the Serengeti was our first experience in an unfenced camp with no guards to protect us from any animals. When we arrived there was about 5min of light left and our tents went up in record time. Quite a few of the group were a little nervous and made sure their tents were surrounded by others. Being the brave ones, we ended up on the outside of the group between the water tank and the toilet block and the Serengeti behind us. The only part of this camp that is fenced is the kitchen.

We slept quite peacefully but discovered the next day that there had been Buffalo grazing only a few meters from our tent. Claire also found one grazing next to the toilet block at 5am. Lucky it was still dark or she wouldn't have made it. It was on the way back that the head torch picked up the eyes. The drivers also told us that there had been a couple of Lions prowling around.

The only issue we encountered when the campsite ran out of water. Thus no showers, and no flushing toilets.

The main game drive here started at sunrise which was almost as good as the sunset the previous night. There were definitely more animals out and about. Apart from the 100's of Gazelle that we noticed yesterday, there seemed to be quite a few Lions about. The main highlights were:
1. A female Lion eating a kill, 2 females grooming each other, a male Lion coming within a couple of metres of our car and then attempting a Gazelle kill.

2. The speck in the tree that turned out to be a Leopard. Eventually it climbed down and followed a Gazelle before giving up and going back up a tree. Steve's lens was only just capable of seeing it.

3. A herd of 10 elephants that walked in front of our car to a small waterhole where they started to spray themselves with water and mud. The babies were so tiny that they were almost completely submerged at times.

We also saw Zebra, Warthogs, Buffalo and of course the Gazelle. Another interesting feature was the blue and black squares of cloth that were hanging in the trees. We founds out these are impregnated with some sort of poison for the Tsetsi fly. Back in the camp site for lunch, we saw that most of our tents had been dragged to one side so that the water truck could deliver to the toilet block. We quickly packed up and jumped back in the 4WD ready for the trip to Ngorongoro Crater.

Serengeti Camp.