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Serengeti Safari
Written by Tina Sibley in April 2022
A Serengeti Safari had been on my bucket list since I was a teenager, having seen countless documentaries on TV and especially after watching the movie "Out of Africa".
I hadn't focused much on the safari portion of my trip as the Kilimanjaro hike had pretty much overshadowed all my preparation, but now the time was here, I was really looking forward to it.
Day 1 in the Serengeti
We piled onto the truck after an early breakfast and I sat alone at the back. We had electricity and charging ports on the bus, which was great so we could keep our phones and cameras topped up! We made the journey back along the same road I had taken to get to Musoma, this time going back towards Mwanza. We got to the gate of the Serengeti National Park and we stopped there for lunch. I was really excited at the prospect of seeing the animals.
The game drive was in the actual truck, rather than in jeeps as I had imagined. This didn't feel the same as we were inside the vehicle rather than in something with an open top. However, Sam our driver was incredible and took the truck to some amazing places - and our view through the great big windows, that dropped right down was pretty spectacular.
The first animals we saw were the wilderbeast and zebras and then elephants. The elephants were really close and absolutely HUGE.
The Serengeti was just as I imagined it to be - just like all those documentaries I had seen on TV. A vast expanse of grass littered with trees. The grass was much greener than I had expected and the trees were just the shape I had expected to see - very distinctive.
And we saw a huge range of different types of animals.
Every time we came across animals that were fairly close, Sam stopped the truck for us to get clicking with our cameras.
My favourites were the zebra, giraffes and elephants.
I also had a bit of a soft spot for the ugly ones - the hyenas and the warthogs!
First Night camping in the Serengeti
After spending the afternoon oggling animals, it was time to head for camp. We had a briefing about our camp site, since there was no perimiter fence. We were told that animals sometimes wandered through the camp at night and had instructions on what to do if we encountered any!
First of all, we were told to expect hyenas, since they are attracted by the food smells from the kitchen. Sure enough, while we were sitting around the camp fire chatting, we spotted two hyenas in the long grass. It was quite spooky as you could only see the reflection of their eyes watching us!
We were told that if we wanted to go to the bathroom during the night, we first had to scan the area with our torch to see that it was clear. We were told that most animals would ignore us. If we saw them, we could proceed but slowly, without sudden movements. The only time to worry was if we saw lions - but that would be very unlikely. If we did happen to see lions, the instruction was to stay put - either in our tent or in the bathroom and, if we got stuck in the bathroom to call for help and the guides or rangers would help us.
I have to say, that on my inevitable bathroom trip, I was rather nervous! My little heart beat much faster until I was safely back in my tent again!
Day 2 in the Serengeti - Balloon Safari
Day 2 in the Serengeti started very, very early, around 5am. A few of us had booked the Serengeti Balloon Safari and I was really excited about this. We were picked up to drive to the balloon area and the idea was to be up in the air just as the sun was rising.
This was well worth getting up early for! The sunrise was absolutely spectacular.
If I'm honest, I was a little disappointed as we didn't see as many animals as I expected.
However, it was pretty wonderful being up in a balloon over that beautiful landscape. We did see a few antelopes, but the highlight was being over a herd of buffalo towards the end of our trip. That was pretty amazing.
Our landing, as we had been warned it would be, because of the wind speed was pretty bumpy - and a lot of fun! We tipped over onto the side of the basket and were dragged along quite a way through the grass. As I was now on the bottom of the basket, I ended up covered in the grass - but it really was fun and thrilling.
After we landed, we had a talk by our pilot, about the origins of ballooning and how the word pilot came about. And we had a glass of champagne to celebrate. Then we drove to our site for a fabulous breakfast.
The breakfast really was an 'Out of Africa' experience, where the table was outdoors in the grass, under the trees and set beautifully with white linen, silver cutlery and beautiful table decoration. We had a choice of breakfast between traditional and English and there was lots of the gorgeous fruit, tea, coffee, fruit juices and, of course, more champagne.
All in all, the balloon safari was a fantastic experience and one that I would recommend.
After the balloon safari ended, we joined the others back at the truck and continued the game drive, stopping for lunch and then going back to the same camp for dinner and an evening around the camp fire.
During the couple of days, we saw so many animals:
Elan, Secretary Bird, Silver back jackal, sirval cat, hippos, heartbeast, nile crocodile, monster lizard, hyena, topi, Maasai Giraffe, warthog, ostrich, buffalo, impala, elephants, monkeys, baboons, zebra and wilderbeast. Plus probably more that I've forgotten about.
So far, we had seen 2 of the 'Big Five' - elephants and buffalo. Obviously, we also wanted to see Rhinos, lions and leopards.
Serengeti to Ngorogoro
This morning, we packed up camp and set off after breakfast for another game drive in the direction of the other side of the park and towards our next destination which was the Ngorogoro Crater.
The highlight of the morning was an incredible sighting of a black rhino. It was quite close and I managed to get some great video of it with my phone. It was enormous and was moving quite quickly. So that was number 3 of the big 5 ticked off.
At the junction where the Serengeti finishes and the Ngorogoro National Park begins, we got off the bus and had our photos taken at each of the two big signs. There were also some Maasai women there who were happy to have their photos taken with us. They were selling souvenirs and if we didn't buy any, we at least gave them something for posing with us.
On the way to Ngorogoro, we passed a monument to an archeological find of very early man. The monument features two giant concrete skulls—each 6 feet tall and they represent the two most famous contemporary hominin species, dating back 1.85 million years. It was very interesting and we stopped for a talk about them.
As we journeyed towards the crater, we entered an area populated by the Maasai. We saw many of them tending flocks of goats, sheep and cattle and we also passed Maasai villages. We had received a talk about the Maasai from Iddy, one of our Kilimanjaro guides. Iddy is Maasai and was very happy to share the culture of his people with us so we learned a lot from him.
We finally got to camp at around 6pm and just had time to set up our tents before dark.
