Serengeti is one of the biggest & most popular parks in Tanzania. Do you know that "Serengeti" actually means "endless plains"? Its no surprise why. You cannot see where the park starts nor ends. One can easily spend 3-4 days in this park ... its that big! However, we spent just 1 day as we didn't have much time.
By the time we reached Serengeti National Park, we had seen almost all the common animals and were searching for something different. Although I cannot remember the names of all the animals we saw there, they were in Dominic's guidebook. Here's a glimpse of some of them.
Of course there's one animal that I could never get enough of i.e African Bush Elephants. We saw several elephant families in Serengeti.
The main highlight of our trip to Serengeti National Park were the lions. And not just 1 or 2 lions, we saw atleast 20 of them. Most of the lions were concentrated near a particular rock. One even walked passed us like our pet dog or something. This is what happens when you do not lock animals up in a cage. The park is their home, and they feel so relaxed in it.
Before heading to our next hotel, we decided to stop by a Masai Village. You might have heard of the popular Masai Mara, but how much do you really know about them? They are supposedly one of the smallest tribes among 120 tribes in Tanzania. They are popular because of their eye catching attire.
To visit a Masai Village, we had to pay a total of $50 for 4 of us. On arriving, we were welcomed by a group of male & female Masai warriors. And by welcome, I mean a sort of dance where everyone jumps up and down. By the way, I joined them too. Have a look at the video below.
The Masai Village consists of a number of little huts where the Masai people live. There are more women than men and one men is allowed to marry many woman. I visited one hut and it was really tiny inside. Basically, there's just a little spot for everyone to sleep and a place to heat up some water. It made me wonder if they actually lived there. The hut isn't waterproof and the Masai people have mobile phones too. So much for primitive living!
We even visited a Masai school in the compound where a group of children read the English alphabets and numbers to us. It was a pretty interesting experience.
That night, we stayed at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge. This is a mid-range to luxury lodge. It consists of a number of little cottages facing Lake Manyara. What freaked me out here, were the number of baboons hovering around the lodge. A couple of them were so smart that they could open dustbins & take stuff out. Thankfully, they didn't come near us. What fascinated me the most was the lodge's swimming pool. It had a view to die for. The water was very cold though! After staying at the tent the previous night, this place felt more like home.
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If you've checked my earlier post, you would have seen that our room at Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge directly faced the Ngorongoro Crater. That's exactly where we were heading to next.
The first thing that cauught my eye when we entered the crater was the landscape. Although a grey day, it looked picture perfect. Ngorongoro Crater is wide and relatively flat. Since there are no trees around, it makes it a bit easier to spot animals. The first animal we spotted was the wildebeest ... plenty of them actually. July is the beginning of the "Great Migration" in Tanzania. It is during this season that animals such as wildebeest and zebras move to different areas in search of grass and water. These animals also happen to catch the eyes of some of Africa's greatest predators such as lion, cheethas, hyenas, etc
They say that about 1.5 million wildebeests migrate every year. In the few hours we spent there, we were literally surrounded by them and a bunch of zebras.
Further away into the flatland, we spotted pink flamingos and water buffaloes. It is always a good idea to carry a pair of binoculars while going on a safari. Every vehicle has a path which they must take, and if you have eyes like mine, you will not be able to see anything. Thankfully, Dominic our guide has a pair of them.
So, this is basically how safaris work - if a guide spots something interesting, he alerts the other guides in the vicinity and everyone gathers there. We received one such alert and proceeded to go where 20 other safari vehicles were gathered. Apparently, a lazy water buffalo who couldn't catch up with his mates was gonna become lunch!
Everyone gathered around what seemed like an arena to witness a "kill" ... after all this was what we were here for. After what seemed like an eternity, with the poor water buffalo running into a lake and dodging itself from lions & hyenas, it won! It was a narrow escape! And we missed watching a kill :(
Next, we headed to the hippo pool. Although not very visible, we did manage to get a glimpse of a few of them lazing around in the pool.
Lunch was somewhere over the clouds ... well, atleast it seemed like it. This picnic spot was located at a higher altitude and it was freezing cold. Thankfully, a piece of steak (cold steak) packed by the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge kept us warm.
We did a bit of Serengeti National Park later that day before proceeding to our accommodation. I will tell you more about Serengeti in a separate post. Let me tell you about where we stayed that night.
For the first time ever, we stayed in a tent. This was at the Serengeti Heritage Luxury Tented camp. This camp was located in the middle of Serengeti National Park and consisted of about 15 tents or so. By luxury tent, I mean a tent that has a proper king sized bed with its own toilet. As first time "glampers", we did find a few inconveniences like no proper lighting, poor water pressure and lack of warm water. Basically, if we wanted warm water, we had to tell the staff to heat it up for us. But this stay was all about connecting with nature. Wi-fi was terrible, even though they mentioned that it was better near the dining area. Each time, we needed to go to & from the tent, we were escorted by a Masai warrior. Each of us were given a walkie talkie just incase we needed to contact the staff from our tent. Dinner was average, however, the BBQ organized for us that evening was excellent!
Next up - Serengeti National Park xx
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