Returned from Serengeti two days ago! It was so much better than expected- saw more animals than I thought I would and camping out was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
We started our 7 hour trip to Serengeti early on Thursday morning. We left at 7:00, passed through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and stopped at Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge before arriving at Serengeti. Oldupai was kind of a let down.. You would think that the site of the earliest human fossils would have a better exhibition than it did, which was just a little shack crammed with scattered information about th findings. The view of the gorge was beautiful, but no different from any other landscape view we've seen. We didn't even get to drive through the trails in the gorge. It was still a great experience.
After the let down at Oldupai, we drove the final stretch to Serengeti in 2 hours and finally arrived at the entrance to the park. As soon as we drove into the park, we opened up our hatches and looked out for any animals. It didn't take long to see something spectacular- 5 minutes into our drive we saw a herd of thousands and thousands of zebra and wildebeest grazing in preparation for their great migration north.
Another hour later we arrived at our campsite! Equipped with flushing toilets, showers (which we weren't allowed to use), a kitchen space, and a fire pit. Much more luxurious than I expected. We set up our tents, 1 tent for every 5-6 people, unpacked, and jumped back into the cars for an evening game drive.
Our first game drive was very successful, we saw a pride of female lions, A LEOPARD!, hippos floatin in a pond, and on our way back we had to cross a flooded road by a river that had a crocodile swimming in it! So cool.
When we got back Judy, our chef back at Havennature Camp that we brought with us, cooked us up a delicious meal that we ate on our handy mess kits. After dinner we had announcements about the next few days and then, something crazy happened. Lions started roaring and grumbling VERRY close to our site. Sarah yelled for all of us to get in our tents and to only come out if an askari (security guard) was there to guide us to the bathroom. All throughout the night lions, hyenas, and baboons woke me up with loud roaring and screeching. It was amazing yet extremely terrifying.
In the morning we exchanged stories about what we heard, a few heard a hyena run through camp and knock over buckets of water. Sarah had to go through the tall grass to find them and only found 2 of 3.
We skipped breakfast in the morning so we could go on an early game drive, which was lame. No animals seen except a few herd of impala and some hartebeest. We got back, had breakfast, hung around camp till lunch, then went on another game drive.
This game drive was a lot more exciting. We saw more lions, some Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, hippo, hartebeest, topi, and another leopard! This leopard was chillin in a tree with at least 10 safari trucks surrounding it. It was kind of sad but the leopard knew he had control over the situation- he just jumped out of the tree and everyone dispersed. Another car from our group was lucky enough to have the leopard walk right up to their truck.
Our third day in Serengeti was probably the best. We had a 6 hour long morning game drive and since it was so long we were able to drive farther out from camp to see new areas of the park. In the afternoon we came up to a huge open grassland area with large kopis (giant rock structures) everywhere. Here we saw the equivalent of Pride Rock from Lion King. At one kopi we saw 3 baby lion cubs from about 5-10 meters away! They were looking right at us so I got a lot of good photos. RIght around the corner were 2 mature female lions basking in the sun. And on the other side of the kopi were 3 other females, one of which looked very pregnant.
After our amazing game drive we went back to camp for a rushed lunch and then headed to a research center for a guest lecture on disease prevention and control in Serengeti. After 6 hours in a bouncy car in the sun, no one was able to stay awake. I felt bad because the lecturer was very interesting, but it was just way to hard to keep my eyes open. After was another game drive. Highlights: lions, another leopard, more antelope, hippos, some beautiful birds, including ostrich.
The next day started off with another morning game drive. Again, we didn't see much. I think there's something about morning game drives.. we never seem to see anything cool. We did get to go to a hippo pool and watch some hippos fight each other.
After the hippo pool we headed over to the Serena Lodge, the chain of lodges mentioned in an earlier post. This on was just as luxurious and had food that was even tastier. Mom would be proud, I got I think 6 plates at the buffet. 2 plates of steak and veggie kabobs, baked fish, sausage, rice and chicken stir fry. 2 plates of salad and fresh fruit. and 2 plates of dessert: chocolate covered bananas, grape creamy jello, brownie bites, and fresh passion fruit and tomato fruit. The passion fruit was crazy! I was hoping I'd get to try it sometime. It has such a strong overpowering flavor, first sour and then sweet. It was great with the brownies.
After the buffet I showered for the first time in 4 days and jumped into the pool. Like the other Serena Lodge, the pool was an infinity pool. I had a few gin and tonics and then showered again and headed back to camp.
SInce we were leaving the next morning, we had a debriefing about the trip and what we learned (we did do a few exercises while on game drives for class). The next morning we woke up at 5:30 to pack up the truck with our equipment and take down our tents. Unfortunately, it was pouring when we woke up so we had to do all of this in the rain. I was soaked by the time we were ready to leave.
On our drive back to havennature, we stopped at Ngorongoro Crater- one of the 7 natural wonders? or something. It was probably the best National Park we went to. A little background info.
Ngorongoro Crater was formed when a gigantic volcano blew it's top and created a giant crater, 15 km in diameter. Since then, herds of animals moved in to take advantage of the rich open grasslands, many lakes, and frequent rainfall.
Getting into the park was tricky, since we had to descend the side of the crater. It was a bumpy and rough ride down the side, but we got a great view of the whole park. Inside the park we hoped to see cheetahs and rhinos, two mammals we haven't seen yet. We were lucky to see 6 rhinos, but no cheetah. :(
We also saw lots of hippo, topi, hartebeest, gazelle, lions, wildebeest, buffalo, and elephant. We even saw a female lion rolling in the grass about 3 feet away from the road!
Our journey out of the park was just as cool as our trip in. We had to take a different road up the crater, which took about 30 minutes. This road went through tropical forest and tall trees. It was cool seeing the different environment. There were also parts of the road that gave us more clear shots of the entire park.
We got back to camp a few hours later, unpacked, and relaxed. The next day was a relaxed day which included sleeping in till 8:30 (which is late for me now), going for a run, a late lunch, and a quick wildlife management class at 3. Then Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark after dinner.
