Kensington Serengeti Serengeti National Park

... few tentative jaw drops may have occurred but he stayed awake the whole time and he got his dues.<br><br>Simba Camp Site arrival. Ashling busies herself washing her hair under a tap to get the 2.6kgs of Serengueti dust out, Echalotte disappears into the vegetation around. Michael comes up to me rather upset and asks me to tell Echalotte off because he can't go look for him and if a ranger came he'd be kicked out of the national park and he might well get surprised ...

... I slept fitfully, wanting to go to the bathroom, but heeding our guides warning that it was best not to, hearing noises and wondering what they were. In the morning we learned that lions had indeed been prowling our campsite, walking between the bathroom and our tents and that someone had gone to the bathroom only to be told to get back inside, the click of a rifle being readied as they scurried back inside.

... the impala, one of the largest of the gazelles. Very pretty, like the Tommy and Grant gazelles. Then along came a Topi (good Scrabble word), another antelope, this one with twisted black horns. It&#8217;s nicknamed &#8220;Blue Jeans&#8221; because of the bluish-colored markings along its hips and rear legs.<br><br>We found our thrill, not on Blueberry Hill, but in an acacia tree where we spotted (get it?) a leopard. Very hard to see &#8230 ...

... two there. The three others in our group went on a balloon ride and the other guests were not up yet. We finally encountered a Belgium couple and they woke up this morning with a baboon in their tent. What a wake up call!<br><br> We started on a day long game drive at 7:30 AM, picking up the rest of our group at 10 AM. While we have seen most of the big game and other animals to date, there is still an occasional surprise. Today, we saw two large groups ...

... we started in the morning. The actual distance, though, is just over 300 km. (186 mi.)<br><br> The camp is not nearly on the same standard as the previous two. There are only five tents and the rest of the accommodation units are very old (1940-ish) cabins. It appears that this used to be a gaming lodge in the past. We check the register and the last time the camp had any guests was 4 days ago and ...

... we had achieved our "big 5 &#8220; by seeing the classic animals of lion, water buffalo, leopard, rhinoceros and elephant. Along the drive we also saw a pair of cheetahs sitting in the bushes. There weren't as many animals as the Maasai Mara as the zebras and wildebeest had migrated north to there. However it was still great to be there. Later we got to the bush camp in the park which was not fenced but a clearing with a hit for cooking and basic toilets. We ...

The night before we were to leave for safari we were so excited we couldn't sleep. We had opted for the budget option of going in a group of 4 and camping but when we got to the office we were told that the other couple had chosen lodges so we were being upgraded at no additional cost - sweet! As is to be expected it took us a while to get going - we were made to sit in their office for about an hour for a so called briefing which consisted of a ...

The alarm woke us up at 5am and in the dark and cold, we got ready and sped to the crater gate for its 7am opening. There was thick fog and we could barely see a few metres ahead of us but as the morning sun rose, the fog lifted and the incredible Lake Magadi unfolded before our eyes. With a maximum driving speed of 50 kph, we spent the morning exploring the Lake's edge, passing Mandusi Swamp, Ngoitokitok Dam, Seneto Springs and Lerai Forest. Although we ...

The next day was time to move on and a long drive to Serengeti. The first part of the road was great and paved, but as soon as we entered the Ngorongoro conservation area, that went out the window. The dirt road got very bumpy and full of holes and we had to slow down to 50 or 60 km/hr. As we descended from the Ngorongoro highlands we stopped off in the Oldupai Gorge, the cradle of humanity, the place where footprints from 3.5 million years ago were found, and they are our ancestors ...

After missing the bus to Moshi I finally did make it back in time for my 5-day safari. Our first stop was at Lake Manyara and then onward to Serengeti National Park. I met up with four other safarians at around 9 in the morning. There was a couple from Spain, Ziggy and Ricardo, both expats from Germany and France respectively. Ricardo had just lost his job as a chef for a high end restaurant but didn't really seem to dazed by it ...