Into the Serengeti
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
6
18
Trip End
Oct 13, 2008
Serengeti National Park,
Tanzania
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Drinks in the Serengeti camp
. They wash clothes, sleep and eat in their trucks. After driving through the border, we notice that the landscape changes, it is much more arid, no water. We are always seeing random people walking across the country side and have seen them in Kenya also. We don't know where they are walking from our too - just walking.
The masai men are nomads, they can walk for kilometers herding their goats, sheep and cows. We always see them off in the distance as they always wear a red. Something bright so they can see each other kilometers away.
Our first night in Tanzania is just out side of Arusha - we stay in a snake park (they have all the deadly ones there) and we have an afternoon walk to a local Masai Tribe. It is all very interesting, but I could write an entire blog entry on the subject so I will perhaps leave it until later.
Next day we bundle into 4WD cars all our camping gear for 2 nights/3 days in the Serengeti National Park and also the Ngoronogoro Crater.
We drive on the best roads in the whole of Africa to get to the Ngoronogoro Conservation Park due to the lovely gift from the Japanese government
Elephants join us for lunch
. They have built the main road to the game parks as thanks for all the Toyota ads that have been produced over the years - of course the lovely roads stop at the park gate so we are back to bumpy dusty roads again. While driving to the game park we drive through several villages and even a rain forest before arriving on the Serengeti plains. Sernengeti translates into 'the land that goes on forever' and it certainly does, all grass, very little trees. Don't know why all the animals migrate there each year as there's nowhere to hide!!! But I'm sure they know what they are doing.We stop at the campsite for the following night and have our packed lunch - with 3 elephants. Not just in the distance, with us. They were walking through the exact area we would pitch our tent on that evening. It was amazing. First we all sat down on the grass and just watched them as we eat away - but as they got closer and closer, we though perhaps the safety of the 4WD would be better. They probably got within 10 meters of us. It was AMAZING. Yet another highlight.
We see a cheetah in the distance on the way to our Serengeti camp, but nothing much more. We have the locals cook up dinner (in a cage) and get instructions about how to get out of the tent in the middle of the night incase we need to go to the toilet.
The instructions were:
First shine your torch through the tent and see if you can see any shadows. Then extend ONE hand out and peek with your eyes. Then poke your head, then stand if it is safe to do so. Thankfully we didn't need to go!
