Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We had one night back in Mwanza and so went out for a farewell meal with some friends… unfortunately the power supply in the town was on the blink so we had to go to 3 different restaurants before finding somewhere that had lights and a cooking source! In the end we didn’t eat till very late but it was a fun night and good to see everyone again before I left for good! (Although I doubt it will be forever as I’m already madly missing the kids and can’t wait to see them again!)
The next morning we set off on our safari, heading for the west gate of the Serengeti National Park! It was just me and James on the safari and we had a great Tanzanian driver/guide called Peter who was very experienced and seemed to have a great deal of knowledge about the parks and the animals. It only took around 2 hours driving north along the edge of Lake Victoria before we entered the park... at the entrance there were lots of little monkeys (some with babies!) which I thought was a very promising start!
It wasn’t long before we saw hundreds of Impalas, wildebeest and zebras! There were also lots of baboons, hippos and giraffes! We were lucky enough to spot two male lions lazing under a tree... I was amazed by how close we managed to get to them; they didn’t seem bothered by us at all! We also saw a heard of elephants with a little baby one!
After an afternoon of game viewing we arrived at our first lodge ‘Mbalageti’ which I’d heard was fantastic but I could never have imagined quite how incredible it was!
To begin with we were the only people staying and so were upgraded to a $500 US a night tented lodge!!! Our balcony looked out over the Serengeti and as we were so close to all the wildlife at night we had to be escorted by Masai warriors between the restaurant and our room! The restaurant area was fantastic with a 360 degree view of the Serengeti plains! There was also an infinity pool that looked out over the plains!
We spent the next day in the Serengeti where we saw more of the same and also 3 young lion cubs playing and 2 female lions hunting! That night we stayed at another lodge in the Serengeti which was also nice but not quite the same standard as the night before!
On the third day we headed to the Ngorongoro crater and on the way we stopped at a Masai village! It was quite commercial as we had to pay… but they showed us around and danced and sang! We were also shown into the small mud huts where they live and the local school. They told us a lot about how the Masai people live and how they have evolved and adapted which was really interesting! As we got closer to Ngorongoro Crater the landscape changed into rolling hills (could have been Derbyshire!!) the scenery was fantastic and the view from the top of the crater… breathtaking! We had to drive down into the crater extremely slowly and carefully as it was so steep (apparently there are so many animals there as they go down to drink from the lake but then it’s too steep for them to climb back up!) Whilst we were there we saw a very old, wrinkly elephant up close, 2 young male lions, some flamingos on the lake, a cheetah and a rhino! We spotted the rhino as there were about 6 vehicles all stopped looking at something so we knew there must be something interesting out there! It was the only time throughout the safari that I was aware of any other people being there really (other than the odd jeep passing by!) It was pretty funny as every time the rhino moved all the jeeps would try and overtake each other to get the closest! Whilst we were having lunch in the crater a monkey actually jumped into our jeep through the open roof and stole a packet of nuts! It then went ad sat on the ‘Please do not feed the monkeys’ sign whilst it ate them!
That evening we were lucky enough to catch the most fantastic sunset over the crater (our lodge was right on the rim overlooking it!) so we sat by the pool, drinking cocktails as the sun went down… how romantic!
On the last day of our 4 day safari we set out in the pouring rain for Lake Manyara... here the landscape was very different again, really green and quite misty (but maybe that was because of the rain!) There weren’t that many animals here, although there were plenty of baboons! We also saw some hippos out of the water, and in the far distance a pink haze which was the flamingos on the lake! From here we drove to Arusha, stopping off at a snake park on the way… here we saw (in cages!) all the huge African snakes, some crocodiles, lizards and tortoises! We even got to hold baby crocodiles and I had a snake around my neck… Ahh!
We stayed the night in Arusha and then flew to Zanzibar the next afternoon…
- comments