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"The Big 5"
This might be a bit of a long one - sorry! but I want to try and give you a bit of an insight into 'the African way'... We were due to fly from Bukoba to Mwanza to meet with the safari trucks for our safari. When we got to the airport (a tiny building with a dirt airstip - which was fine) there were no staff and there was no plane. We were eventually told that the flight wasn't going due to technical problems which began a debate amongst our tour group as to whether we'd wait for a rescheduled flight, or get a taxi for the 8 hour drive to Mwanza. A couple of hours later, a plane landed unannounced to us and was able to take us. It was a 12 seater and on landing the pilot managed to drag the bum of the plane along the runway which I was later told by a pilot-in-training that we were lucky not to cartwheel down the runway!!
We were met by our guides for the safari and set off in the trucks to the Serengeti where we were greeted at the gate by a turtle and baboons trying to steal our lunch! The plains of the Serengeti were amazing - on our way into our campsite in the middle of the park we saw giraffes and warthogs, monkeys and baboons, thousands of buffaloes and zebras, hyenas... the list goes on. We had a great meal thanks to our tour chef, as we watched an incredible sunset and stargazed under the brightest stars I think I've ever seen!
The next morning we were up before sunrise in hunt of some of the more spectacular game! It was a fairly quiet morning until we drove into a traffic jam in the middle of the Serengeti (see the video) where everyone was trying to get photos of a lion and lioness... soooo cool! Amazing creatures!!! We then stumbled across more trucks who'd found a leopard (a rare find on a safari tour) and then found a cheetah on our way out of the park who was perched up on a mound of dirt looking for some prey - a pretty successful morning really! The 3 big cats in 2 hours. So the Big 5 count so far... buffalo - check, elephant - check, lion - check, leopard - check... only a rhino to go....
On to the Ngorongoro Crater where we set up camp on the rim of the crater with another spectacular sunset. We were warned to have no food or anything with any scent (including toothpaste, shampoo etc) in the tent cos the animals come looking for it in the middle of the night... Despite, apparently, heeding the warnings, we were woken in the middle of the night to Shane screaming out about animals around his tent... I didn't get up to check! Another early start and we entered the crater on sunrise - absolutely awesome! Everywhere you looked there were animals - thousands of flamingoes and zebras, wildebeest, buffaloes, hyenas, warthogs (baby warthogs were a close second favourite of mine!), hippos and jackals. Mohammed even found us a couple of rhinos! - check! and that was the Big 5! Came across more lions who just happened to be mating at the time - they do the deed more than 200 times a day - impressive effort!
Highlight of the day for me was watching a 60 year old elephant amble his way past our truck throwing sand over himself to keep the bugs off and walking straight towards another safari truck - needless to say, the truck moved for him. We then turned around to see another elephant coming towards us from what must've been a km away - with the scenery behind him, it was a breathtaking sight. Difficult to describe unfortunately.
Back to camp for lunch and as we sat down to eat, another elephant waltzed into camp to drink from the watertank - wow!
For anyone planning on heading to Africa - Serengeti and the Crater are a must see!!!
luv cj xoxox
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