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Day 19 - Wednesday 9th July
An exciting early morning today, as we take down our camp and pack our smaller bags for our Serengeti safari!
Of course I wasn't smiling when I first woke up as I knew today's relevance, but after a quiet cry and flick through photos, it was made better (more bearable) by a hug from Jade, and a few sweet messages that filtered through on my phone.
After breaky, we all divide into groups of 7 or so, jump into 3 different Jeeps and head an hour north to Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Park.
Whilst or drivers (ours is Hermassey) organise the park fees etc, we head into the information centre and look at the maps of the parks and how the Crater originated from a Volcano, but now holds some of the most condensed range of Wild animals in Africa. It's quite green and lush, as we drive (slowly) up and around the mountain - the air thick with fog. We reach the top of the crater at the look out point - the mist just thin enough to see the crater lake. After a few Panoramic photos and a loo stop, we head down into the Crater.
As we first come to the flat of the crater floor, we finally get our first sighting of Wildebeest - the ones that didn't head north to the Mara for the migration. They have got be the silliest, ugly-cute animal in Africa by my opinion (you know when something's so ugly it's cute?!). You should see them gallop - they have front legs longer than the back, and they look like spastic horses.
As we drove closer to the lake we could see a sea of pink at it's edge - FLAMINGOS!!! I don't even like birds, but there is something so cool about their fluro pink colouring. We were able to get fairly close - enough to see the contrast between the lakes grey rim and their pink bodies. Further along we drive out to a Hippo pool where they lay rolling around in the mud - and off in a distance, more hyena, zebra, wildebeest and common Impala.
The craters dirt roads were so bumpy, you pretty jumped a centimetre off your seat per second - but I could hardly keep my eyes open. I hoped no one could tell I had my eyes closed, and before I knew it, I had nodded off to sleep! Luckily, everyone one else had also had a quick kip, and as we woke, we came to the roadside where there were 3 female Lions, laying upright in the sun. There were about 10 other vehicles there, all also with their roofs off and tourist heads popped out - but our legend driver managed to get us prime photo positions.
After about 5 minutes, the leader (also pregnant), got up and followed the narrow river bed parallel to the road. Hermassey of course managed to keep us in a great spot as she and her 2 other lion buds followed the creek which lead to a major water hole, filled with drinking zebra, impala and wildebeest - one of whom they were planning to stalk and hunt for their next meals. We managed to cross right onto the small T section right over the river, and consecutively, each lion approached our jeep through to the other side. The lions were literally within a metre to us, so tempting to put our hand out of the window to touch it as it passed by (of course, we didn't). All the other cars had banked up by now as they had cottoned on to the potential kill about to take place, and in Africa, everyone wants to see a kill. The second lion stopped and laid beside our back wheel for about 5 minutes, and we were surrounded - it was like photo candy. The third lion eventually came around the front of our vehicle, and we were moving forward at the time (very aware), and these d*** head American tourists who were opposite us where having a hissy and screaming "Stop, stop! Let the Lion cross!" .... It reminded me of the YouTube video meme "Leave Britney Alone"! Suffice to say we all lost our s*** with laughter.
Shortly after that we head to a lovely little lake within the crater and all hopped out to eat our packed lunches, over looking the hippos and nearby zebras. Funny to think only less than a kilometer away were lions that could potentially eat us for lunch. After lunch we made our way out of the crater (passing another 2 lazy lions), and headed further north towards the Serengeti National Park. The drive out of the crater is again similar to driving through the Otways, but after about 30 minutes, we came over the hills and to a vast flat and dry floor with the mountains and sun colliding to make the most beautiful shadows over what became the savannah. It really was stunning to look at.
The drive out of the Crater Conservation Park to the Serengeti main gate was no less bumpier than I previously explained, and it seemed to drag on for at least 4 hours. Upon arriving at the main gate, we were delighted to find a nice shop offering cold drinks and Pringles, along with washrooms. As soon as we officially entered the Serengeti, we were game driving! One of our first sightings was 2 4yr old male lions, with the beginnings of the orange mane, crossing the road and then pretty much posing for us looking out towards the open savannah, the sun behind them. The outlook had really become that 'Lion King' vision we were expecting that I mentioned a few weeks ago - flat yellow landscape, with very few trees and shrubs. In Masai, Serengeti means 'endless plains', and there really is no better way to describe it, as the horizon is as far as the eye can see.
Of course as we drive another hour or so to camp, we saw most of the main animals, but we realized that it became 'Lion Day', because once we arrived at camp, we had counted 17 lion sightings in total! It was lovely that when we arrived to our campsite Nguchiro, our tents were already set up for us, a Bon fire ready to go and Juma cooking us dinner! As we got ourselves organised and acquainted, we watched the sun go down.
Our fave Mt Isa crew were there tonight (Kate, Mel, Katie and Robbo), which is perfect, so after dinner we sat around the bonfire swapping stories and we each had a Scotch and Coke in honour of Dad.
**Sorry Dad, I could only get JW Red here, but I pretended it was the good stuff you would drink xx
Day 20 - Thursday 10th July
Last night we had the least amount of sleep from the trip so far (such ragers).
A 1030pm bed time and a 430am wake up call, but 'Hakuna Matata' as this morning, Jade, Reggie and myself are going Hot Air Ballooning!!! It's a 515am pick up from our camp and we collect a few others from other sites along the way, eventually arriving at the take off site before the sun rises around 6am. We watch the balloons being filled and the sun come up. There are 4 Balloons in total and ours is the last - operated by the smiling and funny Mohammed.
The Basket was on it's side, so once it was ready for take off, we had to crawl in and lay upside down until it floated off and we became upright. Hot air ballooning is such a nice experience - just floating quietly higher and higher. The view was incredible from up high, and it's really have perspective of just how flat and wide the Serengeti is (I think about 14,000km squared - but I could be wrong). We watched the sun come into full strength from behind the clouds, and then lowered above the treetops and followed the river to do some animal spotting. We found a few hippos, gazelles, giraffes etc. Plus an entire pride of lions with about 3 or 4 cubs! (Tick). It was so cool to see the animals walking from above too - a different perspective.
After the hour was up, we made a safe landing (without tipping over), and were greeted with celebratory champas. It was pretty early for a drink, so we added mango juice and has Serengeti Sunrises. We all cheers'ed to a successful and enjoyable flight in Swahili - Maisha Maraifu (to long life). We were then driven about 10 minutes away to the shade of a big Acacia Tree where there was a lovely 'fine dining' breakfast set up for us. It was silver service (especially in comparison to eating on our laps for weeks), with more wine, juice, coffee, fruit, and full English breakfast - it was awesome. They even had 'Loo's with a view' set up - portable with no door facing out to the Serengeti!
By around 1030am, we were driving back to the Serengeti Tourist Office, where we met the rest of our Tour and 'Jeep Crew' to continue on with a morning Game Drive. This morning we saw more of the norm - lots of Elephants including babies, and also little Dik-d*** (like Bambi's), and a Crocodile, although the Croc didn't move so we made up some elaborate story that it was a fake just placed there for back up excitement when there are no other exciting animal spottings.
Around 1pm (and after a few sneaky 'resting my eyes'), we were back to camp for big lunch - vege burgers and salads - yummo! We had about 3 hours or so just to chill out. It was way too hot in the tents to snooze so I just sat in the shade and continued to read my book. A few of the others played the Frisbee and cards etc. We had a herd of Elephants at our camp too - just grazing about 20-30metres away from the group playing frisbee - very cool.
Around 330pm we headed off in our Jeeps again on an afternoon game drive. It was really quite dire tonight - most of the animals had seemed to go into hiding! It was really lovely to watch the sun fade over the savannah, although it quickly turned into thick grey skies and as we returned it started bucketing down rain.
Our dinner was moved under a public dining hall with other campsite groups (spoilt ones with tables and silver service!). I went straight to bed after dinner as I was absolutely exhausted. Great day though!
Day 21 - Friday 11th July
I woke up after a solid sleep - could have turned the alarm off and kept snoozing. As we took down or tents, and even well into eating our breakfast, we watched an odd European man doing his morning exercises. Whilst fitness is not really on most people holiday brain, we accepted his normal star jumps and jumping jacks, until his exercises turned into very strange questionable moves - one that Jade aptly named the 'invisible woman'. I'm sure you can imagine ...
Our 745am departure began with a game drive - ie. One Last Chance To See A Leopard. Unfortunately our last visit within the Serengeti was not so successful, and again, I will leave Africa having only seen The Big 4.
A few of our group have requested to visit a Masai Village upon departing the National Park. Intrepid had made a bit of a point that they do not recommend it as it isn't really promoting authenticity, so Jade and I declined along with about another 8 of us, so we continued on back towards the Crater, whilst the others visited the Village. Ironically as we drove out, we passed some Masai on the side of the road, wearing full Masai get up, but with a massive big wrist watch and Reebok kicks.
Thankfully the drive back to Ngorongoro Crater didn't seem to take as long this time, however I was really interested in reading my book, so it potentially may have been about the same! As we head back into the Crater, it felt as though we have passed through complete different climates - from flat dry dusty land with the sun, to the cool misty forest of the Crater. We stopped at one of the look outs for lunch and to wait for the other group to catch up. We could not see further than 20 metres as the air was so thick with mist, but after about an hour of waiting, it cleared to offer that brilliant view of the Crater again.
Eventually we met up with group again, and got back on the road. Bob and Di had visited the Masai, so when they joined us back in out Jeep, they explained that they felt there were pros and cons, and perhaps it was a lot more of a money grab than anything, and not truley 100% an genuine tribe village. I am secretly glad I didn't have FOMO. An hour or so back through the Crater we arrived back to Mto Wa Mbu campsite - where we camped the first night - around 230pm. It was nice to get back and have a hot shower, actually, a shower in general as it had been 3 days! We basically just chilled out for the rest f the afternoon -
Sat at bar and tried to use terrible wifi and also finished my book.
(**Gone Girl - great book but hated the ending)
Juma spoilt us tonight with a delicious Tanzanian Local dinner - Ugali, Beef stew, Chapati and Pilao! Sooo good.
The last 3 days have been an amazing experience. The Serengeti is truley wonderful and very much the standard visualization of Africa in your minds. I have to say though that the Ngorongoro Crater was 10/10 for me - such a stunning landscape with a sense population of animals.
Asleep by 830pm tonight. We party so hard....
- comments
helen gunter Thanx Neisha, jealous now, but planning my next trip around this one! Really enjoyed the time spent with you guys- Say hello to Jade for me and everyone else too: can you remind jade to send me her notes???!!!.