You get a panoramic, and you get a panoramic, and you get a panoramic… Continue reading
Category Archives: Serengeti National Park
Safari Flights
In case you were wondering, this is what it looks like to fly from the central Serengeti airstrip! This is a single engine Cessna with room for 12 passengers, 1 pilot, and 1 copilot…or in this case, Alex! Maybe my dad can figure out which exact plane this is. We ended up switching planes at the Arusha airstrip layover, we think because the air conditioning didn’t work. We had the same pilot. Continue reading
Lions
Lions are very sleepy. It’s amazing now much they remind you of house cats. I mean, my cats look like these lions 80% of the time. We saw in the neighborhood of 35 lions, and most were on the final day in the Serengeti when we saw at least 3 prides. The huge male that you can see standing facing left came from the distance, crossed the pond, went right up to our car, paused, and then walked on. We all got silent. Needless to say the windows and doors were shut tight. They can go 4-5 days between meals. They like trees, dirt hills, and shade. All great places to sleep as you can see. Continue reading
Elephants
These photos are from two troops of elephants plus one gigantic single elephant (the first photo) that we saw in the Serengeti on the final day. The group near the river crossed the road and stopped to roll around in the mud. The adults circled the baby and were aggressive towards us. They flapped their ears and made thundering noises. Nothing happened, but we all got silent. I liked the footprint.
Gildita’s Final Safari Pic
Sadly, later this day we lost Gildita. This was her last confirmed sighting. She never got to sport her Zanzibar outfit (on the reverse side). She will be deeply missed. She’s probably still out there in the Serengeti, or at least that’s my hope.
Cheetahs
I feel like I keep repeating myself, but seeing a cheetah in the parks is very rare, especially for such a short safari. We saw dozens. We saw cubs. We saw cheetahs stalking gazelles. We saw them run! We were really lucky and had a great guide. Continue reading
Serengeti Safari Drive 2
Here are some highlights from the second day in the Serengeti. This was a full day of driving with only a brief picnic lunch. It was amaze! See if you can name all the animals… Continue reading
Mbugani Serengeti Safari Camp
This was our third lodge/camp and the only one where we stayed for two nights. It is literally the center of Serengeti. We came here to see animals, and good lord were we not disappointed. Continue reading
Lion Cubs
On the way to our second camp, in the Serengeti now, Alex miraculously spotted a lioness hiding in the grass. Our guide was astounded. Until now we had seen big cats mostly via tips from other guides on the radio, and we would show up and join a few other cars. Typically at a distance from the animal. This was different, and driving up a few dozen feet we saw something else and quite special…
Continue reading
Fresh Kill
Warning: the following is pretty gruesome.
On our first night in Serengeti Sarah was awoken around 4:40am by animal noises. They were not brief. Alex and I didn’t hear anything. Then at 7am the camp guides woke us to let us know the hot water was ready and we could shower, and oh by the way there was a freshly killed water buck next to our tent and, did we want to go see it? This was not a question I pictured. The answer was yes.
Literally dusting other safari cars!
Our guide heard about a (SPOILER ALERT) huge pride of lions stalking zebras and booked it. We passed other groups in a mad dash to be there first. See: car to the left in this shot. And, as you can see we kept it safe — standing outside a roof in a fast moving vehicle is a great idea. Unrelated, but here are some photos from the picnic lunch that day:
Continue reading
Serengeti Safari Drive Part 1
We finally made it to Serengeti! This was basically the end of our long drive from Tarangire, since our camp is literally at the center of the park. Think endless plains dotted with rock outcroppings and occasional acacia trees, and you have a sense of it. We went during the dry season so that grasses are low, and watering holes are scarce — both conducive to spotting animals. On this drive we saw lions, cheetahs, elephants, ostriches, hyraxes, baboons, monkeys, giraffes, and hippos. No leopards…yet. Continue reading
Lady Boy Time 