Living the Good Life: Serengeti National Park

Hey Guys!

Our first adventure in Tanzania was a combined safari to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara National Park. We went for 5 days, and had such a great time spotting for wild life on game drives. There were also lots of interesting birds, which was an added bonus.

This blog will be all about the Serengeti and Lake Manyara, and the next one will be about Ngorongoro Crater.

Our first day was spent enjoying the Lake Manyara NP. We drove through some pretty lush rainforest first, spotting monkeys and birds. Then we came to the lake, and as you can see there were some buffalo relaxing in the heat of the day.

At a viewpoint over the lake, you can just make out an elephant drinking down at the river

This is a Makonde carving we saw in a really fancy souvenir shop. All of these little carvings were done from a single ebony trunk, and formed one solid unit. It was valued over $50,000 USD!

The next morning we took a long, dusty road to get to the park entrance. Siringet means 'endless plain' in the Maasai language, and it is easy to see why they called it that. It kind of reminded me of Grasslands National Park in Canada, but with very different wildlife!

Here we are at a kopje (rocky outcrop), checking out the view over the Serengeti.

We saw a pride of lions snoozing in the grass almost immediately after entering the park. The lions are super lazy during the day, just rolling around like a house cat.

Kori Bustard. Don't worry folks, there will be plenty of bird pictures

That night we went for a game drive to an area that was rumored to have a leopard hanging out in a tree.

Whenever there is a possible big cat sighting, you will not be alone! Lots of other Land Cruisers flock to the area, because EVERYONE wants to see the lions, leopards and cheetahs.

Here is a shot of the leopard in the tree, taken through the binoculars. Jared and I have to work together to steady the binoculars and put the iPhone up to the eyepiece. All because we are too cheap to buy an expensive zoom lens. It's a couple's building activity, though.

That night we drove through some big herds of buffalo on our way to the tented camp.

We had a fantastic sunset that night

This was where we stayed for two nights while in the Serengeti. It was super beautiful, and you could hear the hyenas 'laughing' at night.

The next morning, we went on another game drive through the park, looking to see what we could find.

Marabou storks in the acacia trees

Our guide took us to a hippo pool, and we watched them cruise around- challenging each other with wide open mouths, and spray defecating.

We saw some beautiful scenery as we cruised around

The theme of the day was definitely elephants. We saw a herd that numbered over 100. There were lots of nursing babies and big bulls.

We spent some of the afternoon exploring the kopjes, as our guide told us this is a favored hang out spot for the lions.

That afternoon we came across another lion, this time sleeping in a tree. The male got up and went for a little trot right beside our vehicle!

Of course, there was an audience!

Lioness in the tree

Lovebirds

Lilac-brested roller, my favourite bird in the Serengeti

Dik Dik

Agama lizard

Ostrich

Cerval cat

Banded mongoose

Hartebeest

Topis

Hornbill (this is what Zazu was in the Lion King)

Maasai giraffe

We encountered many a troupe of baboons on the road

It was really cute when we got to see the babies riding on their mom's backs

From the Serengeti, we headed back out to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. From this map, you can see that the wildebeest are usually in this area having their calves in February, and that was totally the case. We saw huge herds of them, and lots of the calves still had a crusty umbilicus, so they must have been born in the last week or so.

The zebra like to follow the wildebeest around. They can see far, but the wildebeest smell better, so they make a good team for watching out for predators.