An African Safari

Since leaving Zanzibar we have headed inland to Arusha via the Lesotto mountains. Arusha is the safari capital of Tanzania being the gateway to a number of national parks including the Serengeti as well as Mount Kilimanjaro.

We decided on a safari to give Larry a break from the bad roads and also to take advantage of the local guides knowledge of where to find the animals given the size of the Serengeti as well as the cost to enter the national parks ($60 per person US per day, plus camp fees plus the vehicle fees of up to $200 per day).

Our itinerary had us visiting 3 parks:

Lake Manyara National Park is a beautiful national park which is green all year round being fed by natural springs. The park is noted for its bird life, elephants and not often sighted (us included) tree climbing lions. We spent all afternoon in the park entertained by elephants and huge families of baboons.

The next day we headed to Serengeti and it really is the must see park in Africa – it is quintessential Africa with wide plains full of wildebeest (home to the annual migration – they walk up to 600km each year), buffalo and the big cats. We spent hours watching families of lions and cheetahs and a leopard – unforgettable. Our next blog will have lots of up close and personal photos of the big cats – we took over 800 photos over the 4 days so it was hard to choose our favourite shots.

After 2 days at the Serengeti (which was not enough) we headed to Ngorongoro crater. The crater acts as a natural barrier allowing you to see a huge concentration of animals in a small area including lions, elephants, wildebeest, buffalos, zebras, black rhinos, hyenas and flamingos. It also seems to attract just as many safari vehicles!!

We have had the most magical time very much aided by the skills of our excellent guide and driver Godson – I would thoroughly recommend him. He knew exactly where the animals would be and he could spot them hundreds of metres in the distance (I couldn’t even make them out with my binoculars). He would say to us see that shape over there that is a lion and don’t worry it will come this way – and they invariably did. His favourite saying was “Oh my god I am alone in the car” when once again we would fail to see something that he could see plain as day.

We are off to Kenya in the next few days and I will be sad to leave Tanzania my favourite of all of the African countries we have visited to date. Very friendly people, beautiful beaches and unforgettable wildlife – you have to go!!!