We knew it would be a long travel day heading from the Mara in Kenya down to the Serengeti in Tanzania, but none of us were prepared for the multiple delays. First we waited almost an hour for our plane to leave the Mara north airstrip, and after a fairly easy trip across the border with Tanzania via taxi we sat at a small airstrip with three other people waiting until 4 for a flight scheduled to take off slightly after 2.
The next morning we all decided that we weren't interested in watching cheetahs for hours at a time so we headed off in search of hippos, which we found at a small lake. They weren't doing much since they are nocturnal but they made a great backdrop for our breakfast. We drove around the lake without seeing anything too exciting but as we continued on we came across a family of elephants. The biggest bull of the group was tusk less but was also the largest elephant any of us had ever seen! After leaving the elephants we headed back to camp and somewhere along the way we saw a baby wildebeest, still wet from being born, running full speed towards the road. We all thought he was cute and stopped to take pictures but when we all shifted from the right side of the vehicle to the left to continue snapping the wildebeest stopped near the front tire and attempted to adopt the landcruiser as his mother. Our guide had to shoo him around the back of th evehicle and then quickly take off in order not to run him over. The poor thing chased us for quite a while before he could no longer keep up. Although it was kind of sad to know that he lost his mother and would never be adopted by another, at least one of the many predators would benefit by getting an easy meal.
We were very tired and I took a nap after lunch before our last evening game drive in the Serengeti. We went in search of leopard but with no luck we eventually came across a group of lions who were sitting very near a wildebeest herd and stopped to watch, thinking they may be ready to hunt, but the wildebeest eventually wondered off and the lions just slept. We spent another wonderful evening in camp with great food and great company before heading to bed.
Check out the rest of our Tanzania pictures here
We finally met up with our guide David at the Ndutu airstrip and headed to camp while making a short game drive as it was already late. In the Serengeti cars aren't allowed to stay our past 6:30 pm so we got settled into our tents and enjoyed some drinks by the fire where we met the other guests and shared stories of life and traveling. We all sat down to an outstanding dinner before heading to bed. Overnight we heard the lions roaring in the distance and the buffalo grazing just outside our tents.
Our first morning game drive gave us views of the vast plains that make up the Serengeti (which in Swahili means endless plain) and they were covered in so many wildebeest it was hard to tell if they were animals or trees! We managed to find a cheetah with two cubs who were playing while we watched them for a little while. Not long after we started watching they left to go hunting and of course we decided to follow. It was a slow process as the mother stalked some gazelle and the two cubs stayed in the background and as such we were quite late eating breakfast when she finally made a run at her target. It was an exciting few seconds but ultimately ended with the cheetah getting confused about which particular gazelle she wanted to pounce and they all ran off without harm.
After the failed hunt we ate breakfast under a shade tree and went back out to see if the cheetah was still hunting. It didn't appear to be the case so we moved on and drove out into the massive heard of wildebeest - it was absolutely amazing to see so many animals grazing in one place. We headed back to camp for lunch and a nap before leaving again for a quick evening game drive. We found the same group of cheetah and watched them for a little while before finding a different group comprised of a mother and 4 cubs. We again got to watch the mother stalking an unsuspecting gazelle but ultimately she lost interest when several land cruisers parked between her and her cubs. We assume all they wanted to do was get some good pictures but felt bad for the cheetahs who were going to go hungry after these human intruders broke up the mother's hunt.
The next morning we all decided that we weren't interested in watching cheetahs for hours at a time so we headed off in search of hippos, which we found at a small lake. They weren't doing much since they are nocturnal but they made a great backdrop for our breakfast. We drove around the lake without seeing anything too exciting but as we continued on we came across a family of elephants. The biggest bull of the group was tusk less but was also the largest elephant any of us had ever seen! After leaving the elephants we headed back to camp and somewhere along the way we saw a baby wildebeest, still wet from being born, running full speed towards the road. We all thought he was cute and stopped to take pictures but when we all shifted from the right side of the vehicle to the left to continue snapping the wildebeest stopped near the front tire and attempted to adopt the landcruiser as his mother. Our guide had to shoo him around the back of th evehicle and then quickly take off in order not to run him over. The poor thing chased us for quite a while before he could no longer keep up. Although it was kind of sad to know that he lost his mother and would never be adopted by another, at least one of the many predators would benefit by getting an easy meal.
We were very tired and I took a nap after lunch before our last evening game drive in the Serengeti. We went in search of leopard but with no luck we eventually came across a group of lions who were sitting very near a wildebeest herd and stopped to watch, thinking they may be ready to hunt, but the wildebeest eventually wondered off and the lions just slept. We spent another wonderful evening in camp with great food and great company before heading to bed.Check out the rest of our Tanzania pictures here
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