Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 6

Serengeti sunset

Our final morning in the Serengeti, and we decided to head out via Moru Koppies – a road less travelled and therefore not as corrugated ;) We did get a quick glimpse of a leopard near Lake Magadi, but otherwise the drive was uneventful and we got to Simba Koppies in no time, which gave us some time to look around there before heading out. 

Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 5

The chase is on!

Our plan was to search for cheetahs today, seeing as how we’d spotted a couple the night before. We took a wrong turn in searching for them and were just debating whether we should turn around, when we came across a safari vehicle, with the driver out of the car and the bonnet up. 

Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 4

Very close...

We headed to the eastern side of the park today, where we’d seen the wildebeest migration the previous February.  The wildebeest had long passed through and had just crossed into Kenya, so the guides didn’t reckon it was worth it. 

Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 3

Heading towards us...

A quick check on the leopard with the kill in the morning (he still hadn’t moved) before seeing what else was around. 

Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 2



Coke's hartebeest, or Kongoni in Swahili



We’d got a bit of intel from one of the guides the previous night about a leopard with a kill and a cheetah with cubs, but even after precise directions (“go right at the big odd shaped rock”)  it took us over an hour before we found the leopard. 

Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 1

Our car Kilimanjaro - Kili for short - at the Ngorongoro Crater

After a surprisingly cold night in Arusha, we set off early to try and hit the Serengeti gate by midday.  The tar road from Arusha to the Ngorongoro gate is no problem, but from the gate it’s a bone-crunching corrugated bastard of a road and the car takes a hammering…

Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Getting there



Maasai walking in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area



We hadn’t been to the Serengeti in almost a year, and were itching to get out into the bush on our own.  The last time we’d done a long trip as self-drivers it had been when we’d driven to Tanzania from Botswana.  Since then, Kruger – our Mitsubishi Pajero – had been sold, and after a year of searching, we’d finally got ourselves an old (1996!) Toyota Landcruiser and transferred our rooftop tent onto it. 

After servicing and a test trip to Mikumi NP, Kilimanjaro our car – or Kili as we call it – was finally ready for a trip to the Serengeti.