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. 

Mikumi NP: Easter 2012

Elephants in Mikumi NP

Mikumi is the easiest national park to access from Dar es Salaam, and we when drove to Tanzania from Botswana, we’d actually driven past it and decided to leave it for when we were settled in Dar.  Little did we know it would take us a year and a half and 2 abandoned trips (thanks to a dying car) before we actually got to go!

Goat races in Dar es Salaam

Yesterday, we spent an interesting afternoon at the 2011 Annual Dar es Salaam Charity Goat races.

Yes, they race goats here in Tanzania...

Serengeti - Day 5



Serengeti landscape

 We were up at the usual time of 5.30am for coffee, but we had to pack up for the drive out.  After checking for hyenas (there had been at least one hanging around one of the tents the night before) we packed up and both us, Ali and Chris were all ready to go by 6.30 – quite impressive since hardly anyone else had left for the morning drive yet. 

Serengeti - Day 4



Green-winged pytilia

Again up early in the morning, but the morning drive was unsuccessful, hardly seeing anything around.  Ali needed to put petrol in the car, so he dropped us off at the visitor’s centre to have breakfast.  We were still photographing the birds and rock hyraxes by the time he got back, entertained by the boldness of the hyraxes looking for scraps.