Safari Time!

Sam and I had originally planned to do a short safari after climbing Mount Kili, and this ended up working out great because it gave us some time to sit back and watch other things for a while instead of doing a lot work.  The Serengeti of course is one of the most popular East African parks, but there are other wonders here too, including Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire N.P.

Peeking our heads out the top of the 4x4

The leopard in Tarangire eying us uneasily when we got close

We set off from Moshi with our own driver and personal cook heading for the first on our list, Tarangire. We had little expectations, as Ben, our driver told us it's not a great time of year to see animals. We were just hoping to at least see a leopard.  They are usually the hardest to spot of the "Big 5" (leopard, rhino, elephant, lion, and water buffalo), but Tarangire was our best shot, and it didn't disappoint.  About half way through the game drive, we saw a leopard high up in a tree, with its prey, an impala laying lifeless below. We were hoping to see it take the impala up to the tree, but the leopard seemed content resting on a branch for a while before diving into its meal that would keep it full for the next few days. Also in Tarangire, there were herds of elephants everywhere along with our first glimpses of lions.

A herd of elephants walked nearby the 4x4

The view from the top of Ngorongoro Crater

Our next stop was Ngorongoro Crater, which exceeded all expectations. It's such a small area, but the animals are so heavily concentrated. From the top of the crater, Ben pointed out all the little dots to us below, and they were all animals. We saw zebras, baboons, gazelles and impalas. Of course, there were tons of wildebeests there and we spotted some buffalo up close, too. There were ostriches doing a mating dance and flamingos standing on one leg in the far distance all over the small lake. Our biggest highlights though, were seeing 6 rhinos through the course of the day, and seeing a whole family of lions, with too many cubs to count. Everyone that we spoke to said we would be lucky to thinks and we got to see 6! Sam's favorite was the chase we got to view through binoculars of a group of hyenas that went after the zebra. It started with only a few hyenas, but they just kept on popping up out of the ground from every angle until one of the zebras had no choice but to go down. It really seemed as if the first hyenas herded the zebra into the other hiding hyenas. Quite a good strategy.

"Stop the horse play!"

Why did the rhino cross the road?

Water buffaloes posing for the camera

Our final stop was in the Serengeti.  The word 'Serengeti' means 'vast plains' in Swahili and it's not an exaggeration.  We went to a lookout when we arrived in the official park, and it was flat and green as far as we could see in every direction. Here, we saw fields and fields of zebras and wildebeests co-habitating. They are helpful to each other during migration and often stick together because the zebras are better at detecting the predators, but the wildebeests can sense where the water is located. We also caught a couple groups of cheetahs and rivers full of hippopatamus here.

Spotted a couple of cheetahs right next to the road

Can we take one home? Baby hyenas are actually cute.

Imagine if we had to take a drink like that.

The safari ended with a bang with a hot air balloon ride and champagne breakfast in the bush. We were picked up from camp in the dark early morning. Giddy with excitement, we met our other balloon mates who were mostly travelling on vacation from the U.S. and Canada. Mohommed was our captain, who not only directed the hot air balloon, but pointed out all the animals below too. We were told that the particular balloon that we rode in was the 3rd largest in the world. Interestingly, Mohommed had us climb into the balloon basket while it was still sideways before the porters filled the rest of the balloon up with hot air. We quickly were turned upright and were off the ground. We spent the next hour with a bird's eye view of the Serengeti, able to see all the animal tracks from above and also all the animals that were hiding from the jeeps away from the road. We enjoyed every minute of it and were definitely not ready to come down. Most of the time, we stayed pretty close to the ground to view the animals better, but in the last few minutes, Mohommed took us up really high (maybe 1000 ft?) so we could view all the beautiful landscape. We landed not so smoothly, but the balloon remained upright. We were immediately greeted with a champagne toast, then driven a short distance to breakfast. The food was wonderful, and our fellow travellers were great company. The part that I got a kick out of the most was our Loo with a View (toilet in the bush with only the side towards everyone covered) :)

The "God Rays" are giving us good luck on the morning of our hot air balloon ride.

Baby simbas (Kiswahili for "lions") scoping us out from below.

Looks like a post card! We followed the other balloon, who directed us to the animals.

Our "Loo with a View" for our bush breakfast!

After breakfast, Ben was ready to pick us up and take us the long 6-7 hour ride back to Moshi to get ready for our next adventure....Zanzibar.

(Written on December 18th)