Serengeti, Tanzania, Africa

7/9 -- 7/17/2011

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The Serengeti is one of the largest and best known nature reserves in the world.  In the 16th century, when the Maasai migrated from northern Africa to their new home, they named the wide open country "Siringet", which roughly translates as "endless plain" and which is known as "Serengeti" today.  The Serengeti National Park itself is about 200 km wide from east to west, and about 270 km long from north to south, covering an area of almost 15,000 sq km.  But the Serengeti ecosystem which includes a number of game reserves bordering the national park as well as Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve is more than double that size. 
Each year around 1.5 million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra (along with other antelope) gather up their young and start their long trek from Tanzania's Serengeti Plains, further north to Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve. They go in search of food and water. The great migration runs in a clockwise circle and the animals cover a distance of around 800 km. It's a tough journey, and every year an estimated 250,000 wildebeest don't make it.

 

[Tarangire, July 9-11] [Serengeti, July 11-15] [Ngorongoro, July 15-17]

Getting there ...

It was a long drive from Tarangire to Serengeti (west corridor): about 400 km, in which over three-fourths of it was unpaved.  On the way to Serengeti, we passed by Ngorongoro Conservation Area and had a picnic with Marabou Storks.

July 11 ...

 

 

July 12 ...

 

 

 

 

 

July 13 ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 14 ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 15 ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tarangire, July 9-11] [Serengeti, July 11-15] [Ngorongoro, July 15-17]


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