Serengeti, Tanzania, Africa 7/9 -- 7/17/2011 [Tanzania Gallery] [Back to Photo Page] [Slide Show]

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 ...

• We entered the Serengeti from the south, and had a short stop at the center part (Seronera) which was still about 90 km to our destination of Mbalageti Serengeti in the west corridor today.  On the way to the west corridor, we got a flat tire almost in the path the wildebeest migration.  Due to mechanical problems, we waited for about 40 min (until another car passed by) to finish changing the flat tire.  Meanwhile we had to watch out for our guide to make sure there were no lions around!
  It was already dark when we finally arrived at Mbalageti Lodge.  There was quite a distance from guest rooms to the restaurant, and Masaai warriors would escort the guests to and from their rooms after sunset and before sunrise.
   

July 12 ...

• The Mbalageti Lodge offers a breathtaking panorama view of the Serengeti Plain lands and the Mbalageti River, and has a perfect angle for the sunrise while eating the breakfast.  We headed to a game drive and crossed Grumeti River several times to see crocodiles and hippos. Unfortunately, Linus had a bad stomach and did not feel well at all.  We decided to go back to lodge early for the lunch to let Linus rest for the day.  He actually skipped both lunch and dinner and slept for more than 15 hours.

July 13 ...

• We had a balloon safari arranged for today.  We had to depart from our lodge at about 5AM, and arrived at the launch site at about 6AM to be prepared to launch at 6:30AM.  With the rising sun over the expansive plains, gliding serenely over trees and seeing groups of gazelles and buffalos running beneath you, quiet burning flames with cool and calm air surrounding you, the balloon ride was definitely an unforgettable experience.  We flew west for more than one hour and traveled about 40 km before landing.  After landing, we were picked up and taken to a picnic site to be served with English traditional breakfast and Champagne.  This was also another unforgettable memory.

• Our guide came to the picnic site to pick us up after our breakfast.  The dry season came early this year that most grass had been dried up and annual wildebeests and zebras migration has passed the peak a couple of weeks ago.  Even though we  missed the majority of the migration crowd, we still saw some huge herds of wildebeests from time to time.
  We started to move toward to the central Serengeti and had our lunch boxes at the Hippo Pool where a huge group of hippos were all submerged in the water.  The Seronera region is densely populated with wildlife year-round  because of permanent water sources in the area.

• We checked in to the Serengeti Wilderness Camp in the late afternoon.  It is a ‘seasonal’ camp located inside Serengeti National Park that it does not have any permanent structures and moves to a new location every 3 to 6 months.  The tent has a comfortable queen-size bed, en suite eco-friendly toilet and bush-shower off an intimate dressing room area.

July 14 ...

• We had an early start because I wanted to see the sunrise.  I told my guide that I wanted a typical African sunrise: a single flat-top tree in an expansive plain.  What I got was even better: sunrise between the branches of two adjacent flat-top trees in an expansive plain.

• When we drove by an open grass plain, our guide saw a few small spots from very far away (a couple of kilometers) that I could not even see what he was talking about without using my 500mm long lens or a binocular.  He identified they were lions and could even see they were moving away from us with his naked eyes.  We turned around to connect to another road to drive toward where the lions were heading.  We could see lions were walking toward us and we had a nice spot to intercept the lions crossing the road.

• After all the excitement in the morning, we went back to our camp to take a break where we played several games including Scrabble and Battleship.  While we were playing and relaxing, our guide came in with our lost luggage.  It was found and delivered to Serengeti on the 6th day in Africa!
  We went out again for the afternoon game drive.  Iris was particularly fond of Dik-dik, a small delicate super-cute antelope.  Whenever she saw one, she would go crazy for the rest of day!

July 15 ...

• We had a half-day game drive before we headed out of Serengeti around noon.  Woanyu spotted a lion sneaking behind the bushes, and we followed it along the river bank for about half an hour, and witnessed an unsuccessful attempt of hunting.  Can you see the lion hidden behind zebras in this picture?
  Right before we planned to leave the central Serengeti, we saw another pride of lions that were eating a freshly killed wildebeest.  We did not know when/where the hunting happened, but we were so close to their feast that I thought I could hear the tearing sound of skin and muscle.

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

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