Serengeti

Lots and lots of photos today!

We had a fantastic safari over the weekend. No one got eaten by anything so we have all made it back to Arusha safe and sound and with amazing memories of a once in a lifetime experience. I will tell you a little bit about it but to be honest, words really can't describe it. You'll all just have to come to Africa one day and try it for yourself!

We were headed to both the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater for our 3 day, two night camping safari. Photos today are from the Serengeti and we'll get to the Crater ones tomorrow. Before we had even made it to the Serengeti though we were spotting some interesting wildlife not native to these parts....tourists. There certainly were some crackers. Apparently, safari is the perfect opportunity to sport short shorts, matching outfits and your best khaki ensembles.

There were a few 'my lens is bigger than your lens' kind of moments, but taking pictures on an iPad was a whole other approach altogether..

Anyway, the Serengeti was truly breathtaking. It was so much larger than I expected (it's 30 000sq km) and it just seemed to go on forever.

We saw four of the Big Five here in the Serengeti. For those unfamiliar with the term, this is wiki's definition:

The phrase Big Five game was coined by white hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot.  The collection consists of the lion, African elephant, cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. The members of the Big Five were chosen for the difficulty in hunting them and the degree of danger involved, rather than their size.

So, Lion...

Elephant...

Buffalo...

And Leopard (On the bottom, left-hand branch)

There are no rhinos in the Serengeti but we would be seeing them in the crater the next day. It is the time for the start of the migration here so we were lucky enough to see thousands of zebra and wilderbeest. They just continued forever into the distance.

They seemed to be everywhere. We couldn't resist calling out 'Zebra crossing!' every time this happened.

But it wasn't just big game, there were animals everywhere you looked (and rocks that looked liked animals as well. It got quite confusing at times).

It was incredible that we actually got to camp in the middle of the Serengeti. No fences or anything but I think there was a watchman who stayed up to make sure nothing untoward happened. I took this picture from the door of our tent. It was the perfect end to a magnificent day in Africa!

Till next time x