The Serengeti

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania - In my mind the Serengeti is synonymous with safari. It is an iconic landscape of Africa, that Garden of Eden for herds of zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, elephants, and the big cats like lions and leopards. Needless to say, I had high high expectations for our visit to the Serengeti.

After driving on the rough African dirt roads for the better part of a day, we finally reached Serengeti National Park. We were greeted by the usual national park archway standing alone in a vast treeless grassland and marking nothing but the artificial boundary imposed by mankind. From this point the Serengeti did not appear very special, simply a dry grassy plain where a few animals were grazing and where few trees could grow due to an underlying layer of impenetrable soil called hard pan. It was not the arrival I had expected.

As we continued deeper into the park towards our campsite, the sun got lower in the sky and we began passing by the kopjes, islands of rock and trees within the grassy plains. This is when the magic started to happen. The landscape began to glow, the dull brown of the grass turned to golds and oranges and mixed with the rich greens of the trees and scattered throughout the landscape were the silhouettes of giraffes. We soon forgot about the dust and once again we were standing up in our safari truck trying to take in as much of this beautiful landscape. Even coming across a pride of sleeping lions was secondary to the landscape around us. This was the Serengeti as we had imagined and it was to be our home for the next 2 days.

Our campsite was inside the park. Civilization was hundreds of kilometres away. Here there were no lights to obscure the stars, no noise to drown out the sounds of animals, and no fences or guards to separate us from the African wilderness. Animals were free to roam in and out of the campsite. Although we didn't hear or see any lions at the campsite we heard hyenas. We knew we were in the wilderness and all we had to do was let our senses take it in for us as day turned to night.

The next morning we rose before dawn and took in the sunrise over the Serengeti and spent some time looking for lions, leopards, and cheetahs. We did manage to see a lone lioness and the usual array of giraffes, impalas, buffaloes, and other grazing animals but more incredible was being alone in this landscape. At this time of the day there were few other safari groups about and our guide led us to our on small corner of the Serengeti where we watched the sunrise.

After breakfast things got busier, more groups were about and where we saw a leopard lounging in a tree, we joined more than 20 other safari vehicles and more were coming. We felt a little silly to be a part of this circle of trucks with dozens of people taking pictures. Even among this circle of trucks, life went on in the Serengeti. Here we saw our first hyena as he trotted up to the leopard's tree and tried to steal her kill that was hanging from a low branch. Quickly the leopard woke up, retrieved her meat, and headed higher into the tree and hid. Just like that our leopard experience was over but we were treated to interaction between 2 predators of the African plains. Satisfied with our morning it was back to camp for lunch and some rest.

Later in the day it was off to the hippo pool. This one was much larger and much more accessible than the one we saw at Lake Manyara. Here hippos spend their days resting together in river pools for protection from the heat of the sun and stop from being sun burnt At night they go their separate ways as they wander across the landscape grazing. We arrived at the pool two hours before sunset as the hippos were starting to wake up. The hippos were like a bunch of grumpy old men snorting and pushing each other. Even the crocodiles knew it was best to keep their distance from this unruly mob. Susan found the hippos big yawns amusing and tried to get pictures of hippos with their mouths wide open. Of course the boys giggled as they saw hippos vigorously flap their tails and poop, splattering it on their neighbours. For us on shore it was a comical spectacle and we must have spent over an hour watching the antics of these large animals and learning not to swim with hippos.

Our last day in the Serengeti was our biggest. Heading to the less traveled southern end of the park we decided to forgo the frantic search to see the big cats but instead to see the wildebeest and zebra migration. Over 3 million wildebeests and 1 million zebras are estimated to take part in this annual migration and for over 40 kilometres we drove through it. I don't think we saw all 4 million animals but we saw 10's of thousands of them. Along the way we saw a couple of prides of lions, new born wildebeest calves, vultures picking over the carcass of a dead zebra, and the bleached bones of preyed animals before coming face to face with a group of 4 cheetahs. This is the circle of life of the Serengeti that sustains this place and all that we saw.

The Serengeti did not disappoint or as the boys kept saying, “It was awesome!” The wildlife, the landscape, the stillness of the African morning, the calls of animals at night, and the freedom of driving across this African plain amongst 10's of thousands of animals made it one of the most incredible experiences of our adventure. Here our safari became much more than just seeing the animals but about the place and everything within it.


For more pictures of our Serengeti experience check out our web album.