Since I only have three days left and am trying to wrap everything up here, I probably won’t write as much about my safari as I would have liked. When I initially decided to keep a blog while over here, I envisioned that it would be much cooler and dynamic, but it’s really not met my original expectations. Anyway, the pictures are pretty incredible (thanks to my friend Sarah, who let me borrow her awesome professional-style badass camera), but really don’t even do it justice. I saw some of the coolest stuff I’ve ever seen, and I wish that camera pictures could capture it exactly, but we all know that never really happens.
Anyway, the first park we went to was Tarangire, which actually is probably my favorite park I’ve been to. Each park has been awesome, and each has its own flavor, and Tarangire was particularly dense on the elephants, which I really loved. We also saw a lot of lions, and got to watch a lioness climb up a tree and settle down for a snooze. Really cool stuff.
That night, I had my first-ever camping experience (I clearly don’t count the time in fourth grade when my dad bought a tent and set it up in the backyard for ‘family campouts’ which never happened). I was really excited about camping out, and actually really enjoyed the experience (we also travel with a cook as part of the safari package, so it’s really nice when someone is there to make you a hot meal, and who sets everything up for you).
The next day we set out for the Serengeti. I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out that on the way, we drive through Ngorongoro (which is the crater we had visited a few weeks before). It’s a really beautiful drive, and from the crater to the Serengeti it’s about three hours on dusty, bumpy roads, which I actually enjoy because I take it as part of the experience (this was also very different from the dusty, bumpy roads we took to Dar because we had 5 people in an extremely comfortable safari car, rather than 25 people packed into a bus). Anyway, as soon as we pulled into the Serengeti, we almost immediately spotted two giant male lions sitting in the middle of the field. It was an excellent omen, and we only continued to see other amazing things (although I don’t remember them in any particular order), including a leopard hunting, leopard mom and cubs, a pride of lions hunting, and lines of elephants. We went for a game drive for several hours, and then headed to our campsite. Camping in the Serengeti was much different from Tarangire, and was actually a much cooler camping experience. The campsite in Tarangire was not within the park itself, but about 10 minutes away; the Serengeti campsite is directly in the Serengeti, so you hear lions roaring at four in the morning, and hyenas literally come onto the campsite. Crazy stuff. The other cool thing about camping in the Serengeti was that this particular site didn’t have people that set up your tents for you, so we got to be a lot more hands on in “helping” set up (which, much of the time, meant I was taking pictures of the setting up, but sometimes it included some quality grunt work).
The next morning, we woke up early enough to go for a 6am drive to watch the sunrise over the Serengeti. I have seen lots of sunrises, and I think they are always pretty incredible no matter where you are, but I will have to say that watching the sunrise over the Serengeti is definitely at the top of the list. One of the things I kept thinking during the drive that day is how endless and expansive the Serengeti is, and it certainly is huge, and watching the sun rise over that great expanse was really spectacular.
After the sunrise, we went on another game drive for a few hours, and had a late breakfast, packed everything up, and then went on a final game drive of the Serengeti before heading back home (which we got to stop at Ngorongoro for a picnic lunch on the way, which was also awesome). All in all, it was an awesome safari experience – the only bad part was that it was only for three days. It is definitely the kind of thing I know I will do again, and definitely want to go back one day and get my fill of the Serengeti.
Initially, I had a lot more to say about the safari, but I have a lot to get done to wrap everything up here – only three more days left in Arusha, and tomorrow I have my last soccer game with the Future Stars, and then am heading up to Kilimanjaro for the night to camp and hike around, then come back on Sunday just in time to pack and leave on Monday. I will try to put up my last Tanzanian blog on Monday before I leave, and then the next time you’ll hear from me I will be in Sierra Leone. Crazy!
Until then, happy Friday!
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