Tanzania: Serengeti

“Wilderness gave us knowledge. Wilderness made us human. 

We came from here. Perhaps that is why so many of us feel a strong bond 

to this land called Serengeti; it is the land of our youth.” 

~ Boyd Norton

After traveling out of Uganda and back to Nairobi, Kenya to pick up some new people joining the group, we headed down to Tanzania and the incredible Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. These two days were my favorite game drive days of the tour. Inside the Ngorongoro Crater live all kinds of creatures and the incredible thing is that they never leave. When you are inside the crater you can do a 360 turn and see the rim of the crater all the way around. My favorite animals were the giraffes, who live up on the rim of the crater and not down below with the rest of the wildlife. Our guide told us it's because the drop down inside the crater is too steep and the vegetation up on the rim is more lush and suitable for them.

Then we left the crater and headed west to Serengeti National Park, which is absolutely HUGE! To get there we had to travel for two hours on probably the worst road I have ever been on in Africa, but it was definitely worth it. I am still amazed by the animals we saw and how close we got to them! We saw three leopards, elephants, zebras, lions, baboons, and much more just on the first day. That night we camped inside the park. Before going to bed we were told that we should not leave our tent until morning, because animals roam freely around the campsite during the night, and boy were they right! I heard all kinds of different noises, but I got the most freaked out when I heared a lion growl and run through the camp chasing something. When we woke up we found that something had knocked down a couple of tent canopy poles. The next day was an all-day game drive in the Serengeti. We saw more elephants, zebras, and I got incredibly close to a lion who decided to come right up to our car and lay down right outside of my window. I was so close I could have reached out and touched him. He was beautiful, but he could have used a bath because he smelled pretty awful. This was a day I will remember for the rest of my life.