Tour Day 4 – Serengeti National Park & Ngorongoro Crater National Park
Morning game drive, brunch at Seronera Campsite. Game drive as you leave Serengeti and proceed to Ngorongoro National Park. Dinner and overnight at Simba Campsite.
We wake up in the dark – again – which reminds us of winters in Canada, minus the cold.
It’s not really our choice to be up at this ungodly hour, but Andrew has suggested a sunrise drive. A trip to the Serengeti probably isn’t complete without one, so we happily oblige him… he is the expert, after all. The sun rises at 6:30am so we need to be on the road by 6:00am in order to make sure we’re in a prime location for this “once-in-a-daytime event” as Eric calls it… he’s not a morning person.
We stumble on over to the toilets only to find ourselves face-to-face with a spotted hyena.
Hm.
Not only are we closer to it than yesterday, but it’s also dark out. I don’t like the dark at the best of times, let alone when there’s a set of shining eyes belonging to a predator who’s jaws could crush our skulls like a corn chip staring back at me.
So we carefully make our way back to our campsite, where Andrew assures us there have been no known human attacks from hyenas in the Serengeti and we’re perfectly safe. We trust him – and I really have to pee – so we cautiously walk back to the toilets – Eric in front, of course – and the hyena is gone, which makes the experience a whole lot less stressful.
We have a quick bite of tea & toast – David has promised us a full breakfast when we return – and drive out to a nice quiet spot where we wait for the sun.
It arrives in full force, making the early wake-up totally worth it.
From here we head out onto what becomes a very, very, very successful cat-viewing morning.
It starts with us witnessing a full-grown, male lion – black mane and all – make a kill.
Yes – you read correctly… Eric and I actually see the “circle of life” LIVE IN THE SERENGETI!!!
The lion started off running briskly across the plains and all of sudden it has a burst of speed and snags a young Grant’s gazelle. Seeing this happen is extremely rare, so we both feel pretty lucky.
A mere few minutes later, we almost witness another kill as we watch a cheetah stalk a different herd of gazelle.
It doesn’t actually catch anything, but it’s still pretty awesome watching the attempt.
As we cruise around, we’re fortunate enough to see a lot more lions.
Similar to yesterday, we spot a mass of 4x4s off in the distance and we head on over to find out what’s going on.
We arrive to find 6 lions – 2 males and 4 females – in an intense stand-off. According to Andrew it looks like a “foreign” lioness has wandered into another pride’s territory and they’re not impressed… meaning if she now tries to leave they’ll kill her. She already looks as if she’s seen some action – she has patches of blood on her and isn’t moving around too much. While we watch, things take a turn for the better – maybe? – as one of the male lions appears to change his mind. It looks like he has decided to take her as a mate and possibly start his own pride. He lies down beside her and the others seem to back off.
Eventually the two groups – the original pride and the newly-formed one – split up and go their separate ways, so there’s no further bloodshed today, which makes it a happy ending, I guess.
Just to wrap up our morning of cats, we spot a serval hanging out in a yellow-bark acacia.
The three of us cruise around for a bit longer before returning to camp for brunch. David has made a feast for us – Spanish omelettes, crepes, sausage, chips, mixed vegetables, toast and fruit salad. We are spoiled!!!!
This is what we usually look like when we’re out on safari.
After breakfast, we pack-up the camp and then hit the road. Our next destination? The Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
We’re both very reflective on our way out of “the Geti”. This has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we’re both sad to say good-bye to this little piece of paradise.
Four hours later, we arrive on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater to find a very different climate outside. It’s foggy, windy and chilly – ‘tis a bit of a change from the hot, dry and dusty climate of the Serengeti. Thank goodness I have all my vintaji – they should help keep us warm.
There is only one public camp ground in the conservation area – Simba Camp – so it’s pretty full, which is another change from our campsite in the Serengeti.
I imagine this is what the base camp at Mt. Kilimanjaro must look like.
After we set up our camp, we spend the remainder of our day relaxing, eating dinner – mushroom soup, beef curry, rice & vegetables – and trying to stay warm.
In case you don’t recognize him, this is Eric, aka. “my Sherpa”. Because of my back problems, he’s been doing double-duty with my bag for the last few weeks. Thankfully, I am now able to carry my own pack once again, so he’s off-duty.
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