Serengeti

It was so amazing to see all the African animals in their natural habitat. The first day, as we were driving towards the national parks, there was a giraffe just sauntering along near the side of the road. My first sighting. We did safari drives to the national parks and conservation areas in the north-western area of Tanzania; Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire. Serengeti and Ngorongoro were by far the best though we did see an awesome male lion lazing about pretty close in Manyara and Tarangire had the group of trumpeting elephants. The male teenage elephant had the hugest, longest penis. It almost reached the ground!! I gather he’s going through puberty!


Going on safari game drives was a little bit like going to African Lion Safari. It’s a park/zoo outside of Toronto that you drive through and see the animals in. But this African Safari was a hundred times better. First of all it took days to drive through, not an hour. Baboons didn’t climb all over your car and you could leave the windows open which is much nicer in a non-airconditioned vehicle. It is wilder and far more natural. Plus it all takes place on the Serengeti which is a huge area of vast, beautiful dry plains as far as the eye can see. Speckled on them you can see most often impalas, gazelles, zebras, wildebeest.
We witnessed a part of the great wildebeest migration as hundreds of them with their young were running along one side of the road, then crossed it and continued in a saunter. A couple were going the wrong way. We figured they had lost track of their young or their friends and were going back to find them. Then there are areas where there are more bushes and trees. Here you can find giraffes and elephants and warthogs. Giraffes are my favourite I think. They are so tall and graceful. They look sophisticated somehow. Though I do also really like elephants. They’re endearing the way they loaf about.
We saw quite a few giraffes and elephants up close. Warthogs are just very funny. They waddle about with an air of importance but they seem to be quite shy and we never really saw them very close up. Then the others like lions and leopards you really have to look for. We saw a couple of lions in the Serengeti and looked for many more but didn’t seem to have much luck. We never found a leopard. They’re apparently the hardest to find. We did see several hyenas. Of course this is all done by driving through the park. You’re not allowed to get out of your car. Except at the hippo pool. The hippos are very cool they way they laze about in their pool. They sort of all lie on top of each other snorting and farting and yawning about. We watched for quite a long time.


Nighttime on the Serengeti was so beautiful. We camped there two nights on a small campsite. There was only one other group (the Geckos) camping there. Chloe and I would lie out and look at the stars for quite a long time. The sky was so beautiful. So many stars. And they seemed to be much closer than at home. I imagine being at the Equator we are closer to the universe, the sun and the moon. They all seemed closer too. The sky also had a domed feel. The stars fell off down to the horizon. When the moon rose it was so big and bright that it took some of the stun-factor away from the stars. And then hearing a couple of lions roar and hyenas laugh was very cool. We felt safe in our tents. On the last morning Wachira was roaming about the perimeter of our campsite. He was obviously looking for something. He had left his bath bag out and suspected that a hyena had gotten it. He found it a little while later, strewn about in the bush, the toothpaste completely mangled.