Serengeti National Park

GSerengeti National Park is know to the Maasai people as endless plains.  The covers 14,700 sq. km. and is Tanzania's most famous national park.  It stetches for as far as the eye can see, dotted with granite kopyes (volcanic rock), acacia trees and is home to tens of thousands of hoofed animals in search of fresh grass.  The wildebeest are over one million and are scattered over the southern  section of the Serengeti during the rainy season between December and May.  They continue to follow the green grass forming large herds migrating north.  The female wildebeest give birth in February, where there could be up to 800 calves born per day and 40% of these calves will die before they are 4 months old.  

The Serengeti is also famous for its lions, cheetahs, zebras, giraffe, Thomson and Grant gazelles, elands, impalas and warthogs.

You will be impressed by the vastness and the magnificence of nature's rhythms on your drive through the Serengeti.

Lion sleeping in the tree.

The Granite Kopyes

The acacia tree.

Zebra in at the watering hole.

Some of the big migration herd.

More of the herd.

Wildebeest 

Zebras in the watering hole.

Something scared the zebras and they are running out of the water.

Lion in the grass watching the zebras.

Zebras being watched by the lion.

Leopard in the tree.

Hippos in the bush.

View from the Serengeti Sopa Lodge.

Serengeti Sopa Lodge

Saw cheetahs as we were leaving the Serengeti.

Another cheetah by the tree marking his territory.

Big lion laying in the grass.

Olduvai Gorge

The Olduvai Gorge is a canyon about 50 km long and up to 90 m deep.  This gorge provided remarkable documentation of ancient life.

The most famous of Olduvai's fossils is the 1.8 million year old ape-like skull discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959, giving rise to a heated debate about human evolution.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro caldera consists of the beautiful crater highlands with vast stretches of plains, bush and woodlands.  The area covers over 8300 sq km and it borders with the Serengeti.

The Ngorongoro was formed by a volcano.  The inside of the caldera is 20 km wide and is one of the largest caldera in the world.

Inside the caldera you will find a wide variety of animals and vegetation.  There are lions, elephants, buffalo , wildebeest, Thomson's gazelles, zebras, reedbucks, flamingos wading in the soda lake and possibly even get to see a rhino.

Because of the steepness there are a lot of animal movement in and out of the caldera.  However, the animals choose to stay inside as there is permanent water and plenty of grassland.  The wildlife share the caldera with the local Maasai, who have grazing rights, so you see them tending their cattle herds.

Looking down into the Ngorongoro caldera.

Inside of the caldera.

Warthogs

Cape buffalo

Rhino up close.

Lion laying in the grass.

Hippo pool but the hippos are very hard to spot.

Flamingos

Hippos 

Cape buffalo

Roads after a short rain in the Ngorongoro.

Tarangire National Park

Tarangire National Park is southeast of Lake Manyara and has the Tarangire River running through it.  This park has a very high concentration of wildlife during the dry season (August - October).  In Tarangire you will see many huge baobab trees which make great scratching posts for the elephants because of the nutrients found in the bark of the baobab.  

Leopard on the lower branch of the tree.

Lion up in the tree.

Rainy day so didn't see a lot of animals in the park.

Crossing the Tanzania border and a visit with Raymond

Tuesday, we said our goodbyes to our Kenyan guides when they dropped us off at the border where our Tanzanian guides met us and we continued on to Arusha.  I was excited to head into Arusha as I was going to met up with Raymond ( our safari guide we had 3 years ago when we were on safari).  We stopped at the Arusha Hotel for lunch where Raymond came to visit.  It was great to met up with him again.  I recognized him right away.  He was very curious and wanted to know everything about us especially Freddie.  I showed him pictures of home.

Amboseli National Park

Amboseli National Park has the country's most spectacular backdrop, Mt. Kilimanjaro.   Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak and is usually cloud covered hiding the mountain's massive size.  The Kenyan side of the mountain is very steep where as the Tanzanian side is where the climbing happens.  Amboseli is also elephant country.  The small national park is only 390 sq km.  the vegetation used to be much denser but the rising salinity, damage by the elephants and the irresponsible behaviour with the safari vehicles has caused terrible erosion.  It is only time before the lack of food will make the animals move on.

Erosion on the land.

Kenya sunrise.

Mt. Kilimanjaro hiding in the clouds.  You can only see the top.

Maasai Village

The Maasai tribe still has the reputation as being fierce warriors maintaining large cattle herds.  The Maasai have a distinctive style and social stucture with circumcision still widely practised for both male and female. Women wear large platelike  bead necklaces, while men wear  red-checked shuka (blanket) and carry a ball-ended club.  Blood and milk are the main Maasai diet, supplemented by a drink called mursik, made from milk fermented with cow's urine and ashes.

Randy joining in the dance.

Jumping - male dance.

Women Maasai dancing.  Missed Keneen dancing with them.