Safari
Before coming to Tanzania I only had one goal: go on safari. So I was ecstatic when two of my fellow CCS volunteers said they wanted to go on a safari over my first weekend. I did a bit of research on local companies in Moshi and after getting a variety of quotes and negotiating with the operators, we decided to go with Bushmen Expeditions.
I’ve been very pleased with our decision. The price was definitely right: for $775 per person, we got a 2-night, 3-day luxury safari. We’ve stayed at Serena lodges both nights, and the one tonight, at Ngorongoro Crater, is particularly fantastic. The service is good and so is the food (in fact, the food is amazing compared to everything else I’ve had in Tanzania), but the best part about Serena Ngorongoro is the view. Wow. We’re perched on the rim of the crater, thousands of feet above the bottom, overlooking the whole thing, lakes, grasslands, forest. Front row seats to the cradle of humanity.
Beyond the nice accommodations, we’ve also had a simply fantastic experience. Our guide, Richard (aka “Ritchie”), is an absolute wealth of knowledge about every species we encounter, as well as all the details about Tanzanian and Masai vulture and history. He also seems to have a 6th sense for where the animals are, because in 24 hours on the Serengeti we saw pretty much every major species possible: lions, wildabeast (not only grazing but a huge group of the migration, perhaps 10,000 strong, crossing the road—a very rare sight according to Richard), zebra, giraffe, impala, buffalo, gazelle, crocodile and hippo. But the single best sighting and greatest demonstration of our guide’s value was the leopard. As we passed a tree around lunch time, he spotted an obscurred, partly-consumed wildabeast carcass hanging up in a tree next to the road. We stopped and Richard said we should have lunch there to wait and see if the leopard showed up to finish his meal. He managed to spot the leopard’s tail hanging out of a tree several hundred yards away on the other side of the road, so we knew he was relatively close by. Sure enough, after about 30 minutes, the leopard hopped out of his perch when dome birds began circling his wildabeast. He walked right past us, literally a foot from the car, and then climbed right up the tree. I got some incredible photos on my DSLR, which I can’t wait to upload and share here.
The leopard sighting remains my favorite, but our day in the Serengeti also came to a perfect conclusion with sighting of a 17-lion pride. At first we just saw a single huge male right on the side of the road, sitting next to a fairly fresh kill. Then Richard spotted a few more on top of a hill of a nearby spur from the main road. When we drove over there, we discovered a big group of females lounging by a pond. We got close enough that I could even take a good shot with my iPhone!
It’s tough to believe that was all just our first destination. Tomorrow we do Ngoronoro and there’s a high probability that we see some rhinos and cheetahs! I just hope our second stop is half as great as the first, but either way, I feel I’ve already gotten my money’s worth.
