Saturday, July 30th 2011
Second day on Safari!
We left our luxury campsite this morning to drive to the Serengeti. However, we drove around the Ngorongoro Crater first, and saw animals moving around (well actually little black dots moving around) from the rim of the crater. While driving around the crater we drove past a bunch of Masai villages and Masai kids dancing on the side of the road. Finally we entered the Serengeti at 12:50pm in the afternoon. When we finally reached the gate to the park, it took us almost two hours to get through, because so many people were trying to enter the park at the same time as us. During this time we “climbed” this little hill which gave us this nice view of the Serengeti.
Our first animal sightings in the Serengeti were two lions lying in the grass by a herd of zebras. The lions did not go after them, they were just lazing around in the sun. After driving around for a bit we saw some really cool birds. One, is called a Secretary bird, because it “wears” a black mini skirt and a white blouse, it is also very good at killing snakes. While driving around we saw jackals, ostriches, giraffes, Tony eagles and a whole bunch of Acacia trees.
The most exciting animal spotting of the day was Lucy, the leopard. She was hanging out in a tree that was over the road, so it was a pretty special sighting because she was so close up. After most of the the other cars had gone and only one of our safari vehicles remained, the one I was in. Lucky for us, Lucy came out of the tree. She walked around the tree that she was in then walked right beside the land cruiser, and finally into the distance. It was a pretty awesome sighting seeing as leopards are usually very shy. On our way to the campsite our land cruiser saw crocodiles in a river and hyenas walking around. Also the sunset on the Serengeti was absolutely spectacular, it had the most beautiful colours that I have ever seen in a sunset. The other land cruisers saw giraffes up close and were very close to some female lions drinking water from a pool. When we reached the campsite our tents are all set up and we have an awesome dinner with pumpkin soup.
That night, the stars were absolutely amazing. There were so many of them and you could clearly see the milky way which was an awesome site. Although the lights in the sky were wonderful to look at, the lights in bushes were not so nice to look at. Seeing as the lights in the bushes were probably hyena eyes about ten meters from our tents. It was really cool, but slightly creepy at the same time thinking that there were wild animals right outside our tents and that only a thin sheet of fabric separating us from them.
All in all this was an amazing day on the safari seeing the Serengeti for the first time, lions and a leopard. Sighting these amazing animals with awesome friends was a great way to to experience Africa in a very touristy, but fun way.
By Anne Theilmann
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