Western Serengeti - Land of Elephants & Lions

After a good breakfast, we said good-bye to Eileen's Trees Hotel with a packed lunch and brimming with anticipation. (There was a minor few-fa, as the hotel wanted to charge us for the wine we'd had with dinner, but it was quickly cleared up.)

Breakfast table at Eileen's

Our first stop would be Ngorngoro National Park, home to the Ngorongoro Crater. The habitat was created a couple of million years ago, when a volcano erupted. The crater is approximately 326km squared and 620m deep. The name is onomatopoeic, in that it's the sound of the cow bells that hang on the necks of Masai livestock. (The Masai equivalent to ding dong, more or less.)

It took a while to get all the paperwork registered (there was a bit of a booking error), so we watched all the comings and goings at the gate to the park. There are over 1000 safari/tour operators in Tanzania, and it felt like it, even in this shoulder season. Before we knew it we were heading up to the rim of the crater to take a look at all it had to offer. It would be several days before we actually headed down to the crater floor, but the views just whetted our curiosity about the unique ecosystem down at the base.

It was a quick pause at the crater's edge and then we headed on towards the Serengeti. En route, we stopped at a lookout and Ron met a group of Masai men, conveniently hanging around just waiting for opportunities to have their photos taken, for a nominal fee, of course. (This is completely against park regulations, just so you know.)

The white Masai - aka Ron

The view point - that's the Serengeti in the distance

 Saying "kwaheri" (good-bye) to the Masai we were off again, descending from the edge of the crater down into the savanna. (Serengeti means "endless plains".) The terrain changed quite dramatically, from rolling hills to flat endless expanses by the time we reached the park's perimeter. 

Be prepared, photo inundation coming:

Heartbok

Hyena

Mama lioness and cub

Unimpressed jackal

Cory Bustard

Wild little pink and purple lizard

Woodpecker

Artsy tree shot

It was a long day, filled with lots of beautiful scenery, incredible animal sightings and interactions with the locals. As the sun was slowly lowering, we headed to our first remote camp at Tanzanian Bush Camp - Simba Camp. We were warmly welcomed, with hibiscus juice and friendly staff. The main take away was that we weren't to leave our tents in the night, without an escort. We were given a walkie-talkie, to let them know if and when we wanted to go out. Fortunately, dinner came before the sun set and the Masai warriors were available to take us back to out tent

Our glamping digs

Sunset on the Serengeti

Gotta be honest, the "tent" camps are pretty lush set-ups. We had hot water, charging stations, a full bathroom and a king-sized bed. Not exactly roughing it. As the sunset on our first "real" day on safari, we could only look forward to what was to come. Next up: unique elephant encounters and Ndutu National Park.

 

Safari-licious! Tarangire National Park

When we first arrived in Tanzania our safari seemed a long way off, but before we knew it we were meeting Gift at our hotel and hashing out the pick up time for the start of our grand adventure. Meru Slopes also hooked us up with a SIM card, to help us get around while in Arusha and on the road, which is a lovely addition to their services.

Just as a heads up, I'm presenting my photos the way we experienced them. I'm hoping that this will give you, dear reader, a sense of what we experienced on our safari. It's my wish that you can feel the amazement of seeing the wildlife as we did. First at a distance, and then as our journey progresses, closer. Welcome to our safari!

Almost ready to hit the road

The day was finally here! We met our guide, Jacob, a very affable fellow, prone to teasing - in a kind way. He was a little surprised at our lack of baggage, as we only had three small bags and our "day" bag and camera case. (We'd left our "city clothes" in Zanzibar.) He actually had more luggage than we did!

Our destination of the day was Tarangire Wildlife Park, but we had to make a pit stop to pick up our lunch hamper. Little did I know that this, well, trunk, honestly would accompany us on the rest of our journey.

Teddy & Jacob, you can just see the top of the lunch hamper
behind Teddy's head

The highway is quite pleasant, and seems newly paved, but Jacob says it was done about 10 years ago, or so. He pointed out trees and told us about the use of some of the land, We saw some rice fields, corn fields and lots of Masai with their cows and goats. There were also a few honey farms along the way and a herd of zebras, that I caught a quick photo of from a distance. I was a bit panicked...what if that were the only zebras we saw? (Spoiler alert: it was not)

Zebras by the highway!

After after around three hours of driving, we turned off onto a dirt road, to enjoy our first (of many) "Tanzanian massages". The roads are rutted and many are washboard in nature, even with the superior suspension of the jeep, we got jostled around fairly vigorously. We started to see our first Baobab trees. Our first up close wildlife spotting was a group (mongaggle!) of mongooses (mongeese?). They were quite entertaining, with their frenetic scurrying and obsessive security checking.

I swear it's dust from the jeeps, not out of focus!

There were tons of birds and beautiful baobab trees as we waited for Jacob to purchase our entry permit.

A male Starling - quite striking, he also judges you.

                         

Then we entered the park and got swept away with the magic that is Africa. We saw elephants, a hart bock, Grant gazelles, giraffes, water buffalo and amazingly beautiful birds, weird birds and big birds (ostriches). This was on top of the sweeping views of wide open plains, dotted with Acacia and Baobab trees.

Baobab Tree

Dead Acacia Tree

We couldn't believe everything that we were able to see and Jacob described it as the "appetizer".

 

Red Horn Bill

Water Buffalo

Our first giraffe sighting

Here he is, closer

Lilac Breasted Roller

Great Crowned Crane

Our first elephant sighting

I can't describe the amount of angst on that first day. "What would we see? Oh my god, is that a giraffe? That's incredible! What if we don't see any others, was that the last time I'd see zebras? I didn't get a picture! This is amazing! " It was a roller coaster ride. Just as a tip: if you're on safari and it's your first day, you're 100% going to be seeing more of these animals, you'll likely see them much closer up and you'll get to be in their environments in ways that you don't even understand yet.

Ostriches

A whole herd of elephants!

Vervet Monkey

Once we completed our first wildlife drive we headed to Eileen's Trees Inn (we stayed in the Avocado suite), a hotel on the edge of the larger national parks. 

Our front patio, we never used it

 

Just a part of the suite, not shown bonus room & bath

We had dinner and settled in for the night, we were shooting for a 7am breakfast and then heading off into the storied Serengeti. We were heading to the "meat and potatoes" of the safari.

How to Safari...what we knew, didn't know and guessed at

Disclaimer: this is an incomplete guide to planning a safari! Ron started our journey about a year out and the very first thing he arranged was the safari itself. We went with a company called Meru Slopes Safaris and Tours in Tanzania. We didn't really consider Kenya and other popular locals, based more on price than anything else. Meru Slopes was amazing and we would recommend them and their ratings are off the charts good. Our safari coordinator, Gift Tembo, has asked that we provide his WhatsApp number, so here it is: +255 758 933 002. You can also reach them through their website meruslopestours.com. They are a local Tanzanian company that keeps their dollars in the country. They took care of us from the moment they picked us up at the airport until they dropped us off again. We thought it was important to support the locals. There are several companies that are based outside of Tanzania, but you do you, as they say.

Ndutu Camp View - pretty amazing

We absolutely knew that a safari would be expensive, even if we'd opted for a "budget friendly" option. Prices will vary based on season, safari length, location and amenities. We decided on a mid-scale trek, but wanted a custom experience, so went all out on a private safari. We booked a 10 day, mid range safari that included all park entry fees, accommodations, meals and drinks (which included water, pop, beer and wine - the alcohol, unbeknownst to us, was an unusual addition, but offered to us as part of the package, so of course we accepted), transportation and our amazing guide, Jacob. It was always nice to have a cold beer with lunch and a glass of wine at dinner, it just made it feel extra vacation-y. We travelled in a sort of shoulder season - when the animals are calving, so costs weren't as high as during the great migration.

Ready to head out on our adventure

10 days really equals 8 days of actual safari, the first and final day are settling you in your hotel and getting you from and to the airport. We knew it would be hot and that neutral coloured clothes would be required. This is to both bamboozle the tse tse flies (they're drawn by dark blue and black) and not startle the wildlife. I made do with my grey hiking pants, but had to expand my shirt selection to beige and pale green. Ron had to supplement...well,...everything, as he quite literally only owned black clothes. (He's back to just black, it was a blip on the screen. It's so hard core that he even uses charcoal based toothpaste.)

Ron, as you've never seen him before, with local Masai

We also knew their would be tip expectations of our guide. The common rule of thumb we read is $20USD per day per person. Now, we understand that tipping isn't obligatory; on the other hand, earnings in Tanzania are very low by our standards, so tipping is a way to help not just our guide, but the local economy, so we planned accordingly. 

Accommodations in our first tent camp

Our visa to enter Tanzania cost $80USD per person and there was an additional Zanzibar Health insurance cost that was $45USD, this is avoidable if you skip Zanzibar.

What we didn't know was how much medication would cost. It was a bit shocking, to be sure. We were lucky, we already had our shots for Hep-A and Hep-B, plus yellow fever. Getting our T-Dap updated was free (tetanus and diphtheria), thanks to universal health care. What did that leave us with? Dukoral for cholera and anti-malarial meds. Because we were going for an extended period of time the anti-malarials cost almost $500 combined and the cholera meds were slightly more, so total combined almost $1000.

Ndutu Camp - this is a mobile camp site

Other costs that we didn't really think out were tipping along the road. Make sure you have a lot of small bills, as the washroom attendants would greatly appreciate a couple thousand shillings or $1USD for using the facilities at the park entrances and occasional facilities scattered throughout the parks. We'd already planned for tipping in the hotels and tent camps. Many places have a tip box at the front desk, where you can drop an overall tip that gets split between the staff. 

Simba camp - in the middle of the Serengeti

Teddy, chilling outside the tent in Ndutu

Things we didn't know: bugs were a lot less of a problem than we thought they would be. We avoided going out at dawn and dusk and were mostly unmolested, our supply of high concentration Deet bug screen mostly came home with us. That being said, we were there in the mini dry season of February. On the northeast coast of Zanzibar we definitely used insect repellent when the daylight started to fade. Also, you may not use a hat a lot while on safari, if you're in a truck like ours. For the most part the pop up roof kept us out of the sun, even though the rays could be really intense if you stepped out of the shade.

Our table for breakfast at our first stop

I guessed that the jeeps would have a refrigerator and charging stations, but never guessed that they'd offer WiFi when it was available. There's some places that are so remote that you just can't get a signal. (Just a side note: WiFi and cell service is terrible out in the wilderness (unsurprisingly). At the camps it's not too bad if you aren't trying to use it a prime times and you're close to the lounge tents or main buildings. Don't rely on being able to be connected 24/7.)

Other note: photos with the Masai will cost you. They aren't supposed to, but they hang around hoping for a bit of supplemental income. If they get caught by the park rangers they do get into trouble, but of course, we didn't know that until Ron had already coughed over $20 for photos with them.

Next up: the actual adventure...how I'm going to present it is a complete mystery, so you'll be as surprised as I will be once we get there.