The Serengeti has always intrigued me. After watching so many David Attenborough documentaries this was a place I had always dreamed of, and our safari in the Serengeti sure didn’t disappoint.
After our trip to the Ngorongoro Crater we headed towards the mighty Serengeti in Tanzania.
As we drove towards the entrance to the national park, we found our self surrounded by wildebeest.
It was the end of the great migration and the wildebeest were all hanging out here to try and get some action. As the breeding season has just begun.
All around, there were wildebeest mixed with Zebra as far as the eye could see. It was amazing! I could only imagine what it’s like during the great migration.
Traffic jam on our way to our Serengeti safari!
As we stopped the car to take in this amazing sight of so many animals. The wildebeest started to cross the road. The moment one crossed the road, hundred’s would follow.
Before we know it we had to wait 10 min before our driver had enough ha ha.
He started to beep his horn and slowly started to drive towards them. Eventually there is a break so we could move on towards the entrance.
Along the way a giraffe was heading towards the entrance as well.
We finally made it to the main entrance of the mighty Serengeti. I was about to tick off another bucket off the list. We were both super excited for what was in store for us over the next two days…
Including spending a night in a bush camp!… In the middle of the Serengeti with no fences around us. This will be interesting.
The Serengeti will never die!
Once we enter the gates there was hardly any animals in sight. It was like all the wildebeest and Zebra knew not to enter the Serengeti because of the danger from lions. So they all chilled outside of the gate.
Even though there is no fence around the park and the animals can move freely where ever they like. They all just kept their distance.
After a while we spotted two hyenas feasting in the plains. A wildebeest must of stumbled in and got caught.
The Serengeti is huge.
Approximately 35 kms in length and 14000 long kms. It is mostly plains as the ground is made up from volcanic lava and is very hard for trees to grow out of the hard ground.
Up ahead in the distance I could see a herd of my favorite animal. The African Elephant 😊
There were a couple of baby elephants in the herd.
They are so cute! Just watch out for their mumma and don’t get too close with the car.
The way you can tell the difference between African elephants and Asian elephants is – The African elephant’s ears are shaped like the continent of Africa.
It was a beautiful day out on the plains. As we drove around on the dirt tracks looking for wildlife.
When all of a sudden our driver got some notifications over the CB radio. Then all of a sudden we took off! We were all thrown back into our seats.
Our driver turned into a professional rally driver!…
…As we ripped it up the Serengeti. We were doing 80 kms down these rutted out dirt roads. We had no idea what he was told. But he sure was on a mission to get us to a destination!
We finally slowed down at a river crossing which was home to some hippos.
The driver pointed to the trees in the distance, then we made our way there in a more reasonable pace on these off road tracks.
As we got closer to the trees we saw some movement and there it was!…
We finally spotted the elusive leopard!!
The leopard was the last of the BIG 5 that we had yet to see with our own eyes! Was amazing seeing her, sat in the tree and feeding on her kill.
This is our second overland safari through Africa and up to this point the leopard has eluded us. So we were super hyped to see one in the Serengeti!
Not only that but there was also a juvenile hanging out on another branch to the right in the tree..
It was so awesome to spot two leopard’s in the same tree, what a treat this was!
We parked the car and just watched this huge cat ripping pieces of the impala that she killed earlier that day.
The circle of life song from the Lion King was playing in my head. As I was slowly getting desensitised to the brutality of the wild.
The word got out and other cars started to show up to catch a glimpse of the leopard. She didn’t seem to mind all the noise…. Must of been a def leppard.
This leopard had enough food. So started to clean herself before she lay down for a nap.
The sun was starting to go down so we headed towards our camp site.
Along the way we were greeted by some more beautiful elephants on the side of the road.
In the herd there were two baby male elephants that were practicing their charging moves on each other.
Playing tug of war, pushing each other back and forth.
It was so cute to watch 😊
As their parents smashed some delicious grass lumps, the children played.
Along the road to the campsite, we passed a hippo heading out for a night of feeding. These guys will eat up to 35 kg of grass in one night. No wonder they have an amazing figure.
A squad of hartebeest were having a feed as we drove past them.
A male impala was keeping watch as we entered our camp site for the night.
Bush Camp
Now a bush camp is when you camp in a national park in the wild. There is no fencing to keep the wild animals out of the camp site.
So we have a quick briefing with our guide. He tells us at night if we need to leave our tent, to shine our torch around to make sure there are no animals close by.
If you see green eyes they will be herbivores like impala, dik diks, hartebeest etc. Red eyes will be predators like lions, leopard’s etc. But at night if you need to go to the toilet it’s best just do it at the back of your tent.
We set up our tents then waited for dinner.
Let’s see what the night will hold for us.
And stay tuned for the next blog about our night and the following day on our mighty Serengeti safari!
Happy travels 😊
For more East Africa blogs check these out 👇
Sheldrick Wildlife trust Kenya
For another bush camp blog check out – Chobe National Park, Botswana
We went on our Serengeti safari with Africa Travel Co who we highly recommend for a fun and great overlanding trip 👍 😃 👍