The second week of our Tanzania trip included, as we desired, a lot of sitting and animal-viewing!
Our driver, Robert, took us to four different National Parks in the "northern" safari circuit, which included Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater (Conservation Area), and Tarangire. I will be breaking up the wildlife photos into a couple of posts. Here is the "appetizer" post (with bigger, badder animals to come!).
We had beautiful scenery (and sightings!) along the way.
Maasai huts
(the Maasai people, herders by trade,
inhabit the Conservation Area, which is what distinguishes this area
from a National Park). They do, have to be careful their goats and cows don't get eaten by lions, though, as these parks and areas have no fenced borders!
we also saw some Maasai camels (NOT native to Tanzania, but rather Saudi transplants!)!
goofing around with a waterbuck skull at Manyara
anti-poachers, surveying the scene at Manyara
looking for hippos, Manyara
near Karatu, TZ
(with Ansa, who was in our same Land Cruiser for the safari part, too)
On the first and last nights of the five-day (four-night) safari, we stayed in Karatu at Zara-owned, lovely Highview Hotel (on the safari part, we had wanted to avoid tent camping, more for my fear of hearing wild animals than for hatred of tents, but after last week's camping it was very welcome. We had HOT WATER and definitely felt pampered :)). The meals, included in our trip, were also excellent.
We drove through the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands and rim on our way to Serengeti National Park.
We passed by the Olduvai Gorge, where some of the earliest skeletons of human ancestors have been discovered.
Crater Rim
Tombstone of German Conservationist
Ngorongoro Crater
After 3-4 hours on a very bumpy road, we passed seamlessly into the grasslands of the Serengeti, a 50,000 sq km area of some of the most abundant wildlife in Africa. The Serengeti is named after the Maasai word "siringet," which means "endless plains" (which there definitely were!).
Naabi Hill, Serengeti National Park
I love Acacia trees (also the favorite food of my favorite animal, the giraffe!)
While in the Serengeti, we stayed just outside the park in Ikomo Wild Camp, where we had sheltered huts that were solar-powered, but where we still heard zebras (and more?) running by in the middle of the night.
Serengeti Sunrise, by AC
On Day 4 of the Safari, we headed back to Ngorongoro Crater, a 20-km wide crater formed from a collapsed volcano and one of the world's largest calderas.
(Kelvin, with Ngorongoro hippos in the background!)
On day 5, we visited (as our last stop) Tarangire National Park, which houses a lot of hundreds- to thousand-year-old baobab trees (as well as lots of wildlife).
Baobabs
Ok--- so there was the overview.... now, here are some pictures of animals. We saw SO MANY animals that I had a hard time whittling down the "best photos" (naturally, we took a million). I also had no really good way to organize the posts. The Serengeti was where we saw the most wildlife, although it was really nice to see the different scenery of the other parks, as well (although it required a lot of driving on unpaved, dusty roads). Here is a glimpse of our African sightings (part I).
Antelope abounded!!! They were absolutely everywhere.
Thomson Gazelles
Grant's Gazelles
(by AC)
(with a distant ostrich in the background)
Gazelles, Topi, and Hartebeests
Reedbuck
Impala (which apparently are not found in the Crater due to the vegetation there)
Elands (larger antelope), which were actually quite rare-- we only saw two
Waterbuck at Tarangire (apparently when they sense a predator, they release a hormone that makes their meat taste bad, so they are not a favorite food for lions, etc.!)
Wildebeest (with some zebra) or "gnu," whose annual migration in the spring/early summer is surely something to see (recall The Lion King :))
Apparently the "gnu" are a favorite food for lions because, as our guide, Robert said, "they're very stupid" and, I guess, easily caught.
Crater Wildebeest
(by AC)
River at Tarangire (you can see some elephants in the background)
We saw hundreds of thousands of zebras, who I actually find quite lovely to look at.
They often stand in groups facing opposite directions, "for protection."
As we found out at our camp, they can be quite noisy, making almost a bark-like sound when alerting the others.
While adults have black stripes, babies have brown stripes
(by AC)
"Zebra Crossing"!
My favorite animal to watch (perhaps other than lions... coming up in the next post) are giraffes. They are just so graceful and "polite," as Robert put it. While elephants raze whole tress for a little snack, giraffes just nibble at the tree tops... then move on to snack somewhere else.
Giraffe at Manyara
paralleling the tree
the herd!
"Abbey Road" giraffes :)
resting a bit
taking a drink
view from our Land Cruiser
These giraffes politely held this pose for just enough time for us to take our photos :)
I'm not very into birds, but here are a few shots
(flamingoes in the background, Ngorongoro Crater; they are also plentiful at Lake Manyara)
Guinea Fowl
Ostrich!
(this male has slightly reddened legs as it's breeding season)
We also saw a few rodents along the way...
Here is a tame rock hyrax by our picnic site!
(and another one on the roof)
We saw a Mongoose at the picnic site
(as well as some in the wild... at Tarangire)
How's that for an "appetizer" of animals? Another post with some of the "Big Five" and more predators will be coming.
