Serengeti Safari, Tanzania

Going on a Serengeti Safari creates a soul-stirring feeling of space. The word Serengeti means the place where the land runs on forever' and refers to the flat grassy plains making a third of the park. These grasslands and savannahs ensure the area is full of game.

There are animals here all year round, and from May to October, the area is full of wildlife life, including wildebeest, impala, zebra, topi, warthogs, gazelles and hyena. Lion, leopard, cheetah and caracal can be more easily spotted in the Kopjes, granite inselbergs scattered across the landscape.

The Serengeti is famous for its wildebeest migration, when every year 2 million animals move clockwise around this 14,000 square km ecosystem in search of grazing and water. The hunters follow the wildebeest and zebra closely so making a Serengeti Safari an opportunity to view lions and other big cats on the hunt.

Locating the wildebeest migration is challenging - but with such a large  population of animals, safari and game viewing within the Serengeti Game Reserve is great all year round.

Diary of a safari traveler

Ndutu is at the end of a long dry season.  Dust seems everywhere, temperatures are tempers are high. Relief is near, as rain clouds start to build and rumbles of distant thunder breaks the afternoon silence. It’s rained on the surrounding plains and some days we can even smell the rain.
The fire ball lilies are flowering adding a touch of red to the parched earth, another sure sign of the approaching rains. Waiting for rain is frustrating.

The pace of life slows down at this time; the animals also seem to slow. Even the young bull elephants that can't resist trumpeting at cars, are just plodding by, waiting for the rain.
The game viewing has been amazing lately. Lions from the Masek pride have 10 tiny cubs. This makes the pride up to 23 and a grand sight as they feed on a buffalo kill . The cubs were adorable playing around while the adults fed. We just wanted to pick one up but we know it's a bad idea. The adults don't look so cute; they look thin and mean at this time of year.

We had an interesting thing happening in the lodge . A lioness was seen a few days ago from the main lodge area.  As she was passing, she suddenly saw an impala ram feeding alone. We watched enthralled for the next half an hour as she went down low and edged closer on her haunches.
Watching the lion and impala you realize how much impalas and other prey are constantly on the look out for danger, they feed only for a few seconds before looking up. It was in the afternoon and naturally such an observant impala spotted the lioness and ran off with a snort. It's such a treat to watch such behavior while out of a vehicle although we were in the comfort and safety of the bar. Then the lioness also disappeared, a little alarming because she was quite close though we never saw her again.

Many elephants passed through the lodge this month. Guests having tea one afternoon were treated to a group of around 250 zebra, five buffalo, a small group of kongoni and a herd impala grazing in front of the lodge and through this scene walked a line of 30 elephants. They ambled through the entire length of the lodge before fading away into the trees.
Elephants have continued to raid the wells this month for water. Mr. D the notorious bull elephant who seems to have moved into the lodge this week is the leader.
The nights are hot and still at the moment, broken by the odd hyena whooping, the sudden crack of a branch snapped by an elephant or the chatter of flamingos passing overhead.