Jambo, Safari: Serengeti

I was researching information about the Seregeti Plains today and found this interesting list on Wikipedia.

Natural travel wonders

I have been to half the places on this list!! Only 5 more to go :))

Back to the Serengeti: Covering an area of 30,000 km2 in northwestern Tanzania and southwestern Kenya, the plains are covered with grasslands and more than 70 larger species of mammals can be found here. Wikipedia goes on to say: Around October, nearly 2 million herbivores travel from the northern hills toward the southern plains, crossing the Mara River, in pursuit of the rains. In April, they then return to the north through the west, once again crossing the Mara River. This phenomenon is sometimes called the Circular Migration. Over 250,000 wildebeest alone will die along the journey from Tanzania to Masai Mara Reserve in upper Kenya, a total of 500 miles. Death is often caused by injury, exhaustion, or predation.^[1] The migration is chronicled in the 1994 documentary film, Africa: The Serengeti.

We entered the Serengeti National Park (part of the Serengeti Plains area) on the west side at Ndabaka Gate, just a little ways from Speke Bay, after crossing through customs at Isebanjia, the Tanzania border crossing the day before. At the border, they were more interested in the registration of our safari vehicle than they were in us! There is a big market for stolen 4 X 4 vehicles so Chris had to have all the documents in perfect order - which he of course did. We stood in the shade and watched people come and go while kids selling peanuts and bananas tried, with no success, to convince us to buy something. Our cameras were tucked safely away as government sites are definite "no photo" zones.

The park gate - you can see it's 136 km to our hotel.

This was a private safari vehicle that needed a new tire - a fairly common occurrence while driving -

on these kinds of roads.

We had hardly entered the park when we started spotting animals like this baboon sitting up in a tree -

elephants pushing trees over -

giraffes grazing on tree tops -

small herds of wildebeest milling around -

and Thompson's gazelles. This was a herd of bachelors - you can see they all have horns.

Females will be found in a harem guarded by a dominant male. The bachelors will individually challenge him as they mature and begin to look for their own harems.

Chris spotted this small gazelle carcass that a panther had hauled up into a tree, which they will often do to preserve their kill from other predators. Can you imagine a cat dragging this UP into a tree??