Serengeti and Ngorongoro, January 2nd to 4th, 2023

We woke up on the morning of January 2nd and were served a hot breakfast at the bush camp. We headed out around 8 AM on a day's journey to try and find as many big cats as we could in Serengeti National Park. We had to drive quite far away, but the day started out successfully, as we could see a leopard immediately. When we arrived at the spot where we were told the leopard was, there was a gazelle carcass hanging from a tree with a big hole above the anus. We were unsure if the leopard would return for its meal, but within a minute, it emerged from the grass and jumped onto an opposing tree. It climbed up the tree, but when it saw vultures trying to come and steal its food, the leopard jumped out of the tree and climbed up the other one where the dead carcass was hanging. It was the first time we had genuinely seen a leopard up close for more than five seconds, and it was really cool to see how easily they could climb up the trees and the size of their prey that they could drag up the tree. We start moving into the extensive Savannah grasslands with fewer trees. We approached the big wildebeest and zebra migrations. The wildebeest and zebras are heading south from their northern breeding grounds to the flatlands, where they will have birth. There are nearly 2,000,000 wildebeest, it seems like in each herd. We were able to see the lions out on the planes. One was even eating a zebra that it caught sometime earlier. There were several male lions around, with females surrounded by the giant herd of animals. We also got to see some cheetahs out on the plains. They are tricky to spot as they can hide easily in tiny amounts of brush. It was a very successful day, all in all, as we were able to see all three cats.

The second day was slower, as when we woke up, it was pouring rain. We started the day later, heading out around 8:30. The first hour or two were a bit unsuccessful, so we decided to try and see some hippos outside of the water, which our guide Gilbert said was quite possible on rainy days. We headed down to the hippo crap pond, a dirty, dirty pond that I would never step foot in first because it's disgusting and filled with the hippo crap and second because hippos will bite you in half if you get into their pond. We headed back for lunch as we did not go far, and Gilbert did not pack anything we could eat. We were the only people sitting in to have lunch in the camp, which was quite exciting as they brought us what seemed like a five-course meal, which none of us were expecting. We had some time to hang out in the afternoon and went out for an afternoon game drive around 4 o'clock, where we headed down to a different hippo pond that was connected to the river. The river water was racing because it had rained for about the last 24 hours, so the hippos were getting out of the water to walk along the shoreline further upstream before they were pushed back down the stream by the river's force. After watching the hippos for about an hour, we returned and saw a pride of lions along the way. We had dinner and enjoyed our last night in the central Serengeti bush camp. It was a nice place to stay, being woken up by the baboons every morning and having some beer on the Serengeti each night.

On January 4th, we travelled south. We left early and saw a pride of lions and some cheetahs along the way. We entered the big empty Savannah, filled with animals, tons of wildebeasts, and zebras migrating south. It's a beautiful drive through the Serengeti as there are no trees anywhere you look and absolutely massive packs of animals everywhere. We stopped for a packed lunch along the way and continued trucking along. We exited the Serengeti National Park and entered the Ngorongoro conservation area. This is where our bush camp is tonight. We will stay in the bush again without any fence or anything around. We are escorted to our rooms by the local Maasai man once the sun goes down. This place seems quite lovely, and we will only be here for about the night.

Looking forward to tomorrow when we head down to the Ngorongoro Canyon.

A leopard in a tree is not happy about vultures stealing his food.

Male lion guarding his meat

Hyena waiting for his chance to eat the meat

Cheetah

Hot Male Lion

Hippos Battling

A female Cheetah with her 2 cubs

Giraffes

Cheetah lying down