Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park is likely the most famous national park in the entire world and for good reason. I was worried that my expectations were too high, especially given my recent binge on BBC and National Geographic nature documentaries. However, my two days in Serengeti were as unforgettable as any in my life and the landscapes and animals were unique an.

A view to the south at the park gate. 

A look into the iconic and dry Serengeti plains. 

Serengeti is Tanzania's largest national park at 14,763 square kilometers (5,700 square miles or half the size of West Virginia). It lays adjacent to Ngorogoro Conservation Area to the south, Lake Victoria to the west, and Maasai Mara Game Reserve in the north. It's best known for the insane numbers of wildabeest and zebra that migrate during the change of seasons and also for the iconic plains in the south of the park. The name comes from the Masaai word “siringet” which means “endless plain”. However, the main attraction is the wildlife, more specifically, predators. Lions, hyenas, cheetahs, leopards, and birds of prey can all be spotted with one of the highest densities of predators of any park in Africa. 

The drive in from the south was startling for it's barren nature. The landscape was flat for as far as you could see with brown grasses covering the seemingly desolate landscape. Hard to imagine that when the rains come the landscape would be transformed to green with millions of grazing animals. For now, only a few solitary ostriches roamed about. 

The rains started about two weeks ago so the landscape became a bit greener with huge packs of zebras and gazelles grazing. We saw a few different prides of lions that were lazing about. It was pretty cool because the zebras would form a large semi-circle around the lions while grazing, always on alert. The highlight came in this area when we saw a cheetah stalking a gazelle. The cheetah crouched in a low position and moved slowly, stalking the gazelle with an intensity that I could feel. The gazelle caught on and for a moment both animals were frozen. Suddenly the cheetah flinched and and the gazelle shot off like a rocket. Unreal!

We made our way to the center of the park which was a bit more hilly and had some rivers and marshy areas. The wildlife sightings continued to be numerous with several lions, giraffes, gazelles, wildebeests, hippos, zebras, and ostriches. Less commonly seen were hyenas, jackals, and elephants. We drove through the park all day and in the central area the changing landscapes were mesmerizing even when there were no big animals to view.

We spent the night at a luxury lodge in the center of the park and saw hippos, baboons, rock hyrax and warthogs pass through. We then got up early for a game drive at 6AM and then another game drive after breakfast till we exited the park in the afternoon. We took our time as we exited and we passed through the same southern route as when we came in. So much of the park was left unexplored but there is always next time!

A cheetah positions itself for a hunt. 

Zebra!

This lioness had a radio collar, likely part of a research effort. 

A solitary lion basks in the sun. 

An agama lizard. Even the reptiles are more awesome in Serengeti. 

Zebras graze the endless plains. 

A lion seeks refuge under an Acacia tree. 

Iconic landscape. 

Ana and I good to go on the morning Safari. We spent most of our term standing on our seats with our heads popped out the front hatch. 

Cross-roads in the park. 

This lion was not shy. 

This was a rock called "Lion Rock", which was unsurprisingly colonized by lions. There were at least five that we saw with cubs taboot. 

Lion cubs sleeping in the shade. 

View from the hotel. 

You can't imagine how much chlorine was in that pool (I did not swim). Looks nice though!