23rd - Safari

I won’t go into detail with our 5 days on safari, as it is limited how much can be built upon “we drove, we stopped, we took photos, we continued, repeat” so I will instead create posts with names of specific animals and post photos of these and maybe with a short comment on how we met it.

When we entered Serengeti NP we started by going to the administration center to be registered. After stretching our legs we started driving around, looking for animals. After app. half an hour we were still just driving and I thought of asking our driver to stop so we at least we could get some photos of the gazelles. Suddenly a shriek was heard from the back of the car – our Swedish group member Sara was sure she had seen something out in the distance, so we reversed a bit. And far out there, on a dirt mount, a single cheetah was standing and overlooking its surroundings. After a short while, we saw several other heads appear from the long grass, and we ended up seeing a mother with 4 (!) cubs from last year. We were so lucky that they actually decided to pass the road where a significant number of safari vehicles now where trying to get a good shot at them.

After seeing them passing by (and getting a bunch of photos) we continued, and it didn’t take more than a couple of minutes before we were stuck in another traffic jam – this time it was a leopard walking around – and also crossing the road. The start of the safari couldn’t have started any better. Of The Big 5, the leopard is the most difficult to find and the cheetahs are usually even harder to find – and seeing a group of 5 in that manner is apparently very rare.

We continued to drive around and saw a lot of animals we were hoping to find, and after some time, all of The Big 5 had been seen – except for the rhino. We were promised that the only chance of seeing the rhino would be in the Ngorongoro crater, where we would finish the safari.

The camp we stayed at before entering the crater had a couple of visits from elephants who came to drink from a water container. Both of them came wandering directly through the camp ignoring the people staying there. Some had their lunch stolen – never a good idea to leave such stuff lying outside when an elephant comes wandering by. Between the camp and the showers a herd of zebras where grazing, so even there a certain amount of caution was necessary.

When entering the crater the rhino was of cause the highest priority (though some of us also wanted to see some of the big cats involved in some blood and gory). We drove around and entered the only forest in the crater where we would have the biggest chance of seeing the rhino. After some driving the second car stopped, and far out to one side (800-1000 meters) a rhino could be spotted. After a while, further to the left a mother with its calf could be seen entering a small clearing, and suddenly three more were seen further to the right, chasing a group of zebras. The one the in middle (the original sighting) disappeared and then appeared a short while later, having now turned into a couple with a calf. Our guide told us that spotting a rhino was far from guaranteed, and you could come here several years in a row without seeing a single one, and now that we had seen 8 of them confirmed that we had been very, very lucky. Especially considering that the rhino population in the crater is 20-25 individuals.

Going on a safari for the first time, I consider myself being very lucky that I got to see all of The Big 5 (rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant) in one go. Even though that all the sightings of the rhinos was at a very long distance (app. 1 km give or take) it was a great experience. But sometimes you just get lucky. And I’m not complaining about that.

The dirty dozen. Well, close. We are more than a dozen, but after the safari we aren't particularly clean...