After a long day in the truck chasing animals the sun started to go down so it was time to camp. This time we dropped the young people off at their campsite with their tents.

What we didn’t expect, was another hours drive into the middle of the Serengeti is search of our accommodation, but that is what happened and 12 hours in that truck is enough for anyone’s rear end.

Initially the camp didn’t look overly impressive, and Wooksie quickly observed that the accommodation bore a striking resemblance to a tent. I pointed out that it was a very large Bedouin type structure, but there was no escaping that it was made from canvas.

After the first night of surreal comfort in the middle of nowhere, the reality of sleeping on the Serengeti became real. Once checked in we had to be escorted by the porters, who were armed with paraphernalia to discourage wild animals.

We had some interesting neighbours, notably water buffalos and wart hogs, and we didn’t want to be bumping into any of them in the dark or in fact the daylight.

Each room was equipped with walky talky radios so we could call for help in the night should there be any problems as they didn’t want people wandering around in the dark.

I had a wonderful nights kip but not so good for Wooksie. Apparently a water buffalo had taken a shine to our tent and had been rubbing itself on the veranda all night, the hyena had been howling away, the giraffe had been munching in the trees and the little wart hogs had been snorting away.

These things are sent to try us I explained to a bleary eyed Wooksie who was lacking her usual sense of humour.

When we met up with the young people, they had even more issues in the night with elephants wandering around the camp site, its a dangerous place !

Day 1 was all about the lions, we came to see their awesome power as the kings of the jungle, but actually saw huge cats that seemed to behave like our moggy at home, and slept all day. Time to consider the other creatures that grabbed our attention, particularly on the second day.

The star of the show was undoubtedly this beautiful cheetah. Rashid spotted the tail far off in the distance and after a scramble across rutted paths he positioned us at a point where she appeared. Initially she just sat on a bank and waited for us to turn up. She really was beautiful and elegant, she sat and watched the truck before laying down in front of us, just like any other happy cat. She finished her show with a stroll in front of the truck.

There were antelopes everywhere, they looked so fragile in the barren environment but I guess being that small means they don’t need to each much. Their nimbleness is their main protection and at the first sign of trouble the fly off running in 5 directions at the same time !

As soon as you see a vulture you think of the Jungle Book scene with Mowgli. They are intimidating creatures that live in the very few trees that exist on the plain. They nest at the top where they the can spot ailing creatures in the distance and prepare dinner for the kids. There is just something very unpleasant about them !

One of the big surprises were these giant turkeys. I thought they lived on farms for most of the year whilst preparing themselves for Christmas. So to see one of these giants wandering around the savanna looking like a nice meal for one of the other creatures was a bit of a surprise.

Another creature that amazed me was the Ostrich. I guess we have all seen them at just about any self respecting kids farm or zoo, consequently it had never occurred to me what their natural habitat would be.

These giant birds are perfectly equipped to live on the savanna, they are tall and they stand like statues scanning the horizon for danger and presumably food. In addition they have huge legs and feet and can run like the wind when they are in danger and all their body weight is in the middle to give them good balance.

There are however some design flaws from nature, firstly they have wings but can’t fly so their obvious escape route isn’t available to them. They also seem to be incredibly dumb, as you will see from this video, this idiot bird just walked out in front the truck !

The little wart hogs were everywhere, such funny little animals. They always seemed to be busy munching grass and not doing anything particularly exciting, but their strange appearance always provided a welcome distraction.

Lonely bull elephant

This elephant was the saddest sight of the trip. It is an old bull elephant that had been kicked out of it’s herd by some young upstart and was left to wander the plains on it’s own. We saw some small groups of 2 or 3 old bulls keeping each other company – nature is horribly cruel as the same happens to the mature male lions.

in happier times, seeing this family of elephants wandering around the water holes with their babies was a wonderful sight. Nothing rushes an elephant as it regally makes it’s way to wherever it has decided to go

Big 5 – the Hippos

Our sighting of another of the Big 5, the hippos. The first sighting of one was very exciting as it popped it’s nostril above the water. Within 10 minutes of driving we found a water hole with dozens of these giant beasts.

In this photo you will note that they are huddled together, this is to protect the baby hippos from the predatory crocodiles hidden on the banks and the shallows. The looked like giant stepping stones across the pool, but nobody volunteered to give it a go, apparently more humans are killed by hippos in Africa than any other species.

Finally the water buffaloes, the things that kept Wooksie awake all night in our compound. There were hundreds in the herd that we came across. They looked like they would make a tasty meal for the lions but their menacing horns and tendency to live in herds made them a challenging prey.

So we left the Serengeti without spotted a leopard, but on a 3 day safari we were doing pretty well, time to head to the Ngorongoro Crater

Rashid picked us up from our hotel promptly at a civilised time of 8am, we collected the others from their campsite and headed towards the Serengetti.

As with all things on a safari, we spent a lot of time on the road and it was a relief to finally get to the main gate, the downside was that it was the end of the tarmac roads and it was rough and dusty from here on out.

Ngorongoro Crater park

Once inside the park there is a long climb up narrow roads to reach the rim of the unpronounceable Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is an extinct volcano and the floor is alive with wildlife, but more about that later as we are off to the Serengeti today.

After what seemed like a lifetime in the truck we finally made it to the second gate in the Serengetti, where we were confronted by a quite amazing site – a giant lorry full of Germans. It looked like it was designed to carry chickens but it transpired it was an amazing converted vehicle that was travelling from North to South in Africa, and it also acted as their accommodation.

We noticed that Noa and Clara (our German pals) didn’t go out of their way to make friends with them, possibly because there was only one shower between 30 of them.

Along the highway we stopped to examine the museum dedicated to the discovery of the oldest known human remains ever found in Tanzania, and among the oldest globally, are fossils discovered in Olduval Gorge, which has been called “The Cradle of Humankind”. These remains provide crucial insights into the evolution of humans, particularly the genus Homo although it turned out older remains were found in Morocco and Ethiopia which spoils the story a bit.

Into the park before the Germans got moving, we didn’t want to be stuck behind that thing, we wouldn’t be able to breath with all the dust.

It wasn’t long before the animals started to appear. In the early stages Rashid gave us a long and detailed explanation of the many different types of antelope which was interesting for a while, but not for too long.

Our first lions

I have to admit that they looked enticing meals for lions. the antelopes (various types) were very fast and nimble, so they looked like quite hard work for the lions and not much of a meal in the smaller ones.

Ahead we noticed that the other trucks had stopped, and suddenly there in front of us was our first pride of lions. there was loads of them, initially it was a couple of females on the verge but soon there was a huge pride of at least 20 lions lazing about, in fact they reminded us of our youngest son who also lazes about a lot.

It was afternoon by the time we entered the Serengetti and it is a vast expanse of savanna grasslands that extended for as far as the eye could see, which was a long way as it was mostly flat.

By this time we had ticked off elephants and lions and the rest of the afternoon was dedicated to finding a leopard. Sadly this pursuit failed, although we spent an hour staring at a large rock (with about 30 other trucks) where, apparently, there was a leopard. I didn’t see it, but with my eyesight I could hardly see the rock it was supposed to be sat on, but apparently it is in this photo.

During the afternoon we learned that the lions all seem to have one thing in common, they are very lazy and sleepy. It could be that they just like their afternoon nap but in general, they don’t do much other than laze around, in particular the boys, who could do with a can of Red Bull now and again.

The girl lions aren’t much better, in fact they prefer to lay around in swamps keeping themselves cool in the afternoon sun. To be fair, there isn’t much shade and to get to it requires moving so why not just lay in the mud.

So that is the lions of the Serengeti covered, they were the highlight of the day but what a lazy bunch !