We’re back from our 6 day safari. WOW! We, (us, Liz and Diana) had a truly awesome experience. I just don’t know how to adequately describe it. Imagine watching the best wildlife documentary you have ever seen, but you are in it. In the 6 days we were able to visit Lake Manyara National Park, the Serengeti, Ndutu Lake and Ngorongoro Crater. To be honest, we really didn’t know what to expect when we signed up for this trip. We figured we would see a few monkeys; maybe an elephant or two from a distance.
In the end, we saw lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, hippos, giraffes, zebras, baboons, wildebeest, impalas…everything we could have dreamed of. We watched a lion and her cubs laze around in the morning sun. We watched a cheetah feast on her kill, surrounded by vultures that patiently waited for her to leave. We then watched the sheer carnage when she got up to rejoin her babies and the vultures and hyenas jumped in. We saw baby elephants (officially the cutest things ever) play, wrapping their trunks together. We saw the wildebeest migration; we watched dozens of giraffes graze. At night, we camped in the wild, talked for hours, ate dinner as we watched the sun set, and walked by grazing zebras to get to our tents.
We knew that the landscape would be pretty, but we were completely blown away by the scenery in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater. You know how sometimes you see or experience something so beautiful, so incredible that it completely takes your breath away; all you can do is just sit there in total silence and in total awe? Well, descending into the crater was one of those moments. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is incredibly lush. Imagine endless beautiful trees, every shade of green and red, red, rich soil. Then dot the landscape with beautiful Masai villages, people dressed in vibrant red, purple and blue. So colorful, so beautiful that I’m inspired to add more color to my life. (That’s right folks…I may just put away my collection of brown and black sweaters when I get to Vancouver.) If that weren’t enough, we also saw the huge puff of gray smoke coming out of an erupting volcano!
As you can tell, I’m really struggling to find a way to recreate for you the sights and sounds, the vastness of the Serengeti, the lushness of the crater or what it is like to see hundreds of zebras, wildebeest, giraffes and impalas all around you. I just can’t do it justice. Hopefully Spiros’ pictures will give you an idea of the colors, the landscapes and how close we were able to get to the wildlife. We’ve added over 100 pictures to the gallery. Enjoy!
Subscribe Posts