August 11 – Into the Serengeti

In the early afternoon we went to the Arusha airport and boarded our private charter, Twin Otter, for a flight into the wild of the Serengeti. It is an amazing experience to set down in the middle of the Serengeti. Even though we expected a lot as the zebras stampeded across the planes from the air strips as we landed, Fiona exclaimed: Oh my God! This is amazing!

And as we all stepped out into the clear open air of Serengeti, we were excited about the adventures to come. Our first day of safari was an amazing one, one of the first things we saw besides the many analopes that were running everywhere were a leopard, as you may know of the big 5, the leopard is one of the hardest things to see.

Shortly after that Nick commented that his favourite cat was a cheetah, and it was hardly anytime before we in fact saw 2 cheetahs and as soon as we saw them there was a cloud of dust and they took down a Coffin’s gazelle and began feeding on it.

Later we saw a lion and then we saw a baby hyena pup and his mother, the hyena pup was nursing as the mother laid out on the Serengeti plains. Fascinated scene to watch.

Then as we pulled into our lodge at the sunset we enjoyed watching some elephants feeding along the side of the road, beautiful peaceful day in Serengeti just the beginning of our safari and a really exciting indication of things to come.

We were sad yesterday when we left our Chagga staff at the trail head, we congratulated them, thanked them, each of them, shaking their hands, and then one fellow pulled out a harmonica and started blowing a tune and the whole crew sang a version of the Kilimanjaro song. It was a poignant moment and one that we will always remember.