Serengeti

If you’ve seen the Lion King recently you probably know how this post turns out so feel free to jump ahead. No, the animals don’t talk, but everything else feels pretty familiar and no matter how hard you try, you can’t get Hakuna Matata out of your head.

It is a three hour drive from Lake Manyara to the Serengeti National Park, so we break camp fairly early and hit the road, stopping a few times on the way when we spot something close to the road, like this lanky fellow.

Overall, it is long, boring drive over some fairly sketchy roads so as the park entrance comes into view, you feel some hope that the monotony is coming to an end.

Nope. There’s not even a gatehouse here as it another 45 minutes in the jeep just to get to the visitor center. Serengeti is derived from the Maasai word for “endless plain”, and they pretty much nailed it. With the exception of some random rock outcrops (think Pride Rock) that bubbled up from the surface millions of years ago, there is nothing but flat grassland here for miles in every direction.

After a quick lunch we get down to business. The guides all have radios and at least some are willing to share what they are seeing as in no time we are flying down a dirt path towards a cluster of jeeps. A lion is slowly creeping up on a gazelle that looks a lot like this one, hoping to take down a tasty snack.

For 20 minutes we watch the gap slowly close and then, suddenly, the lion pounces. And finds nothing but air. Gazelles are speedy little buggers and pretty easily dodge the attack and dash off to safety.

It’s getting hot and big cats are mostly nocturnal so after a few more hours of scouting we start hitting pay dirt. First, a group of female lions and their cubs stretched out under a tree.

Not far off, a male keeps an eye on things, making sure nobody tries to move in on his ladies.

We then stumble across this pair. They don’t look that fast to me.

After a few more hours the sun starts to set so we call it a day, heading off to find our camp. It is a bit more rustic than last night and we’re sharing the area with about about 1,000 African buffalo, but hey, we’re in a tent in the middle of the Serengeti!