Serengeti

What an overwhelming day!

Let me say that the day and so far this trip ended up being beyond anything I expected.  This the rainy and low season for Tanzania.  It is also the coolest. That means, temps have been in the 70’s, very few bugs, not a single mosquito and no crowds.  Did I mention lower prices?  I struck gold!  So I have to sit through a thunderstorm for a few hours. I love thunderstorms.

Today we saw baboons, blue monkeys, giraffes, storks, black faced monkeys, impalas, zebras, wildebeest, hippos, wart hog, hyenas, lions, leopards, white headed vultures, Thompson gazelles, dik diks, elephants and ostriches.  There were too many too list them all.

When we headed to the Serengeti, we realized we had come into the wildebeest migration.  This was one of the most awesome thing I have ever seen, in the true sense of the word.  The plains are so extensive that the landscape just disappears into the horizon.  The wildebeests went on and on in every direction that I could see.  They were mixed with the Zebras seemed to get on well with the wildebeests.  As we went down the road, it felt like we were constantly going to hit them but the roadway would clear and then it would fill in behind us.  The noise, the smell and the amount of them in each direction was overwhelming.

My hotel room at the Serengeti Serena Lodge was interesting if not plain fun.  We were not allowed out after sunset without armed escorts, the animals were allowed to roam through the hotel grounds.