China/India/Africa 2010/2011: The Serengeti

We transitioned into the Tanzania countryside, greeted by views of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. We camped near an area that seemed as poor as the others we visited.

In the morning, we visited a school that our trekking company donates money to. We walked uphill for one hour to reach a plateau where there were schools, libraries and a small computer center. The town below relies on these schools to help educate the children who seem pretty happy in their surroundings and look to be trying hard to produce usable products in their shop classes with minimal tools and equipment. The computer center is run by a young man who recently relocated from England and has turned around a crummy, dingy run down computer center in short order and is now repairing laptops for the townies.

This area suffers from the same problem I’ve previously noted with lack of consistent power. The power was out when we were there too. We had lunch in a local house before cruising down the hill and back on our way to the famous Serengeti to game drive for animals. I did meet a lady who curiously, just flat out asked me to give her my camera and she refused to have her picture taken. I did sneak one though…

On the way in, we observed many Masai people who have lived in this area a long time. Their standing allows them to keep their cattle in the protected Serengeti area to graze and keep their homes. The Masai are unwilling to have their photos taken unless you pay a fee. Of course, if a Masai warrior happens to walk the photo when you’re looking at wildlife, they can’t complain too much…

We proceeded into the park, passing the famous Ngorogoro Crater because we would return to explore that area on our way out. As the above photo shows, we were greeted by zebra but they didn’t hold much interest for us since the entire group had seen many in our travels to date. However, we then came upon our first hyenas which made for some interesting photos.

Then, we saw a leopard in a tree in the distance. After a while watching the actions from a distance, we moved on but found another leopard in a much closer tree.

After the leopards came a parade of fun and interesting animals including several lions and more leopards. There was an amazing highlight to the day but that animal interaction will get its own blog following this one. For now enjoy the free roaming animals (and birds).

A bat eared fox...