michnus

12th February 2011

Ngorongoro and Serengeti Special.

What was said in the past by so many people, is all true about this place in the heart of Tanzania. It is jaw dropping beautiful, and whatever you have seen in a game park in South Africa except for the animals, is new and this will blow you mind.

It’s quite funny as we drove into Serengeti in the back of my mind I could not stop hearing David Atterborough whisper in his soft spoken corny voice something about the Serengeti lions while he sit meters away from then looking at the BBC TV program photographer. Maybe because that’s how I grew up with TV and the programs from this place we watched.

The first thing is we were not allowed into the park with our bikes. Although Elsebie and I have been to many game parks and thought this would be the same. We were also not too keen to spend the ransom money the Tanzania officials thought they deserve to get for their precious park. But we were there and most probably would not fly back just to see this, so we went along with Harold and Linda seeing they have not been to parks that much and this must be a highlight in anybody’s books.

Harold and Linda took out the time to research all the options for the 4 days and after many hours got to Bobby tours in Arusha. The first thing you need to know and to put things into perspective is that the Tanzanian park officials thought it good to try and discourage people from self-drive in the parks. Might be because they want to protect the environment or create jobs for locals or whatever, in the end it will cost a normal person with his own 4×4 nearly as much or more to visit these parks than if you use an operator like Bobby tours.

For nearly 570USD you get 3 nights 4 days in Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. It includes all meals and tents and only excludes alcohol, but a bit about that later.

Our guide was a knowledgeable guy by the name of Salum and he used a Land Cruiser fitted with 4 seats in the back and a pop-up roof which allowed people to stand upright in the car to do game viewing.

We were quite lucky as part of the migration has started and we could see them in the South part of the park. I can understand why they do not want people to self-drive, the place is biiiiiiiig and flat, and there are no boards in the park like in Kruger where they show routes and places. You can self-drive for weeks and see nothing. These guides from the 300 different operators all talk to each other as they go around in the park and direct people to happening spots, which guarantees the visitor sightings of whatever is in the park.  We saw the big five within 2 days!

As we came over a flat low laying area the horizon filled with black spots and to our amazement it was Wildebeest and Zebras everywhere, as far as you can see.

It’s really a humbling feeling to see so many animals together and on the move, and as Salum said this is only the start of the migration and there’s a few migrations throughout the year.