While you develop up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and your husband asks you the place you’d wish to go for a milestone birthday, you say, “On safari!” At the least I did, and our expertise was unimaginable!

After we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport dazed and jetlagged, we had been so grateful for the ADS greeting workers who met us on the tarmac, took our baggage and guided us to the VIP Lounge that had comfortable couches, water, snacks and a devoted immigration officer.

As soon as via immigration, Joseph, our Arusha information, picked us up and gave us an summary of each Tanzania and Arusha as we drove to the Arusha Espresso Lodge. The following morning, Joseph led us on a tour of Arusha, stopping at its immense meals market, the Cultural Middle and Shanga. The following day we boarded our small airplane into the Serengeti. It was fascinating to observe the numerous panorama as we cruised in the direction of the countless plain.

Dr. Alex, our information for the week, met us on the Seronera Airstrip, the place our safari journey shortly started. Inside minutes of leaving the airstrip, we noticed hyena and baboons crossing the highway. And inside half an hour, we had added giraffe, elephants having fun with a mud tub 10 ft off the highway, hippos and a leopard resting in a tree!

By finish of the day, as we made our means west to the Kirawira Tented Lodge, we had seen 17 completely different species of animals, not together with all kinds of birds, and an enormous cobra who was not so joyful to share the highway with us!

With our necks on swivel and our eyes popping, we knew that we really had landed within the midst of the Wild Kingdom! However the query at the back of our heads was, had we seen all of it on the very first day? The reply could be a powerful “NO!”

With Kirawira as our base for 2 nights, we explored the western space of the Serengeti. As we drove via herds of zebra and gazelle grazing within the grasses, we noticed three lumps within the grass via the binoculars. Dr. Alex angled the Land Cruiser via the sport tracks the place we stumbled on three lions resting within the grassland.

The lions had been fully unperturbed by our automobile and we had been capable of get pleasure from their majesty with quiet respect. We continued on and spied a cheetah and her juvenile looking for a fast snack or a shady tree to relaxation underneath. The gazelles weren’t cooperating for them, so a siesta it was underneath the acacia tree.

After our picnic lunch and herds of topi, gazelles and water buffalo shut by, we observed a big bush with an odd brown colour atop it. Dr. Alex navigated for a more in-depth look, and even he was shocked to see not one, however two lions resting in its leaves, away from the flies and the warmth of the solar.

After we arrived again at camp and cleaned up after our lengthy day’s journey, Dr. Alex joined us for a spectacular dinner shock, courtesy of ADS. The workers at Kirawira pulled out all of the stops and the chef created a feast for us to get pleasure from underneath the celebs, with a roaring bonfire and flambéed bananas Foster for dessert! Kirawira was my favourite lodge, with its personal, luxurious stilted tents overlooking the valley. Attractive!

Leaving Kirawira within the morning, we made our means again to the central Serengeti, on our method to the distant Mbuzi Mawe Tented Lodge, which is tucked within the Kimasi Kopjes. As we drove via the central a part of the park, Mike requested Dr. Alex when the wildebeest migration was anticipated to reach. “Look on the horizon. See these dots? Right here they arrive,” was his response.

Inside minutes, the plains started to flood with wildebeest as the primary 400,000, out of the anticipated 1.8 million animals, arrived. Grunting loudly, their dusty chaos crammed the world as they swept throughout the roadways looking for greener grasses.

Males jousted for place within the herd or mated; females nursed their infants whereas they moved round our vehicular rock in a migratory stream. Cattle egrets, vultures and eagles made their method to make the most of the bounty the herd would supply. Over the following few days, the herd would settle right into a calmer sample of feeding and resting, however the preliminary inflow was overwhelming in its frenetic vitality.

Persevering with on to the Lodge, we stopped to watch herds of elephants uprooting vegetation, towers of giraffes having fun with tender leaves amongst the spines of the whistling acacia and a bloat of hippos lolling on the river crossing. After we arrived at camp, we had been handled to a recreation hike amongst the kopjes with the armed camp ranger, Victoria, and the camp naturalist as our information. One other shock arrange by ADS!

For the following two days we explored all through the central Serengeti. Dr. Alex is aware of simply the place to go to get uninterrupted animal viewing, since he created a number of the recreation tracks throughout his years as Head Ecologist. We had been usually the one automobile nearby as we watched the animals of the Serengeti of their day by day actions.

My favourite second was after we noticed a lion on a small outcropping of rocks. As we bought nearer, we observed a mom and two-month previous cub resting within the grass on the foot of the rocks. Whereas the cub was a bit cautious of our automobile, it was reassured by mother’s full indifference to us. I used to be overcome by the great thing about the second.

After our third night time at Mbuzi Mawe it was time to proceed on in the direction of the Ngorongoro Crater. It was then that the inevitable occurred, a flat tire. Fortunately, we had been on the primary highway, in an arid space, with no lengthy grass to cover potential predators.

Simply as Dr. Alex was getting ready the Land Cruiser to alter the tire, one other group of guides stopped to assist us. Together with his years of expertise, Dr. Alex has made connections all through the group. These connections helped make quick work of an disagreeable job, and we had been again on the highway inside 20 minutes.

We stopped at Olduvai (“Oldupai” in Maasai) Gorge for lunch and an informative discuss concerning the significance of the gorge within the evolution of early mankind. We had time for a recreation drive inside the Ngorongoro Crater earlier than we headed again up the rim to the Lion’s Paw Camp for our ultimate two nights.

Lion’s Paw has a spectacular view overlooking the Crater, particularly at sundown. It was Mike’s favourite lodge resulting from its location inside the Ngorongoro Crater Park and the pleasant workers.

The Ngorongoro Crater supplied extra superb wildlife alternatives, together with lionesses and their cubs feeding on a recent wildebeest kill. Though there was extra automobile site visitors within the crater resulting from its dimension, Dr. Alex was capable of navigate away from the primary monitor on the crater ground.

We went up into the woodlands the place we noticed extra elephants and even a black rhino together with her calf. Again within the crater, we noticed lions cooling off on the mudpan, in addition to a male lion who spent his day within the grasses subsequent to the highway. Within the morning, we watched the fog roll excessive of the crater and spill down the perimeters.

On our final full day, we loved a particular tiffin lunch, which Dr. Alex had awoken the chef at 4:30 a.m. to organize! At dinner, we had been honored by a particular presentation of a cake, with your complete workers singing and dancing as they processed into the eating room. One more particular contact by ADS to make our time in Tanzania much more memorable.

Our journey got here to an finish with a drive from the crater, again via the countryside and into Arusha. We refreshed ourselves in our room and had an early dinner earlier than Dr. Alex and Joseph drove us to the airport for our flight dwelling. We had been capable of get a glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro as a ultimate present earlier than departing Tanzania with fantastic reminiscences of an unforgettable journey of a lifetime!

Dr. Alex was an incredible asset to our journey. Together with his background within the bush, PhD in Ecology, worldwide analysis, tenure because the Head Ecologist of the Serengeti Nationwide Park and his years within the Hospitality trade, I problem you to discover a information with extra expertise, private connections and in-depth data of the Serengeti.

Thanks to Africa Dream Safaris to your consideration to all the small print, each massive and small, which made our journey go seamlessly. It surpassed even my childhood goals!

Margaret and Mike D.
Safari Dates: Might 27, 2024 to June 5, 2024
Annapolis, Maryland