The Lead-up

If one thinks of safaris in Africa, the Serengeti is always one of the first places to come to mind. It was certainly on my mind, especially after having been to Murchinson Falls National Park in Uganda. That park is a savanna similar to the Serengeti area with huge herds of animals. Despite having been to Africa several times I had yet to visit this area. This trip was planned to patch that hole on my Africa map.

The Serengeti itself stretches between Tanzania (Serengeti National Park) and Kenya (Maasai Mara National Reserve). And while both countries have much more to offer, I decided to focus on the Serengeti and neighboring areas. This includes the famous Ngorongoro Crater National Park, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park. The latter is known for its large number of elephants and baobab trees. Lake Manyara NP is a densely forested area between mountains and the namesake lake itself and mostly known for its monkeys.

The trip was to start with a couple days in the ② Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, transfer to Tanzania and go west to east from the ⑤ Serengeti NP to ⑪ Tarangire NP via ⑧ Ngorongoro Crater NP and ⑩ Lake Manyara NP. We would then end in ⑫ Arusha near Mount Kilimanjaro to go back home. Along the way we were staying in higher-end lodges as we did on our last Botswana trip. Both ① Nairobi and ⑬ Kilimanjaro International airports are well served by major airlines and thus it was easy to find convenient connections. The circled numbers refer to the locations on the map.

The Wrinkles

Of all the trips I have taken in my life, this one holds the record for the most snags ever. It all started perfectly fine with me meeting with my travel agent to plan the itinerary and me finding flights to and from Africa. Flying into Nairobi was easy enough through Heathrow. Returning, the best connection out of Kilimanjaro was on Qatar Airways through Doha. That is where trouble started. A week after I booked everything, the war with Iran closed the Qatar airspace. I figured my trip would be 6 months later and things should calm down. Unfortunately, American Airlines did not think so and canceled all flights from Doha and, alongside, my tickets. Not wanting to risk flying through Doha again, I decided that booking flights out of Nairobi on British Airways and from Kilimanjaro to Nairobi on Precision Air, a Tanzanian regional carrier, would be the safest bet. This came back to give me a scare on the last day of this trip further down below.

What came next was far worse. Literally 23 hours before I had to leave for the airport I got an ominous email from my travel agent stating that they would not be able to honor the booking. Mind you, that is after I fully paid them a handsome sum for this trip. I would later learn that they declared bankruptcy the night before. Not wanting to loose my much needed vacation, and thinking that they should have paid the local operators weeks ago, I started to call every operator in Kenya and Tanzania to confirm that all is in order. It was not. Not the least bit. None of the lodges, hotels and operators had been paid at all. What followed were phone calls, WhatsApp chats and emails to rebook everything directly with the local operators with the promise that I would pay on arrival. To their immeasurable credit, they all agreed. I received the last confirmation only 3 hours before I had to go to the airport. Vacation saved at the cost having to pay for it all over again and no sleep. To add insult to injury, I only then realized that the travel insurance I bought does not cover travel agency insolvency. The subsequent attempts in getting at least some of the money back have only let to ever more frustration. More on that at the very end. Time to focus on amazing trip this was after all.

The Trip

After saving the trip almost literally at the final hour all was set and confirmed. Time to load up the car and drive to the airport.

Day 1: Travel to Nairobi

Going to Africa from where I live takes some time. This trip was no exception. After three flights and 27 luckily uneventful hours in the air we arrived in Nairobi. A car ride later we checked into the ① Tamarid Tree Hotel near the local airport that would get us into the Maasai Mara Reserve the next day. The hotel is modern with an amazing breakfast buffet. Although right at that moment, the bed and sleep was all I was after.

Day 2: Nairobi to Maasai Mara

A good night’s sleep and plentiful breakfast later we set off to the Wilson airport that serves the local flights into the parks. Wilson airport is an interesting assortment of things. Small planes are seemingly randomly parked all over. A far cry from the orderly airport in Maun, Botswana that serves a similar purpose. Nevertheless, the chaos is only superficial. Air Kenya is highly efficient and in short time we were checked into our flight to the Musiara Airstrip in the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Flying time on the small Dash-8 plane was a quick 40 minutes at low altitude enjoying the first sights of the park. On landing we were greeted by a group of giraffes at the end of the runway and Dennis and Thomas, two local Maasai from ② Speke’s Camp, who would be our guides for the stay.

Rather than going straight to the camp, we spent the rest of the day on our first game drive of the trip. It was only the first of many amazing drives to come. Right off the airstrip we saw our first lions taking a nap under a tree, many elephants, more giraffes and finally the first cheetah I have seen in the wild. Rupu, a male cheetah that calls this area home, showed off his fresh kill. We had some animals on our must-see list for this trip and a cheetah was on mine. Turns out it we would see quite a few more, but this day started off perfectly.

Of course an African safari would not be the same if we did not have lunch on the open plane watching elephants in the distance and enjoying the first of many great meals Speke’s Camp would serve us. At long last we drove into the camp to check into our room. The rooms in most of these lodges are really very spacious, full-height tents with full bathroom facilities and very comfortable beds. Soon thereafter we enjoyed our first Gin&Tonic, an African safari tradition for me, a beautiful sunset and amazing dinner. The animal sightings did not end there as a very curious Genet Cat would show up and accompany us for dinner. It was really after my steak, but that did not diminish the fun of seeing this small cat up close. With that it was time to turn in for the night.

Day 3: Maasai Mara National Reserve

The full first day of our vacation started early with a pre-dawn departure. That is about the only real downside of an African safari, sleeping in is not in the books. Nonetheless, this being what we came for, we climbed in our car and set off to see what Maasai Mara had to offer. Soon thereafter we were greeted by an amazing sunrise to start the off.

After a little while of driving we stopped at a riverine with our driver happily announcing a leopard. At first we only saw other cars, but we quickly spotted a beautiful leopard moving about the trees. That was Akira we would learn and spent some time following him along the water. It was truly an amazing start to our safari. I do have to mention the concentration of cars, though. As we would see on multiple occasions in Maasai Mara, whenever there is one of the favorite animals, cars would pool around it and continuously jostle for the best position, repeatedly cutting off the path of the animals. The animals seemed rather accustomed to it, sadly but also fortunately.

After leaving Akira behind we continued on our drive soon spotting a pride of lions with cubs settling down for the heat of the day. The lead lioness was kind enough to lounge on a termite mount for some photos. While I have been writing mostly about the big animals, Kenya is rich in all kinds wildlife. Birds amongst them with us being lucky to see various eagles and vultures. At last, we arrived at the Mara river and set down for breakfast overlooking a group of hippos and crocodiles. Of course it would not be a proper breakfast without freshly made French press coffee and a full spread. We continued our drive, slowly making our way back to the lodge. On the way, we spotted one more leopard and more lions, along huge herds of wildebeest, zebras and antelopes. The latter was one of my reasons to come to Kenya at this time of the year and I was not disappointed.

This was one of the few days we opted to have lunch at the lodge rather than in the field to get a bit of rest to overcome the jetlag. That limits the range of driving a bit, but affords us a nice cold beer with lunch. After lunch and some rest we set out for the afternoon game drive, again spotting herds of the migration animals. At this point I should almost stop writing about lions. In past safaris, seeing them was somewhat rare and a highlight if seen. Here, they are almost everywhere. Kenya is truly spoiled for choice. Not that I am complaining, though. We were even lucky to witness a lioness hunting a herd of buffalo. It was interesting to follow her through the tall grass until she saw an opportunity and attacked. She did not get a kill this time, though, and we closed off the drive with a beautiful sunset to another pride of lions.

Day 4: Maasai Mara National Reserve

We were now starting to settle into safari mode. Today we opted to have both breakfast and lunch out so that we could  go further south into the Maasai Mara Reserve to observe the large migration herds I wanted to see. As we made our way south during the early hours of the morning we got to witness a different kind of migration. One of hot air balloons. Doing a balloon ride is surely a highlight of a trip but we opted to stay grounded on this trip, in part due to already doubled cost of our trip. It was still nice to see all the balloons taking off and slowly gliding along the landscape with all the animals in front. Turns out those rides do not last very long. We watched all of the land just as we had seen them take off.

Along the way we got to see a group of hyenas slowly waking up and not yet too motivated to move along. Other animals were starting their day until we came to site close to the Mara river. A lioness with 3 little cubs was being followed by 2 jackals. Our guide mentioned that the jackals would be able to take out a cub together, but more likely were after whatever the lioness might have killed the night before. We did spend a bit of time watching the interaction between the lions and the jackals as well as mom tenderly caring for her cubs. I ended up with way too many photos of them, but I just cannot help myself.

We stopped for breakfast at the same spot we did the day before and were greeted by a mom gently nudging her baby hippo onshore to rest. It did not take long for the baby to fall asleep. After breakfast we set off again in search of a rhino that had been spotted nearby the evening before. Rhinos were on our must-see list for this trip and so we were quite elated to hear that one may be nearby. Unfortunately, after a long search by us and other cars along a dense growth of trees and shrubs, we did not find it. We would have our chance later in Tanzania, though.

What we did see was just as interesting. A group of female giraffes were battling it out for the one male nearby. A giraffe battle means that they will use their long necks almost like a bat to hit the other giraffe in the legs or side. By the sounds of it, they used quite a bit of force, too. They were clearly more concerned with themselves than us and the battle took them to within a few feet of our parked vehicle before we decided to get out of the way and find a quiet place to enjoy our lunch.

We spent the rest of the day observing the huge migration herds I so longed to see. A typical group consists of zebras, wildebeest and impalas. As we learned the zebras will lead due to their better eyesight being able to spot predators. The others will follow closely. It is difficult to properly convey the size of the herds in photos but they are impressive. We finally closed the drive off with a leopard curled up and soundly asleep. After another great dinner we were reminded as to why we should not walk outside our room at night. A hippo was grazing only about 30 ft away.

Day 5: Transfer to Tanzania and Serengeti National Park

Today marked our departure from Kenya into Tanzania. Maasai Mara National Reserve and Serengeti National Park are extensions on one another in either country. At this time of the year the migration has taken many of the animals north into the Kenyan side. However, there is a lot see south. The transfer included two more flights by bush plane. The first is just north of the border and the second is after the border on the Tanzanian side. A day before I realized in horror that I did not check on how to get from one airstrip to the other with all the chaos pre-departure. After a tense hour scoring the internet, I found that Air Kenya actually does the transfer via bus and it was included in our ticket. As with the departure in Nairobi, the transfer operation seemed rather chaotic, but there was a plan and we made it safely across.

After departing Tarime and flying over the North Mara gold mines we got our first look at the Serengeti National Park. From undulating hills at first, it transformed into a mostly flat savanna landscape at the central air strip of Seronera. There me met our amazing guide, Nikson, who would remain with us for the duration of the Tanzania trip. All lodges belong to the same operator, Tanganyika Expeditions, which made things a lot easier.

As we landed around noon, we used the rest of the day for our first game drive in the Serengeti National Park. Right off the bat, we saw a leopard lounging in a tree and spent some time enjoying the sights. This part of the trip was starting off as well as it could. A generous packed lunch followed. As we slowly made our way further north towards our lodge, we moved from the flat savanna to an area with small rock outcroppings, called kopje. These koppies are granite islands in the flat landscape and home to many predators, as well as other rock dwellers. We would see many of them in the following days. Just before we arrived at our lodge, we found a cheetah slowly waking up and starting its evening. Our lodge for the next couple nights was the beautiful ⑥ Togoro Plains Camp were we settled into another comfortable room and amazing dinner.

Halftime

After some amazing days in Kenya and a somewhat tense but smooth transfer we found ourselves in Tanzania for the second half of our trip. Please read about the continuation in Tanzania and some key take-aways here.