The jewels of Tanzania are the Ngorongoro Crater and the world famous Serengeti. Ngorongoro is a collapsed volcanic caldera (like Crater Lake). It is a closed ecosystem that is unrivaled anywhere in the world for its diversity of wildlife. Lions, zebras, leopards, elephants, water buffalo and other mammals coexist in a literal Garden of Eden providing a concentration of wildlife not found in many other places.
The Serengeti is a seemingly endless expanse of grassland dotted with otherworldly acacia trees. Literally millions of animals graze on its fertile grounds. It is a profoundly moving landscape that elicits emotions that I have not often experienced in nature. We saw more animals than we could count. We watched a hyena feed on a small gazelle, a lion eat a water buffalo, a pair of lions stalk and charge a herd of zebras, and elephants sparring with water buffalo and each other. We saw innumerable giraffes, countless zebra and wildebeest, and every kind of gazelle including dik-diks, Thompson Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle, Impalas, Hartebeest, Topi and Springbok. Countless varieties of birds in all the colors of the rainbow were everywhere. We saw hundreds of hippos wallowing in ponds and were overwhelmed by the expanse of this magnificent plain.
I just don’t have the words to fully express this experience so I will let Deb’s pictures tell the tale.
Serengeti sunrise
Deb under an Acacia tree
Topi
Zebra and Wildebeest
African fish eagles
We watched this pair for about an hour only 20' from our truck!
Lion stalking zebra
Hyena feeding on gazelle; vultures watch with envy
Rare hippo out of water sighting
Hippo pool
These lions were ambling down the road (The first one peed on our truck)
Our last spotting as we left the Serengeti. This Cheetah posed for us.
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