The warm up was finished, and it was time for the main event - safari in the Serengeti.
I had heard somewhere (can't remember where now) that there's more to be seen than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done. Time to get cracking then.
Because Colleen is a classier person than me, the safari we were booked on started with a flight right into the heart of the Serengeti (I would happily have tuktuked the whole way!). From the tiny airport in Arusha we joined about 10 other people for the hour long flight, and it wasn't long before we spotted our first zebras and people got excited. Not me obviously, because I was a seasoned Africa traveller at this point and way too cool to be impressed by that, even if it was pretty cool anyway.
We had a Kilimanjaro beer at the Serengeti airport to celebrate (British people being incapable of visiting an airport in a sunny country without drinking) then hit the road with our driver, guide and all round top bloke Leonard. There is no messing around at the Serengeti - within 20 minutes, having already driven past zebra, antelope and warthogs, we stopped at a waterhole where zebras were nervously tiptoeing to the edge to drink. They were right to be nervous, because 30m away a lioness was sat motionless in the tall grass watching their every move. We watched this dance for a while, but with so much left to see in the park we decided to press on rather than camp out longer.
The density of the wildlife was just incredible - within a few hundred yards of each other we saw a pod of hippos, a family of elephants, antelopes drinking and countless birds. Everywhere you looked there was something happening, and it wasn't long before we were casually dismissing photogenic herds of zebra with a "meh, seen it already" or gazelles with "no, just some more Thompsons". What definitely did get our attention though was when we circled back to where we first saw the lions watching the zebra, and found one dead zebra and two bloodstained lionesses chewing on the corpse. Unperturbed by the cars just a few metres away, they carried on eating their fill before sauntering off for a snooze.
After a full day we had a night in a rather swanky tented camp, with warnings not to leave the tent unaccompanied in the dark, and were up early for a morning surprise organised by Colleen.
A five A.M. pickup and an hour of driving saw us arrive at an open plain where in the pre-sunrise glow we could see the giant outlines of hot air balloons being inflated. After a briefing, and with the sun just nudging above the horizon, we floated into the sky for a completely different view of the plain. The experience was fantastic, and even though some of the photos we got were amazing they still don't do it justice. Gliding past pods of hippo fifty strong or more, being trumpeted at by an indignant bull elephant, watching giraffes eat from the top of trees and antelopes scatter as we drifted past was so different to anything else I had done on the trip, and the fact that it was rounded off with a champagne breakfast was just the icing on the cake.
Hot air balloon certificate in hand, it was back to the jeep for more safari, with day two yielding huge herds of wildebeest, cheetahs (at a distance), buffalo and best of all a leopard lounging in a tree. My clumsy wordsmithing doesn't really do it justice so just check out the pictures.
The final day was Ngorongoro Crater, and if we thought that the wildlife density in the Serengeti was high then we hadn't seen anything yet. Ngorongoro is a huge caldera, formed after a volcano blew its top a couple of million years ago. At 260 square km it's pretty compact, and with steep sides most of the way round and plenty to eat inside the wildlife tends to stay put, with ridiculously good opportunities for watching.
The highlight for us came when we spotted a couple of lions stalking wildebeest. Crouching flat in the long grass, they were motionlessly watching the wildebeest get closer and closer to the danger zone. I was holding my breath as not once but twice, wildebeest walked directly in front of the lions, but the third wildebeest was not so lucky and the lions pounced. With one lioness digging her claws into the hindquarters, and the other clamping the throat in her jaws, it looked like it was game over for the wildebeest, but then a pack of hyenas entered the fray. The lions were none too impressed and voiced their displeasure, but they were outnumbered and couldn’t hold the newcomers off. In the midst of the confusion, the wildebeest made a break for it, disappearing towards the herd. The lions may have given up but the hyenas set of in pursuit, and despite the target trying to blend into the herd they kept their eyes on the prize and eventually ran it down and tore it apart, Nature red in tooth and claw. The lions meanwhile, worn out from their exertions lay down in the only bit of shade available to them - our car! This was fine for a while, but after 10 minutes and with no sign that they were going to move out of our way, I had to tip a bottle of water on the head of the one that was blocking our wheels. She just stood up testily and moved off, thankfully without taking my hand with her.
We finished our trip with a splash of luxury; a fancy retreat in the hills near the crater where we were able to chill (literally) in an outdoor pool and reflect on just how much we had seen in three days. From there it was back to the airport in Arusha, then to Dar and a flight back to NYC for Colleen and back on the bike for me.
