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The Serengeti: It’s one of the 10 natural wonders in the world and one of seven natural wonders in Africa. Derived from the Maasai word Serenget, Serengeti means “endless plains” which is an entirely accurate description. On our trip to Tanzania, I found the vastness of the Serengeti both awe-inspiring and panic-inducing, often at the same time. The Serengeti is known for many things, including being home to 70 large mammal and 500 bird species. It’s home to an extraordinary amount of lions, and boy did we delight in seeing them

Before heading to Tanzania, I didn’t know much about the Serengeti, had no idea what to expect, and I most definitely did not picture myself camping in the Serengeti. I’ll probably be saying it for the rest of my life, but our time in Tanzania almost feels like it didn’t happen, it was so special and different and amazing. Let’s start at the gate, shall we?

 

Serengeti National Park Gate

There are two memorable spots upon entering the Serengeti, the official Serengeti gate and the check in point. The gate, pictured above, defines the entrance to the park but is perhaps a more symbolic spot, ideal for getting photos. About 20 minutes in, there’s an official checkpoint for paperwork. Everyone entering and leaving the Serengeti needs to file paperwork and permits and things. Hopefully it keeps poachers out!

The Serengeti is known for its annual migration of wildebeests and zebras, and due to the rainy season being so incredibly dry, the migration happened while we were there, three months before it is supposed to. There were about 500,000 wildebeests, which are loud and hilarious looking and move in the funniest way. I love them. Zebras and wildebeests travel together peacefully. Wildebeests can smell really well and zebras can see, so together they find water and do their best to stay away from predators. They also keep an eye on each other when they are eating and drinking. It’s kind of cute how they stick together. The line of these animals was neverending. I wish I could do a better job of describing it. It was amazing.

Serengeti migration 2015

wildebeest

Serengeti migration wildebeests

Serengeti migration

zebras

Each day in the Serengeti, we went on a sunrise game drive, had lunch and some free time, and then did a late afternoon game drive. Each drive brought us different animals doing different things. I loved the graceful yet goofy giraffes, especially the babies.

giraffe in the Serengeti

giraffe in the Serengeti We saw lions just about every day. One early morning a bunch of lionesses were teaching a young lion to hunt. The way they crouched down and pounced was so similar to our cats’ behavior, on a much, much larger scale. We didn’t see a kill, which disappointed most of our group.

Serengeti lion Overseas Adventure Travel safari Serengeti lion lion  Baby zebras, which start out sort of brown and fuzzy, were pretty common and so incredibly sweet. Watching baby animals with their mothers was one of my favorite parts of game drives.

baby zebra

Serengeti zebras

 

dikdik

The adorable animal in the above photo is called a dik-dik. It’s a tiny antelope with a pretty funny name, and our group quickly became obsessed with them.

kopje

The Serengeti isn’t just home to animals, but also to beautiful landscape, different climate zones, and kopjes, large rock outcroppings. On one of the evening game drives, we climbed a kopje that was home of the gong rock, a rock that makes a musical sound when struck hard enough. Above is a photo of one of our guides “propping up” a kopje. And below is an endless plain with endless blue skies. Standing in this spot was quite unlike anything I have ever experienced. This was on the third day of our Serengeti trip, so I was more comfortable with our surroundings and able to fully soak this up.

The Serengeti

I wasn’t even scared when we encountered a hungry lioness headed in the direction of a lost baby wildebeest. We like to think the wildebeest got away and found its mama. . .

lion in the Serengeti

On yet another game drive, lions decided to take a rest in the shade of another safari vehicle. These lions were about three feet away from us. We could hear their breathing and they ours. As long as no one bothered them, they were just fine.

lions in the Serengeti

hyenasWe saw many hyenas on our journey and heard even more at night. Hyenas are kind of jerks, very mean, and slightly creepy, but I thought they were kind of cute. . . except for the time we saw a hyena with his mouth covered in blood, fresh from snacking on a kill.

Serengeti hippos

In addition to lions, giraffes, hyenas, elephants, wildebeests, and zebras, there were so many other animals, like lazing about hippos and the extremely endangered black rhino, which we saw from a distance. Rhinos will be gone within a few years, which is heartbreaking. I can’t even begin to think about what poachers are doing, all in the name of false claims of power of a rhino’s horn, which is basically the same material as our fingernails. Our time in the Serengeti made me wish that as a world we could respect the environment and our precious plants and animals more than we respect cold hard cash.
Serengeti sunset

The Serengeti is a magical, unbelievable, spiritual place, where everything that is happening in nature happens for a reason. It is a wonder of the world for a reason, and its beauty has stolen a spot in my heart forever.

Tags: adventure, Africa, safari, Serengeti, Tanzania, Travel, travel blog, travel blogger

Our trip to Tanzania wasn’t all  game drives and luxury lodges (though I have plenty more to share on that front); it was a truly well-rounded itinerary that exposed us to local culture through art, food, and most importantly, introduction to people. The Maasai people are commonly seen throughout Northern Tanzania; as we drove through the country and even small towns, their signature red cloth punctuated the landscape. We passed many Maasai villages, made up of straw and mud huts called bomas, and as we traveled, we learned about their marriage practices (where men can have multiple wives), their cattle raising (which is where their wealth lies), and some of the challenges they face in our modern world. Part of our program was then spending part of a day in a Maasai village to learn about daily life and customs.

Masai Village

 

Masai Boma

 

Upon our arrival, we met the village chief and learned how he battled a lion to earn his standing in the village. The chief, Lbulu, was well-regarded and quite progressive, working toward education and opposed to female genital mutilation, which is an ongoing practice in Maasai cultures.

Masai Village Tanzania

We also met the village elder on the right. It’s hard to tell by looking at him, but the man on the right is 99 years old!

After our introduction, some of our group went with the Maasai men to kill a goat, which our group bought for the village. I decided not to participate and instead wandered around and met a few adorable children. When the goat was killed and the men drank the blood (blood and milk make up much of their diet), our group was split in two; the men went off to prepare the goat for barbeque and the women were each welcomed by a Maasai woman.

Maasai boy

Maasai Village

Masai women

Maasai Village

This woman was my guide for the morning. She greeted me and brought me to learn the art of basket making, one of the ways Maasai women pass their days and a way that they earn money. I was terrible at it, but it was interesting to learn! Some of the other women in the group  made beaded jewelry.

crafting in a Maasai Village

Maasai women

And then we were all dressed in vibrant red cloth and beaded collars for singing, dancing, jumping, and activities like carrying sticks on our heads and thatching a boma roof.

Maasai Warriors

Jumping and dancing are a huge part of Maasai culture, and we were moving for quite some time. I’m still processing some of my video, but I will share the songs at a later time. It was loud and boisterous. The Maasai are a physically expressive people, and there was a lot of them holding our hands and touching us. If I am being honest, it was a little uncomfortable for me. It was really hot, and we didn’t entirely understand what was going on due to language barriers. The woman I was paired with was pretty aggressive about holding my hand, even when I tried to let go, and shy or not, there was no way I was getting away without dancing in the circle. . .

jumping Maasai Warrior

Maasai Village

Masai carrying objects on head

As bad as I was at basket-weaving, I was about 100 times worse at carrying a giant stick on my head. I didn’t feel great the day we visited the Maasai, and being that we were standing for several hours and it was in the 90’s, I was not at my best when this stick was placed on my pounding head. I opted not to climb on the boma to help thatch the roof, but I was super proud of the other ladies with me who did.  After we finished our activities, we went inside a boma, which is basically as simple as it looks from the outside. There was a makeshift wooden wall creating an area for a bed and a fence that cuts off the area where the animals stay. Yes, animals come right inside the hut for the night! The floors were mud, and it was incredibly hot inside. The walls were decorated in interesting paintings which were fun to look at, but to be honest, I couldn’t wait to get outside.
Maasai boma art

Our final activity at the Maasai village included optional consumption of the goat that had been killed earlier in the morning. I decided not to have any, since the poor goat was baaing for its life when we arrived, and instead I went to look at the spread of jewelry the women had out. They do a beautiful job of creating crafts, which helps to boost their economy and gives them a small connection to the outside world.

Our day with the Maasai then wrapped up, and after an intense morning I think we were all a little relieved to go. The Maasai people were very welcoming and warm, and their culture and way of life are interesting, but it was definitely extremely different than what we are used to. Spending the morning in the village was outside my comfort zone, which is a place where the best learning takes place. I am glad that I experienced everything that we did that day, but there were definitely moments of anxiety along the way!

 

Tags: adventure, Africa, culture, living, Maasai, Masai, Tanzania, Travel, travel blogger, tribe, village, wanderlust

So I just got back from almost two weeks in Tanzania. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know this because I can’t stop posting photos of our travels. It’s an understatement to say this trip to Africa changed me, but I can’t quite pinpoint just how yet. Tanzania was my second visit to Africa; in college I spent a Spring break in Tunisia with friends. It’s safe to say I love the African content and am grateful for the opportunity to have experienced two vastly different countries.

Trying to figure out where to start with blogging about Tanzania was almost impossible, so I picked our first game drive. There were events before, which will come later. There are about eight posts coming at you, and I hope you don’t get sick of these experiences. I am excited to share them.

Let’s rewind a bit, shall we? Last November, my husband’s cousin and his wife, who work for Overseas Adventure Travel, mentioned they were going on a trip with the company to Africa. We were so excited for them, so a week later when they asked if we wanted to join, we just couldn’t say no. We had tentative plans to visit Peru this Spring, but those went out the window as we started planning our safari adventures. Fast forward to the end of February, and we found ourselves entering Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park for our first game drive.

 

Tanzania safari

On the trip was a group of 10 of us plus two guides split between two safari vehicles. None of us knew quite what to expect when our guides popped open those jeep tops and we entered the gates of Tarangire.

impalas in Tarangire National Park

The very first animals we saw were impala, and between them, antelopes, and gazelles, we would see thousands of deer-like game animals over the course of our stay. Fast, lithe, and graceful, these animals dance across the plains of Africa, and they are everywhere.

Tarangire National Park

We were more excited to see our first Zebras, which were also everywhere in the Tarangire area. No two zebras have the same pattern of stripes. They are beautiful, funny, skittish, and unfortunately often the prey of cats out in the wild.

zebras Tarangire is known for its elephant population, and when we saw these gigantic creatures lumbering from afar, I was excited and completely satisfied with the sighting. I didn’t realize at the time that we were driving TO the elephants, and they would soon be within arms’ reach of the vehicles.

elephants in Tarangire National Park

 

elephants on safari

The elephants just got closer and closer, as we learned how elephants, when threatened, can stomp a predator to death, and will then wait three hours to be sure it is dead. Noted. Our guides were experts in animal behavior, and as a result we always felt very safe, even when close enough to see the wrinkles on this guy’s trunk.

African elephant

Tarangire elephant

safari - Tarangire National Park Tanzania

Baby animals got lots of squeals throughout the entire trip. It was hard not to jump out and hug the little ones. . . until we remembered the whole being stomped to death thing.

elephants in Africa

Tarangire was also where we had our first lion sighting. With the grass being as blond as they were, lions were tough to spot, but we had some good eyes in our group. How beautiful is this lioness? We saw several lions over the course of the trip, and each time their beauty and quiet strength took my breath away. It was also fun to compare their behavours to those of our house cats.

lioness in Tanzania

Tarangire National Park

bird - Tarangire National Park giraffe

Tarangire showed us a variety of beautiful birds like vultures and ostriches, along with giraffes, baboons, mongooses, dik diks (the cutest miniature antelope you will ever see) along with many types of vegetation and an endless supply of intricate termite mounds, cities of termites topped with hills just perfect for game-lounging.

vultures

We also saw extremely rare African wild dogs. One of our guides hadn’t seen these dogs for 16 years, and the other had never seen them. It was definitely a treat to see these endangered dogs cooling themselves in the mud of a dried-up river bed.

African wild dogs

Tarangire National Park

giraffe in Tanzania

We went to Tanzania during their rainy season, but there was no rain. Despite this, there were a few areas of water and an endlessly changing landscape that showed us lush green along with baked earth, hills, valleys, and perfect blue sky. Tarangire was the perfect introduction to the animals of Tanzania and just the beginning of this life-changing journey.

Tags: Africa, animals, safari, Tanzania, Tarangire National Park, Travel, travel blog, travel blogger

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