Hey Fashionistas,
This is part four of my travel series. In today’s blog post I talk about our African Safari experience in Tanzania at the Serengeti National Park. We spent 4 days, and 3 nights at this amazing place. Are you thinking about doing an African Safari or is this your top bucket list? Keep on reading. If you are just here for the dope pics that's cool too just keep on scrolling.
When you want to do a Safari at the Serengeti National Park there are two airports you can fly into either Arusha or Kilimanjaro Airport. We flew into Kilimanjaro airport because it was a bit cheaper but it’s about an hour drive from Arusha. At Arusha, the safari tours will start. When we arrived at the airport we had to disinfect our hands and show our internal vaccination passport before they let us into the airport. Keep in mind if you want to do a Safari I strongly recommend visiting your doctor to inquire about the necessary vaccinations.
We arrived a day earlier to relax at the hotel and take the last shower before we are off for four days campaign in the middle of the Serengeti Park.
For everyone interested in booking a safari here’s how we did it. I always compare and check reviews before I book anything. I looked at a few different National Parks but Serengeti was definitely everyone’s No. 1 recommendation. The website Safaribooking.com is a website where you can compare Safaris - very useful if you have no idea what to book. This site offers different tours from budget to luxury with different providers. We decided to book the 4 Day Budget Safari Tour.
The next day we got picked up by the driver and made our way to Tarangire National Park. We did the tour with another 3 people. On our way to the park, we already saw Zebras and Wildebeest. At Tarangire National Park we did a full game drive and seen tons of animals. Highlights of this game drive an elephant heard passing by with babies and a monkey that stole our lunch. You always see it on TV and YouTube Videos but we never expected to be in the middle of an elephant heard. These gentle giants are quite as can be. You don’t hear the footsteps. At the beginning of the drive, we’ve seen an elephant from far away and all of us were super happy but the heard passing by was the cherry on top.
During our lunch, our guide warned us that these monkeys tend to steal food so all of us kept an eye on these cute blue-balled monkeys. I am not kidding the male monkeys are equipped with bright blue balls to attract females. A color you don’t see that often in mother nature. We were almost done with lunch and I was ready to eat my cookies when a monkey attacks us from behind. Hubby saw the monkey coming and wanted to push him off but instead pushed the monkey right into my lab. The monkey got rattle but was able to grab the cookies and runoff. At the same time, another monkey started an attack and stole a muffin from our other companion.
After the incident, we continued our safari. We saw more animals and it was absolutely amazing. When the sun began to go down we started to build up our tent well Eric was building our tent. The campground was in the middle of the Serengeti park. I hoped for clear sky and stars but instead got clouds. Our guide told us not to leave the tent without a flashlight and a companion because hyenas are very common in the area. At night time we could hear the lions roaring and the hyenas looking for food.
Our day started at 5:00 AM for an early morning game drive. Early mornings are the best to see cats and damn sure we got rewarded big time for waking up early. We spotted over 12 lionesses and one lion. The “kittens” were playing right at the dirt road and it was absolutely phenomenal to be able to watch this. Once again I thought to myself are we just lucky or are these animals very that common?
After watching the playful lions we continued our morning game drive. We spotted Zebras, Wilderbest, all kinds of birds, and more hyenas. All safari jeeps are connected with each other which is good for the visitors. Our guide got a call that someone else saw a leopard. Full force ahead - let’s see the leopard.
Again, our luck continued. We saw a leopard. The beauty was sitting right there on top of a stone surrounded by dried out scrubs. Extremely picturesque if you ask me.
We headed back for brunch. The tour includes a private chef that cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the stay.
Our tents were already folded and ready to load up into the Jeep. We had a 6-hour drive in front of us to the last location. On our way back we witnessed the Wildebeest migration. Some people paid extra money just to see this but of course, we got lucky to spot the migration without paying extra. Migration is a seasonal movement of animals. Since Serengeti is that huge animals have to constantly move from South to North in search of food. I’ve seen migration on TV but it is a whole different story if you see it in real life. There are thousands and thousands of wildebeest perfectly aligned. We all could have spent more time just viewing this beautiful scenario but we had to move on.
On our way to the next location, we were able to see Baboons, Zebras, tons of gazelles and Elephants. We arrived at the campaign spot which was covered in clouds. The air felt damp and cold - quite uninviting. We build up the tent and had dinner. Wrapped up in clothes and tucked in our sleeping bags we were freezing cold.
Our last day started. I felt cold, hungry and dirty (haven’t showered in like 4 days). Our clothes smelled and everything was damp. That’s exactly the reason why I don’t do camping.
On the itinerary today was the Ngorongoro Crater. This was our only chance to see rhinos so we all hoped to see these endangered animals. We opened up the roof from our Jeep and started to search for animals. The cold wind was blowing into our faces. Again, we started our game drive early and we saw two caracals playing. We also saw more lions, water buffalos, zebras, hippos (did I mention baby hippo?), flamingos (yes they can actually fly) and much more.
Then our guide received another call - another leopard. We and at least another 9 Jeeps rushed to the sight were the leopard was laying on top of a tree branch. We got some dope photographs before the leopard decided that’s too much attention I got to leave. He disappeared in the thick forest.
This also marked the end of our Safari Journey. We didn’t see rhinos and to be quite honest I was sad but Eric and I had one more chance to see rhinos in Johannesburg, South Africa. Whether we spotted them or not, I will reveal in my next blog post.
After our Safari we got dropped off at the same hotel we started our journey at. A (hot) shower was waiting for me, well not exactly. The hotel used one large boiler to heat up water. So the hot water lasted for about 10 minutes…
On the next day, we continued our journey to Johannesburg (South Africa)
Conclusion of the trip:
Going on a safari was never our first bucket list item, in fact, we never thought about it. It came up by us planning our next vacay. I am glad we did it. It’s nature at its finest. It’s a privilege to be there. If you can I would recommend this to anyone. I have to say we were pretty lucky to spot all these animals and this is not common. We came with low expectations which are definitely the best. I also recommend getting an insect repellent bracelet. We wore these pink bracelets for 4 days and we had no mosquito bite. We didn't even have to use any bug spray. Our fellow companions only used bug spray and they had quite a few bites.
Our tour was great, the food was yummy (each day everyone got a liter of water), the only thing I didn’t like was the campaign. I am not a camper and we only did that because of the price. Of course, we also forgot pillows and towels. At least I remembered to take toilet paper and hand soap.
Safari Checklist Essentials:
- Get your necessary Visa
- Get needed vaccinations - your doctor can recommend them to you
- Take tissue and toilet paper with you
- Take your own towel with you (of course we forgot that)
- Insect repellent. I recommend the insect repellent bracelets
- Don’t forget your pillow (we also forgot that)
- Take snacks with you
- Flashlight
- Light-colored clothes - try to avoid black, and blue it attracts bugs
- Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Binoculars
- Sweater and jacket for the night it gets cold
- Hat (for the bad hair days)
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