Tanzania, Western Serengeti

We leave Lake Manyara on Sunday July 2nd in the morning. We've got an 8 hour drive today to get to the Kirawira Camp in the Western Serengeti. We stopped on the way at a Maasai Village.

Neeley summed up our visit to the Maasai Village quite well:
"This was the worst part of the trip. I wanted to meet the locals because I thought that 10 days of just animals without human contact would be a bit daunting and too much for me. However, this visit was a bad idea. This village in the stretch of land between the crater and the Serengeti, and is one that is commonly visited by safari groups. We did think that there was a chance that it would be somewhat 'tourist-contrived', but it was worse than I imagined. The worst part being when we went into the little schoolhouse and the poor children were forced to perform for the tourists. Our guide chose not to join us and now I know why. It was exploitative in every way."

My feelings were pretty similar. But I wish I had figured out how to bring a small photo printer with me, as the children all found their image on the back of the camera very entertaining.

After leaving the village we passed through the entrance to the Serengeti National Park, but we still have a number of hours to drive until we get to the Kirawira Camp.

The Kirawira Camp is quite pleasant, and after the long drive, we are quite happy to eat and relax for a bit. There's a picture below that shows the Serengeti on fire. Talking to our guide he explained that they do controlled burns periodically to help reduce the tsetse flies and also to rejuvenate the land. This is something that I don't remember seeing in any of my pre-trip research.

July 3, up at 5:30am. I'm not a morning person, not even in another time zone. However, in getting up early you get a chance to see animals active that otherwise would not be active in the hotter portions of the day. In our case we were able to watch a hyena attempt to chase down prey in the morning on our drive.

We made a stop back at the lodge for breakfast and went back out for a game drive in the late afternoon. Spotting a jackal and also stopping in an area where you are allowed to leave the vehicle. After spending so much time in the truck driving around, it felt very odd to be out on a suspension bridge taking pictures of crocodile.

Coming back from the game drive in the evening, I discovered that the camp had internet access. Not wanting to miss out on bragging rights, I put together a quick web page with a couple pictures and uploaded them. I can now claim to have published photos on the web while sitting in the middle of the Serengeti!

While working on the web page I also discovered that bringing a laptop out to the common areas in the lodges was well worth it. In many cases the employees have not see some of these animals up close, and the telephoto lenses allows you to "get close". I spent some of the time showing guests and employees some of the photos from the previous couple of days. This is something I would suggest you offer to do if you go on safari, as staff will not ask. But they are interested.

			Ngorongoro Conservation Area



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Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park	Serengeti National Park