From the Serengeti to Ngorongoro

Today we had to leave the Serengeti and continue on to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We had time for one last morning game drive, during which we saw a huge bull elephant with one very long tusk. Our guide Estomih told us that this elephant had once attacked a tourist jeep that had approached too close to him during the mating season, and had rolled the vehicle over many times. Fortunately the occupants escaped with minor injuries. We were happy to admire him from a safe distance.

We also saw our good friends the mother cheetah and her cubs once last time, once again surrounded by tourist jeeps…

Our friend the mother cheetah and her cubs

A cub crawls onto to mum and collapses asleep

…before we spotted two other cheetahs in a different area of the park. For this couple of young males, we could relax and observe all for ourselves.

Estomih served lunch on the bonnet of our jeep, and we ate it whilst looking around carefully for any lions that might sneak up on us, but there were none. Indeed, this was the only day in our Serengeti stay when we did not see any.

Finally, after four days of amazing game viewing, it was time to leave the Serengeti National Park, and pass into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Unlike the park, the Masai are allowed to live in this area and we saw many of them tending their herds of cows and goats by the side of the road. We made a pre-arranged stop at one of their villages to learn about Masai life. We were greeted by a welcome dance…..

….before being shown how to make fire (actually a very quick process)…..

…..and then being invited into one of their tiny, simply huts to learn what the Masai ate – milk or cow’s blood in the morning, and meat in the evening, with no fruit or vegetables.

The visit ended with a slightly too insistent request to buy some of the huge number of carvings set out on a massive stall in the centre of the village. The Masai are good at commerce and have become quite expert at milking tourists for money in return for photographs or other services.

We headed onwards and visited a modest display about the attractions of the Ngorongoro area in small museum building just off the main road. There I learnt that the famous archaeological site of Olduvai Gorge was only five kilometres away down a dusty track. This is the place were the earliest fossils of hominid ancestors of man have been found, including the famous “Lucy” Australopithecus skeleton, and so can probably claim to be the birthplace of humanity. I asked Estomih whether we could go and visit the museum there, but he said that this needed to be booked in advance and that in any case it was late in the afternoon and it would close soon. I was a bit disappointed that I had forgotten to ask for this key site to be included in my safari itinerary.

My disappointment was short-lived though, as the road climbed into lush green mountains with beautiful views of lakes, trees and small Masai villages.

We made lots of stops to take photos, including one at the rim of the famous Ngorongoro Crater, our destination for the next day.

We reached our lodge as the sun was setting and the shadows lengthening, which was a shame because it was a really nice place and it would have been good to have enjoyed it for longer.

Our lodge on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater

When the sun finally set, it became decidedly chilly, and we put on the warm clothes we had last used when changing planes at Amsterdam in Europe. After another nice evening meal we were soon snuggling in bed, delighted that the lodge had provided each of us with a hot water bottle.

Keeping warm ahead of another early start

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Next Post: The Ngorongoro Crater

27th January 2026 2

Floating over the Southern Serengeti

Today, even by the standards of our safari, we woke up unusually early for a 5.15 am departure. We drove through the night and arrived at a flat empty plain, where a group of Tanzanians was preparing a large hot air balloon. This was to be a new experience for us, and as the sky slowly got lighter in the east, we watched as the staff inspected the balloon’s fabric, and then started to fill it with hot air from a propane burner. The captain of our flight emerged to give us a safety briefing and assure us that he had been piloting balloons for twenty years without incident.

Just as the sun starting rising, we ready for take-off. Along with landing, this was the only slightly complicated part of the flight and involved us curling up at the bottom of the basket whilst balloon lifted slowly into the air. Soon our captain announced we could stand up and we were greeted by a magical sight of sunrise over the Serengeti plains, with the ground far below.

Our balloon drifted gently with the wind, sweeping over trees, herds of antelopes and giraffes. There was a wonderful silence, broken occasionally by the sound of some more gas been burnt to maintain our altitude, and the soft murmur of my fellow passengers as they admired the amazing sight. Although the Serengeti’s animals and birds are used to jeeps, they seemed scared by our balloon and hurried away as we approached them.

We let our minds float with our balloon over the Serengeti plains, soaking in the experience and filming the animals below us.

I was surprised when our pilot announced that we had been flying for over an hour and it was time to prepare for landing – it seemed that we had only just started. Too soon, we had to crouch back down in our basket and wait for out balloon to hit the ground with a series of bumps. Our successful flight was celebrated with fizzy wine accompanied by songs and dancing by the balloon’s support staff, who had been following us in jeeps as we flew.

We then got back into a jeep and drove for about an hour back to a picnic area close to where we had started, for a copious outdoors breakfast. At around nine a.m. our balloon experience was over and we met up with our guide Estomih again in our own jeep.

Amazingly we still had nearly a full day for a game drive, and to get yet more close up views of big cats, birds and herbivores. We got our closest yet view of a leopard, who started lying in the grass in front of us before climbing up a small tree…..

…..and then reconnected with the two cheetahs we had seen the day before.

We were not alone to admire these cheetahs, whose small shady bush had been surrounded by an array of tourist jeeps. We were travelling in the mid-season (January), and Estomih told us that in high season there would be twice as many vehicles. We don’t like crowds and were glad we had avoided this.

It was soon time for lunch, which we had inside our jeep for a change.

The afternoon’s game drive was quieter, with flamingos, impala, zebra, wildebeest and a few more lions.

As the afternoon progressed, we became a bit tired after several long days and early starts, not to mention our big lunch and glass of Tanzanian wine! So we headed back to our camp to recharge our batteries after another memorable day.

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27th January 2026 1

The Serengeti – Leopards, Cheetahs and yet more lions

After the forty-eight lions we had seen yesterday, today Estomih our guide was determined to find us some different big cats. As usual, with the help of the guides’ exchanging of information over the radio, he delivered. Our first rendezvous was with a young male leopard, which as usual for its species was lazing in a tree.

Having admired the magnificent animal for while, we set off in search of cheetahs…….and duly found three young males making their way through the thick grass of the Serengeti plains.

Over the radio, Estomih heard that our leopard had now been joined by his brother, so we headed back to the see the rather touching sight of the two siblings hanging out together in the branches of a tall tree.

Having seen all of the big cats, we could relax, enjoy the Serengeti scenery, and pay more attention to the park’s less famous animals and birds, like the dik-dik, the smallest antelope…….

…..a big fat hippo, out of its pond…..

……the strange looking topi….

….and the beautiful lilac-breasted roller bird.

Towards the end of the day we bumped into a group of hyenas

A short way further on, we found two lions who had recently killed a buffalo. They sat there with bloodied mouths and fat bellies, digesting their meal.

It had been another great day, but over dinner back in our bush camp I began to wonder if we had already seen everything there was to see in the Serengeti, and whether the next two days here might become a bit repetitive. Fortunately I was wrong, as you will see in the next posts.

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25th January 2026 3