On Saturday, February 19, I boarded a very small plane for the first of three flights to get me to the Lake Manyara/Ngorongoro Crater area.

After landing on a dirt airstrip in Lake Manyara (again, thank you for the prayers; nervous flyer), my guide, Nahto, drove me into Lake Manyara National Park. The park covers some 125 square miles including 89 square miles of lake surface.

Lake Manyara is an Alkaline Lake and its depth fluctuates significantly with the average depth being 2’8”.  You will see dead trees (due to the alkaline spread of the lake’s surface) near the lake; I captured some photos and videos of a great number of baboons in this area.

The park also includes swamps, grasslands, and a very lush forest that includes evergreens and mahogany trees.

It wasn’t long after we entered the park when an elephant was walking on the road directly toward our jeep. The elephant did not seem to mind us at all, and simply walked past our jeep when reaching us.  (video to follow). We encountered a significant population of elephants throughout our half day visit to Lake Manyara.  This was also the area that I encountered the largest population of baboons; but I would see baboons in the Crater and Serengeti as well.  There were also hippos, Impala, and several sightings of “Pumba” (warthogs) in Lake Manyara.

On Sunday, February 20, I was taken to the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is the world’s largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater is 2,000-feet deep and the floor of the crater covers 100 square miles.

A photo from the top of the crater and its blue-green vistas is at the top of this post. But the real magic happens when you descend into the crater. (I have to admit, there were some uncomfortable moments; a very narrow road with no rails on the sides of the road.)

The Ngorongoro Crater is home to an unparalleled concentration of wildlife and large animals; some 25,000 large animals live there year-round. It seemed like the blue wildebeest were everywhere (7,000 live here). If I wasn’t seeing wildebeest I was seeing zebras (4,000 live here) or Thompson gazelles (3,000 call the Crater home).  


I also encountered a very large population of elephants.  There were an abundance of hippos, reed bucks, warthogs, flamingoes, and ostriches as well. We were also fortunate to see eight black rhinoceros; the black rhinos are critically endangered. We did see several lions, but only from a great distance through the use of binoculars; not close enough for the telephoto lens of my iPhone. The crater and its wildlife were unforgettable!

Serengeti National Park

On Monday, February 21, I took two flights (same small planes, same dirt runways) to get me to the Seronera area of the Serengeti National Park (central portion of Serengeti). The Serengeti National Park spans some 12,000 square miles in Northern Tanzania.

Some 70 large mammal populations make their home in the Serengeti including:  1.5 million wildebeest, 470,000 gazelles, 260,000 zebras, 3,000 lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, jackals, topi, warthogs, impalas, water bucks, elephants, giraffes, baboons, African buffalos, crocodiles, and an amazing diversity of birds.

The 7,000 wildebeest that live in the Crater live there year-round.  The 1.5 million blue wildebeest that make their home in the Serengeti migrate into Kenya once a year to have access to water due to the dry season in Tanzania. About 250,000 wildebeest die each year during this 500 mile migration due to thirst, hunger, and exhaustion, or they are killed by predators, including the crocodiles lying in wait in the Mara River that the wildebeest are forced to cross.

For my 2-1/2 days in the Seronera area of the Serengeti, I have been fortunate to sleep in a tent on the side of a small mountain. (Forget any image you have of a tent; this is a tent unlike any tent I have seen!) The camp includes a common social area (where I have access to low-power Wi-fi, which is why I will primarily be including photos rather than videos with my update); there is also a separate dining area. Each evening before dinner we watch “bush TV,” (shown below) which is sitting next to a campfire overlooking the Serengeti plains.  

It is common to see a herd of elephants walking in the plains below our campsite. In fact, my first evening here you could hear an elephant huffing in the vicinity of the camp; I was also told the next morning that I should have heard a hyena.

There is no fence around the camp property. It took a little getting used to the sounds during the night. Each tent has a whistle that you are to blow should an animal approach or bother your tent; there is also a radio device in each tent.

When we departed the morning after my first night in camp, the guide pointed out the tree in which an elephant had feasted the night before; you could see damage to the tree and elephant dung next to the tree. This tree was some 50 to 75 yards from our common social area.

It has been a true blessing, gift, and privilege to see these animals in their natural habitat; something I will never forget.

It has been a true blessing, gift, and privilege to see these animals in their natural habitat; something I will never forget.

While in the Serengeti, I have encountered lions on several occasions. The bulk of the time, the lions have been sleeping in trees or in the tall grass.  I have been told that the lions are very lethargic for two to three days after being well-fed by something they have killed. I was fortunate enough to see the lions move on a couple of occasions, but nowhere near our open-air Jeep (unlike the elephant that just walked by our vehicle.)

The giraffes and elephants truly captured my heart, but the baboons and their young ones made me smile the most.  Enjoy the video to follow.