Our Tanzanian Safari, a Baraka!
We visited Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area for 3 days on February 19, 2014. Our days were the best way to celebrate our first 500 days traveling the world. Due to high fees charged by Tanzania’s government to visit these protected areas, we decided to join a tour to decrease the costs and spend only one night camping at each park. The camping areas without fences allowed us to hear wild animals walking by our tents in the middle of the night. A group of hyenas on one night and a hungry buffalo eating grass close to our tent the other night made sleeping unforgettable!
Serengeti comes from the Maasai word, siringiti that means endless plain. The scenery and landscape of this national park are exceptional for wild animal spotting. We spent two days of game driving along this spectacular park witnessing: the annual migration of the wildebeest to give birth in the south; the elegant contrast of the zebras over the green plains; a group of lions resting after a feast; three lionesses trying to hunt a giraffe; a leopard napping on a tree during a hot afternoon; hippos playing in the muddy waters; and the majestic umbrella trees and ficus trees decorating the endless horizon of the Serengeti.
Wildebeests Migrating South
Ngorongoro is a conservation area in which wild animals and the Maasai tribe that previously lived in Serengeti National Park coexist. Maasai are the only people that are allowed to live in the reserve under the condition that they do not hunt the wild animals or practice permanent agriculture. During our visit to Ngorongoro we got to see many Maasai in the area, adults and children walking with their colorful traditional clothing, wooden sticks, and livestock. We have heard myths about these Maasai warriors confronting wild animals, such as lions, but after seeing them living in the wilderness we have no doubt they truly fighters! We completed a morning drive inside the Ngorongoro Crater with the vistas from the outside and the wildlife within was simply breathtaking: elephants, lions, buffaloes, ostriches, baboons, rhinoceros, gazelles, flamingos, and many more all within a few meters away from each other!
The happiness of spotting animals in their natural habitat is priceless. They deserve to be free on earth as much as we do. We hope you enjoy our pictures from this adventure and can feel inspired by nature. This safari (trip) continues to be our greatest baraka (good fortune)!
