Day #5 (1/22/2014) - Lake Masek and the Serengeti

Click here to visit a web gallery with more photos from today.

After our visit to Ngorogoro Crater, we drove into Serengeti National Park. After several hours of driving, we arrived at the Lake Masek Tent Camp, our home for the next 3 nights:

To call this camping is a bit of a stretch. Our large canvas and wood tent slept four:

It had a seating area:

and four 4-post beds:

The bathroom had a tub, toilet, and outdoor shower:

All is all it was a comfortable way to live right within the Serengeti. We were close enough to hear Cape Buffalo snuffling outside our tent (and to see the poop, footprints, and damage they left behind). And experiencing a thunderstorm from within the tent was fantastic.

The Tent Camp featured large tents for dining:

Oh, and if you want a massage, just turn left at the pile of elephant skulls:

After the sun set, you were required to be accompanied by a Maasai warrior back to your tent in case of wild animals. I was deeply disappointed that we never did encounter a single wild animal during these walks, thereby depriving me of the chance to see a Maasai warrior in action! Overall, this was a lovely way to spend 3 days feeling part of the Serengeti:

Each day within Serengeti National Park was spent game driving. This involved piling into our Land Cruiser with the top raised so that we could stand and look out. We drove on roads, trails, and off road, looking for wildlife. Whenever we spotted something interesting, Nickson could drive the truck to be as close as possible:

We saw many many wildebeest in groups of a few dozen to a few thousand, and countless other wildlife. Here is a small sample (you can click on the web gallery at the top of this page to see more):

One of the coolest aspects of spending a day on the Serengeti is watching small dramas unfold. We encountered this pair of leopards (a mother and daughter), a very rare site on the Serengeti:

The mother spotted some prey within a clump of bushes/trees:

She sent her daughter off to sit in the shade of some bushes:

After stalking the invisible prey for about 20 minutes, she suddenly pounced. An African wild cat scampered out of the bush and ran away, eluding capture. The leopard, temporarily spent, jumped up a tree to rest:

As we drove back for the evening, we were surprised to round a turn and run into a family of elephants, including some young ones:

When they noticed us, the elephants jockeyed position, placing the babies safely in the middle:

This was a behavior that we encountered many times: mothers protecting their young from us. It was all very Wild Kingdom!

All in all a fantastic day on the Serengeti. Let's do it again tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!