The day after getting off of Kilimanjaro, we immediately set out on our 5 day safari to the Serengeti.

It was a complete mental and physical switch, after being cold and hiking for 10 hours a day, to sitting on our butts in cars in the dusty, searing 95 degree heat for 12 hours a day. For some reason, we both found it harder and more tiring to be on safari than hiking.

I couldn’t believe we were actually going to the Serengeti. It was the stuff of countless PBS documentaries, and elementary school science classes. Serengeti in the Masai language means “endless plains”, and it was incredible, a sea of grass as far as the eye could see.

I was immediately struck by how dry it was…the scenery could be drawn entirely with brown and yellow crayons. We were told that the rains were expected soon, but these conditions were good for viewing wildlife, as it concentrated them near water holes. In fact, the only animals which could go without water every day were the ones we saw on the fringes of the park, the impalas, far away from predators.

At first I felt mostly like we were in a zoo, seeing a single giraffe, or a single zebra here and there. As someone in our group pointed out, it was us in the metal cages instead of the animals. But then we started seeing hundreds of zebra, hippos, wildebeests, impala and more, lions in prides, and baby elephants nursing and ostriches bounding across the landscape.

What was the most interesting for me was to see how all the various animal groups interacted. I had never known that zebras and cape buffalo and wildebeests all grazed together and drank from the same watering holes. Vultures circled overhead, sneaking attacks to a fresh kill guarded by a lioness and her cubs. It was also amazing to see the close guard of adults around the baby animals. Often times all I could see was an extra bump around the legs of the adults.

Unlike on Kilimanjaro where campfires were not allowed, a large fire was kept going all night to keep the animals away from the campsite. It was really fun to chill out after dinner with some wine (we brought ourselves, thorugh Jonathan’s foresight) and the people we had gotten to know on the Kili climb.

One funny note – one of the guides kept using characters from “The Lion King” to describe the animals we were seeing. When we saw a warthog, the guide would exclaim “Pumba!”. I also learned that ‘Simba”, the little lion in the movie, is the Swahili word for…you guessed it….lion.