The thought of going to a safari always brings images of elephants with long tusks, lions on kopjes, cheetahs on rolling plains, and The Lion King music in our heads... The Serengeti brought exactly that and so much more!
As soon as we landed on the dusty local airstrip, we hit the ground running (in a Safari jeep) and headed straight to the park. We couldn't believe how much we saw in just one day.
We were in the midst of the Great Migration and were eager to see the droves of animals that were expected to be migrating north towards Kenya.
The Great Migration is an annual cyclic migration of millions of animals as they follow the wet/dry season between the plains of the Serengeti and the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya. During the month of May, as the dry season approaches the Serengeti, millions of wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles start moving north/northwest towards Kenya where they stay until November, after which they start migrating back south.
Trivia: Do zebras have white stripes on black fur or black stripes on white fur?
Trivia: Why are the underbellies of hippos pink?
Trivia: How many cervical vertebrae does a giraffe have?
Our first Serengeti Sunset did not dissapoint.
The Thomson Safari camp kept us nice and comfortable. Hearing wildebeest and hyenas as background made for some interesting white noise before bed.
We woke up and went on a hot air balloon ride over a peaceful Serengeti sunrise.
In the early morning, while the animals were still stirring, we were pinching ourselves to make sure this dream was real.
The hot air balloon landed in the middle of the Serengeti amongst herds of wildebeest and zebras.
Upon landing, we saw a mother cheetah with her three little cubs.
Her little cubs were well camouflaged in the grass.
We were also lucky enough to spot a leapard, one of the most elusive animals in the Serengeti.
And found Mufasa on Pride Rock.
And when we thought it couldn't possible get any better, we saw a kill from start to finish. The next series of pictures will take you from sleeping lionesses, to the instinct of a predator, and finally to the motherly instinct of survival and taking care of the young.
Check out the live video of the kill below.
After the high of feeling like we were in the middle of a National Geographic documentary, we thought we had seen it all..
Our second day ended with seeing a lioness moving cubs from one den to another, which apparently is quite rare.
En route back to camp we ran into a large herd of the migration.
And caught a beautiful sunset with a tower of giraffes.
Next stop, the Ngorongoro Crater. But first check out our Safari video below!