With all the paperwork and checking in with this person and filling out paperwork for someone else, it felt like a border crossing between countries.
To enter the Serengeti we had to pay $60.00 per person per day for entry. $30.00 per person per day for camping in the public campsite. $16 for our vehicle per day. A VAT tax of $105.84. Our 3 night stay in the Serengeti cost $693.84. Two more hours of driving on the washboard dirt road and being passed by tour drivers dusting us out, we arrived at our campsite.
For the first two nights camping we were the only ones at our campsite in the Serengeti. This is where it really hit us that this is the real thing. We were camping all alone. No guard, no people, no fences, just us and the animals!
Our first morning we woke up, and our camp was surrounded by zebras. We love zebras! Off in the distance we could see a hot air balloon gliding in the sky. What a magical morning. We ate our bowls of cereal, and off we went to explore the Serengeti.
It had rained the night before, and some of the roads were full of water.
There was also black mud that became very slippery when wet. This kind of driving can be scary if you are not used to driving off-road. Luckily that wasn’t the case for us, Drew grew up driving 4 wheel drive vehicles off-road.
Our second morning we awoke and there weren’t any animals at our camp, at least that we could see.
In the afternoon, when we went back to camp about 2:00 pm to rest, within a few minutes we had visitors. We had 14 gorgeous elephants walk right past the edge of our camp. We grabbed our cameras, took pictures and watched in awe as we were the only people that were privy to this parade of elephants.
Later that day we saw the same group of elephants way, way off in the distance. A safari vehicle had stopped along the road, so their clients could view the elephants. We thought about how lucky we were a few hours earlier to have those same elephants so close to us and all to ourselves.
Our third morning we had giraffes right outside our camp eating the leaves off the acacia trees. It was almost like they were playing peek-a- boo with us as they moved about the trees, and looked at us between the branches. Then they just strolled off. We also had a large herd of buffalo eating while strolling by as we watched and ate our bowls of cereal.
Driving around the Serengeti we came across a picnic area.
Up on top of this hill is a man selling ice cold drinks. We felt like it was a sign from heaven that brought us to him. Just look at the picture, Heaven is shining down on him!
We thought his truck was pretty cute too!
Our third night at camp we had company.Our camp solitude changed very quickly. A very nice couple (we think from Maine) Megan and her husband showed up with their driver and tour guide. Then, some other men showed up, and set up 12 tents, but their clients didn’t arrive until the next day. That night we had loud thunder storms pass over us as we tried to sleep. The constant loud crashing of thunder made it difficult to sleep.
The Serengeti is so big you can drive around a long time without seeing any animals. It had been raining so in some areas the grasses were very tall, which can make it even more difficult to spot animals. The sky was so blue, it was just beautiful!
We felt very lucky because we did see a leopard with her cub on 2 different days.
We also saw chetas, lions, elephants, zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, hippos, jackals, mongooses, warthogs, and a black mamba snake.
The Serengeti is very famous for it’s great migration where it is estimated that 1.5 million wildebeests, 200,000 zebras, and 300,000 gazelles come together to cross the crocodile infested Mara River.
We saw hundreds of wildebeests starting to gather for the great migration.
Then it was time for us to start the long dusty drive back towards the Ngorongoro Crater.
On our way out of the Serengeti, sitting along the side of the road we couldn’t believe our eyes! There were some young lions sitting and posing for us. We took a few photos, and then continued down the road.
We entered the Ngorongoro Conservation Area again and we had to pay to enter the area for 24 hours. The fees were $ 60.00 per person for entry. $30.00 per person for camping in the public campsite. $15 for our vehicle per day. A VAT tax of $32.40. For a total of $212.40 for another 24 hour period.
Look what was right outside our camp!
We camped again at the Ngorongoro Crater. Two ladies Joyce and Annemiek from Holland showed up at the camp in a vehicle from Roadtrip Tanzania. We talked to them quite a bit and told them about the leopard and cubs and where to look for them. They were going to cross the border into Kenya from the Serengeti. We hope to hear from them, because we would like to hear how their adventures went for them.
We woke up early and drove down the steep, narrow dirt road from the rim of the crater. We ended up following 2 Land Rovers. We felt safer behind them, because there were quite a few safari vehicles coming up the mountain fast, and there were lots of blind curves.
When we stopped at the bottom of the mountain, at the exit, one of the Land Rovers we were following had to add brake fluid. We learned that the Land Rovers were full of students headed to school.
Not too far down the road, we stopped in the town of Karatu, where a lot of tourists spend the night before heading into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We had heard that the Lilac Cafe was the best place to eat, so we stopped for breakfast.
They served us so much delicious food, but no matter how hard we tried we could not eat it all.
We drove back to Arusha and sadly we returned our Land Rover. We really enjoyed that vehicle and felt like we were a part of Africa. The rental for 6 days cost us $1644.00. That was $274.00 a day. You need to have a full size four wheel drive vehicle to enter the Serengeti. The next day we picked up our Rav4 for $89.00 a day.
Thanks for reading our blog!
If you haven’t already subscribed, please subscribe below.