We arrived in Kilimanjaro airport mid afternoon and then immediately caught a flight to Seronera airport in the Serengeti. Our game lodge, The Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti was about an hour from the airport so this gave us an opportunity for our first game drive. Of course, the first animal we saw leaving the airport was an impala. Although I knew we would see hundreds of impalas before we left the Serengeti, I couldn’t resist photographing a large beautiful male with his elegant rack of horns
We passed an acacia tree with over 25 African storks perched on its branches.
It began to rain in the distance and we were rewarded with a rainbow over the yellowed plain.
Much to our delight, we almost immediately saw a giraffe. This area of the Serengeti was hillier with more acacia trees than the area we visited two years ago. It’s also much drier and dustier as it appears there has been less rainfall.
We smelled an overpowering odor of urine and feces as we turned onto another track. Hippos, our driver told us. Although I’ve seen hippos in a different area of the Serengeti and Ngala in South Africa, I had never smelled such a rancid odor. We crossed a small bridge over a narrow river and easily saw twenty hippos in the water. When there is such a large concentration of hippos in a small body of water, it smells bad!
We passed more giraffes, cape buffalo, warthogs, impalas and topis enroute. Arriving at the safari lodge, we were welcomed with a drink and wet cloth to wipe away the dust, then checked into our room. Our room has a game viewing balcony and small outdoor dipping pool – the view is lovely. There are grassy plains, acacia trees, kopjes (small outcrops of rocks) and even mountains in the distance.
Just in the few minutes we sat outside enjoying the view, we saw two cape buffalo hidden in the grass and a large male giraffe saunter by. Male giraffes have squared horns while females’ horns look like they have pompoms on the ends.
We went to the main lodge for a briefing on tomorrow’s game drive and then had dinner in the Boma Grille, a restaurant serving local, Tanzanian food on the ground level of the lodge. Food was delicious – I had banana and beef soup and nicely spiced chicken. During dinner we saw several Maasai men perform their dance including chanting and a jumping competition. Looking forward to an exciting day of wildlife viewing tomorrow!
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