Expedition Serengeti Post 1 of 5

Hamjambo I say!

How do I begin to describe Expedition Serengeti to you all? It was truly an absolutely amazing experience and that national park is now my favorite place on the face of the Earth.

I thought I would write about each individual day due to the high amount of incredible events. So.. DAY 1. We left Moyo Hill camp at around 6:30 that morning. The journey would last till around 5 o'clock that evening, but it would be worth every second in the crammed cars.

There is a large area outside of the actual national park gate and here we saw hundreds of gazelles, a few hyenas and a jackal. Pretty basic stuff if you ask me, until the grudge match of course. We saw two gazelles duking out their differences, and man it was epic. I knew they would be alright in the end, but a few times I thought they might get stuck together or maybe a neck would get broken. Cool right?

After finally arriving at the gate, the group would game drive into camp, in order to observe the magnificence that is the Serengeti. Something we actually didn't see for the whole expedition, was the famous natural wonder of the world, the Great Migration. They had moved on into Maasai Mara and so we would not see a single wildebeest  for the entire journey. But we did see a cheetah the first day, sort of... It was probably two miles off on a hill, but somehow our Wildlife Ecology professor, John Kioko, saw it. He is a ridiculous spotter. Anyways, after that we drove on and saw a variety of bird and mammal species, including topi (which I hadn't seen yet).

The next sighting was rather grand, as we observed a pride of lions resting near a water hole. I would see this pride again many times, but I didn't know that at the time, so I just soaked it all in. The two adolescents were a treat as well, since I also had not seen lion cubs in Africa yet.The discouraging part of this experiences were the dummies who drove off-road to see them. Oh and guess where they're from: the Southeast (specifically Arkansas). They were kind people with a son at Duke University, but man they pissed me off. Not only did they completely destroy a line of vegetation, but they definitely disturbed the animals. I don't care how entitled you think you are, never go off-road just to get a cool picture or get closer to the animals. It kills me. Researchers try their best to stay on the road, but sometimes they have to follow the animals. So if the people that are required by occupation to see the animals try their best to stay on the road, so should you, tourist.

Enough ranting.. We drove into camp with a cloud of Tsetse flies with us and man did those suckers bite. It hurts worse than horse flies and itches like mad. I killed like 20 in the car and then we had to get out... Cue the climactic music. Man it was rough, but we got through it and set up our tents and such. The sunset that night was beautiful, and as we sat around the fire I began to understand the magnificence that I had witnessed in just a single day. and there was plenty more to come believe me. Because of the general lack of a barrier between us and the nocturnal wildlife, we were required to be escorted to the bathroom by Askari Bura. He is a riot. I probably had the same conversation with him at least 20 times on the trip(due to his inability to speak English and mine to speak Swahili very well). While walking to the bathroom, I got to see a hyena's eyes again at night, and I laughed to myself a little. Nice to see a familiar friendly face. Later that night, everyone else heard the hyena come into camp and take down the trash can before Bura chased it away, but I was soundly sleeping in my tent. Kinda sucked to miss it, but no big deal. Then it was evening, then it was morning, the second day...

TO BE CONTINUED...

bro tip #1775
A new dawn means a new day, and a new day means a new night. live it up bro.

SWOD: Majani which means "flower" or "clover"

-Ian