Its gonna take a lot to drag me away from Ndutu (Safari cont'd)

TL;DR

• We had a ton of fun exploring Ndutu and Serengeti parks

• Everyone should go on safari

• Check out the amazing pics from Su here

Day 2: Trailing the wildebeest in Ndutu

If you haven't yet, check out part 1 here. 

A big feature of safaris in the Serengeti is a chance to catch the Great Migration in action. Every year almost 3 million animals (majority wildebeest but also zebra and gazelle) chase the best grazing pasture by doing an 800 mile trek around the Serengeti. The migration lasts a full year and many folks try to time their safari location to trail it as it moves. February is start of calving season in the south part of the region where 500,000 new wildebeest calves are born in a span of 2-3 weeks. We were a little early but still hoped to see the Wildebeest kickstart their journey so we headed to where they were parked in Ndutu park.

As we drove into the park it didn't take too long for us to see wide open plains dotted with thousands of wildebeest as far as the eye could see. Suddenly our driver Freddy got wind of a very special sighting and took us to a tree surrounded by high bushes. Peeking in we were able to see baby lion cubs nursing with their mother! This was definitely not on our safari bingo list and we felt so lucky to see this amazing sight.

Soon after, the clouds burst and we parked the jeep to have lunch (we picked up packed lunches and usually ate in the park each day). As the rain fell we noticed a herd of wildebeest heading in the direction of a male and female lion we spotted earlier. What followed was a face-off/game of chicken between this wildebeest herd and these two lions across a riverbank. I think the lions were hungry but needed the wildebeest to come closer since they can't run that fast. Eventually the herd spooked and bolted in the other direction - the fastest we ever saw a whole herd move. Seeing such a unique encounter definitely felt like watching Nat Geo in real life. Sadly we didn't get any real great pictures or video :-/.

Overall Ndutu did not disappoint and was another amazing park. We saw our first cheetahs, lions right up close and a family of elephants! Check out the pictures below. You'll find more amazing shots in the Photos section.

Click through to see Durgam's amazing shots

Day 3 and 4: Serengeti

Within the wider Serengeti region, the Serengeti park is one of the largest parks with an area almost the size of Connecticut. Our first highlight was actually on the way out of Ndutu we caught a couple of lions hanging out in trees. This is not so common so it was cool to see!

Serengeti comes from the word seringit in Maasai which means 'endless plains' - and it definitely lives up to its moniker. In other parks we found many small forests and hills, but the serengeti is dominated by plains where you can look out for miles till the horizon. Given its size, we had to do a lot of driving to find different animals but we were rewarded with some amazing photos. Hyenas and hippos were some of our new sightings.

Due to the intermittent rains we were also rewarded with some of the craziest driving experience any of us have ever had. We were used to crazy bumps while offroading by this point, but nothing would prepare us for non stop hydroplaning through mud roads for what felt like hours. At one point the driver let go of the wheel as it seemed possessed to move on its own (relevant). We did get stuck in the mud but luckily we met folks who could pull us out. Others we heard sometimes get stuck in the park overnight (!). Definitely its own kind of adventure.

Reflections on the safari

• We had such high expectations for our first safari and those were definitely met. Just being able to see so many different animals from the majestic (Lions) to the cute (Dik-Dik) to the downright ridiculous (Marabou stork) in their natural environment was a sight to be seen. All together we saw almost 30 different animals (not counting birds). And all these animals live close to each other in perfect harmony and aren't as territorial as I thought. It really gives the perspective of what life was like before humans took over the planet.
  

• The safari organized by Lion King Adventures was also great. Everything from the jeep to the guide, our camps, everything was top notch.

  • Fun fact: we rewatched the circle of life from the original Lion king and you can see almost all the animals we saw in that same video
    

• Of course the best part of all is that we were able to share this experience with two of our closest friends Shivani and Aditya. They are so fun to travel with, and this trip (and our pics!) would not have been the same without them there.
  

• Pretty much everyone should try a safari at least once in their life (if you can handle the 6 hours of off roading daily haha)

Next we headed to the island of Zanzibar for some much needed beach time. More on that in the next post!