On Safari in Ngorongoro Crate & Serengeti + seeing the Kilimanjaro - Tanzania

Wednesday 8.05:

After long discussions we finally decided to spontaneously take the side trip up to northern Tanzania. Alex picked us up in a taxi and brought us to the regional bus station to catch a 10 hours bus to Arusha. Instead of 10:30 it left African style two hours later.

Although the bus driver was driving like a mad man we arrived in Arusha after 13 long painful hours at 1 am in the night. We were picked up by two guys from the tour company who brought us to the Meru Guesthouse.

Thursday 9.05:

After 2 hours sleep we were picked up again. After a 2 hours’ drive we joined our fun Safari group. David from Grenoble, Kate and Tim from Ireland and England, Omy our driver and guide, and of course Mister Delicious our cook for the next 3 days.

Our first stop was the Ngorongoro lookout into the huge caldera which is famous for the large amount of animals on the crater floor. 

We continued on a rough gravel road on the plains of the Serengeti. We were lucky to see the wild beast migration that passes this region of the Serengeti only in this time. In total 1 300 000  wild beasts and 500 000 Zebras go on migration. On the left and right of the road there were Wild beasts and Zebras as far as our eyes could see. We also saw plenty of hippos, lions, elephants etc.. Good thing we visited the Serengeti as the final National park on our route we because it is definitely the best from all we have seen so far.

At night we pitched our tents on a campground in the middle of the Serengeti.

Friday 10.05:

In the morning we did another game drive through the Serengeti . Omy managed  not to get stuck on the muddy roads. The highlight was a couple of lions lying lazy at the side of the road.

In the afternoon we drove back up to a camp ground at the Ngoro Ngoro crater rim. At 2500 m it was quite cold and we needed to put on our sweaters. Before going to bed we invented a new card game that we played enthusiastically. I was unfortunately always the loser.

Saturday 11.05:

As early as possible we drove through the clouds down to the crater floor. Thousands of animals were grazing or hunting on the plains around the Crater Lake. It felt like being in Jurassic park.

Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro hidden behind Mount Meru

  
On the way back to Arusha we even got to see the white summit of Kilimanjaro behind the second highest mountain of Africa Mount Neru. We arrived in the evening and checked back into the Meru Guesthouse. Where we stayed until Monday to take a flight back to Dar Es Salaam in the evening. 

 sugarcane juicemaker in Arusha