Photo series: Safari in Tanzania

Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park

Before spending a month in Mombasa, Kenya, I booked a safari in Tanzania at the beginning of November. The tour lasted three days and started from Arusha. It went to Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. I had amazing luck seeing all the Big Five and so much more! Here are some photos from the adventure.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area surrounds Ngorongoro Crater. This crater is the start of the annual wildebeest migration. Some zebra and wildebeest stay in the crater, though because it has water all year.

Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti is in northern Tanzania and nowhere near Kilimanjaro (sorry, Toto). It’s one of the most iconic places in East Africa. The landscape is much drier than Ngorongoro at the end of the dry season (mid-November).

Big Five

The Big Five are five animals considered the hardest to hunt on foot. Nowadays, though, it’s more of a metric for judging how good a safari is. The five animals are elephants, lions, water buffalo, leopards, and rhinos. The first three are quite easy to see, the last two much harder. I was lucky and saw all five.

This male was lying next to the road so I was able to get a really close shot. He wasn’t happy with us being there so we had to drive away quickly. Our guide was nervous he would attack our jeep.

Three water buffalo at sunset

Of the Big Five, leopards and rhinos are the hardest to see. Leopards are very rare in Ngorongoro, but more common in Serengeti. They are often found sitting in trees like this one. We saw it around sunset. Rhinos are very difficult to see and almost never at a close distance. Because these animals are critically endangered (only about 25 individuals live in Ngorongoro Crater), rangers keep them far away from the jeep roads to protect them. Bad for photos, but better for the animals.

Other wildlife

My personal favorite moment from the safari was watching a cheetah hunt gazelle. It was unsuccessful, but it approached our jeep while doing so. It was within about half a car length of us.

This was my first African safari experience and I think I’m completely spoiled now. I can’t think of anything more I could have wanted. What animals would you want to see?

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