June 8, 2017 - Morning game drive and afternoon game drive

We started the morning game drive again at 8AM.  We took different routes and witnessed some great migration activities.  First, we saw a lot of zebras in different groups moving in a line toward northwest in an orderly fashion.  Then we saw gazelles also participated in the great migration and moved in an orderly fashion too.  One interesting thing was that these gazelles were twirling their tails while they move.  Augustine told us that it was their signal of “following me”.  We also witnessed that they halted the movement when they spotted a nearby hyaenas.   

These zebras and gazelles are participating in the annual great migration.  However, due to timing, we did not see wildebeests in action (they already migrated through this area earlier).  

Our knowledgable guide also gave us a good explanation about animal migration.  There are 3 types of migration, namely great migration, large migration and small migration. The great migration is “the animals moving across countries or continents"; the large migration is “the animals moving between national parks or game reserve areas”; the small migration is “the animals moving within a national park or game reserve area”.   The great migration is the annual migration everybody is talking about starting at Serengeti National Park, moving toward northwest, moving to Kenya, moving toward southeast back to Serengeti National Park.  When they got back to Serengeti National Park, it will be their breeding time, and then they migrate again in June.  So our guide told us that majority of the animals participating in the great migration belong to Tanzania (since their birth place is the Serengeti National Park).

At one point, we spotted a lion eyeing a group of zebras.  It seemed like she was going to attack them.  We waited and followed her for a while until the zebras moved further away and the lion just gave up.  Then, we learned that there was action already happened nearby where other lions had hunted zebras.  By the time we got there, there were 2 victim zebras.  One was enjoyed by a family of lions in bushes nearby a river.  One was enjoyed by a single lion.  We were able to get pretty close and witnessed the results of hunting. 

During our morning drive, our guide also introduced us the "Africa Christmas Tree". It is a lot of bird nests hanging on the tree and they look like Christmas ornaments.

He also told us more info about the flat-top Acacia tree.  These trees have long tap roots that can reach the deep water table, thick bark to resist annual fires, trunks that can store water, and leaves that drop of during the winter to conserve water. 

Another interesting tree in this area is the sausage tree where we spotted loins on it.  It's fruits are large and hang on the tree like long sausages.

We went back to have lunch at the lodge and then had an afternoon game drive at 4PM. 

This time we went to a wooded-area and saw more giraffes, zebras, and buffalos. We also spotted a couple of topis with coat of short, dark chestnut-brown and a bluish-black patches extending from the lower shoulders down the forelegs to just above the knees.

Then we came to the hippo pool where over 100 hippos were just laid in the pool keeping themselves cool. They moved their tails to splashing water onto to their back periodically.  Occasionally, they opened their mouths to show-off their sharp teeth. The pool is pretty much a muddy pool and it smells.

Then, the rain coming down on our way back to the lodge. It gave us a glimpse of what Tanzania’s raining season looks like. According to our guide, Tanzania has 2 seasons, raining season and dry season. The long raining season starts in March and end at the end of May.  In April, it rains day and night non-stop.  June to October is long dry season. Then the short raining season is from November to December; and the short dry season is from January to February. He also told us that if someone want to see a lot of baby animals, February will be the best time. In addition, all wildebeests do synchronize their baby birth time in February.

June 9, 2017 - Morning game drive and drove to Ngorongoro Serena Lodge

We had another game drive before we departed from Serengeti National Park.  We spotted vultures and other birds eating their meal.  

We also saw the way zebras approaching water hole for drink. A false move of a single zebra can trigger the whole herd to jump and run away from the water hole.  

We also spotted a family of lions including a male lion laying under a tree. Then they decided to move forward. Augustine was able to get us the best spot to take nice action pictures/videos of them.

These lions walked to another tree and some of them decided to climb up the tree to rest. Eventually, there were 5 lions on the tree.

On our way out of Serengeti National Park, we spotted another lion watching and waiting to attack a warthog in a distance. Unfortunately, she waited too long and we just had to leave without seeing the chasing and hunting.  

It was a long drive again from Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Serena Lodge.  

Ngorongoro Conservation Area is famous for the volcanic Ngorongoro Crater and the home of the “big 5” game (elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino). Huge herds of wildebeests and zebras traverse its plains during their annual great migration. The 2009 Ngorongoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human settlement and subsidence farming in the Crater, and thousands of Maasai have moved out of the Crater and settled in the highland surround the Crater. We witnessed a lot of livestock belonging to the Maasai tribe and it is an area where human, livestock and wildlife live in the same environment. 

Maasia tribe is the only tribe allowed to live in this area due to the fact that they do not hunt wildlife and they only consume livestock they raised. They don't eat much vegetables, however, they are all tall and slim. They do walk a lot. It makes us to think that walking is the best way to keep a slim figure.

When we got to the lodge, it was late in the afternoon and we just rest and had dinner in the lodge. Our lodge room has an patio facing the Ngorongoro Crater and the view is breathtaking.

Prior to dinner, they provided a Maasai dance show for guests. It was interesting, but not exciting.  

June 10, 2017 - Full day game drive in Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is an unparalleled beauty of one of the world's most unchanged wildlife sanctuaries.  It is the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic large crater. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 meters (2,000 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometers (100 square miles). The elevation of the crater floor is 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) above sea level. The Crater was voted by Seven Natural Wonders as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in February 2013.

Approximately 25,000 large animals lived in the crater. Large animals in the crater include rhinoceros, African buffalo, and hippopotamus.  There are a lot of wildebeests, zebras, Grant’s gazelles, Thomson’s gazelles, jackals and warthogs. There are lions, hyenas and many different types of birds. There is no elephant, giraffe and leopard, due to lack of trees in the crater.

There are 2 one-way entrances and 2 one-way exits for accessing and leaving the crater.  The entrance we took descending about 2000 ft in less than 2 miles.  Only 4-wheel drive vehicles are allowed.  Right after we entered the crater, we can see a lot of wildebeests and zebras.

It is a large area to cover and so we just let our guide to drive around based on his own preference.  We did spot a rhinoceros in distance.  Even my 70/200 tele-lens was not powerful enough to get a good shot of him (or her).  

We also saw some hippos and they were in a pool with much cleaner water, therefore, they looked much nicer.  

Wildebeests, zebras, and gazelles were everywhere, and they just stayed at wherever (sometime in the middle of the road) and acted like that this is truly their home.  

From distance in the Lake Magadi we saw flocks of pink flamingos.  According to our guide, this is one of flamingo’s feeding grounds. These pink flamingos are from the breeding ground in nearby Lake Natron.  Unfortunately, there is no road can allow us to get close to Lake Magadi.  We could only look at them from distance and try to take photos without too much success. 

We had boxed lunch in one of the picnic area nearby the hippo pool. It was a peaceful place where one can get off safari vechile and walking around.  There is a clear water lake with a lot of hippos occasional poking out of the water.  We had a wonderful time there and took a lot of photos with us in them. 

On our way back, we saw an interesting scene with a bunch of birds on a small tree and all crying for food.  Periodically, we could see adult birds bringing worms to feed baby birds.  It was an extremely noisy bunch of baby birds. 

This full day game drive concluded our Tanzania Safari tour.  We were extremely happy with the whole tour and enjoyed it very much.

June 11, 2017 - Drove to Arusha, and then Kilimanjaro Airport for return flight to the US

We started at 8AM to journey back to Arusha, having nice lunch at Arusha Coffee Lodge, then heading back to Kilimanjaro Airport for return flights to the US.  The return flight was long including crew changes and refueling in Dublin, Ireland. The total journey from Kilimanjaro to US was more than 20 hours.  

Conclusion of to Classic Tanzania Tour

It was a full 5 days safari ride along with significant amount of traveling time.  It was totally worth the effort, time and cost to have this life time memorable trip.  The arrangement by Lion World Travel and Leopard Tours (local tour operator) were great.  Our guide Augustine is very professional and has a lot of experiences on spotting animals and explaining everything about them.  It was an exciting and educational trip.  The great annual migration actions we witnessed were significant and help us to appreciate the Serengeti Ecosystem.  

We also learned something about Tanzania Safari trip as follows,

1. Driving on roads in Tanzania's national parks were a little bit rough. It was very dusty.  One shall bring something to protect yourself and your cameras (since you need to get your camera ready for action anytime).

2. You don't need to have hiking shoes (unless you only want to wear one pair of shoes for this trip).  Since there is no foot traffic in Tanzania's national parks, most of the time you are sitting in the safari vehicle for game drive.

3. My 70/200 tele lens was not powerful enough to capture closeup action scenes.  You may need something more powerful.  At the same time you need another camera to capture wider scenes such as migration activities and large herd of animals. In our case, Tony uses a camera with tele lens and Fei uses another camera with regular lens.  Your camera shall include the video capability. We found our iPhones were very helpful in taking pictures and videos.

4. Due to high altitude, Ngorongoro area will get down to 50+ degree in evening and morning during early June.  You will definitely feel it if you don't have a proper jacket.