Travels with V
Tanzania, Zanzibar & Pemba
Cruising on the endless plain
Safari part two, Serengeti part one
Next morning we head out to the famous Serengeti national park, its name a masai word meaning “endless plain”. An unbelievably flat landscape where wildlife of many kinds roam. Lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, hippos, antelopes, baboons and lots and lots of colourful birds.
A special place that Daniel takes us to is the “Hippo pool”, a quite small mudhole where maybe a hundred hippos are resting, tossing and turning, grunting and biting and wafting away flies. If something or someone that they don’t appreciate is too near, the whole grup gets nervous and all hell breaks loose as they all try to turn and rise.
After a whole day on the plains we roll into Kati Kati Camp, our home for the next two nights. Ten big bungalow-like tents complete with comfortable beds, chairs, a desk and a bathroom with showers. When you want to take a shower you call out “hot water, please”, and in the back of the tent someone hangs a sack and connects it to the water hose. Works like a charm.
There’s also a big tent with a kitchen and restaurant, and a desk for charging mobile devices. We all eat together while the darkness quickly falls outside. After dinner there is a gathering around a big campfire.
Going back to your tent you have to be accompanied by a guide. You understand why when you point your flashlight into the surrounding darkness. Pairs of red dots light up around you. Hyenas. Always on watch.
Now it’s time for the big game. What will we see? Lions? Leopards?