Adventures in Tanzania: The Real Life Lion King

“There’s a Pumbaa” shouted our safari guide Philomon as he pointed to a warthog wandering through some short grass close to the dirt road where we were driving. It was our second day of driving through the Serengeti and we had already seen thousands of animals during this short time. Giraffes, lions, zebras, cheetahs, baboons, hippos, elephants and too many others to name were everywhere around us in the massive Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania. When we had initially booked the safari, we wondered if it would be a possibility that we may not see any animals because nothing was guaranteed.  We had done two previous safaris on our trip (tiger safari in India, leopard safari in Sri Lanka) and failed to see any wild cats. This thought was almost laughable now as we cruised around in our open-air jeep surrounded by throngs of wildlife.

Gang of zebras

Our first animal sighting in the Serengeti

Ever heard of a Hartebeest? Here’s what they look like.

Lounging Lions

It took us a long time to get to the point where we finally decided to pull the trigger and book our trip to Tanzania for the safari.  When we started our research, we had no sense of how much a safari would cost and we were shocked at first.  While there was a range of prices and styles (decent accommodations to ultra-lux), it quickly became clear to us that there was no way to do this cheaply. If we were going to do a safari, we were going to do it right with an experienced guide and not attempt a do-it-yourself trip.  Up to this point, we had been travelling under budget, and had a little surplus built up.  So, after emailing several companies, and some back and forth negotiations, we decided to go for it.  We both now agree that this may go down as the best decision of the trip.

Our “glamping” quarters

Elephants, elephants everywhere

This guy wanted to take a closer look at us

Our finalized itinerary consisted of one and a half days in the Serengeti followed by a full day safari inside the Ngorongoro Crater.  It started off in a hurry due to trying to find the cheapest flight available from Croatia. We landed at Kilimanjaro Airport at 1 AM on July 4^th, drove an hour to our hotel in Arusha, slept for 4 hours, ate breakfast and then hit the road for a 6-hour drive to the Serengeti.  It took only about two minutes after we passed under the entrance gates of Serengeti National Park before we were greeted by a giraffe, and then some gazelle, then some zebras, as we drove deeper and deeper into the heart of the park.

Safe to say this is our first ever Wildebeest selfie

The herd in Ngorongoro

Serengeti sunset

Solo hippo

Our experience there truly was as if we were in the middle of the Lion King movie.  We saw herds of elephants gather at a water hole. We followed two cheetahs for close to an hour, keeping our distance as they slowly crept up on a heard of gazelle.  Eventually, they made their move and we saw every bit of the chase and the aftermath from about 30 feet away. We stumbled upon three male lions sunbathing on the shore of a small river.  We watched hundreds of Zebras cross a deep stream as monkeys and wildebeest sat nearby eating. We spotted a leopard sleeping on a tree branch. The scenery itself was beautiful and seemed to stretch off infinitely in every direction.  It was one incredible, surreal sight after the next and worth every penny.

Step 1 – the Cheetahs watch

Step 2 – the Cheetahs run

Step 3 – the Cheetahs go airborne

Step 4 – the Cheetahs don’t give up

Step 5 – Lunch

At night, after we had finished our driving for the day, we retired to one of the many tented camps within the park boundaries. Our camp had a main lodge with a small restaurant for dinner and breakfast, a small bar to grab some drinks, and a strip of plugs to charge our cameras and phones. Our personal tent that we slept in was hardly a tent as it had both a shower with hot water and a toilet in it.  After we finished dinner each night, we had to be escorted to our tent by one of the camp’s employees just in case there were any animals lingering close by.  Throughout the night, we would hear the calls of hyenas all around us.  Our driver even asked us one morning if we had heard the lion nearby.  Luckily, we didn’t.

Christina & Phil on the lookout

Zebras crossing the river, only to cross right back a few minutes later

Their version of Pride Rock

Our last day of the Safari took place down inside the Ngorongoro Crater which is a spectacular sight and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a much smaller area than the Serengeti, but still filled with an abundance of wildlife.  At this point, we had seen four out of the BIG FIVE animals (Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Water Buffalo).  All that was left to see was the Rhinoceros which was known to live inside the crater. We had been lucky up to this point, but our guide warned us to not have our hopes up too high. Then, as we sat by a watering hole staring at a group of hyenas, another jeep pulled up with the guide saying something excitedly.  We quickly followed that jeep and became part of a line of about 30 other cars just staring at a field of tall grass.  Off in the distance we could barely make out a small black speck.  Philomon grabbed a pair of binoculars and confirmed that in fact that speck was a black Rhinoceros.  We both grabbed the binoculars and proceeded to watch the Rhinoceros sit down in the tall grass, leaving only a small piece of his head visible.  We decided to wait patiently, hoping that it would stand up again so we could get a better look.  After about 15 minutes, it did indeed stand up and proceeded to walk around the area.  Although it was far away, it was amazing to see and meant we had been lucky enough to see the Big Five.

Simba on the prowl

The car behind us took a photo of our Jeep. This is the same lion as the photo above. You can see how close he got!

Sleepy Lioness

We had arranged our safari with Tanzania Serengeti Adventures who are based out of Arusha.  They were extremely helpful, working with us to create an itinerary that fit our travel schedule, and communicated with us constantly during the booking process all the way up until our arrival.  If anyone is looking to do a safari in Tanzania, we would absolutely recommend reaching out to them.

After our four nights on the mainland, we decided to head to the island of Zanzibar for another five nights. The island itself was gorgeous, with beautiful beaches and bright blue water.  Unfortunately for us, our experience was a bit tarnished as we had to deal with a corrupt police officer on our way from the airport to our hotel the first night.  This was the second time this has happened to us on our trip (also in Bali) and was equally as unenjoyable, especially considering the fact that we believe our driver was in on this scam.  The cop aggressively yelled and pointed at us, stating we had broken some obscure law and threatened to take our passports or take us to court to pay a fine, or that we could simply pay him $30 and he would let us go. Luckily, we recognized early on what was happening and played dumb, pretending not to understand what had happened and kept asking him questions.  After about 20 minutes of this back-and-forth dance, he eventually let us go.  Still, we were pretty shaken by the incident.  We still managed to enjoy some great food and the beautiful weather during our time there.

Stairs to our local beach

Bright blue waters of Zanzibar

Sunset from Stonetown

Our last night in Zanzibar, we used some points to treat ourselves to a stay at the Park Hyatt in the capital city of Stonetown (UNESCO site).  The property was a nice break from the budget accommodations we had been staying at the prior month and is also right in the heart of Stonetown which allowed us to do some exploring of the unique city.

It will be hard to top this experience. This is why we have been traveling on such a strict budget, to be able to save for a splurge like this and it was well worth it! Next up, it’s off to Newcastle, England, to celebrate the wedding of our friends Ian and Emily. Then we have a few, short weeks left of the trip before heading back to the States!

-The Morts