By mid afternoon we had completed the descent down the Ngorongoro Crater rim and started the crossing of the Serengeti Plain.

It took about four hours to reach our tented (it did have floor boards) campsite in the central Serengeti region. Solar powered and great encouragement to minimise the use of water. No cocktails here.

Along the way to the campsite we crossed off our list one of the big cats that roam around these parts. The Cheetah, this was our first sighting.

Four of them crouching and lying around in the longish grass beside the road. A bit later on we were able to follow another one as it loped across the plain quite close to the road…..track. A jackal also greeted us beside the road.

We had three nights here in the tent, it did have an ensuite so we did not totally rough it. There were no fences and it was necessary to be guided back to the tent and zipped up for the night. We were supposed to have a whistle to blow in the event of any dramas, we couldn’t find ours. There were no dramas anyway.
During the night there were regular animal sounds coming from the surrounding scrub. Lions and hyenas according to the guide were the most common culprits.

The Serengeti is a great big savannah parkland environment not a lot of trees, except along water courses. It is also famous for its big cats. Other members of the Big 5, apart from the rhino, are also in abundance.

The birds continue to amaze, although they seem to be less in number. Perhaps because of the lack of trees. Hippos fill the drying water courses, packed in like sardines in some places.

Elephant, Giraffe and Zebra roam around particularly around water courses and thicker vegetation. Male giraffe eat the top of tree foliage and the shorter females the lower foliage giving many trees an umbrella like appearance.

We also made our first Leopard sighting, a female on a tree branch with a cub in tow. The cub wanting to ‘muck around’ but the mother seeming to just want to lay around.

We were also ‘lucky’ to experience a Serengeti rain storm. It just tumbled down, the tracks becoming a bit slippery and in places boggy. We quickly made it back to the lodge to avoid a quagmire.

In the morning some of the water had drained away, leaving the occasional flooded wheel track to navigate around.

On our way out of the park on the last day we saw a great herd of buffalo making its way south. Similarly, long lines of Wildebeest and Zebra.

It seems that the migration had made its way south out of Kenya ahead of time and we would not see the famous crossing of the Mara River. This is a bit of lottery timing wise anyway and you have to roll with nature!

We made it, again a long drive, to the shores of Lake Victoria for a one night stopover.