Last Day in the northern Serengeti




This tented camp is so nice. It is rustic, yes, but the difference in this one and the last one is huge. The staff is great and attentive and I feel safe here inside the tent whereas, I didn’t like having to unzip the tent to go out to the toilet in the last one even though it was enclosed and connected to the tent. This one is all one and it feels cleaner somehow. The scenery is gorgeous-we look out the tent at the hillside with wildlife in the far distance. Around the camp you can see the zebra and lions were in camp last night but I was pretty sound asleep about the time everyone that heard them said they were close. We slept with our fleece jackets on as the temperatures drop fast andgo from hot in the afternoon to really cool at night but there is plenty of cover and we sleep just fine. Thank goodness for the staff fixing up a battery for Jim.



Today we left pretty early to go over to the Mara river to see if we could catch the wildebeest migrating across the river. We saw some just after they had finished but we did not see them crossing the Mara-but we did see them going across a smaller river and some of the dry gulleys of the river. There were thousands of them. It is early but the rains have started-which we did not expect. It is great to get to see this. They come in droves and the zebra come with them, though right now it is mostly wildebeest. The grass is green around here unlike the southern plains where it is still brown. There are huge crocs in the Mara and they eat a lot of the wildebeest and a lot drown, unable to get up on the other side. So I was rather glad we saw what we did-the PG version of the migration where no one was killed! No picture can do it justice. They follow each other and go for miles.

The hippos in the Mara are huge and there are so many of them. We enjoyed watching them sun themselves in the afternoon sun. We had a picnic lunch out under a tree and just had a very pleasant day. We are all tired and we have to get up early in the morning to catch a 7AM flight to Arusha and then we have a long long drive back to Nairobi. We have enjoyed this camp but it will feel good to be in a regular hotel with a regular bed and shower that we can stay in as long as we want!

After our drives we come back to our tents and take our showers and get clean and it feels so good. Then we go down and have a campfire and talk and Omari gives us instructions for the next day and gives us information about the region and all. Then we eat supper in the dining tent by candlelight and are walked back to our tents. By 9PM we are in bed. There is noit much light for anything but we are tired and ready for sleep anyway.

It has been an absolutely incredible experience.