Initially, I did regret not buying a camera with a better zoom as the first 
encounter with animals was quite far away; HOWEVER, as we got further into the parks the closer to the animals we got. The first national park was the Serengeti National Park – it is the largest park with heaps of animals. No one is allowed to get out of their vehicles in any national park and the vehicles must stay on the dirt roads. Again I was a little nervous that the animals would be too far away – but there are no fences or restrictions of where these animals can roam (I had to keep telling myself that this was natural not a zoo or animal sanctuary!) On the first day we saw a leopard feeding upon some unfortunate animal while hungry vultures awaited the leftovers. There are the Big 
Five – buffalo, rhino, elephant, leopard and lion. These are the big 5 because these are the animals which people should be frightened off. Most animals will run away from people
but these are the 5 which will attack you if felt 
threatened and therefore are called the Big 5! I was lucky enough to see all of them. I saw many female lions but no male lions. I saw tons of elephants – including many baby elephants; zebras, giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, hyenas, baboons, gazelles, Thompsons, waterbuck, tons of different birds, warthogs, private monkeys, lions, water buffalos, one cheetah, three rhinos. I also went to Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park. The Ngorongoro Crater was the largest mountain (larger than Kilimanjaro) it was a volcano and then one day (1.75 million years ago) it erupted and for some reason the mountain collapsed causing the largest natural crater in the world. In the middle of the crater is a salt pool and some fresh water. It was quite cool to drive on the crater through herds of wildebeests and zebras and see the whole area surrounded by mountains. This is also where male elephants come to “retire.” This is also the only park to have rhinos – there are a total of 17 in the crater and we saw 3 of them. At first we only saw one and it was difficult to see as it was lying down but then the ranger of the park drove close to it and it got to its feet and it was huge! Quite cool! In Tarangire Park, it was smaller and the terrain was different than the Serengeti. It had more bushes and trees which makes it more difficult to see the animals. It is also famous for the large balboa trees. These trees are humongous. This park is also known for the large amount of elephants. And there was certainly tons (no pun intended) of elephants here. They seemed to travel in herds of about 15-20 and they came very close to our vehicle – I got some good video of them too. Pretty spectacular! The view from where we had lunch was magical too. We looked upon a windy river with zebras and elephants drinking from it and crossing the river – incredible!
Rhino
encounter with animals was quite far away; HOWEVER, as we got further into the parks the closer to the animals we got. The first national park was the Serengeti National Park – it is the largest park with heaps of animals. No one is allowed to get out of their vehicles in any national park and the vehicles must stay on the dirt roads. Again I was a little nervous that the animals would be too far away – but there are no fences or restrictions of where these animals can roam (I had to keep telling myself that this was natural not a zoo or animal sanctuary!) On the first day we saw a leopard feeding upon some unfortunate animal while hungry vultures awaited the leftovers. There are the Big 
Five – buffalo, rhino, elephant, leopard and lion. These are the big 5 because these are the animals which people should be frightened off. Most animals will run away from people
but these are the 5 which will attack you if felt 
threatened and therefore are called the Big 5! I was lucky enough to see all of them. I saw many female lions but no male lions. I saw tons of elephants – including many baby elephants; zebras, giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, hyenas, baboons, gazelles, Thompsons, waterbuck, tons of different birds, warthogs, private monkeys, lions, water buffalos, one cheetah, three rhinos. I also went to Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park. The Ngorongoro Crater was the largest mountain (larger than Kilimanjaro) it was a volcano and then one day (1.75 million years ago) it erupted and for some reason the mountain collapsed causing the largest natural crater in the world. In the middle of the crater is a salt pool and some fresh water. It was quite cool to drive on the crater through herds of wildebeests and zebras and see the whole area surrounded by mountains. This is also where male elephants come to “retire.” This is also the only park to have rhinos – there are a total of 17 in the crater and we saw 3 of them. At first we only saw one and it was difficult to see as it was lying down but then the ranger of the park drove close to it and it got to its feet and it was huge! Quite cool! In Tarangire Park, it was smaller and the terrain was different than the Serengeti. It had more bushes and trees which makes it more difficult to see the animals. It is also famous for the large balboa trees. These trees are humongous. This park is also known for the large amount of elephants. And there was certainly tons (no pun intended) of elephants here. They seemed to travel in herds of about 15-20 and they came very close to our vehicle – I got some good video of them too. Pretty spectacular! The view from where we had lunch was magical too. We looked upon a windy river with zebras and elephants drinking from it and crossing the river – incredible!
Rhino
This is a video of elephants crossing by our van. Amazing!
1 comment:
Hi Jill
What an amazing trip....totally fabulous.
Your photos are amazing.
Glad you are safely home though !!!!
Love Helen and Charles
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