Blog

January 5th – 8th, 2022

Here we go, into the Serengeti. Everyone has heard of it and probably seen television documentaries about it. To be able to drive our own vehicle into this unique place is really special and something we were really looking forward to, though we’d done this once before in 2018.

The Serengeti National Park is part of the Serengeti ecosystem. The park itself is humongous, at 14,700 sq km, or 5700 sq mi. The entire ecosystem is over 30,000 sq km, or 12,000 sq mi., which includes numerous smaller reserves and wilderness management areas and the adjacent Masai Mara in Kenya. 

The entire ecosystem is unfenced, home to over a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of zebra and countless other plains game, elephants, hippos, birds, reptiles and of course the accompanying predators. The banner attraction at the Serengeti is the wildebeest migration. Really, the migration is always happening, a roughly circular route from the southern short grass plains of the Serengeti, where calving happens in about February, to the classic river crossing migration action in the Masai Mara in September-ish. But a million wildebeest don’t just disappear, so you can visit the Serengeti any time of year and see an incredible density of animals.  

Finally we set out for this star attraction of Tanzania, making an early start from Migobani camp. The road immediately begins to climb the mountains that flank the eastern boundary of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), which we must cross before entering the Serengeti. Winding switchbacks on a good road lead us up into lush countryside, working us up towards the the rim of Ngorongoro Crater.

Across the Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Not long into the hills we arrived at Karatu, last town and fuel stop before the parks. After fueling it’s a short drive to the gate of the NCA. At the kiosk was a ranger checking everyone’s entrance papers. All of the safari guides already had permits in hand and just had to get them checked, but we needed to get a permit from scratch. 

About twenty minutes later, and lighter by quite a sum of money, we had our permit for the NCA. I could go on for some time about the permits and fees, but I will spare you, other than to say that these parks are very expensive and the permit process is not particularly fast. The inefficiencies in the park fees and bookings are quite frustrating and at any lesser wildlife destination would detract from the experience. However the Serengeti always delivers on wildlife, or at least has for us, thus they can get away with this ridiculousness. Details of the park permits and fees in the Nitty Gritty section. 

The only other way into the Serengeti from the east is through the Lake Natron area (aka Loliondo Wilderness Management Area), where we planned our exit from the Serengeti. With our original plan of meeting friends for this part of the trip, we had been excited to “guide” our friends to Ngorongoro and see the crater. Since they weren’t able to come, and because we’ve been to the crater before, we decided to save some money and just transit across the NCA. This meant we had to drive all the way through to our Serengeti camp in one day.

To do that we had to transit the notorious Serengeti road, famous for having horrific corrugations, where no combination of speed or tire pressure spares the vehicle or its occupants. Toyota Arusha says that suspension component lifespan is halved on vehicles that drive this road regularly compared to normal off-road use. Last time we drove it the vibration was so bad that the insulation on some of our wiring in the engine bay chafed through and the Land Cruiser actually caught fire (just a little). I was dreading driving this road again, so we schemed up an alternate plan. 

On the map, both T4A and the very good paper GT map, was a spur that went off to the west from the crater rim and then north to the Ndutu area of the Serengeti. It was marked “bad road” and “dry season only”, but we thought we’d give it a shot. 

We stopped at the viewpoint on the crater rim and were greeted to a wonderful view of the crater. After that we took our left turn onto the alternate route. I’d never heard of someone taking this road. Hopefully there wasn’t a good reason for that.

Almost immediately things changed. The road is narrower and smoother. Maasai villages dot the hill side, and Maasai clothed in traditional karosses greet us with a casual wave, but not the cupped hand of begging that we’d seen on the main road. There are scrubby trees here and there, but mostly it is rolling grassland. It’s over 2000m elevation here and in the morning’s cool climes I can almost imagine that I am in the Scottish moors. 

So far this new route was fantastic; we were loving the scenery and the smooth road. In the villages we saw none of the signs advertising mobile phone service or Coke-a-Cola as you do everywhere else in Tanzania. Just cows, goats, round huts with grass roofs, and Maasai in traditional dress. Always they had a herding stick, a dagger and some even with bows and arrows. 

Just before the village of Endulen is where things got interesting. It was here that we had to turn off this “main” road and onto a small track leading to Ndutu. This was the road marked “bad road”, “4×4 only”, “dry season only.” We bumped along a mostly good road, seeing goats and cows and always not far away someone tending the herd. In some of the thicker bush we spotted giraffe and zebra and thought how fantastic to see this coexistence of wildlife and animal husbandry, the hallmark of the Maasai. And this was real life, not some cultural ‘living museum’.

In a couple of places the road did not match the map, but we zigged and zagged around deeply rutted mud and found our way to good track that was headed more or less the right direction. This took a little faith, blindly forging ahead into the white space on the GPS, but after a bit we rejoined the line and the GPS quit griping at us. (Note: T4A bested OSM and maps.me in this area by quite a margin).

We saw more zebra grazing on hillsides of bright green grass and cattle not far away, cow bells clanking. Sometimes children, always on herd duty, would run over to us, and a few held out their hands to ask for something, but most just gave us a smile and a wave.

We reassuringly saw one safari vehicle coming from the other direction, making us more confident that the road did in fact go through. The road kept dropping down in elevation, and the land became more parched. We noticed fewer cattle and more goats, presumably hardier stock in this dryer area. The huts we were seeing also looked a little shabbier and less permanent. We guessed that these were temporary shelters built for the herders, where what we were seeing before were permanent villages and family compounds. 

Somewhere along we lost the road, or at least the road on the map. The track ahead was clear, but was is going where we wanted to go? This is where the paper map saved us. A little blue line and few dots indicated there was another riverbed west of here, and we noted that most of the roads seem to parallel the riverbeds. We decided to continue west, the wrong direction, until we crossed that river. If then the road didn’t turn north towards Ndutu, we’d have to turn back.

We were saved though. The tracked crept around to the north, and in not too long we found ourselves in the maze of game viewing tracks around the Lake Ndutu area. Our gamble had paid off, we had skipped at least part of the dreaded Serengeti road and seen some proper Maasai land while we were at it. This made the sting of the NCA fees much easier to bare. The morning’s exploration and scenery had been really spectacular.

Into the Serengeti

Here we found the pleasant surprise of the Ndutu gate to the Serengeti, not marked on any map we had. This meant we could check in to the Serengeti here and not at the busy Naabi Hill Gate. Now we could also get our long awaited special Campsite assignments that we had not really been able to secure previously.

The ranger manning the gate was extremely helpful. Requesting special campsites at the gate is unusual, but with a short explanation, he embraced our situation. He called his supervisor at Naabi Hill, and after some discussion we were assigned Mbweha (Ndutu Area), Sero 11, Kogatende 6 and Lobo No. 1. This would have us moving every night, something we generally avoid doing, but we were keen to see all these various parts of the park, so we accepted. Also even with the low tourist numbers in the park, choice for special campsites was fairly limited. Finishing at Lobo would give us easy access to Klein’s gate in the northeast, allowing us to head to Lake Natron when we exited. 

There was some rumor that the migration was already in the Ndutu area, and so the Mbweha special campsite would be ideally located for that. On our maps it did not look like there was much for game viewing tracks on the Serengeti side of the lake, but we found quite a few more tracks than indicated.

Mbweha campsite was only vaguely indicated on our paper map and not at all on the GPS.

We had been assured there was a sign, but to our chagrin the sign misdirected us to a different and fully-populated tented camp. In all our searching around for our campsite, we saw hardly any wildlife. A few of the largest antelope, eland, running away, and a couple wildebeest.

For the first night the ranger had also given us a choice of Sero 11 and 4 in the central part of the park. Since we knew roughly where this was, and because there didn’t seem to be much wildlife at Ndutu, we decided to head for them. We’d stay at Sero 11 for two nights and not have to move around so much. On our way we transited the short grass plains southwest of Naabi Hill and really began to feel like we were in the Serengeti. 

Wide open plains with nary a shrub or tree about, just short grass and unimpeded views. And on those plains, animals. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of antelope. There were dispersed herds of Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles, the first we’d seen of the trip. Also warthogs, the occasional impala and some wildebeest. Secretary birds and bustards paced the grasslands while kites soared overhead hunting for prey. This was the Serengeti, an incredible landscape capable of supporting millions of animals. What a pleasure to be back.

Eventually the road funneled us to the Naabi Hill Gate. We checked in with the rangers and got our plan to go to Sero 11 today approved, as well as checking out of the NCA. He indicated that Sero 11 was near Sero 4 and there was a sign. This was a relief, as last time around we’d wasted a lot of time searching for Sero 4, the sign hidden in tall grass. 

We hoped to continue our cleverness avoiding the main road and its corrugations by taking the road to Gol Kopjes and then game viewing tracks north to the Seronera area. Sadly this was not to be. We’d been told the road was open, but upon probing various grassy overgrown tracks, we could not find it. With time running short, we decided to bite the bullet on at least part of the main road. Jenny was at the helm as I didn’t have the stomach for this.

Fortunately we found the initial stretch to be at least tolerable, if in a fairly unpleasant way. Perhaps I had built it up in my head so much that the expectation exceeded the reality. Or maybe the road was in a little better shape, as they do grade it from time to time. Or maybe our new suspension was doing its work better than the stock suspension. 

Technical tagent on suspension: A while back we had bit the bullet and upgraded to aftermarket suspension, better equipped to handle a fully loaded vehicle. This was against our previous doctrine of sticking with everything stock, so that it could be repaired with the standard Toyota parts widely available throughout Africa. The problem is the stock suspension is not designed to handle a fully loaded (perhaps overloaded?) vehicle 100% of the time, for thousands of kilometers. We would hit the bump stops, we found the steering to feel light on the front end, and the Cruiser sagged at the back. The only options had been to go on a dramatic weight saving spree, trimming down to the bare minimum, or to upgrade. We went with the upgrade, to Old Man Emu suspension. 

The vehicle definitely handles better, particularly at speed. We think this is safer, as when heavily loaded on stock suspension I think the Cruiser was in danger of a roll over if you swerved to avoid something while moving fast, fast being a relative term with the 1HZ engine. Corrugations also feel better now. The modest lift, under 2”, raise the vitals a bit further from rocky hazards, which came in useful on places like Van Zy’s Pass and the 05 road. Also there was the kitchen. Jenny is somewhat vertically challenged she did not appreciate the unforeseen consequence of raising the kitchen and fridge those 2”, making it harder to reach inside.

The big question of course is what will we do if we have a failure? In spite of what OME will say OME parts are not easily available in East Africa,. Ironman parts are carried by Toyota in Tanzania, and are roughly equivalent. If we have a shock failure I think we’ll try to procure some Ironman parts, which will likely have to be couriered from Dar es Salaam. Alternatively stock Toyota shocks can be fitted, but because of the lift they will not last. But they’ll get us by in a pinch. Though not ideal, leaf springs can sometimes be welded depending on where they are in the pack. Or even an individual leaf can be jettisoned entirely, on both sides to match, if needed. Springs can be welded for a temporary repair while new springs are shipped, though I loath to thing how much it will cost. All imperfect solutions to say the least.

Whatever the reason that the road was not so bad, we didn’t have to suffer it too long. We found a game viewing track diving off to the east and we took it. This made for a pleasant game drive on the way up to Seronera. We saw a wonderful herd of elephant in perfect afternoon light, and a few larger herds of wildebeest, we assumed harbingers of the greater migration. Also we saw other animals of the plains, the gazelles, impalas and even cheetah, what a great welcome. Near the airstrip we saw a serval dive into the grass.

In echos of our last visit, we were unable to find Sero 11. We’d been assured there was a sign just after Sero 4, but we couldn’t find it. This was a little annoying, but not altogether unexpected. We knew Sero 4 was not booked for this night, so we just made for that instead. 

Finally we rolled into Sero 4 special campsite. As we had been to this site before it felt comfortable, a small homecoming. After the very long day on the road and we were happy to be in this wilderness camp. Unfenced and undeveloped, it was just a piece of Africa and an acacia tree. All the figuring out of campsites and the suspense of searching for roads that might not exist had been a bit exhausting. But because it had worked out it also brought a nice sense of accomplishment for both of us. The novel sights of Maasai land and the lesser known vistas of the NCA, followed by the wonderful wildlife on the southern Serengeti plains made the many hours in the car fade away.

In the approaching dusk we made a fire near a flat top acacia tree. Gazing out onto long yellow grass and rolling hills we heard the familiar whoop of hyenas. Scanning with our big flashlight we saw a hyena circling camp. No doubt they are familiar that humans mean potential food, but he stayed clear. At least as far as we know, perhaps after we went to bed he quietly came in for a camp inspection. We always pack absolutely everything away when we’re camping in parks, as hyenas are known to carry off the most unexpected souvenirs.

A friend’s family lost their grandmothers heirloom potjie. A potjie is a South African sort of three legged cauldron for cooking over the fire. They are cast iron and heavy, yet the hyenas made off with it and it was never seen again. I have also heard stories of camp chairs being taken.

We heard hyenas throughout the night, and distant lions. The early morning brought a chorus of weavers, who’s nests adorned the nearby acacia tree. We planned to make the most of our time in the Serengeti and were up at dawn for a big day of game viewing.

This meant we were back in our game viewing routine. Alarm set for 30 minutes before we’re allowed to leave camp. In most parks that is 0600. After the alarm goes off I get up and start the stove to boil water. Jenny follows a few minutes later, she embraces the early morning drives in theory, but in practice she is not a morning person and takes a minute to gain momentum. We brush our teeth as the kettle boils and then make coffee and tea. 

I pack away the tent, which only takes literally about a minute. The hard clamshell type tent sets up and packs with very little effort, and with all our bedding inside. This single feature is critical for us, to make these repeated early mornings and late arrivals to camp much more feasible. Jenny puts away the stove and gets some fruit or something from the back to put in the cab for a breakfast snack. The routine takes about 30 minutes and then we’re off. I always drive the first hitch. I love these early morning hours, the cool air, the pink glow of dawn, and the anticipation of what we might see, or not see, that day.

In the cool mornings we start with windows down and fresh air. We always hold out as long as possible to roll up the windows and turn on the a/c. It feels a bit insulated from the environment when we finally cave, but then sometimes we see others in open vehicles suffering the bite of tsetse flies or dust inundation, and then we feel pretty good about our a/c program. On our last visit to the Serengeti our a/c was broken, so it was open window safari all the time, which other than one or two tsetse fly invasions was not bad at all. Except the dust on the inside of the car was so thick I could feel it in my teeth. 

We had spotted a couple hyenas and their pups dive into their den yesterday evening, we thought we’d start by revisiting the site and see if they were about. They were, and we had a wonderful 20 or 30 minutes watching four hyena pups cavorting around in the dawn light. 

Previously we’d had excellent sightings in the kopjes southeast of Seronera, so we decided to make a tour of all those photogenic rocky outcroppings to see if we’d luck out again. We usually mark predator sightings on our GPS, and we could still see the sightings from our last visit, “23 lions” at one waypoint. Would they be there again? 

We were also on the lookout for the migration. It’s hard to believe, but it was not clear where those million plus wildebeest were. We asked several guides and rangers and received different noncommittal or unconvincing answers from each. “They’re at Ndutu.” We knew that wasn’t true, we’d been there. “They’re near Seronera.” Also suspect, as we’d camped in the area and driven around a bit the day before. We’d seen some herds, but certainly not the bulk of wildebeest. We kept looking.

Our tour of the kopjes was very pleasant. The roads were mostly in good condition and the two spoor tracks lead invitingly into the plains, with the rocky outcroppings lit up in the morning light and green grass swaying in the breeze. The herd of elephants we saw the day before hadn’t moved much, happily munching on grass near a small river channel. We saw more wildebeest, zebras, gazelles of both varieties but mostly Thomson’s. We also found two cheetah pacing determinedly through the tall grass. Taking a long loop around we tried to see if we could get ahead of them, but they disappeared. 

No lions though. We’d seen dozens of lions in this area previously, posing picturesquely on outcroppings of granite boulders, but this time all was quiet. A couple other tourist vehicles were also scouting the kopjes and coming up with nothing, at least it wasn’t just us. 

The morning wore on and we resolved to head back to central Seronera. Our plan was to stop at the visitor center, a modest affair, to ask where Sero 11 Special Campsite was, where we’d stay this night.

When we pulled up we noticed there was a huge cage to received plastic bottles. This was a welcome sight, as the Serengeti has a “pack in – pack out” garbage policy, but since the tour operators provide their guests with an endless supply of bottled water in small bottles it must have become a problem. It is also a problem for us. We were very carefully separating all our trash. We keep burnables separate, to burn in the fire at night, but only if it will completely combust. No egg shells or aluminum cans, for example. We’d also spent time before coming into the park getting rid of as much trash as possible. This meant pre chopping up mangos and pineapples, discarding any packaging, that sort of thing. 

The person manning the visitor center help desk wasn’t entirely confident of Sero 11’s location and checked with someone else. After a short conversation they had in Swahili they came back to me with confident instructions. It was north of Seronera, past Sero 6 (a northerly campsite not in the Seronera area), towards the Ikoma gate. There was a sign. We were glad we asked, we would have never found it, so many kilometers from the other Sero campsites. As it happened they were also totally wrong, but I’m getting ahead of myself. 

That task done, or so we thought, we stopped by one of the public campsites. This is a strategy of ours, to cheat a little bit with our wilderness camping. In the heat of the midday we stop at one of the public campsites to do the dishes from last night and take showers. This saves us some of our precious water, allows us to use a proper toilet and not have to do dishes in the dark. We stopped at the closest public campsite, Dik Dik, which was totally empty.

The ablutions were simple but clean, with cold showers. Dishes and bodies cleaned, we set forth again. This afternoon we decided to focus on the area southwest of Seronera, as tomorrow we’d head to the north of the park. We ambled along the Seronera river for a bit, the bank flanked by yellow fever trees, and saw hippos and a large monitor lizard as well as many birds.

After departing from the river we got a tip from one of the guides on some lions in trees. His directions were perfect, and in a sausage tree we found two female lionesses dozing contentedly, legs and tails dangling. They didn’t look like they were going to move any time soon, so we left them in peace. 

As we got close to the picnic area southwest of Seronera it seemed we’d found the herds. The grass was very green here and the wildebeest had homed in on the fresh green shoots. Thousands of wildebeest were dispersed all around the hill that forms the picnic area. We parked, along with many other tourist vehicles, and had a nice late lunch viewing the herds grazing below us. Visibility was excellent and with binoculars we could see herds kilometers away. 

In the heat of midday they were fairly sedate, we could hear the characteristic honk and grunt of wildebeest as they slowly grazed or rested in the shade of the few trees around. 

We decided on a loop south through the thickest part of the herd, giving ourselves until three o’clock before it was time to head north to our camp. Not far along we found four lions resting in the shade of a scrubby little tree, but they must have fed recently, with all these wildebeest around they were not interested in all, sleeping off their last meal I suppose. 

Thick herds of wildebeest and zebra grazed on the plains and we were lucky that our road wound through them. They could have easily been a few kilometers west of here where there were no roads. They viewed the car with ambivalence, hauling themselves out of the middle of the road when needed, but otherwise grazing and milling around. Over the next weeks they’d work their way down to the Lake Ndutu area for calving season. Zebras calf earlier than wildebeest and we saw many zebra foals a month or two old, lanky with knobby knees, sticking close to their mothers.

By three o’clock it was time to head north and find our site. We still had a few hours and could game view on the way. We saw the sign for Sero 6 and took an exploratory loop to inspect it, just to see how good a site it is. Not bad, set near the bank of a river with fever trees and palms to the south and plains to the north, though there are enough trees that there is not a vista per se. There were some tsetse flies here, and the camp looked like it had not been used in quite a while.

We moved onward, seeing the signs for Sero 7, Sero 9, and some other special campsites. This seemed promising. We knew that Sero 8 and 10 were, counterintuitively, back towards the central part of Seronera, as we’d seen the sign yesterday. So presumably 11 was coming up here soon. 

On our way we found a lioness and three active cubs. They were resting in distant grass, but after about 15 minutes the cubs obligingly came right near the roadside and wrestled and stalked each other. One was very young and the whole thing was adorable. Time ticked later and we had to tear ourselves away to look for camp.

More game viewing, we saw another solitary lioness in a field, with some grazers keeping respectful distance from her as she slept. Also we saw two blacked back jackals. We think these are very charismatic and they’re less common up here than they are in Southern Africa, so that was a nice treat. 

The lack of any sign of our campsite was getting concerning and we were both getting stressed out. Jenny has a cooler head for this sort of thing, where I get totally annoyed and worried that we’ll be out past the seven PM curfew. It seems a desperate search for a campsite is part of the the Serengeti experience for us, but not one I appreciate. 

It became more and more clear that the campsite wasn’t up here, or wasn’t sign posted. We were fairly close to Ikoma gate by now, so we headed there to ask if a ranger could show us the camp. The hour was late now,it was clear that we’d be arriving late to camp unless it was very close to here. Unlikely.

The rangers at the gate were really friendly, but the first couple I talked to were not familiar with Sero 11. They went over to a couple others who seemed to be the bosses, and they also did not know where Sero 11 was. They advised me to go to the visitor center and ask, and I responded that we’d done that and been clearly told it was past Sero 6, on the road towards Ikoma gate. This sent them into a hubbub of Swahili with smatterings of English. I could tell the gist of things, that one guy saying we should just go to a public campsite, but I was thankful to another who advocated that if we’d paid for a special campsite we should get it. 

Finally they called someone back in Seronera who said we needed to come all the way back to Seronera and he’d send someone to escort us to the proper site. This was exasperating, but also inevitable. It also meant we’d be driving past the seven o’clock curfew. I discussed this point with the rangers and they assured us that it was no problem, that they’d even send an escort vehicle if we were not comfortable. We were fine, I just didn’t want to get in trouble for being out after hours. We received more assurances that this was no issue. 

Off we went, back to Seronera. The park was beautiful in the dusky light, but the GPS said we wouldn’t get to Seronera until almost eight o’clock. And then who knew how long it would take to meet our escort and get to our campsite? We met a few other vehicles on the road after hours, work vehicles going one way or another, and none gave us a second glance. 

Upon arriving at Seronera we called the phone number we’d been given. There is middling mobile coverage in the Seronera area. Note this is yet another circumstance where having a SIM for your phone is much more efficient than arranging some rendezvous, even though using a cell phone in the Serengeti just seems wrong.

In not too long a vehicle arrived to lead us to our camp. Now we were extremely curious to see if we’d somehow missed an obvious sign, or misread the map or who knows what. They lead us in the vicinity of the other Sero special campsites, then down a road towards Turner Springs, and finally to a turnoff that was labeled “Sero Extra Special Campsite No. 1” Not eleven. We bumped down this track for a bit and there was another sign, “Sero Extra Special Campsite”, no number.

Tucked in among some flat top acacias, we couldn’t see much else in the dark, but it seemed nice. And the whole exercise hadn’t taken as long as I thought. It was no where near where we’d been directed previously, so we felt somewhat vindicated that at least we hadn’t made some obvious blunder. Our biggest mistake being that we didn’t confirm our camp location midday as originally planned. The instructions had seemed so clear! So confident! 

We had a simple dinner of cheese and crackers and made fire while we unwound from the day. A silver lining was that if we had not been misdirected towards Ikoma gate we wouldn’t have seen those adorable lions cubs playing right next to the road.

Hyenas whooped and called all night long and we slept well. When we woke in the morning we saw a hyena parade heading up the track near camp. Four or five hyenas walking down the road, spaced about 50m apart, headed off on their morning’s business.

Today we were theoretically headed to Kogatende, quite a distance north, so we needed to get going. We made a quick check on our hyena pups and decided we should probably top up on fuel before heading north. There is a modest fuel station in Seronera, dispensing fuel of suspect quality. We had planned to avoid it, but since we’d been doing a lot of game driving and extra driving out to Ikoma gate and back, it seemed wise to top up before going to the north of the park and eventually Lake Natron. We still had some 500km to go until the next reliable fuel, and even with the fuel in the jerry cans it was going to be tight. 

Unfortunately they were out of fuel at Seronera and at the research station pump. Lesson learned, do not put these things off to the last minute. “Maybe tomorrow” we were told. We had enough fuel to make it, the question was how much was left over for game drives. With some back of the envelope calculations, not much. There was nothing to be done but to get on with it.

Normally when we’re on dirt we drive in 4×4, which costs us a little extra fuel. I switched to two wheel drive and unlocked the hubs. Every little bit might count. Our normal plan of 4×4 on dirt might seem excessive. Many of the roads being in plenty good enough shape to manage in two wheel drive just fine. But there are a few important reasons for staying in 4×4. A big one is it gives you more control on the loose gravel should you need to swerve around an unexpected animal, not unlikely in a wildlife park. Second, is it is easier on the roads and we’re told reduces how fast the roads become corrugated. I suspect we are one of the few that drive in 4×4, so I’m not sure how much our small effort helps, but I don’t like the corrugations on the main roads so we do our part. Last, is that being in 4×4 keeps the road in better shape for those behind you in soft spots, the deep sand and mud. We often see holes dug by wheel spin, where if they’d been in 4×4 there would not be damage to the track.

Heading out of Seronera we immediately saw a large pride of lions. They headed off into the bushes and we moved on. Further along, two more lions by the road. There are a lot of lions here. The road is in good shape and we saw less and less vehicles as we moved north. This is because the migration, thus most of the safari effort, is south from here. But we kept seeing a lot of animals. We kept asking ourselves if the migration actually was in the south, as it was supposed to be.

The landscape in this part of the park is much more rolling hills dotted with many more trees than further south. The grass was very green and animal density seemed pretty good. We kept going by medium sized herds of zebras, wildebeest and some buffalo. This also came with the occasional group of impala, giraffe and ever present warthogs. Gazelles were also present, though not in high numbers, they seem to favor the open savannah.

Through the day as we continued north this animal density ebbed and flowed but did not disappear. In the Tabora plains we saw large herds, and were treated to three cheetahs. And another pride of 10 more lions, bringing our count for just today to an astounding 33 lions. It was quite a day for game viewing considering we were “just transiting”. 

We finally arrived at Lobo and found it very scenic. The grass was as green and healthy as a golf course and animals abounded. We saw the prints of a huge lion in the track leading toward Lobo Hill, and lots and lots of zebras and wildebeest. Many of the zebras had calfs, and some of the wildebeest. We speculated that perhaps the animals that had calfs did not move south as fast as the rest of the herd. I do not know if this fracturing of the herd is normal, or a response to the seasonal variations of the rains.

Also we realized we had bit off more than we could chew. Kogatende was still a good ways from here and we had signed ourselves up for way too much back and forth driving. We checked in with the rangers at Lobo and they gave us their blessing to spend two nights here and forego our original booking. It seemed there were no bookings at the Lobo camps now, so there was no double booking concern. He also introduced us to his two little girls who were visiting him while on school holidays. I’m sure the rangers spend a lot of time away from their families, how fantastic for his daughters to spend some time with their father in this unique wilderness.

This allowed us time to make a few leisurely circuits in the Lobo area. Also, we stopped by the Lobo public campsite to take showers and do our dishes. The ablutions looked pretty new, and other than the common affliction of broken toilet seats, were very tidy, clean and functional. 

We settled into Lobo No. 2 for the night, it having a better view than No. 1. The public campsite, a lodge and the ranger post are sited on the Lobo hills, a ridge of large kopjes joined together on a north-south axis. We had a westward view of these attractive hills from our camp and could view large herds of mostly wildebeest and some zebras grazing across it’s verdant green slopes. 

Towards the end of the day we were inundated with flies. They didn’t seem to be biting, but there were hordes of them and it was not pleasant. Fortunately at sunset they abated, and we enjoyed a nice evening around the fire. Some elephants had obligingly knocked over some trees in the vicinity at some point in the past, so I’d been able to collect a couple pieces of firewood to augment our dwindling supply. 

That night the wind picked up and buffeted the tent most of the night. A benefit of the roof top tent is it is up high, catching the cooling breeze for those hot African nights. A fault of the roof top tent is it is up high, catching the full brunt of the wind if it is strong. The clamshell tent does well if parked into the wind, but on this particular night we were the wrong way around and we listened to the canvas of the tent shudder in the wind all night.

Still it was much better than our old tent, which had many windows and openings, with two zippers for each flap and screen. When the wind blew each of the zippers jingled about, the totality of which made it feel like you were sleeping inside a tambourine. 

The next day was spent game driving in the Lobo area. About a kilometer from camp we saw a kill that must have happened in the night, as the carcass was not there yesterday. Vultures ringed the body that was being defended and gnawed on by a hyena. The flesh was already quite consumed, it made us think that the process from kill to bare bones might be much faster than we previously imagined. 

The significant herds of wildebeest and zebras persisted, and were complimented now by herds of hundreds of buffalo. The sheer amount of biomass is hugely impressive. We also saw very large groups of eland, the largest antelope. Our experience in southern Africa is that eland are more elusive and not seen in more than a few, but here we were seeing dozens together. 

We attempted the Grumeti River game drive circuit but found that part way through the track faded into the bush and we could not find it. The part of the circuit we were able to complete was excellent, and we saw seven more lions dozing in the shade on the riverbank. Further north beyond the Grumeti was much drier and game numbers were few. The stark change from green hills full of life to parched yellow grass was surprising, the rains must have been very localized. 

Somewhere along the Grumeti we found a river crossing and a nice shade tree along the bank. Park rules allow getting out of your car more than 200m from animals, and we took advantage of this autonomy to have a leisurely lunch and lounge about.

Our second night at Lobo No. 2 was very nice. We had wised up and parked into the wind, and the flies were less abundant today. Herds of zebra and wildebeest grazed fairly near camp, but detecting our presence gave us a wide berth. Tomorrow we’d head out of the park for Lake Natron.

One of our lasting impressions of the Serengeti is just how enormous it is. Particularly when we we drove up to the Lobo area, it is just miles and miles of wilderness. We saw a few other vehicles in hours and hours of driving, and a couple camps dot the map but are inconspicuously hidden away in the trees. Once we absorbed a bit of the enormousness it made me appreciate a bit the park fees. No tax dollars are going to sustain these wilderness areas like national parks get back home. They must be self sufficient on ticket sales and grant money. That these developing nations have set aside these enormous tracks of land is remarkable.

Nitty Gritty

Arusha Notes

The western side of Arusha is very busy and takes a while to slog through traffic. There is a new bypass road, from the T2 to the T5. If you are heading into or out of town it’s faster to take this bypass route via the T2, and much more pleasant driving.

Restaurants and Shopping: 

We didn’t manage to eat there but we heard the Blue Heron is really nice. They have moved locations to the western side of town. We highly recommend George’s Tavern, which we really like a lot. Greek food with pizza and a few other odds and ends, a nice outdoor garden setting and very cold beer. Complete with cantankerous but charming Greek owner.

We tried Shopper’s, which we found not nearly as nice as the one in Dar es Salaam. It certainly can do the job, but is also busy and fairly expensive. In light of covid we avoided the very busy vegetable market across from the Shopper’s, but certainly it has all the fresh food you’d need in one place and I’m sure is cheap. 

We found the Glenfarm market near the Puma stationand Food Lovers west of town (near where the bypass ties into the T5) to be a good shopping combination. They are right next to each other. The Food Lover’s is not to the standard of one in South Africa, but is still pretty good.

The popular butcher, Meat King, has moved to 881 Nelson Mandela Rd (aka Old Moshi Road).

Rotterdam Market near Usa River is small but very well stocked.

Park Fees

Serengeti Park Fees are here: https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/publications/en-1615966435-NEWTARIFF.pdf

NCA Fees are here: https://www.ncaa.go.tz/pages/education-fees

Fees are broken down into per person entry, per person camping and a vehicle fee. We were undercharged for our vehicle fee in the Serengeti, but this was just luck. I gather it is more and more common for them to ask to see your registration to get the official tare weight. This happened to us for the NCA and we were charged the full $150/day for the vehicle. 

For the NCA note there is also a crater entrance fee if you go into the crater. On top of all of this there is an astounding 18% VAT, implemented in 2016. The sum of this is it is quite expensive to visit these parks. For us this totaled to over $300/day to be in the park, and it could have easily been more if we had been charged the full vehicle fee.

At one level this seems outrageous. You can visit parks with similar wildlife in Zambia, Botswana and Namibia all for less money. On the other hand I suspect many families spend similar amounts of money, or more, on far less interesting vacations to Hawaii, go skiing or wherever. The Serengeti and Ngorongoro are truly unique, I think this expense, at least once, is worth it. 

Campsites:

Simba A remains the only public campsite in the NCA. It also remains unappetizing. It is a large lawn with a beautiful tree and a bit of a view of the crater, if it’s clear, which it often is not. Many many mobile safari operators use this campsite and it can be really busy, and the ablutions are not up to the task. If you camp here get in early for your shower and accept that this isn’t going to be the most atmospheric place you stay.

Booking Serengeti Special Campsites – This remains a tough nut to crack. There are no booking agents like those in Botswana, that specialize in navigating the convoluted system of campsite bookings in East Africa. Erika at Twiga Lodge/Shaw Safaris said that the system as designed does not allow her to make bookings for people not using their vehicles, though she is continuing to press for this.

However you can make bookings yourself on the TANAPA portal, but the process is immensely confusing. Private Visitors (that’s us) can register here: https://reservations.tanzaniaparks.go.tz:8090/SelfReg.aspx

The login is here: https://reservations.tanzaniaparks.go.tz:8090/Login.aspx

For reasons that are unclear, not many special campsites are listed in the online system, even though there are dozens more mapped. The only ones available to reserve online are:

Kirawira 2

Kirawira Hills 1

Koga 6

Kusini 2

Lobo 1

Lobo 2

Sero 11

Sero 4

Sorobeya

Woga 7

Woga 9

I asked the park staff at TANAPA headquarters in Arusha about this and they responded that some special campsites are not in use, and others that are booked long term, for more than six weeks, do not show up in the system. That doesn’t quite sound right to me, because how does one book a camp that is currentlybooked for more than six weeks after it is available?

If you manage to make a booking using the online system, a substantial feat I assure you, then you’ll have to figure out how to pay. At this time credit cards are not accepted for payment online. The booking will have a control number, and you can pay this via Mpesa, or at a bank. Show the bank the control number/s, make the payments and they will confirm payment to TANAPA. Payment status would be reflected in the online portal.  

The problem with this is it means you can really only make bookings while you’re in Tanzania, not prior to arrival. I’m not sure this is much better than just doing it at the gate. Also when paying at the bank you have to pay cash. We were told some banks accept credit cards for control number payments, but we tried several and they all said they did not offer that service. It is also difficult to withdraw that amount of cash, depending on your length of stay in the park.

All this means I’m not sure I can add much clarity to the special campsite booking conundrum, but perhaps this will be helpful to someone. 

Serengeti Special Campsites:

Mbweha – signage not correct. There is a sign indicating a turn left towards the lake, and then further on there is a sign indicating Mbweha is further west. The second sign is correct, probably. We didn’t actually go all the way to the site. 

Sero No 4 is correctly mapped on T4A. A nice campsite in open plains east of central Seronera. The only negative is there is occasional noise from the Seronera workshop that is not far away as the crow flies, and we could see some lights of a distant lodge or camp. Still it was a very nice wilderness camping experience. 

Sero 11 is marked on T4A as “Extra Special Campsite”.  This site is set in trees and has no views. It’s also adjacent to a road that is used by the safari operators, though there was only one or two vehicles. 

The Lobo Hill Special Campsite did not appear to be in use, but we could just find it. Lobo 3 SCS was signposted, but the track faded into the bush. I would recommend Lobo No. 2 given a choice in that area. 

The Seronera visitor center has a help desk that has been not that helpful for us in the past. Willing, yes. But not knowledgeable about the campsites. If we go again we’ll ask a ranger to escort us to the correct location midday, so we’re not wasting prime game viewing hours searching for our campsite. 

The visitor center has clean toilets, a small cafe, and happily also plastic recycling. In the staff village there is a very modestly stocked shop. If you go here keep in mind this shop isn’t really for tourists, so no complaining if it doesn’t have what you want. We were able to buy beer in the staff village in 2018. This time around we were properly stocked up and no resupply was required. 

Route into the Serengeti:

Migobani to Ngorongoro Crater Veiwpoint: 48km, 2h 1m, including a fuel stop.

Crater viewpoint to Alternate Route turnoff, 16km, 29m

Migobani to Ndutu Gate, via alternate route (see map): 140km, 6h 33m, including some stopping. Note the blue line is our actual track, the red line our planned track. I don’t know if we missed the turn or if that track no longer exists.