Zebra Crossing...

The Safari Posse (Georgio Armani on the roof and Davies in Mustard Shirt at  the back)

First spotting on Safari - just before we reached the Ngorongoro conservation area

A Baboon Proon...

One of the Masaai camps in the Ngorongoro conservation area

PHOTO OF ZEBRA’s CROSSING

The eagerly awaited second weekend finally arrived and was set to be a corker – we were going on Safari! The usual Thursday night BBQ was tremendous but our  6.30 collection from the house was the real topic of conversation, and not much sleep was had that night.

PHOTO OF DAVIES COLLECTION

Davies rocked up in the Safari jeep the next morning and the adventure began. The drive out to the Serengeti took us through the Ngorongoro conservation area, which is peppered with masai tribal villages throughout.

PHOTO of MASAI VILLAGE

The anticipation of spotting the first animals almost pipped the excitement of the real sighting. With donkeys leading the way, and the cheeky baboons at the gate to the Ngorongoro conservation area, the animal count soon began to count up.

I feel  that the pictures from safari  tell a thousands stories that my words just can’t do justice, so here’s a few sights form the first day...

PICTURES

If you look carefully you will see the lion resting on this rock.

The vultures resting in the nearby tree gave these lions away, resting after a recent kill.

The most amazing sight on this first day, was the zebra crossing.  A wee bit different to the one in Newton Stewart, this sight was amazing, we timed it beautifully for the beginning of the mass migration, the zebra and wildebeest in their thousands crossing the Serengeti plains. It was truly awesome, and I don’t feel that these photographs truly do justice for the sheer volume of animals which stretched as far as the horizon.

This first day was wrapped up with a sighting of a sleeping leopard, lazing in a sausage tree. He was a little further away than we would have wished, but no less awesome. Apparently aware of his audience, he struck a pose which delighted everyone.

On the way to the campsite, we crossed a swamp and right in the middle was a bathing hippo. It was a great sight, but trumped only by her friend who appeared from behind a tree in the distance. The approaching hippo caused great hilarity with her apparent embarrassment as she skipped from the cover of one bush to the next until she finally belly flopped into the swamp with her friends!

Our Serengeti Campsite

The race was then on to reach the campsite and pitch the tents before the sun dipped too low in the sky. I was genuinely a little alarmed to see there was no fence, or wall or anything really between the pitched tents and the wild plains of the Serengeti.

Sunset on the Serengeti

The lesson in tent pitching was quick and adequate, and the tents were up and bedding rolls laid in time to watch the sun go down on a fantastic day. That night a delicious meal was served by Georgio Armani, our personal chef, and our dreams were full of the adventures we hoped to have the next day.