Our journey from Maasai Mara to Serengeti National Park was a very long drive, although they are next to each other on the map. We drove through Maasai Mara National Park, exited out another gate, and then drove through numerous villages on bumpy road! Even outside the park, there were giraffes next to the road!
The road was shared with other animals as well……
One of the “bigger” villages that we drove through and got to see their markets.
Once we got to the border, there was a border control building with parking lots on each side of Kenya and Tanzania. We took a bathroom break and the toilets there were all squatting ones and no toilet paper 🙁 Nicolas introduced Emmanuel – our Tanzania guide for the next 3 days. We said goodbye to Nicolas and tipped him $15/person/day. Emmanuel helped with our luggage and walked us to the border control building where we filled out a health form, got our baggage scanned, and then paid our $100 USD Visa fee. Guess what, they do not accept credit cards!!! I asked the tour company prior to the trip and they said they take credit cards. Not only do they not accept credit cards, they also don’t “like” small bills (as in $20 bills); they want $100 bills! I brought extra USD cash just in case but I did not plan for the souvenir that Brian “donated”, the village visit, and the change in drivers for the tips! Luckily, we just have enough to pay the visa fees phew!
Once that was done, we exited out the Tanzania side and met up with Emmanuel to load our luggage to his safari truck; his truck is newer and cleaner, but the seats were not so comfortable. I apologized to Emmanuel that I had spent all the USD so I could only tip him in local currency and if he could stop by an ATM so I could get money. There is an ATM nearby and I filled my purse with a stack of 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings (their biggest denomination was around $4 USD).
We drove through numerous villages as well and based on the look of the huts/houses, Tanzanian villages seemed to be in better shape.
We had a paved road for about a mile or so LOL! In the distance, there’s a gold mine with fences, high security, and a private airstrip!
Back to the rough road urg!
So many bananas!
We left the lodge at around 6:30 AM, crossed the border at around 10:30 AM, and took a lunch break (packed lunch from the lodge) at 1 PM. After another hour, we reached the gate of Serengeti National Park!!! Emmanuel went to do the registration while we took a bathroom break (there were flushing toilets but I forgot if they have toilet paper or not so make sure you pack some with you). There was some delay with the registration because Emmanuel was waiting for the lodge to send him the paperwork and we waited for half an hour. We took some pictures with the sign as we waited.
We finally got the paperwork and proceeded into the park. We saw a herd of wildebeest, older ones that decided to stay and didn’t join the Great Migration.
Giraffes joined the herd.
Smoke filled the air! According to Emmanuel, the lions and prey don’t like tall grasses and to maintain vegetation, the park did controlled burning.
3 giraffes!
They crossed the busy road. Unlike Maasai Mara, the main road through Serengeti National Park is very busy with safari vehicles and also commercial trucks. Thus, it was very dusty, I wish I had read about that before the trip; I would’ve packed more masks!
We got very close to the fire, I wondered how they are able to control the burn with such a large land?
This guy was setting fire :O
The smoke got so bad that we couldn’t even see the road, I had no idea how Emmanuel managed to drive for a few minutes under this condition!
We finally got out of the smoke!
We stopped for a photo of this tree with baboons.
My first impressions of Serengeti were totally different than what I had read about it; it is actually quite hilly and has lots of trees. Maasai Mara, on the other hand, was wide open. They both flipped!!!
Emmanuel is much more knowledgeable and better in communication than Nicolas, he said those are “Dik Dik”, the smallest antelopes.
We spotted a hippo on the other side of the hill and we waited for it to walk down to the river.
Can you spot the tiny animal there?
The funny looking tree.
Emmanuel saw a bunch of safari trucks parked up the road so he asked an incoming driver and they said lions. He drove over and stopped on the road for us to see. We found out that off-road is NOT allowed in most parts of Serengeti National Park!!! No wonder why all the trucks were parked on the road and not right next to the lions! After spending a few days in Maasai Mara where we got extremely close to the animals, watching the animals at a far distance felt unexciting. This photo was captured at my max 200mm zoom…
I forgot the name of those rats, they could eat a snake!
The road and landscape of Seregenti, very different than what I thought!
More hippos:
Eye test – can you spot the crocodiles?
The second time we saw an ostrich:
The funny warthogs:
Awesome looking trees:
AFter 7+ hours on the road, we finally arrived at our lodge: Acacia Central Camp, located inside the park. Our hut was more luxurious, comfortable, and massive! The sitting area inside our hut:
Our comfortable bed:
The bathroom and shower area were clean, had adequate lighting, and had running hot water (earlier reviews said you need to call for hot water to be delivered, they had upgraded since).
My only complaint would be no wifi in the hut, it is only available at the reception/restaurant area. It would be perfect if they upgraded to provide wifi in the hut!!!
The dining room was inside this gigantic hut, the tables were beautifully set, and the best part – it was a buffet!
Their food has varieties and is mostly good, much better than our Kenyan lodge.
We had a long day of travel from one park to another, changing drivers, and border-crossing. Serengeti gave me the impression of Kruger National Park in South Africa where off-road is not allowed but with less tall vegetation. It doesn’t look like the African savanna in my mind with wide-open grasslands, instead, more dense brushes and trees. The roads were busier and thus dusty. Anyways, I was looking forward to the next few days to explore the inner of the park and that might be different (I hope)!
