Precede:
Ucango travel expert PETER EMERY shares the experience of a safari through Tanzania’s Serengeti.
I’M SITTING in an open four wheel drive vehicle in Tanzania’s Serengeti. Towering storm clouds build over the distant Ngorogoro Crater highlands. Otherwise the sky is blue, apart from a few streaks of high level cirrus clouds.
The endless plain around me is emerald green from recent rain. I’m surrounded by rivulets of softly grunting wildebeest and silent zebras making their way at a leisurely pace in the direction of the thunderclouds, to where instinct tells them the best grazing will be.
This is the advance party of two million or more animals who follow the rains on their annual migration.
In January they can be found in the south of the Serengeti where they drop their calves. By August they have travelled north across great rivers to Kenya’s Masai Mara, braving huge crocodiles whose instincts tell them to gather at certain spots at that time of the year.
Here, safely and comfortably sat in my vehicle, I can see a pride of lions sleeping in the shade of a flat-topped acacia tree.
Their stomachs are full, their cubs fat. I’m surprised to find tears rolling down my cheeks. This ancient ritual is unbelievably moving. Please don’t miss it. Call me, Peter Emery at Ucango on Safari on 0449 689 447 to arrange your East African safari.
