Northern Tanzania in photos
We call it Tan-Zan-ee-ah, but the locals call it tan-ZAY-nee-ah. Either way it's a beautiful country that I would love to see more of. What follows are some pictures from the Serengeti and the area around the northern border of the country
One of the dangers of driving in Africa is the abundance of wildlife that can pop out in front of you: a troop of baboons, a giant lizard, elephants... All of these have happened to me in the last few months. Here, above, 5 elephants marched out in front of our range rover near Ngorongoro, Tanzania. I had the same thing happen to me in Botswana about a year ago.
This is the top of Kilimanjero peering over the clouds. We never did see the base of the mountain, it was hidden. Still, many people never even get to see the top. It is huge and impressive - possibly the picture doesn't do it justice. However, I learned that inspite of Toto's lyrics, it does not rise like an empress over the Serengeti. You can't see Kili from the Serengeti and vice-versa.
A hundred kilometers and two mountain ranges east of Kilimanjero, this is the entrance gate to the Serengeti National Park. As you can see, the gate is rather symbolic, as there's no fence, and the plain itself continues for a ways all around the gate.
The black and white ostriches are the males. females are tan in colour, and the babies, well there's just lots of them.
I've grown to hate and fear baboons. There's just something primally evil about them.
This is one of my favourite pictures although you might have a hard time deciphering it. The third bump from the left is a cheetah standing on a termite mound. All the others are prey (3 gazelles and 3 zebra) watching it attentively.
This cheetah was really close to the road and was lying down when we arrived. Shortly afterwards, she got up, sniffed around then charges at a hidden antelope.
Here's the same cheetah running. You can't see the antelope, but it made a circle around the giraffe. When the cheetah saw the giraffe, she stopped running and moved off. Apparenlty cheetahs are afraid of giraffes.
Our campground near Ngorongoro was invaded in the day by elephants looking for water and at night by grazing buffalo. If you've never been woken up by the snorts of a wild buffalo munching grass near your head, well... it was a little scary - they're vicious towards people.
These two lionesses were sound asleep and couldn't care less that we were just feet away from them (They're on a hill, we're all standing out of open-top vehicles like human wack-a-moles).
Sunset on the Serengeti.
