By Anglebert Mrema – A Great Family Safari

My name is Anglebert Pantaleo Mrema, guiding for Africa Dream Safari, and I have just completed my safari with the De Jonge Family from Seattle, USA.  We covered the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara National Park.

We started our trip at the western corridor of the Serengeti for two nights where we visited the Grumeti River and the surrounding plains. It is the beginning of the dry season and in the Serengeti most of the ungulates animals were moving in long lines to the northern part of the Serengeti Ecosystem, which will mark the beginning of the crossing season.

There were still herds of wildebeests and zebras at Kirawira in the West Serengeti and we had great opportunity to see them rushing to the river while huge crocodiles were waiting. We did see two prides of lions at Kirawira and they were very healthy. One of the prides, tried to hunt but one of the unexperienced young males ruined the hunt.

After our two nights at the western corridor of the Serengeti, we moved to the Central Serengeti and spent two nights at Sametu Camp where we had two great sightings. The first was the Mama Leopard with two cubs on a tree and it was very interesting to watch the cubs feeding on a gazelle and later drop the kill from the tree. This was in the Seronera Valley.

At Sametu kopjes we had a great sight of the Sametu pride with a wildebeest kill. There were no signs of gnus at the area and it was probably one of the lost ones. It was nice to see two big males in the area.

Ngorongoro was great in the early hours. We spotted two nocturnal animals (porcupine and white tailed mongoose) and there was also a pride of lions with a buffalo kill with over fifty hyenas waiting to clean the carcass.

We covered a big area of Lake Manyara National Park and the highlight was to see the black mamba blocking the road.

At Crater floor, a big bull elephant.
Hyenas chasing young male lion from the kill at Ngorongoro.
A huge hippo.
Rare Huglins Courser.
Gnus drinking at Grumeti River.
Sametu Pride.
Sametu pride enjoying their meal.
Sametu pride.
Lions at sametu marsh.