Jambo Jambo Mama Africa

Mama Africa, the animal playground. Widely known for its vast stretches of land that some of the worlds most loved collection of animals call home. 

The African is continent shrouded in majestic sights, waterfalls with curtains of water stretching further than the eye can see, mountain tops capped in snow stretching upwards from the sun tanned earth at its base, a people with a connection with the land so deeply rooted with tradition and history, they are said to be a direct link to the cradle of life. Whilst the landscapes prove spectacles in their own right, the people and their lives otherworldly, it is the Safari, otherwise the game drive that beckons travellers from near and far. 

As the month-long over land trip across Africa I took with Intrepid began to round out, the pinnacle of this journey was about to roar into action. We were in Tanzania and made our way to the Ngorongoro and Serengetti Reserves, the savannahs and plains of which set the backdrop for one of the worlds most sought for travel experiences. 

In our game drive ready Toyota Landcruisers and like a herd of our own, me and my fellow intrepid fam set ourselves on the wilds of Africa. For the chance to see the big 5 and every other creature we can get our digital lenses on. First the Ngorongoro Crater - the worlds most dangerous petting zoo. We descended down the hilly slopes into the centre of the crater where within its walls it provides a rare micro-chasm of an ecosystem creating a natural reserve where a large cross-section of the African animal species can be found. That is besides the giraffe who seems to have difficulties climbing in and out of the crater walls due to their body type, and with lack of tall forrest like trees to keep them long term residents. But you can still find them in the outer plains. 

A young wildebeest born just minutes before is already standing. There is no time to wait, as predators take any chance they can get, even on the new borns.
With an unprecedented amount of animals, numerous groups of species are always within close proximity for easy viewing pleasure. From zebras grazing across the plains, so many in fact they seeing them became as common as cows at pasture.

After moving through Nrongoro we were on our way to the Serengeti - 'Endless Plains'.

Of all the moments, one stands out. As a pride of lionesses and their young walk through the grasses we position ourselves on their path. Its a pride of up to twenty, they approach us head on and within metres they surround us as they weave around our vehicle.

And then the sun begins to set. Making camp in the Serengeti National Park. Tents pitched and the fire lit. Only one other sight took my breathe away more than the herds of animals or the hyena spotted creeping between tents. The night sky. It seemed there was more star than actual sky. As if photoshopped before my eyes. The blanket of stars shone so bright, as if like diamonds. The safari guides are superheroes when it comes to the animals, with superhuman like sight and hearing. As we gathered around the fire one night discussing the days events and those possibly of tomorrow, there was a sudden "Shhhh" shortly followed by a "Shut Up" . Even as we literally followed one of the guys blindly into the darkness we heard nothing, but he did. Following the sound 250 metres away from where we were, there it was in the low lying trees, teenage elephants having a midnight snack. Shining some light from our torches, there they stood, less than 8 metres away. No matter how much time passed, standing in the darkness, watching the elephants half submerged in the scrub, we were in awe, and found it hard to convince ourselves it was time to leave.

They continued to visit the next day.

It wasn’t only the elephants that came to visit the campsite at night, we had a hyena wander through curious of our campfire, although the moment was fleeting, with a few sniffs of our campsite he smattered off as quickly as he appeared.

As much as we could of sat and waited for more animals to walk into our campsite, we wanted to get deeper into the park. Shadowing the patterns of the animals we tracked. Taking game drives in the early morning sunrise and the evening light when the animals are most active away form the midday heat. We may have become a little more akin to our animal kin than we assumed, as we found our selves endlessly napping and searching for the cool.