Day 24 Karatu - Serengeti

January 2, 2016
In the morning we woke up really early, before the sunrise, to get as early as possible to the Ngorongoro Gate. We paid the fees and were inside soon. The first thing that we could see was how the scenery was so different from the outside of the park - the forest was so thick!!! You couldn't see through a meter!

 Thats the crated from above:

 First animals we saw were few dozens of buffaloes:

 There are Masaai people living in the conservation area, they grow their cattle and live in small settlements:

 Ngorongoro Park is scattered with masaai villages:

Just before descending to the crater there is another gate where the guard asked where is our guide! (more money they wanted!) We said we have no seats in the car for another person and we drove off.

Another view from above:

Even going down to the crater there were humans with cattle:

 Few signs:

Down at the crater there are few roads and we were just driving around and watching animals, here are some photos of animals we saw:

Few places where loads of water so we were crossing few rivers:

Elephant with the biggest tusks!

The animals were everywhere! And all at the same spot, we didn't know which way to look :) We were there for a couple of hours and then we headed up again towards Serengeti:

More Masaai villages:

Getting closer to Serengeti we saw some wildebeest crossing the road (it was't wildebeest migration though):

The road in Serengeti was really bad, the corrugations were so bad that we almost lost all our teeth :D For all that money we spent its quite disappointing. Another letdown was that at the gate there is no information about the park, we asked for the map and we were told to go to buy one in a shop for 10 US$ (A3 size)!!! And all the signs in the park are old or overgrown. So it was quite disappointing and we didn't feel welcomed at all (apart of our money). Here is the gate in Serengeti:

Another hyena just few kilometres after the gate:

We took a small side road to drive around. The scenery is very flat, lots of grass and a couple of trees here and there:

And our first elephant family:

Getting closer to the evening we drove to our campsite which was another disappointment, no facilities at all, there was just cut grass for the campsite space, toilet and cold showers, no toilet paper. Not that we need luxuries but having spent 760 US$ for 1 night stay that was a bit shocking... Anyways we had a good night sleep with many many animal noises around us, we thought that those could be hyenas... But that was a good feeling to be in a tent and knowing there were so many animals around us that we knew were there but we couldn't see...
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Day 23 Moshi - Karatu

January 1, 2016

This morning we opened our eyes and were impatient to get out of our tent and see Kilimanjaro. And here it was - The Highest Mountain in Africa!

We had our breakfast and coffee and slowly packed up. We were so close to Serengeti and Ngorongoro, so we thought to spend some time there. We were on our way to Arusha. That is the closest city for those who go to Kilimanjaro, also Serengeti and crater. On our way we saw another mountain - Mount Meru in distance. It is second largest mountain in Tanzania after Kilimanjaro, and is called it's "little sister":

In Arusha we did some shopping - bought some water and Tanzanian coffee. There are lots of tourists in Arusha, many safari cars full of foreigners from all over the world. Here in the city centre elephant statue, it looked so real! :)

Many Masai people in Arusha:

After that we went to the park that is called Snake Park. (http://www.meseranisnakepark.com/index.html) We red that there is a garage, because we had to do oil change. There we met very nice owners that were half american, we were offered some coffee, charged up our laptops and phones, and we were invited to see the snake and reptile farm as well!

Guys changing the oil:

That was nice time in snake park with lots of interesting conversations and nice people, then we headed towards Ngorongoro Crater to find out about visiting prices, as all information on internet is hmmm... not acurate at all. The nature around here was getting more dry - smaller trees and more bush:

Roads still are perfect!

 We passed the airstrip and lots of man in army clothes doing some training:

More and more Masai as we driving closer to Serengeti:

Quite a lot of muslims here:

On the way we passes beautiful lake Manyara, the view from the top:

Soon, clouds gathered and storm was just around the corner!

The air was getting more and more dense and humid. The soil was very muddy, thank God we were in Tanzania and roads were good here :)

And here it was, another quick tropical storm:

Just few kilometres from Ngorongoro entrance there was a broken tree in the middle of the road and all the cars had to drive around through the bush, and tried not to get stuck...

The first Entrance gate at Ngorongoro crater:

Ngorongoro gate. There we went to find out about prices and if there are any places available at campsites. So the entrance fees was as following:
Ngorongoro crater: 50$ entry fee per person person + 200$ for entrance in the crater + 200$ for the car. And for Serengeti: 60$ entry per person + 60$ for 2 spots in public campsite + 100$ for the car...

After that we drove back to town to our campsite, we camped in one of the many lodges. And went out for some local Wali Kuku - Chicken & Rice. Here is the bird at the place where we stayed:

Typical Tanzanian dish: Wali Kuku:

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