Greeting All.....It had been over 5 years since my wife and I took our last safari in the Serengeti, but even a pandemic could not keep us away given what we felt would be an opportunity not to be forgotten.
I’ll keep the details of our journey short. 10 total departures and arrivals, 4 Covid tests, all negative, and thousands of photos to review and process. The opportunity was to be in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, during the wet season, to observe calving and the abundance of wildlife concentrated in the southern Serengeti.... with a minimum number of safari vehicles. The lodges we stayed in were barely occupied, and we were the only occupants in one of them, during a 4 night stay. We were often the only one’s at a major animal event, and observed animals we had never seen before in 4 previous safaris. Although we had our share of rain, it was expected, but the vivid green landscape made up for our guide slugging it out through the crazy muddy, and rain swollen game roads. We ended up driving more than 1700 miles in 12 days, but every mile was well worth it.
On to the photos, and I’ll try and keep the number down so as not to overwhelm with my enthusiasm for what we saw and photographed. My wife was shooting a 7DMkii, with 100-400L Mki, and I shot with my new R5, 100-400L Mkii, with 1.4x, Mkii extender and 500L, Mki. I’ll be happy to share all our safaris details, including airline information and safari company info, which were superb, via PM, should anyone be interested in the finer details. I’ll also break up my posts with more specific animals, to make it a bit more mangeable. C and C always welcome. Peter A.
Herbivores and others….
Wildebeest Migration
Ngorongoro Crater Elephant
Impala
Ndutu Giraffe
Serengeti Elephant
Pangolin... this is actually a mammal, and a very rare critter, right up there with the African Wild Cat and Honey Badger
Great photos!
That's a lot of wildebeest.
I like the crater and elephant image.
Your photos increase my desire to get back to Africa as soon as possible.
You're very brave to go to Tanzania during the pandemic. The President, John Magufuli, was well known for claiming Covid was a hoax. He died a few days ago of "heart failure". CNN - Magufuli is dead
A great loss for Tanzania. (<-- Just to be clear, this is sarcasm)
Wonderful set and experience! Like Dave I'm resisting going back now (after ten other trips) but missing it like heck! I remember when Magufuli was elected and the concern was he'd build a road across the Serengeti, fortunately that didn't happen.
Terrific set, I'm leaning more towards going to TZ 11 months from now after seeing these photos and hearing about what your experience of the camps and testing was like. We had hesitated because the President of TZ was a Covid denier and possibly because of that just died from Covid.
Your pangolin, hyena with vultures, and the black rhinos are standouts from an excellent set.
dclark wrote:
Great photos!
That's a lot of wildebeest.
I like the crater and elephant image.
Your photos increase my desire to get back to Africa as soon as possible.
You're very brave to go to Tanzania during the pandemic. The President, John Magufuli, was well known for claiming Covid was a hoax. He died a few days ago of "heart failure". CNN - Magufuli is dead
A great loss for Tanzania. (<-- Just to be clear, this is sarcasm)
Dave
Thanks very much Dave! Brave yes, but we certainly weighed all of our options and variables involved with this safari. We thoroughly trusted the safari company we used, used the for 4 previous safaris and I know the owner quite well, that they would not steer us wrong. They ensured we were going to be as safe as possible, and our guide was covid tested prior to our arrival.
Yes, I was aware of the Tanzanian's President's passing, which is indeed sad, and perhaps as you and others have noted, not necessarily due to heart failure.
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Bobg657 wrote:
Wonderful set and experience! Like Dave I'm resisting going back now (after ten other trips) but missing it like heck! I remember when Magufuli was elected and the concern was he'd build a road across the Serengeti, fortunately that didn't happen.
Bob
thanks Bob, and 10 trips is was a wonderful number of visits! I hope to catch up to you someday! I remember the road concern as well, and how much I didn't want it to happen. Fortunately, it's still a wonderful muddy, or dusty game road. They did build a very nice road around Arusha, to travel to the Ngorongoro Crater, which circumvents all the crazy congestion present in Arusha.
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Ronny Olsson wrote:
Awesome set !
Ronny //
Thanks Ronny! Appreciate you checking out my pics.
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dallvr wrote:
Terrific set, I'm leaning more towards going to TZ 11 months from now after seeing these photos and hearing about what your experience of the camps and testing was like. We had hesitated because the President of TZ was a Covid denier and possibly because of that just died from Covid.
Your pangolin, hyena with vultures, and the black rhinos are standouts from an excellent set.
Thanks! And thanks for calling our the "Black Rhino". My mistake for not noting it as such as they are still greatly endangered. I certainly hope my pics were an inspiration for you going to TZ. The country is suffering badly from the lack of tourism and by taking the necessary precautions, I would hope you could have a very safe and exciting Safari. Best of luck to you.
OSP2017 wrote:
Wonderful set, Peter! I really love the elephant in B&W - works so great!
thanks much and glad you liked the B&W. the area around Seronera, central serengeti, had not received too much rain so the grass was much more brown. thought the B&W worked a bit better for it accordingly.
Awesome set of pictures. The green add more flavor to the pictures. I would suggest resize the picture little more smaller, so that it will fit in the page perfectly...just for the viewers delight
bonnyrcl wrote:
Awesome set of pictures. The green add more flavor to the pictures. I would suggest resize the picture little more smaller, so that it will fit in the page perfectly...just for the viewers delight
John
Thanks John...sorry about the large image size. I do all my editing and posting from my 4k, monitor, so lose some perspective on the relative size of the pics. Will certainly reduce them in the future.
