Serengeti Expedition

I don't even know how to start talking about how amazing my expedition to the Serengeti was. It was good enough to warrant two pictures for one post! The past five days went by so fast that I may not remember which day everything happened, but I will just try to pick out the highlights. The drive there was long, probably about 6 hours or so. We went through Ngorongoro Conservation Area to get there, which is also super cool. Ngorongoro is a multi-land use area where they conserve wildlife and have people living there at the same time, unlike National Parks where people cannot live there. On our way into the camp site we stopped off at Olduvai Gorge, which is essentially known as the "Cradle of Man" where the oldest forms of humans have been found. It was pretty cool to learn about the layered sediments that helped them identify when the soil was formed. After that, on our way into Dik Dik camp site, we did a game drive. We left around 6:30 am until 8:30 am. Basically we did this every morning that we were in the Serengeti and after lunch when we were done our exercises for class. We had a bird watching exercise, carnivore observations, and tourist observations which were pretty interesting. Throughout the trip we saw some awesome animals! There were quite a few leopards in the Serengeti, which was awesome! They just chill in baobab trees and sleep in the shade. One of the days we saw a leopard feeding on a gazelle up in a tree! It was pretty exciting. Leopards are strong enough to carry their kills up a tree and swing them over a branch to get in the perfect position to feed. We saw so many lions. There was one day that we saw a lion stalking its prey which seemed to be a zebra. It would have taken very long if we stayed there so we stayed for about half hour while all of the zebras were freaking out. Later on one of the days we saw a pride of lions feeding on what looked like a buffalo. For some reason feeding was a very exciting thing for us after seeing so many animals around. There were many hippos and even a crocodile in the waters there! At one point we saw a dead hippo being pulled underwater by a crocodile so it could rot enough for the crocodile to feed on it. It was sad to pack up and leave the Serengeti but it also felt nice to be back home at the camp.