Day 20 – Karatu to Serengeti – Ikoma Gate – Robunda

Lion on my "Photo Hill

We managed to get an 08h00 start and expected the gate to be very busy, but it was not all that bad. We had to fork out a lot of dollars just to go through the Ngorongoro conservancy, but we had done this on our first day in Karatu so there was little delay.

The trip around the rim of the crater would have been very scenic, but the mist at times was so thick we could only see 5 metres ahead of us and in addition it was dusty so visibility was very poor when one was behind a vehicle or there was one coming past in the other direction, Denise was driving and we were to discover that evening why we all had a distinct ache in the bottom nearly every day after a long and difficult days drive, it was from all the clenching, not to mention the tension strains in our neck and back.

To make matters worse we see a car that had been in a head on earlier that day and was an absolute write off. It was a sobering sight, but should have been expected the way some of the drivers take risks in this part of Africa.

The highest point of this road was 2250m and then you drop fairly sharply onto the Serengeti plains, which are simply amazing we do not see a lot of game along the way to the entrance to the Serengeti at Gate.

We pay our dues US$60pppd and US$40 for the foreign vehicle and we end up paying for 2 days it is not cheap for foreigners to visit the game parks and reserves in East Africa, but I am sure it is reciprocated in the RSA.

Not far into the Park we decide that we will pull off the road and have our pack Lunch along side a small kopje and I think it would be nice to climb up and take photos of the scenery as these stupid thoughts are going through my head Claudia says “Lion up on the hill” and there on a flat rock not far from the road on my “photo hill” is a lioness, we were to learn as the trip progressed that one should be very circumspect about getting out of the car.

We spotted a tabby cat and wondered what it was doing in the Serengeti in the middle of nowhere, later when looking at the mammal book we realise we had seen a wild cat.

A sight we could not believe was that of more than 200 hippos in a pool not bigger than 500 sq metres in a river, squashed together like sardines and the smell was overpowering, we read that they do this and make sure the young are in the middle to protect them from crocodiles.

Although we saw lots of plains game it was very deserted, but it is vast and there has been a massive migration into the Mara, all in all a long and satisfying day.

We arrive at our camp some 20kms outside the Ikoma park entrance and the first cold frosty went down without touching sides. The camp is very adequate although it did not have a wow factor. Claudia books a bush walk the next day starting at 06h00, remember daylight only starts at 07h00am and sunset is at 07h00pm in this part of the world.