The Samburu Five – we had never heard of them before. We can guess it's an allusion to the famous Big Five – the buffalo, lion, leopard, rhinoceros, and elephant. But we suspect it's just a cheap ploy to attract tourists. Wait and see, Peter grins. He’s confident that within thirty-six hours …
It’s half past seven when the last suitcases are crammed into the luggage hold, and we cross the Ewaso Ng’iro River, heading south. A herd of elephants strides along the road, a pair of black-backed jackals, and a few reticulated giraffes wave us off. A gerenuk, rightfully so, gives us the final salute. Where Daniel and Peter, our driver-guides, are taking us today, we don’t exactly know. …
Nowhere else on this planet does wildlife unfold so massively, so spectacularly, and so openly as in the Masai Mara and the Serengeti, the open savannah lands straddling the border between Kenya and Tanzania. For nature lovers, merely hearing those iconic names evokes images of endless grasslands, majestic elephants, confident lions, graceful giraffes, stalking cheetahs, migrating wildebeests, and skittish impalas. Last Saturday, as …
The crown jewel of Tanzania, that is what you can call the Serengeti. Nowhere else in the world is the life-and-death battle between predators and their prey fought out so openly and vividly as in this seemingly endless savannah. The spectacle there is said to be even more spectacular than in the Masai Mara. That’s a big promise, especially considering …
It took some practice, but we are slowly getting the name of our next destination to roll off our tongues smoothly – Ngorongoro. This remnant of an exploded volcano is a world unto itself. The wall is so steep that you can only descend into the core with a vehicle at three locations. Animals have no trouble with it, easily migrating in and out of the caldera. Even ...
It’s not large, the national park that stretches around Lake Manyara. With its area of 330 km² it pales in comparison to the vast Serengeti. If we had expected to encounter many animals here, we might as well put that idea aside right away, says our driver-guide Pedro. We’ll likely see just some birds and some monkeys. That’s quite the way to set expectations. But well, not ...
If you want to see elephants in Kenya, Amboseli is the place to be. The large elephant population is the second most important attraction of this national park. Even more impressive is the proximity of Mount Kilimanjaro. Wherever you are in the park, this majestic volcano dominates the horizon – unless it's …