Goodbye to the Serengeti

We were up at 5.30am this morning to see the sunrise as we packed our tents away. Breakfast was at 6.30. It was pancakes with syrup again. We were invited to pack some cooked rice for our picnic lunch. We both opted not to!

Back in our vehicles, we drove out of the Serengeti. It was a fast, dusty drive. We saw lots of animals, but nothing different, so we didn’t stop to take photos. We did stop for toilets at a place where there was a very expensive snack kiosk. We stopped again at the border between the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Serengeti National Park to take photos of the signs.

We then drove along increasingly bumpy and dusty roads as we retraced our route out of Ngorongoro. As we climbed, our 4x4 had problems pulling. It was probably due to the huge amount of dust. Mankinga just had to drive a bit more slowly and nurse it along.

We ascended into the clouds. Visibility was very low, although we did see Masai tribesmen herding cattle and goats. At 11am, we pulled into a picnic site for an early lunch! Mark and I had biscuits, chocolate, and bananas, seeing as we had passed on the rice!

We stopped again at the gate to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area for toilets and the souvenir shop. Nobody bought anything – it was far too expensive!

At 12 noon, we were back on a tarmac road for the first time in two days. It was quite a relief!

We stopped for Mankinga to have some lunch (he didn’t fancy the rice either!). There were souvenir stalls to look around, and Mark managed to find somewhere to sit and have a beer. We tipped Mankinga and thanked him for his excellent service. It was a joy to have him guide us.Read more