Traveler
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Sunny Safaris were very good for us in Aug 2007.
We went on a 4 day Safari organised by Sunny Safaris, staying at Lodges each night – this was less than £500 including all accommodation, food, park fees, driver, fuel and jeep. All went like clockwork, and it really surpassed our expectations. We really felt the emotion of being so close to wild animals in their natural environment – something we have lost in most of the West.
Our guide/driver, Abdul, was a great guide, and excellent driver and a good companion for four days. He was a skilful driver on the difficult road conditions in the park, fast when necessary and safe to do so (no mad overtaking moves), but slower than many other drivers while on a game drive, giving us time to appreciate the wildlife. He had great eyes for spotting the animals, able to see a pair of Cheetah ears sticking out of the grass 100m away while driving on a dirt track, and was very knowledgeable about the animals and birds as well. We really think he was superior to other guides we saw – he was patient and willing to wait for the animals to move, and as a result we saw a pair of lions mating! Another thing we really liked about Abdul was that he gave accurate estimates of how long it would take to do journeys, and we arrived at all of the lodges by 5.30-6 PM, giving us time to enjoy the views and sunsets from the terraces. We saw many groups arriving too late to take advantage of this.
In all we saw 31 lions (one in a tree, and a lioness and cub about 3m away!), a leopard, 3 very distant cheetahs, 5 herds of elephants (two herds right next to the road, and couple of elephants mating), hundreds of zebra, wildebeest, gazelle and antelope, lots of warthogs, giraffes, hippos (one out of water), baboons and buffalo, and a few jackals, hyenas and crocodiles. We also had two lions and a hyena cross the road in front of us one morning near Lobo. The countryside of the Serengeti is constantly changing, not just the enormous empty savannah plains, but forests, hills, scrub, wooded valleys, and even date palm trees in the middle by the Seronera river. Ngorongoro crater is very flat as the bottom and less varied, although it does have a couple of very pretty lakes with flamingos, and some permanent herds of wildebeest and zebra.
Lobo and Seronera Wildlife Lodges were great, with good food and fantastic views from the terraces, and the architecture of the main buildings is very good, with wooden structures emerging from the huge rounded rocks of the kopjes. The rooms were fine if not fancy, but the position is the important thing – you only use the rooms for washing and sleeping anyway – and on opening the curtains one morning at Seronera there was a giraffe browsing right outside our window, as well as a troop of baboons and a group of 20 banded mongooses. Seronera is also full of cute little hyrax and blue-and-pink agama lizards. The view from the terrace at Seronera a good, but from Lobo it is wonderful. No electricity midnight-5AM and 9AM-5PM, but you are in the middle of the Serengeti! Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge was slightly less impressive (and very cold at night, with no extra blankets – bring warm clothes!), but the view from the terrace over the crater was stupendous. However, if you just did the crater and left out the Serengeti you would miss a lot – best to do both.
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