Tanzania - Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Arusha National Park.

21/5/2014 to 1/6/2014.

The Safari in May 2014 ranked amongst the best ever although, very different in many ways. The rains had been poor and this triggered the migration to start its movement on its northern circuit sooner than we had ever seen before. In 2013 the migration was formed up close to the entrance gate of the Serengeti National Park. This was an open area and the massed migration was clearly visible and very impressive. This year the migration had already crossed the Grumeti River in the West of the Park approximately 160 kilometers west of where they were the previous year, at exactly the same time of year. A consequence of this was that we had a poor siting of the tale end of the migration where as, the group that went in 10 days ahead of us had spectacular interactions with the migration.

There were however, many compensations. We sighted Cheetah in the Western corridor where we had not seen them previously. We spent the best part of a morning in the company of a mother and four sub-adult cubs. The cubs were full of energy and were immensely entertaining to our group. We saw 11 Cheetah, all of which were good sightings. Leopards are a very special feature if one is lucky enough to see them. This year we were exceptionally lucky seeing a total of 5 separate Leopards one of which we saw on four occasions with some spectacular opportunities for photography. Lions were in abundance and we saw over 90. We were also lucky enough to have several sightings of Serval Cats which are usually very difficult to see.

All the antelope were in abundance as were the Zebra. Once again we were spoiled with special close sightings of Elephant on a number of occasions.

The bird life was amazing as it usually is and a special sighting of a Narina Trogan was particularly special as these birds are very shy and secretive. It was a first for us. In total we saw 291 different types of birds and 49 different types of animal. Truly amazing in the time that we were there.

We had a large group but the logistical issues were well handled by our head Guide Emmilian and his crew. Our hosts were, as always, well and truly up to speed, making sure that there were no hitches and checking this out with us personally on a daily basis. The lodges really laid on a big welcome to our group and they went out of their way to make our stay memorable.