By Godson Mbonye – Highlights From My Safari

My name is Godson Mbonye, a ADS driver guide. I have just concluded a 11 day safari with my guests from Denver, Colorado USA named Sara and Mark F. We explored the following areas: Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti and Lake Manyara.

My guests arrived on 21st June and on 22nd we started our game drive into Tarangire National Park, where we saw our first leopard in an acacia tree within just a few minutes. Within Tarangire National Park we had two full days before we proceeded to Lake Manyara National Park on 24th June, and further to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the same day. In Lake Manyara National Park, the vegetation consists of a tropical forest with wet savanna and short grassland near by the lake. We saw primates including oliver baboons and blue monkeys along with many species of birds. This park is situated at the end of the eastern great rift valley.

Arround 3pm we were entering the last gate of Ngorongoro crater for an afternoon game drive and we saw several species of cats including the rare serval cat. The funny story here is that somehow we picked up a hyrax hitchhiker on the crater road heading to Lion’s Paw Camp. Later we heard the hyrax’s noise under the car and we were all very surprised! The next day we took it back to its home range. Down on the Crater floor we managed to see two rhinoceros.

On 26th June we departured and headed to the Serengeti (specifically the Western Corridor), where we saw reptiles such as crocodiles, monitor lizards, snakes, also some of the wildebeest migration which were headed north to the Mara River and the North Serengeti.

The remaining days we explored the Central Serengeti including the area around Sametu where we saw cheetahs, leopards, and prides of lions. We ended by the Mara River where we saw two crossing.

I had a lot of pictures as follows:

– Young bull elephant in the Central Serengeti.

-Hyena puppies waiting for their mother to bring them food in the Ngorongoro Crater.

-Two big groups of wildebeests crossing the Mara River in North Serengeti

-Pied Kingfisher, standing on side bridge of Tarangire River looking for fish

-Rock hyrax  in a big rock in Tarangire National Park.

-Buffalo herd grazing in the open  savanna at Lake Manyara National Park.

– Blue Monkeys looking for tropical fruits into Manyara forest.

– Lioness down in the Ngorongoro Crater preparing to chase a wildebeest.


-At Lake Magadi in the Crater with grazing wildebeest and flamingos.


– The King of the jungle preparing to have young ones with the queen of jungle

– Three crocodiles close to the bridge over the Grumeti River, West Serengeti


– A Male Giraffe in the western corridor of the Serengeti browsing on acacia trees.

– Near Sametu Camp at 6:00am on an early morning game, cheetah preparing to chase a Thomson Gazelle.

– About 2kms from Sametu Camp in the Central Serengeit, a Serval Cat hunting rodents.

– At Swai’s rocks, a cheetah scanning for gazelles on the endless plains of the Serengeti.

– A hungry lioness scanning for zebras at 1.5km, on the way to barafu, east Serengeti.


– A lion pride out hunting in the Serengeti.

– African white backed vultures around a dead zebra eaten by lions.

With Kind Regards,
Godson Mbonye