I am Arnold Yahaya Mushi, the head guide of Africa Dream Safaris, and I have just finished my safari with two guests from Wisconsin, USA named Greg and Kathy. These guests first arrived into the Western corridor of the Serengeti on June 15, 2013 where I picked them up at the Grumeti Airstrip to start our 8-night safari.

We got a good chance to see very big herds of zebra and wildebeest as they were migrating from nyasirori on the way to the grumeti game reserve. The immediate area was very dry and almost all the swamps were complete dry and hence the migration was moving quickly.

Also seen in the West Serengeti were big groups of hippo outside of the water and walking on dry land. We also spotted a pride of lions laying next to the sun pepper bush trying to hunt wildebeest. They were unsuccessful but we managed to take very good pictures of lioness and wildebeest together.

As usual there were plenty of the big croc’s and we also saw the black and white Colobus monkey relaxing up on a fig tree very close to the river. The Grumeti was full of hippo’s as well, thus it was very good beginning to our safari.

Coming to the Central Serengeti we got a chance to see two very big male lions and large numbers of elephants. In the well-known Seronera Valley we spotted a leopard up on a sausage tree and there happened to be elephants crossing underneath. Not far way from the place where we spotted the leopard, we saw a lioness up resting in another sausage tree.

On the way to Moru Kopjes near Lake Magadi we watched a mother cheetah with her cub hunting a female thomson’s gazelles. The mother cheetah broke one of the gazelle’s legs from the rear so that she could give her cub hunting lessons. It was an extraordinary experience and we spent more than two hours there. Later the mother decided to kill the gazelle and dragged the carcass into the shade to eat.

At the moment this area is dry with very short grass and home to large numbers of thomson’s gazelles. Also in the same area where the national park in doing controlled burning of the grasses we saw southern ground hornbill, very rare bird that lives for 35 years and produces just two eggs only after 9 years.

Coming to Sametu kopjes towards the Eastern side of the park we saw a big pride of lions resting under the balanite tree. It seems like they been eating well. One of the male lions was moving around but the cubs were just resting next to the water.

At the Gol kopjes in the southeast Serengeti we saw three cheetahs, but they were just lying on the tall grasses. The area is very dry but there were large numbers of gazelles and ostriches.

The Ngorongoro Crater is very cold at the moment. Down on the floor of the Crater we saw seven lionesses and one male lions, also a rhino near Lake Magadi. The lake has enough water but there were only a few flamingo’s because they are now migrating to the different lakes in the Rift Valley. We did see big herds of zebras, wildebeests and buffaloes.

At Lake Manyara National Park, it was very good because the guests enjoyed the ground water forest and the big numbers of baboons that were playing in the area. Also we saw a large a herd of buffaloes that were surrounded with cattle egrets. In the dry woodlands of Manyara there were large numbers of elephants and also blue monkeys.

Please enjoy a few of my pictures.

Thank you.

Arnold Y. Mushi
ADS-Driver Guide
June 26, 2013

Note the leopard above the elephant in the picture below.