Jambo from the bush! This is Anglebert Mrema, a guide for Africa Dream Safaris, with a report on the northern part of Tanzania. I am just back recently from a safari (September 26, 2013 to October 4, 2013) with Connie and Rusty from Georgia, USA.

Our safari together was fantastic as shown by the amazing pictures below. We had nine days on safari covering the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire ecosystems with one night at Kuria Hills on September 26th in the North Serengeti , two nights at Buffalo Camp on September 27th and 28th in the Northeast Serengeti, 2 nights at Sametu Camp on September 29th and 30th in the Central Serengeti , one night at Ngorongoro Lions Paw Camp on October 1st and our last two nights on October 2nd and 3rd at Swala Camp in Tarangire National Park.

The Great Migration seems to be heading south through the northern regions of the Serengeti ecosystem. There were big herds of gnus and zebras moving from the extreme northern areas including the Lamai triangle, crossing southbound at the Mara River and heading to the woodlands area around Nyamalumbwa Hills in the North Serengeti. We also saw a lot of these migration herds at the Togoro woodlands and plains as well as around Banagi hills and the Sametu marsh and plain in the Central Serengeti areas. We may end up seeing the herds at the southern plain of the Serengeti a little earlier this year than normal, and it could be due to the rain showers scattered in different corners of the Serengeti.

At Kogatende in the North Serengeti we had a great number of highlights, and obviously the first one was an amazing number of wildebeests crossing the Mara River heading south. We saw four good crossing and all of them were over 40 minutes long.

The other noteworthy sight was honeymooning leopards at Wogakuria hills in the North Serengeti. The female leopard had an interesting behavior because it had babies on the other kopje just nearby the area. To see her mating again with such young cubs was probably one way of defending the babies.

Near Buffalo Camp in the Loliondo game controlled area we had an interesting coalition of seven male lions with one big male and since these animals are territorial, to see seven males together was something. Probably the big male had to tolerate the young ones in his pride as a survival strategy within a competitive territory.

We had interesting sights at Seronera valley as well as Sametu marsh and plain in the Central Serengeti. We had a leopard drinking at a pothole near the road. We also had a pride of 18 lions with four very young cubs of about 5 weeks old at Maasai Kopjes. This pride tried to hunt zebra with no success. At Sametu marsh and plain we had a great sight of cheetahs on a termite mound during our early morning game drive. The cheetahs tried to stalk a gazelle nearby but also with no success.

Hereby are photos to share with you.

Mama lion with four cubs of about ten weeks old at Seronera Valley, Central Serengeti.

Gnus crossing the Mara River, North Serengeti.

Leopards cub of about 12 weeks old at Wogakuria Kopje, North Serengeti.

A two year old leopard drinking at Seronera valley, Central Serenget.

Cheetah with two cubs during an early morning game drive near Sametu marsh, Central Serengeti.

Leopard near Silale Swamp in Tarangire National Park.

The Great Migration in the Northern Serengeti.

More shots of the wildebeest crossing the Mara River in the North Serengeti.

Thanks,

Anglebert Mrema
ADS Guide

Greetings from the bush! I am Anglebert Mrema guiding for Africa Dream Safaris. Having completed my safari with my clients Patty and Kevin, I would like to share some highlights from this trip with the ADS family. The safari started on August 4, 2013 and ended on August 11, 2013. We spent 4 nights in the Serengeti split between the North and Central Serengeti areas at Buffalo and Sametu Camps, 2 nights in Ngorongoro Crater at Lion’s Paw Camp and a final night in the Tarangire National Park at Kikoti Camp.

At Lobo Valley in the North Serengeti we had a great sight of a male leopard just by the road. This leopard was trying to stalk gazelles on the other side of the road.  However, the area was too open and it wasn’t easy for the leopard to get much closer for the strike. We moved to the Central Serengeti where we had a great sight of pride of lions at Sametu Kopjes. Although the Sametu Kopjes area was dry, the pride was very healthy and that is due to the presence of a big herd of Thomson gazelle in the area.

Ngorongoro Crater was great. We had a good sight of lions feasting on a zebra. The two females probably made the kill at night because just near there was another lion pride that came to realize that there was a kill around dawn.

Another interesting sight at the caldera was a black mane lion on honeymoon just by the road. It was interesting to see this big male lion immediately go behind to the back of the ADS vehicle and scent mark the logo printed on the tire covers.  Hope you will enjoy the pictures below.

Jambo again. This is ADS driver-guide Anglebert Pantaleo reporting from the Serengeti plains. I had had five adventurous nights with a family 4 adults from Alabama, USA (Angelo and Beverly C. and Haywood and Stephanie B.). This time we started our trip at the northern part of Serengeti for two nights at BushTops Camp, two nights at Buffalo Camp, and one night at the Serengeti Four Seasons. The Mara area, Lamai triangle and Nyamalumbwa plains were amazing. There were huge herds of gnus and zebras at Lamai triangle and they were all heading east to the Nyamalumbwa plains. We saw them crossing the river twice and that was one of the highlights of the safari. Another highlights we had during the trip was a baby leopard (see picture below) we spotted in the Seronera valley of the Central Serengeti. The baby was so close to the road and we had great photo ops. Again I would like to share with you three of my pictures I took with this family of 4 persons while on safari. The safari dates were July 28th to August 2nd, 2013.

Jambo from Serengeti. My name is Anglebert Pantaleo and I am a safari guide for Africa Dream Safari. I presently had an eight day family safari with Lauren, Blake, Ryan, Lisa and Dan G. and it was so great. They were from a city called Newport Beach in California, USA and the safari dates were July 19th to July 26th, 2013. This time we started our tour at Ngorongoro crater at Lions Paw camp where we had great adventure. We did see Many lions and they were very active at early hours down at the caldera.

After our one night at the caldera, we move to the endless plain of serengeti and we had two nights at Semetu camp, two nights at buffalo camp and the last two nights was at the Lemale Kuria Hill. The Serengeti was so adventurous. At Seronera valley we had a big pride of 18 lions under the tree just by the side of the road. As it is so dry there was nothing for them to hunt but the gazelles. We watched them try to hunt the gazelles with no success.

The highlights of the northern Serengeti were two sets of three brother cheetahs at the Mara river. First, we had two young brother cheetahs at Wogakuria Kopjes and they looked very unexperienced with the whole surroundings. We had another sight of three brothers at Lamai triangle and they tried to hunt a baby gnu with no success. Generally we had a great family trip and I would like to share 3 pictures which we took during this trip with the entire ADS family.

I have just completed my trip with Marla and Lauren and we had such an exciting experience in the Serengeti ecosystem.  The year looks to be unusual due to the lack of rains and the rivers have no visible water supply, but unforgettable safari experience are still to be had in the dry season. The cats, ungulates, birds, and great migration crossings are among the life time experiences one may never forget.

One of the highlights of this trip was spotting a mama cheetah with two cubs of about 16 months old feasting on a gazelle. We watched them for a while having our breakfast and later one of the cubs jumped on top of the car and spent over 30 minutes.  We also had a lot of lion sightings at Seronera valley and Sametu Kopjes in the Central Serengeti. At Seronera valley we had over 12 lions crossing the road during sunset and we had a beautiful backlight for pictures.

Other highlights were two baby leopards of about 4 months old at the Loliondo Kopjes. The babies were very playful and were wandering around learning about their environment. At one point they even tried to hunt a dik-dik antelope which was moving around the area with no mama’s presence. We also had a very intelligent baboon nearby our vehicle. This baboon got surprised with the ADS logo that has a lion picture on it. The baboon was gazing at the logo and thinking it is probably a real lion. Later after realizing that it was just some sort of imagination, he walked carefully up to the vehicle to touch the logo.

I have few pictures taken from the trip and it’s again my honor to keep posting them for all the ADS family to see. I hope you enjoy them.

Regards,
Anglebert Pantaleo Mrema

Cheetah on the hood of the car.

Marla and Lauren with cheetah.

Cheetah on top of the car.

Great light.

Mama cheetah with two cubs at Boma Kopjes near Sametu.

My name is Anglebert Pantaleo, a guide for ADS. Having completed my last safari started from March 25th to April 03rd, the entire Serengeti was so extraordinary with regard to the wildlife viewing. We had a well planned safari with a great pace starting from the Central Serengeti at the Four Seasons Lodge for two nights, then we moved to the Eastern Serengeti Plain at Sametu Camp where we felt real close to nature. We had three nights at Lake Masek Camp at the southern plain of Serengeti and Ndutu forest, as well as one night at Ngorongoro Serena Lodge where we had a great experience visiting the caldera.

It is the green season on Serengeti Plains as well as the Ngorongoro Crater and although it is raining, we had an incredible game viewing experiences. We always recommend the green season because it’s so picturesque with diverse flora and fauna, including the migrants birds. Also, there are very few vehicles around, which makes the game viewing more private and thus more rewarding. This is always the best time for guiding.

The game viewing my group had was unforgettable and I would like to share with you some of the pictures that I have taken.

Lanar Falcon perching on a rock at the crater floor.

We were on a game drive in Seronera Valley watching a pride of six lions stalking a hippo which was passing through the area. As there were some other safari vehicles approaching, we decided to move on with our game viewing with a mission of heading for Sametu Kopjes before it gets too hot. Up around the next corner, we came across another pride of lions (this time there were 16 lions in the pride). They were looking at something we did not know on the other side of the Seronera Valley. After waiting for a while we realized that there was a buffalo which was giving birth with the herd moving a little far from sight. This buffalo with her baby of just a few minutes old got up and were trying to catch up with the herd and did not know what was around the corner, and both were taken down just five yards from the road by the pride of sixteen lions.

From ADS Driver-Guide Anglebert Mrema on January 10, 2013