Hello I am Claude, one of the Africa Dream Safari guides, and have just got back from a safari. We started in the Northern Serengeti (Kogatende Airstrip) where I met and picked up my guests including Bill and Jane (grandparents) along with their two granddaughters named Haley and Morgan. It was great to be on safari with this family and it was nice to see the whole family participating in such an adventure together.

The trip started off with a bang so to speak as just on our first day we spotted three cheetah brothers on the Lamai plains, a pride of lions and dozens of hippos and giraffes. To top things off, there were huge herds of the wildebeest migration around Nyamalumbwa. What a way to begin a safari!

Afterwards,  we went to Buffalo Luxury Camp where we had chance to visit the local people who are the Maasai tribe. We also did a night game drive which was a different experience for the guests. Since Buffalo Camp is in a game concession, we can can conduct night game drives which are prohibited inside the Serengeti National Park.

Our next place was Mbalageti Tented Camp in the Western Serengeti where we had one night and then moved on to Seronera Sametu Camp in the Central Serengeti. Here the camp was nice plus the wildlife viewing was exceptional and close by. We had three good sightings of leopards, saw lions in a tree and also lions hunting and killing right in front of us, about ten feet away. We could watched them feed for some time. The following day we departed the Serengeti and drove to Ngorongoro to visit the famous Crater for one night and then we finished in Tarangire National Park at Tarangire Tree Tops Camp. It was a very nice itinerary. The elephant sightings in Tarangire were fantastic especially the huge bull elephants we call the big tuskers!

The whole trip was fantastic and areas visited were stunning and worthy, to combine in such a way. The following are the pictures I would like to share with you including:

– A cute lion cub less than one month old at Samtu Kopjes in the Central Serengeti
– At Seronera Valley in the Serengeti, I captured a lioness jumping off a tree
– Giraffes under the umbrella acacia tree getting some shade from the warm mid-day sun
– Lionesses in the sausage tree looking up for Zebras passing in the distance

With best regards,
Claude Shitindi

This is Peter Huka, a driver guide with Africa Dream Safari. My latest safari started in the Central Serengeti at 09:30am on June 27th as I drove to pick up my new guests named David and Ronale from the Seronera Airstrip. We did a game drive along the Seronera river where we saw a pride of lions (about twenty in total including cubs). While we were watching this pride, a lioness moved and began stalking a zebra. The hunt was unsuccessful but it was exciting to watch. After that we continued with a game drive around Maasai Kopjes where we saw elephants, giraffes and hyenas before heading to our first camp on the safari called Mbuzi Mawe Tented Camp. During the night lions came near the camp and I could heard them roaring not too far away.

The following day we started the game drive early in the morning from Mbuzi Mawe and were able to watch a sunrise which was nice. Afterwards, we headed towards the retima hippo pool. We had breakfast on the picnic site with hippos which is one of my favorite picnic areas. Afterwards, we went around Makoma hill, Maasai Kopjes where we saw the lions and a herd of buffalos.

On our last day before departing the Central Serengeti for the Western Serengeti we were able to see three cheetahs (a mother with two cubs). Along the way to the western corridor of the Serengeti we saw herds of migration scattered throughout. On our full day game drive in the West Serengeti in the Grumeti plains we saw a pride of fourteen lions with cubs and along the Grumeti river we also saw colobus monkey, crocodiles and hippos.

After spending two nights in the West Serengeti, we headed for the Ngorongoro Crater. We passed through Seronera Valley enroute and were able to see a leopard in a tree watching for prey. We concluded our safari with two nights in the Ngorongoro Crater area with one night at Crater Lode and one night at the Manor. It was a great way to finish the safari!

Please enjoy the following pictures.

Thank you,

Peter Huka
ADS Driver-Guide

Hello, it’s me Claude here with my latest safari report for my trip that finished on 04th July 2013. I was with four lovely people that I took on safari i.e Erick, Anna, Alec and Adrian. It was wonderful up in the Northern Serengeti as we had thousands of wildebeests everywhere all over the Nyamalumbwa plains in the direction to the Mara River.

We had one night in Lobo Valley and then we were off to Mbalageti and the West Serengeti where we found more of the migration and also other species including the big cats. This area was very productive.

At the Central part of the Serengeti the wildlife was a little scattered. Seronera Valley, Moru Kopjes, Sametu Kopjes, and the Marshes of Maasai Kopjes were the best places in the Central Serengeti for wildlife viewing.

At Ngorongoro Crater on our early morning game drive we had a rhino crossing the road twice very close to our vehicle. It was just us alone and I heard that was the only sighting on the entire day making it even more special. Here are just few of my pics to share…

Black rhino crossing the road in the early morning – Ngorongoro Crater

A freezing dik dik antelope in  Seronera Valley 

Zebras resting in the middle of the day but still alert for predators

Vevert monkey in Lerai Forest at Ngorongoro.

Curious little lion cubs near Sametu Kopjes in the Central Serengeti

Black rhino in the early morning coming towards our vehicle – Ngorongoro Crater

My name is Peter Meena the driver guide for ADS. This time I had a great group with the last name of Kedda where our trip started from 21st to 27th June. There were seven adults it total and it was nice to all be in one vehicle together. We started our safari by visiting the Western Serengeti (Mbalageti Lodge), Central Serengeti (Seronera Sametu Camp) and then we finished up with Ngorongoro (Crater Serena Lodge).

Here are a couple of interesting pictures to share with you. It seems everyone is sharing pictures of the big cats (lions, cheetahs and leopards) plus the other big 5 animals (elephant, rhino, buffalo). Here is something to mix it up at they say.

GIRAFFE: This solitary giraffe was quenching his thirst in the Grumeti River. It’s amazing to see this alpine animal spreading it’s fore limb’s and tossing it’s long neck into the water. It was very interesting to see how he was bringing his long neck up and down as if he was playing see – saw.

STUCK ZEBRA: The Zebra in the photo was deeply stuck in the mud of the Seronera River. To my experience he was trying to cross and make it through the water not knowing that sometimes mud can turn into quick sand.

MATING PUFF ADDERS: This couple of Puff Adders were seen mating. We stayed on to watch this exercise. It’s unbelievable to see how long these Serpents lasted in the affair because we left before they were done. It was awesome.

FLOCK OF BLACK HEADED HERON’S: We viewed this flock of Black Headed Herons perched on top of an acacia tree accompanied by young chicks, together with females and males. The entire flock was busy. Some were mating and some were nurturing the young one’s. What a great great scenario.

With appreciation,
Peter Meena.

Greetings from Arusha, Tanzania. My name is Ally, a guide with ADS, and I am home now after completing a safari with a really nice family from Connecticut, USA with a mother, father, 13-year old son, and a 9-year old daughter. Their names were Karen, Alan, Alexander and Isobel. We spent a total of six nights on safari finishing the trip on July 1st when the clients departed back home on KLM Airlines.

One of the most interesting sightings occurred in the Grumeti area of the West Serengeti. We watched a lioness catch a Thomson Gazelle but she did not immediately kill the gazelle. Rather, she seemed to play with it for quite some time. It was very sad to watch and even myself was holding back tears. I explained to the clients that this is how mother nature works. It is all part of the magnificent Serengeti ecosystem though sometimes it can be difficult not to get emotionally involved with the struggles of some of these beautiful animals.

Sincerely,

Ally Dhulkfil

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.