News-Record.com

I wouldn't recommend every aspect of my recent trip to Africa. If you go, you might want to skip the visit to Nairobi Hospital, the 15-hour bus ride from Nairobi to Mwanza, even the dala dala experience.

But don't miss the Serengeti. There's no place like it in the world.

My only regret was that we covered too much ground in too little time.

Our itinerary took us from the western entrance of Serengeti National Park on Day 1 to the Pimbi Campground, where we spent Night 1; then out the eastern entrance and on to the Ngorongoro Crater on Day 2, spending Night 2 in the Simba Campground on the crater rim; then back through the Serengeti on Day 3, stopping on the way at Olduvai Gorge, and returning to Mwanza that night.

I could have spent days in the Serengeti, where the animal viewing was simply fabulous. Fascinated by close observation of elephants, lions, giraffes, cheetahs, zebras, baboons, hippos, crocodiles, leopard and wildebeest, I could have lingered for much longer than 15 minutes or so at a time. But, with great distances to cover and the need to reach the campground before dark, you have to move on.

There probably won't be a next time for me, but if there were, I'd spend at least five days in the Serengeti and cover a relatively small portion of the park each day.

Still, what we did exceeded expectations. I thought there might be long intervals between significant animal sightings. Not so. The vast park is full of animals, especially wildebeest, zebra and impala. They're everywhere.

My favorite zebra moment came when we arrived at a river where a herd was watering. They were very skittish, venturing cautiously into the shallows for a drink. Every time a nearby hippo splashed, the zebras bolted out. Surely they weren't afraid of a hippo, I thought. Indeed not. Just around a bend in the river a large croc was lurking. An unwary zebra would have made a fine meal.

Everyone wants to see the big cats. We were lucky enough to come across a group of five lions in a remote location, with no other vehicles around. Our driver broke park rules and went off-road to give us a very close look. In fact, we followed the lions for some distance as, apparently annoyed by our presence, they slowly stalked away. Only minutes later, we had a similar encounter with a pair of cheetahs.

Sometimes the cats draw a crowd. That was the case with a leopard. One had been seen lounging by a road. Word spread by radio among the guides. By the time we arrived, about 15 vehicles had gathered around the leopard, which had parked itself underneath a Land Cruiser for the shade. Eventually it got out and prowled around between the vehicles, coming up right beside ours and providing some incredible photos for us.

I really loved watching the giraffes, so mesmerizing in their movements. They're shy, usually moving away from vehicles, although occasionally one will stop and stare while munching on leaves gathered from the tops of trees.

My favorites were the elephants, and we were afforded many wonderful moments with them. Once, a herd of about 30 was casually feeding on both sides of the road around us. Even better, late on the first afternoon, we rounded a bend and suddenly found ourselves virtually face to face with a large female and her calf, barely 5 yards away. Amazing.

We heard, but didn't see, many animals during our night at the Pimbi Campground. As you can see from this sign, there could be severe consequences of wandering beyond the camp, especially after dark. I was worried enough about venturing to the toilet, right at the edge of camp. Only a few feet from the crude facility was bush, where anything could hide. You'd be easy prey for a hungry predator. Fortunately, with so many tasty wildebeest around, why would a lion bother with a scrawny human?

If you might not feel secure sleeping in a tent in the middle of lion territory, there are always the Serengeti lodges -- with indoor bathrooms. But that might be giving up some of the thrill.