Stories of endless plains in the Serengeti, as depicted by David Attenborough, are very much a reality as soon as you enter the National Park. Many of the animals here are resident and don't move with the migration which provides for good safari viewing action all year round.
We spent two days in the park being whizzed around in a safari-modified open top Toyota Landcruiser, courtesy of Chris our excellent guide from Tanganyika Safari Company. Our camping on the first night was slap bang in the middle of the park itself at a makeshift campsite with only a young Masai warrior and (only) a spear to guard us. We were a bit apprehensive at first as all of the safari documentaries you watch on TV tend to depict guards packing rifles just in case. It all turned out OK in the end but there was a scary 10 second walk between our tent and the toilet in the middle of the night where any rustle in the bushes or sighting of a pair of eyes seemed like a precursor to a lion mauling.
We rose very early on day two of the Serengeti to go on what is known as a 'game drive'. The idea is to catch the big cats out and about at dawn whilst they're coming to the end of their nightly killing spree. You'd also think you'd miss the majority of the tourists but in reality all the tour guides have the same idea.
Never did we imagine that we would get so close to the animals in the wild, but it happened and I think the slideshow gets it across quite nicely.
![Elephants [BIG-5]](https://dlvop4arndm54.cloudfront.net/uploads/718041237/171/1/images/serengeti-16.jpg)
![The lions [BIG-5] are unfazed by tourists snapping away like paparazzi](https://dlvop4arndm54.cloudfront.net/uploads/718041237/171/1/images/serengeti-43.jpg)
By Darrell Grundy - visited on 14 June 2004