Duration: 5 days, 4 nights

Where: Central Serengeti – Ngorongoro – Tarangire

Budget: oof.

Highlights: Lion cubs, leopard stalking prey, hungry hippos, cheetah at arm’s length, zebras for miles

Lowlights: Meltdowns after long drives, toddler falling out of the window, mixed up park fees

First stop of our family Tanzania safari: Central Serengeti!

The Flight

After much anticipation, our friends finally arrived from New York. It was safari time! Our first destination was the central part of the famous Serengeti National Park. We flew from Arusha into central Serengeti on a teeny tiny plane to start our holiday.

Animals on the Savannah

The game drive started as soon as we left the airport. Not ten minutes into our drive, we saw a leopard only a few meters from the car, eyes fixed patiently on a gazelle in the distance. It was one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen.

The Rugrats also thought so. Their delighted shrieking tipped off the gazelle. And the poor leopard missed out on lunch. The safari-goers in the handful of other vehicles that had gathered were deeply unimpressed.

The Serengeti just got better and better. A few minutes down the road, a pair of lionesses was napping under some trees by the road, legs akimbo, completely relaxed. We lunched at a tented camp with a herd of zebras grazing right in front of us. The next morning Moody drove us right up alongside a cheetah who was lounging under a tree near our lodge. We saw piles of hippos enjoying an extremely crowded siesta in a watering hole, sleeping snout-to-bum. During the two nights we spent in Serengeti, from our luxurious tents at the Singing Grass tented lodge, we could hear lions and hyenas in the hills behind the lodge. And in the morning giraffes and gazelles snacked on shrubbery around our deck. That was the Serengeti. The entire park was magical.

The Scare

The Rugrats thoroughly enjoyed our time in Serengeti. I would have enjoyed it even more if my children hadn’t spent so much of their time making themselves targets for the wildlife. Rugrat#2 was constantly trying to climb on top of the safari car, sticking various limbs out of the vehicle, and swinging on the bars that held up the open roof. All three Rugrats had a difficult time keeping their excited little voices at an appropriate volume to avoid disturbing the animals.

But the most terrifying moment came when Rugrat#3 got excited about a herd of Cape buffalo so close to the car you could practically touch them. With one buffalo staring straight at her, she started jumping up and down on my legs as fast as her toddler legs could bounce. One moment she was jumping on my lap, and the next she had literally thrown herself out of the window. By some miracle, I caught her by the ankle. Her entire torso was dangling down the side of the car, her head only a few feet above the ground, a car’s length from the buffalo.

Everything was in slow motion as I pulled her back to safety. The whole thing lasted a matter of seconds, but for me it felt like time stopped.

The window stayed closed after that.

Second leg of our family Tanzania safari: Karatu and Ngorongoro Crater

The Long Drive

Day three was the long drive south through the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We saw lion cubs playing and snacking on a gazelle by a watering hole, and a mother hyena cajoling her babies out of their burrow. We also drove past the majestic Pride Rock, of Lion King fame! Who knew that was a real thing!

But the drive was very long. We didn’t reach our Acacia Farm Lodge in the town of Karatu until late in the afternoon. By this time everyone was grumpy. We wanted to take a tour of the lodge’s working farm. But Rugrats#2 and 3 insisted on going swimming in the pool, and I was too tired to resist them. The evening devolved into a comedy of errors: the pool was freezing and bees swarmed along the edges, so Rugrats#2 and 3 lasted barely fifteen minutes before melting down into inconsolable puddles; the rest of the crew were five minutes late for the farm tour so they missed it; disappointed, Rugrat#1 and Buddy decided they, too, needed a swim, just as the little ones were leaving; but they were also freezing and inconsolable after a few minutes.

By the time everyone showered and changed for dinner, the Rugrats were losing the plot. The buffet dinner was a mess of spilled Fanta and misdirected emotions that reminded me why we don’t take the kids to restaurants. As each of the Rugrats touched and then put back every single bread roll in the bread basket at the buffet, my gentle parenting went out the window. After dinner, Husband took the girls to bed while my friend and I took Rugrat#1 and Buddy to enjoy the bonfire. After we returned to our rooms, Rugrat#1 informed me that he had lost his shoes at the bonfire.

Animals in a Crater

We woke up early the next morning for the next leg of our safari: a drive down into the Ngorongoro crater. After a good night’s rest, things were looking up.

Unfortunately, my early optimism was misplaced. The morning did not begin well. The safari company had had another administrative mix-up with our entrance fees, which took over an hour to sort out at the park entrance. As the seconds ticked by, the Rugrats and Buddy grew grumpier and more stir crazy.

Finally, Moody managed to fix the fee situation, and off we drove.

After an hour of winding our way up through fog so thick we couldn’t see a meter in front of us, we began our steep descent into the stunningly beautiful crater. The magic returned.

The special thing about the Ngorongoro crater is that large groups of all of the animals are gathered in one place (except giraffes, who apparently can’t make the climb down into the crater). Zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, and every kind of gazelle and antelope filled the plains as far as the eye could see.  Flamingos and hippos lined the shores of the crater lake. A baboon family groomed each other by the side of the road. Elephant families grazed by the road and a lion napped in the distance.

Spirits were up after a relaxed picnic lunch by the hippo pool. The Rugrats were thrilled to be outside the vehicle, stalking and ogling at the hippo pool’s resident Marabou stork, one of the most hideous creatures I’ve ever seen.

Third and final leg of our family Tanzania safari: Tarangire National Park

The Hillside Hike

After the Ngorongoro game drive we headed to our final Tanzania safari destination: Tarangire National Park. Thanks to the admin delays earlier in the day, it was already dark when we reached the hillside Sangaiwe Camp.

A homey multiple course meal awaited us. I poured myself a very full glass of wine, then promptly knocked it all over the table when I jerked my hand over to save Rugrat#3 from spilling her Fanta. It’s fine, everything is fine.

Rugrats#1 and 3 woke up at sunrise with me the next morning. We set out on an impromptu hike, following one of the camp’s Masai guides. Rugrat#1 bounded up and up as the “hill” grew progressively steeper. Rugrat#3 gave up on the walking after about three steps. Holding my giant toddler, I inched forward as the rocky path narrowed to less than a foot wide. But the views of Lake Manyara and Lake Burungi from the top were worth it!

Animals among the Baobabs

The Rugrats spent a leisurely morning swimming in the lodge pool. Then we packed up and headed into Tarangire National Park.

The Rugrats marveled at Tarangire’s famous enormous herds of elephants, including the tiniest of babies. They had a blast climbing inside the majestic Poachers’ Hide baobab tree. Rugrat#2 insisted on a full photo shoot.

Moody spotted a leopard in a tree that was too far away to see clearly without binoculars. We stopped for a few minutes so the grown-ups could take a million low quality photos of it, as the Rugrats and Buddy whined dramatically about the tsetse flies.

Next was our lunchtime picnic, which some monkeys crashed, stealing Rugrat#3’s banana right out of her hand! She repeated that story for days. After lunch, we headed back to Arusha for hot showers, laundry, and a very good night’s sleep in our own beds.

Part 1 of our epic safari adventure was complete.