Dan's Adventure

On our way to the Serengeti we made a stop at a campsite on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater to drop off food and supplies for the following night. Both campsites were to be bush camping, they were unbounded with minimal facilities, which meant that animals were free to roam into the campsite. When we arrived at the campsite at the rim of the crater everyone started to have second thoughts as we witnessed two elephants play fighting with each other amongst the tents and throwing camping mats around. Our Acacia Africa tour driver, Blessed, reassured us that the elephants wouldn’t attack and they were just playing.with each other. Blessed has worked for years as a game hunter and tour guide so I felt confident in his judgment of the elephants’ behavior.

Five minutes before arriving at the campsite in the Serengeti we passed by a pride of lions and a cheetah which caused a bit more concern than the two elephants we had spotted earlier. As the sun disappeared, we pitched our tents and gathered around the campfire. The only animals sightings that night were to be a few buffalo lurking around the edges of the campsite.

After a full day in the Serengeti, we traveled back to the campsite at the rim of the crater to find several zebra running through it. Like the previous night, we were warned to have no food in our tents as wild pigs would trample the tents searching for it. As we sat around the campfire drinking some Konyagi, some zebra came sprinting through the campsite, maybe 10 feet from where we were sitting. Wild pigs were found rummaging in the rubbish left over from dinner, depsite being chased off they kept reappearing.

Before bed, a few of us thought it was only right that someone should be noised up. Sneaking up on a tent, we tried to contain our laughter as we started to rustle the fly sheet and shake the tent. Later that night I thought I was being victim to the same prank as I could hear the rustling and the edges of the tent moving. The grunting and snorting however made me realise that it was more likely to be the wild pigs that were sniffing around my tent.