Survival in the Wild (by Krystal)

AAfter crossing the border into Tanzania, there was much excitement in the air mixed with a little bit of fear - we were heading into the Serengeti which on it's own would not be much of a problem but it was also the point of our itinerary that was labeled sleeping with the lions - I had been dreading the sleep since I signed up for the trip and specifically took on a tent mate for protection when we got here. To avoid an anticlimactic ending I will start with the fact that there were no lion encounters in the night - to my knowledge anyways. Nevertheless the Serengeti was far from boring. It all started with lunch - there we were minding our own business when we were attacked by hawk like creatures - formally named Kites- okay they were mainly circling us hovering closer and closer but one did swoop down and steal a piece of chicken out of one of our groupmates hands (I stand by the fact that although I didn't lose my chicken it wasn't any less traumatic). This encountered was followed by a wild pig bursting out of the bushes now affectionately known as badger pig due to a striking resemblance to both creatures. The adventures continued as our truck got a flat tire - I would like to think I contributed to our rescue effort as I flagged down a car to get a jack and held some bolts. In the end, we caught up to our group and were able to see our last missing big five creature the leopard - nice and close. The Serengeti was very good to us showing us hyenas, lions, elephants, giraffes, rock pyrexes and a bunch more -what can you expect from the inspiration from the lion king. Our next step was the crater and after an uneventful sleep in the Serengeti I was completely at ease with sleeping on the crater - to my surprise right in the middle of my camp fire presentation of about the elephant - one decided to wander into camp to have a drink from the water tank! The elephant was huge and quite a sight! This was added to by the zebras chomping away at the grass by our tent on our way to bed and the grunting of a bush pig in the middle of the night. Still the crater gave us more than just animal sightings at night - we saw some lions cross the road and another lion decided to nap in the shade of a truck- we saw rhinos and elephants and more. Overall a perfect way to wrap up the major safari portion of our trip.