The next morning after breakfast we headed for the Serengeti gate as we needed to be out by 13:00 to avoid paying for another 24hours. We made it easily and continued to drive through the Serengeti hoping to see the migration. Ant spoke to a number of drivers at the gate who indicated where we should go and we found the migrants which was wonderful to see! Everywhere you looked there were Wildebeest with their babies running in a general direction, there are over a million in total, led by 400,000 zebra and 200,000 gazelles. The wildebeest must graze on newer grass, hence the migration to follow the rains and the zebra prepare the way and follow behind since they can eat any type of grass.

Our dilemma had been where to camp for the night since we had time to kill before going to Grumeti the following day. We drove out the northern gate at Fort Ikhoma when it closed at 18:00 and looked around. After a little searching we found a campsite run by locals who didn't speak English. They were very eager to please and helped us do everything. They fired up the geyser, helped unpack our stuff and prepared to do anything. As we were the only campers we were closely watched and ended up having a cup of tea with the 3 guys running the show there. The whole experience was topped off with the arrival of Soccer, the security Guard armed with a bow and arrow who sat directly next to our tent and car the whole evening. There were hyena (we heard them) that roam through the camp and any animal can come through from the unfenced Serengeti a few kms away. Luckily he had a bow and arrow so we were in no danger.

The next day we drove to Grumeti Tented Camp in the West of the Serengeti. The road there was fairly uneventful in terms of game viewing. Our stay there was delightful and we were treated with absolute luxury. The tents are on the Grumeti River, full of Hippos snorting and yawing the whole day! We enjoyed candle lit dinners, great game drives and excellent hosting - we were quite overwhelmed! When we left the car had been cleaned inside and out and we had a packed lunch which naturally became dinner J. Unfortunately the game viewing was as amazing as we had hoped; the migration was supposed to be coming through at that time but was delayed this year due to late and heavy rains. We did, of course, have a lot of fun on the game drives, seeing cheetah twice and the rare black and white colobus monkey.

On our last day, we decided to head back into the centre of the park to see the migration. It was a tough decision but we decided not to go on the game drive but pack up and spend the day self-driving the Serengeti. But what a worthwhile decision! As we came to the Seronera area we found two leopards lazing in a tree, full from having eaten, then one got up and walked straight past our car! A little further along and we found another leopard in the tree, beautifully set in the Serengeti plains. Any finally after seeing a heard of about 50 elephant we spotted the lion: a big male and female pair, in a tree! The lions climb the trees to avoid the pestering tsetse flies that are common especially in the north of the park. The male looked so out of place and couldn't get comfortable while the female just draped herself over a branch! We went to where the migration was and saw the wildebeest again before rushing to the exit. There was not too much to see travelling fast but we did see a tortoise and right by the gate a herd of 95 elephant.

On the way out we got 2 flat tyres at the same time and then a third one at the exit gate. Thankfully some rangers from the Crater Lodge recognised us and were so amazingly helpful, taking Ant into town to get the tyres fixed while the other one stayed to protect Joey from the riffraff around the gate! We finally made it to another little local campsite where we were looked after by a young man named Eli (like the priest he proudly told us!). We had a hot bucket bath and enjoyed our packed lunch before heading for the tent for the night!! The Serengeti had been a wonderful experience, perhaps, especially due to the cost, a once in a lifetime experience we were so glad to have had.