My journey into African adventure has not disappointed me so far. Whether it’s the safari through Tarangire National Park, exploring the land of the Maasai or the view of Lake Natron – Tanzania impresses me every day.

In unserer grünen Lodge nahe dem Natronsee bin ich ganz nah an der Grenze zu Kenia und noch immer im Reich der Massai.

With our guide Gabriel and our cook Saidi, my friend Uwe and I drive along this border to reach the Serengeti from the north.

We still pass many Maasai, whose villages are close to the road and whose herds of cattle are also looked after by children. The children run after us, laughing, with their hands open and shouting that they want money.

Why do we have our own cook? Because we need a “field kitchen” from time to time. When it’s midday, Saidi lays out the pots whose contents he prepared during the night.

He only needs to heat the pots on a camp stove. Sometimes we see Maasai children on the way who also get a warm meal from us.

Even before we reach the Serengeti we notice many animals, especially zebras and wildebeest. We are very high in the mountains, there are many trees and green grass.

The sky is overcast and it already looks like rain in the south.

We finally reach the northern gate to the Serengeti National Park. There are far fewer people here than at the entrance to the Tarangire National Park. We drive through and our breath catches.

There are wildebeests and zebras, impalas and Thomson’s gazelles everywhere. As far as the horizon. It looks like the legendary Garden of Earth. We see animals in all directions.

One of the reasons we chose the end of September as our travel time is the Great Wildebeest Migration. The wildebeest migrate throughout the year through large parts of the Masai Mara in Kenya and through Tanzania in search of green grass.

As the rainy season is just beginning, the wildebeest are coming to the Serengeti to feed. As a result, we see hundreds of wildebeest gathered in one place. And with them come many other animals.

Large herds of buffalo join in and ostriches block the road during their mating dance. Two roosters appear to be fighting over two females.

Warthogs run in families with their tails in the air between the large animals.

Animals, animals and more animals. That’s more or less how I imagined the Serengeti, but on the other hand I couldn’t really imagine it. And there are many animals that I didn’t know about before.

“Topis“, “Hartebeest” or “Kongoni” – I have never heard of these animals before. Here they are everywhere.

Are you sure we’re not in a big zoo? It’s like a school textbook illustration of the animal world of the African savannah. We can observe every animal.

Giraffes also appear and trot between the zebras. Secretary birds strut between the Thomson’s gazelles. A lonely hyena does its business between skeptical gazelles.

Finally we reach a place to camp for the night. There is also a house there where our cook can set up his utensils. In my naivety I thought that these places would be securely fenced off to separate the money-making tourists from hungry man-eating predators. But no such luck!

There is no fence. We set up our tents right in the middle of the wild animals’ kingdom. Under the watchful eyes of the baboons who have taken up position on a rock behind us, we drink our beer with the delicious African food prepared by our cook Saidi.

The first night in the tent in the middle of the Serengeti is exciting. Outside there is a breathtaking starry sky and my bladder starts to make itself known after the beer with dinner.

On the other hand, I hear lions roaring and hyenas drooling outside. Problems like these are a good way to escape from the daily grind. Instead of being eaten by the boss, you get eaten by the lion.

We will get up early and start the next day. We will survive the night, although at first light the next morning we will notice the buffalo, known for their aggressiveness, and also the hyenas not far from our tents.

We will spend two more days here on safari in the Serengeti and then another day on safari in the Ngorongoro Crater. I can’t wait!