Day 1 in the Serengeti July 2018

This was our first day in the Serengeti and Ian is ready to go. 

Pretty much the whole trip whenever there were people Ian would be hanging out the window saying hi to people and people were quick to wave back at him. 

Joel and Robert ready to go.

We actually had to wait until mid-day to enter the park because the entrance fees went by the time you entered and exited. It was crazy expensive to be in the park like $1,000 for 24 hours for our group so we wanted to time it right. 

Before we went in we stopped at the entrance and ate our box lunch that almost always consisted of a hard boiled egg, maybe a small wing or leg of a chicken, peanuts, a juice box and some cookies. 

While we were there we observed some of the interesting wild life around us. 

Wildebeest were probably the most common animal we saw during our trip. 

Taylor had a great time with the camera and became quite the photographer getting up close shots of animals on the way like these monkeys. 

Our best photographer

African Buffalo 

Up close

and closer. This guy was peering at us out of the bushes as we drove by!

Antelope

What was crazy is pulling up and seeing lions right next to us. Dean with a lion in the background!

These were in the background.

When you looked close you could see all the flies on him!

Ashley was impressed with the lions too!

Giraffe sightings were plentiful on our safari

What was much harder to find were Cheetahs. Our driver radioed other drivers and drove us all over for maybe an hour and a half following Cheetah sightings. We finally found one. He's in the tree... 

When you zoom in closer you could see him. The problem with Cheetahs were they liked to hide in the grass so you have trouble seeing them. 

All of us were glad to be together experiencing all of this!

Edward was one of our drivers...

As the sun was setting we were trying to look for where we were staying that night. It was a newer place and not easy to find. Our GPS didn't really work and we worked with a map and our driver and the scant signs posted and eventually found our place after it was getting dark. 

The workers from the hotel led us to the dining room and then to our room with flashlights and armed with a bow and arrow in case we met any animals in the dark that we needed protection from. 

There was a fire pit right outside of the hotel complex and we went to sit at it after dinner thinking it was for guests, we realized that it was for the hotel workers and those who would be sitting up all night protecting us from animals or others...that we needed protection from!