The Joys of Enjoying the "Better-than-Expected"

Sometimes during one's travels, you experience a place that exceeds your expectations. I came to Tanzania expecting a lot. I received more.

Nowhere was this more true than the 4 day camping safari we took in the magnificent Serengeti National Park and the neighbouring Ngorongoro crater. I had always wanted to see big African beasts in the wild and this was my chance. Over four days, we saw a variety and density of wildlife that I have never experienced anywhere in the world. In Canada, a place noted for wildlife, one can expect to see an animal here and another one there - perhaps a few sited in the space of a good afternoon's hike. A drive through the Serengeti offers up zebras, gazelles and wildebeest by the hundreds all set against the most enrapturing backdrops of African plains and volcanic mountains. We were lucky enough to see all of the "Big Five". I had thought we might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a lion as we craned through binoculars. We saw a dozen - including two lionesses that paraded on an early morning prowl directly in front of our Land Rover, their svelte and determined presence causing havoc in the neighbourhood as zebras and hartbeest scattered as fast as they could. We were lucky enough to see other cats as well - 3 leopards, including one who had dragged his prey up into a tree and dangled the corpse on a branch above it for ready access to a quick snack. We also saw a cheetah slinking through the grass alongside a herd of wildebeest. We saw dozens of great lumbering elephants - some in herds of young and old 15 strong. We loved the dozens of gangly but graceful giraffes we saw dancing across the plain (What strange quirk of evolution designed this beast?). We watched breathlessly as we witnessed a wildebeest being born and then, five minutes later, nudged by its mother to get up and run with the pack. Mangy hyena and scavanging jackals lurching towards a lion's fresh kill. Dozens of happy hippos lolling in the mud - a ranking candidate for my reincarnation program. Herds of horn-crowned African buffalo. The elusive black rhino made a brief and distant appearance deep in the stunning Ngorongoro crater. And to top it all of, we got to camp in the middle of the Serengeti under a shimmering celestial sky trying to sleep amidst strange and eerie sounds that sometimes seemed a bit too close for comfort. It is a photographer's dream and a naturalist's heaven. With the noble but sad Maasai standing guard over the territory and their cattle, a chance to connect with an earlier time and a culture struggling to survive the onslaught of the 21st century. At Oldupai gorge on the Serengeti-Ngorongoro border, we visited the archaeological excavation site of the British archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey. As we've travelled in the world, one gets used to seeing sites and things that are 2,000 or 4,000 years old. here we saw excavated remains of the first , upright humans dating back 1.7 million years. Somehow, I couldn't resist touching the set of million year old human teeth on display - a chilling feeling especially just before lunch.

The Serengeti is a photographer's dream and a naturalist's heaven. It is hard not to feel the profound impact of this special place in the world. If you cannot, I would seek immediate medical assistance as you may very well be dead.

Exotic and timeless places - Zanzibar, Serengeti, Kilimanjaro - Tanzania has a lot to offer and, for me at least, gave more than I had expected.