The Serengeti Plains

Serengeti. The Maasai call it siringet, in that expressive and lyrical language of Maa. It means extended, or endless, a place that goes on forever. They do appear endless, the plains that comprise a large part of Serengeti. The total Serengeti ecosystem, which includes Serengeti National Park (larger than Connecticut), Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and adjacent reserves such as Loliondo, Maswa, Ikorongo and Grumeti, is almost 10,000 square miles - nearly 3 times the size of Yellowstone National Park. While this may seem an excessively large area to preserve, it is important to realize that it needs to be large in order for the life cycles to continue as they have for thousands of years. Serengeti is one of the very few reserves left on earth that protects and contains such a complete ecosystem and the succession of life that takes place within it.

Cheetah with an attitude?

He looks menacing but in a fleeting moment I caught him as he looked straight at us. He was really non-threatening and posed nicely.

From our February 2012 trip to Serengeti. As usual, it was a great trip and we had a wonderful bunch of people with us. A couple of them were repeats from one of our photo tours of a few years ago. We'll be heading back in February 2013.