We visited four parks - Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Conservation Park, and Lake Manyara - with a stop at Oldupai on the way.

• Tarangire. Known for its wild elephants. The drive was bumpy, weather hot, boxed lunch was crappy and we didn't see much in the park. Never coming back here. We had correctly decided to spend a little more time at our next stop Serengeti. We spent the night at Camp Simba - which provided a hot water bath and a well maintained lawn for camping.

• Serengeti. The Serengeti experience was very different from Tarangire or the following Ngorongoro - much larger. Brilliant sunrise over the vast plains, umbrella-shaped Acacia trees, giraffes near the Kopjes (rocky outcrops), large herds of Wildebeest, a lioness guarding her fresh Zebra kill, a rare leopard sighting, all made this the Safari experience to remember.
  

Also, the first time we saw the African Male Lion from close - a magnificent beast that deserves to be king of the jungle.



We left Serengeti next morning heading to Ngorongoro but with a stop at Oldupai on the way. The drive to Oldupai was one of the worst ever - bumpy and rough, coupled with exposure to a hot sun with no shade along the way.

• Oldupai (or Olduvai). We saw the excavation site in Olduvai gorge and the accompanying museum where tools and implements used by our pre-historic ancestors 2 Million years ago are on display. Also on display are the plaster casts of the imprints of the earliest recorded upright walk by hominids (a set of three footprints - two adult, one child walking three million years ago with the second smaller adult stepping right in the footprints of the first larger) . Fascinating stuff.