Serengeti February 2014 ~ Day 11-13 ~ Feb 17-19 ~ Piyaya

Today we leave Serengeti National Park for one of our favorite places - Piyaya.

Our favorite for many reasons: it is remote, wild, allows walking, no one goes there, we have our own private mobile camp...

A "normal" safari wouldn't go there, perhaps because it's too far off the beaten track or lack of time, perhaps because the guides and trip leaders don't have the confidence to take a group to a land where game is more difficult to find - but much more rewarding when it is found.

Plenty to see on the road to Piyaya in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area. 

It's just East of Serengeti, but out of the Park.

And there is always time for one more coffee break:

Our first look at our mobile camp (set up by "Intimate Places") just beyond the Eland:

This camp is a little smaller, more intimate than the other camps:

Just right for old friends.

Who needs a dining tent when the weather is perfect:

And the food is perfect:

And the campers are happy:

How could we not be happy - just read the labels of the wine we were drinking:

So many sights to see on foot:

Like hand-dug Maasai watering holes:

And from the Rover:

The little, (Leopard Tortoise and African Hare ~ they both win):

And the big, (he wins whenever he wants to):

A sad moment:

And a new beginning...

"I'm tellin ya, it's this big..."

("I meant the zebra. Who did you think I meant?")

Lichen patterns on the rocks behind: 

After three relaxing days at Piyaya, everyone sits around our last campfire, exhausted, physically and mentally, in awe of what we've seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt over the last two weeks.

Will Bev and I ever come back to Piyaya? We don't know, but Asilia has just opened a camp a little Southwest of here, in Serengeti, called Namiri Plains Tented Camp, which we'll try next time.