Serengeti Kati Kati Camp — Fat Chicken Meal

Honeymoon - Day 5 & 6

We had our last breakfast at Mara Simba Lodge and embarked on the 4 hour journey to the boarder. The African massage was even stronger than the one we enjoyed on the way to Masai Mara 3 days ago 😄

At 11am we finally reached the border town, Isebania. First, we went to the immigration counter on the Kenya side. It's a new facility so it's alright. Then, we drove passed the gate to the Tanzania side. We had to go through security check/scan and filled out a form. Mr. Husband had to pay USD 50 for the visa and they took a picture with web cam through the glass which had a reflection of the immigration officer. 😅

After all formality has been done, we said bye to our guide in Kenya, met our guide for Tanzania, and changed vehicle. It's a smaller 4x4 but it's big enough for us. Under the Tanzanian guide's recommendation, we exchanged the remaining 5,000 Kenyan Shillings (around USD 50) to Tanzanian dollars. We received 50,000 and didn't put too much thought on it because it's a small amount and the guide was there during this transaction.

Later we found that we were being cheated. We didn't think we would get a good exchange rate, and certainly expected some kind of commission involved, but....we've just found out...instead of 1:21 we were given the rate of 1:10. So we lost over half of the value. Good thing we only exchanged USD 50!

Our "roasted chicken" at Goldland Hotel in Tanzania

We stopped at Goldland Hotel for lunch. It was rather difficult to communicate with the waitress, and both of us ended up ordering roasted chicken and coke because everything else seemed to be not available. When our food arrived, they were two different dishes though. Haha! Both of them tasted quite good.

While we were eating, a woman with two kids approached us and wanted to take pictures with us. We agreed and thought it would just be a quick one, but we ended up taking photos with all the possible combinations 😄 It's a pity that we didn't ask for a copy of them.

After lunch, it's another 4 hours of African massage on bumpy and dusty roads. I'd hoped I had a mask...Asian thingy eh?

Finally we reached the gate before it's closed. After settling all paperwork, we entered Serengeti with the roof opened. 😊

Not long after entering the park, we saw two cheetahs sharing food. I didn't know that cheetahs are solitary animals. The guide and Mr. Husband said you'll only see more than one cheetahs together if they are mother and cubs. Apparently cheetah cubs are very vulnerable...

Before arriving at our camp, we saw a leopard sleeping on the tree. By now I figured leopards really like being on the trees. We saw a few of them in the past few days, and none of them were on the ground (and mostly sleeping).

Finally, we reached the Serengeti Kati Kati Camp just after sunset! It's our first camp in Africa.

Parking space at Serengeti Kati Kati Camp

"Kitchen" on the left and "Restuarant" on the right

We were shown to our "room" (tent) by a friendly staff. The "doors" were formed by two layers of a U shaped zips. There was a double bed and a single bed. Both with a simple bed frame and a mattress.

There's a double bed and a single bed in the tented camp

Moving further in, he lifted a cloth and the "bathroom" was in front of us. There's a toilet bowl which has flushing function - I didn't ask and didn't want to know where it goes to...

There's another cubicle for "shower". The shower head was sort of fixed to the "ceiling" with a on/off switch. We had to tell him in advance when we wanted to take shower, and he would fill up water in the tank outside.

Each person has 20 litres. Well, I didn't expect that I would be able to shower, so that's really good news. Frankly, it's not very convenient and I struggled a bit with the 20litres because of my long hair, but I understand it's a luxury to be able to shower in the middle of this national reserve, and it really was the best that it could be. It's surely an interesting experience nonetheless, and I was glad we showered before it's totally dark as it got colder afterwards.

There's also a mirror and a mini sink with limited amount of water. We have to use bottled water to brush our teeth though.

After shower, we had dinner at the "restaurant" at the camp. We were served pumpkin soup as starter, then the main course was some braised meat with cauliflowers and potatoes, followed by banana fritter. Mr. Husband said the meat tasted very good and asked the staff what it was. The answer was "pork". I almost choked when I heard that because I was 150% sure it wasn't pork but some kind of red meat...Haha! So, I told myself, "Welcome to Africa!" 😊

"Restaurant" on the left and "Parking" on the right

Towards the end of the dinner, some staff rushed in and said there were some lions near the "kitchen". I honestly didn't know what I felt, but Mr. Husband was naturally very excited. They asked us if we'd like to get into the 4x4 and see them at a closer distance. Before I knew what was going on I found myself getting on the 4x4. The staff drove like 10 seconds to reach the "kitchen" area. And...there they were! Drinking water from the water tank! We counted and there were 8 of them! It's dry season so they were looking for water. They totally disregarded us and continued to drink water.

Lions...pic taken with my phone as we didn't have our cameras with us

We went back to the room watching the "lion show". I was conscious of the proximity of the lions. On top of that, something was "talking" outside, and Mr. Husband said it's hyenas...! I forgot to mention, this camp doesn't have concrete walls around it. There's not even fence. The animals can come and go as they pleased. 😅

It's quite cold at night and we were glad to have 2 layers of blankets. Leaving lions and hyenas behind, we were fast asleep after a full day massage :)

We slept quite well at the camp and ready for our full day game drive in Serengeti after having breakfast at the camp. Here are more photos we took the next morning.

The "terrace" outside our tent. You can see part of the U shaped "door" 😉

Two nights was a good duration to experience this camp. One night would be too short for both the camp and Serengeti. This was one of the special experiences in my life ☺️

Here's the link that the tour company provided to us for Kati Kati Camp: http://www.tanganyikawildernesscamps.com/camps/serengetimediumcamp/.