The road into Serengeti from Lake Manyara crossed land dotted with kopjes, the huge boulders plunging out of the earth. Upon these sun-drenched rocks often lies a family of lions; in our case, the male dozed under a tree nearby while geckos bobbed at one another among sleepy lion cubs.

Serengeti offered more varieties of animals, but that might have just been our luck. We saw all types of animals, including a farway leopard and our first cheetah. We met a large family of lions--about a dozen cubs and four or five lionnesses. Of course, giraffe, elephants, gazelles, wildebeest, topi, various bucks, and dozens of birds make Serengeti home as well. Serengeti is also spacious enough to accommodate many vehicles without over-crowding.

The most amazing aspect of the park didn't occur to me until later, when we were in Kenya at the Maasai Mara. The animals peacefully grazing in the green fields of the Mara were the ones we had seen beginning their long migratory trek in Serengeti the week before! To watch nature at work on such a giant scale made me feel so small.

Perhaps Disney was a little corny with the "Circle of Life," but man, did they nail that feeling on the head. Because of Serengeti, I believe Pride Rock could exist. I loved the movie but didn't really use its scenery as my image of Africa, but believe it or not, The Lion King is a fairly accurate example of what the Serengeti looks like. (Side note concerning the Lion King, which is where most Americans get their images of Africa, along with Born Free: the Africans I met mostly knew of the movie but had no idea what it looked like. I am proud to tell them I felt it was accurate or at least that I felt the Disney people spent some time in the area.)