Lions and zebras and ostriches - oh my!

By Melissa Fuller

I went on an amazing international vacation — an African safari to see some of the world’s most prized national wonders: Arusha National Park, Ngorogoro Crater, the Serengeti National Park and Tarangire National Park.

Zebra graze on the hillside at Ngorogoro Crater.

We spent our days cruising in the sun under the popped top of a converted 4×4 Eurovan hunting for sightings of hippo, elephant, gazelle, rhino, giraffe, and lion. We didn’t have to hunt terribly hard.

Perhaps as a side effect of eco-tourism, the animals were strangely comfortable with our gawking presence. On day one a wayward lioness even came up to our van and slept in our shade for 20 minutes. I careened my upper body out of the window to take a shot of the lioness and I in frame like a kid posing with a character at Disneyland. Needless to say I was quickly shooed back in the vehicle by our safari leader, who was irritated by my Siegfried-and-Roy-like actions.

Lions at the Ngorogoro Crater

On night two we slept in tents under a indigo sky as a the sound of Maasai children in the distance singing songs carried over the flat, calm, plains and right through my nylon tent. A Maasai man with a bow and arrow lashed to his back watched over the site to ensure hyenas and other “visitors” would not make their way in to our campground.

The other days of my international vacation peeled by. Scrambling to find the binoculars to spot a jaguar in a tree, standing on the seats of the van as we watched a baby elephant cool off in a muddy bank — all of these experiences creating a personalized vision of Africa in my mind that I surely will never forget.

An older brother, watching his sister, introduces himself to campers..

Ostrich Crossing at Taringire National Park

Two lionesses lay in the afternoon sun in Serenghetti National Park.

Water buffalo bones at Ngorogoro Crater

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Melissa Fuller earned her bachelor of science fromthe University of California, Berkeley, where she studied word and image theory with an emphasis in photography. Her work has been featured in National Geographic’s “There and Back” readers series and for TOMS shoe’s for tomorrow blog. Melissa has traveled around the United States and abroad as production staff for several networks including A&E, VH1, MTV and ABC. See more of her work on her blog.

Tagged: Photo essay