South of the Grumeti River

Coming from the Seronera Valley in Central Serengeti and heading westwards, visitors come across the boundless Musabi Plains, surrounded by Acacia woods offering shelter to many herbivores. A high concentration of giraffes and herds of elephants have been documented here.

 

There is also a high concentration of Topi antelopes that choose this area to give birth to their young and wean them.

 

In May, the Great Migration stops here for a while and it then starts following the course of the Grumeti River or the Mbalageti River. It later heads West to face the crossing of the Grumeti River and only then heads North, across the Ruwana Plains, to reach the Mara River and the Maasai Mara grazing lands.

 

Less visitors choose this place instead of Seronera and there are great opportunities to sight not only wildebeests, zebras, elephants and giraffes, but also martial eagles, lions, cheetahs, papas monkeys, baboons and black-backed jackals.

 

The Lower Grumeti Forest is found along the shores of the Grumeti River. This is a remote and wonderful area of the Western Corridor. Every year more than a million wildebeests and zebras come here in the month of May or June. They rest in the shade of this forest before facing the crossing of the Grumeti River.

 

The trees of this forest are home to the beautiful black and white colobuses. This is one of the few places where it is possible to sight them in East Africa. 

 

When herds leave the Lower Grumeti Forest behind them they proceed to face the crossing and challenge the Nile crocodiles that inhabit the river.

 

The River is also the residence of the noisy hippos, while herds of elephants and leopards live in the forest.

 

This valley’s extension goes from East to West and it hosts the Mbalageti River. It creates a natural corridor which wildebeests and zebras cover every year in the path that will take them Northwards, to Northern Serengeti and Maasai Mara.

 

The few visitors who get here can enjoy a wonderful landscape and witness one of the most exciting natural sights. They can see all of the herds walking through the valley, following their instinct to migrate, until they reach Kirawira and the Ndabaka Plains. Once they get there, they will, rather reluctantly, face the crossing of the Grumeti River.

 

Apart from the protagonists of the migrations, it is possible to catch sight of the martial eagles nesting here and then gazelles, baboons, ostriches, lions, leopards, giraffes and impalas too.

 

The areas of Western Serengeti

• South of the Grumeti  River
• North of the Grumeti River