Lion King of the Serengeti.

So, you’ve seen the Lion King Movie of 2019 and you are thinking of the exciting possibilities of visiting Simbas’ Kingdom. Well we are putting together here all the information you might need to start planning and executing that adventure. We are Lion King Adventures and Simbas’ Kingdom is our domain.

Simba, the swahili for lion, has his kingdom upon the awesome plains of the Serengeti, located in Northern Tanzania. Everything the light touches, his proud father tells Simba, is our Kingdom and, dawn experienced on the Serengeti plains, is an unforgettable sight.

Just as the young Simba longs for experience and adventure, a safari with Lion King Adventures to this majestic landscape is the opportunity for our visitors to imbibe a sense of freedom and wonder at the inspiring spectacle of this landscape and the multitude of wildlife that live the great drama of life on the sweeping Serengeti.

The updated Lion King movie employs some of the most incredible groundbreaking techniques in onscreen animation approaching so close to reality as to be almost indistinguishable from it. With this said, we guarantee that your real life adventure out upon the great plains, will not only surpass the onscreen adventure, but also live on in your memories through life as one of the most spectacular experiences that the natural world can deliver to us here on Earth.
With a plot that accords to some degree to Shakespeares Hamlet: the murdered father, the usurping uncle; the Lion King has its roots in one of the greatest dramatic tragedies of human storytelling. And on a journey with Lion King Adventures across Simba’s Endless Plain we will to experience great beauty, drama, tragedy, and adventure as the circle of life in all its pain and joy and glory, takes place all about us.

A safari on The Serengeti with Lion King Adventures is a journey with multiple storylines. See the Antelope, Gazelle, Zebra, and Wildebeest grazing placidly, spread across the plains, with Acacia trees dotted about and the Giraffe eating from them, perhaps some buffalo and the hippo wallowing in the waterhole, while Leo Panthera in Pride loll about digesting the last kill.

We see a congregation of vultures upon the horizon, alerting us to a drama either already enacted or happening in the moment. This blood thirsty audience will draw in the much maligned hyena and, as we draw close, we see the hunting sisters of Simba closing in upon an unfortunate wildebeest, separated from his herd and succumbing to the inevitable end as the chosen one of the hungry pride.

A baby elephant strays a little too far into the waterhole and finds herself duelling with crocodiles, we breathe a sigh of relief as the matriarch charges these primeval creatures and rescues the lucky
wayward calf.

Good Times to Travel to Simbas’ Kingdom

The Tanzanian Northern Safari Circuit can be visited at different times of the year with the action on the plains being found in different areas depending on the season. Lion King can take you to the action as we explore this world renowned landscape replete with some three million large mammals.

A picture paints a thousand words and you’d have to be the greatest jazz artist to ever breathe to bring to life with words even a whisper of the wonder that comes from exploring the Serengeti with Lion King.

After the short rainy season in November and December the great migration of Wildebeest and Zebra makes its way south from the Maasai Mara to the central Serengeti where the mighty Lion King and cousins such as the leopard and the cheetah await their arrival in hearty anticipation.

This, the Earths last great terrestrial migration, is the awesome movement of some 260,000 zebra that precede 1.7 million wildebeest with hundreds of thousands of other plains game, including around 470,000 gazelle present.

In February, the wildebeest spend their time on the short grass plains of the southeastern part of the ecosystem, grazing and giving birth to approximately 500,000 calves within a 2 to 3-week period.

This ecosystem is home to over 3,000 lions (Panthera Leo), 1,000 leopards (Panthera Pardus) and about 8,000 spotted hyenas. The speedy cheetah is also on the prowl and all are concerned with having bellies full of delicious game!

From June to October the Migration makes its way Northward again heading towards the lush grasses to be found beyond the Mara river, the crossing of which is a spectacle indeed to behold.

This mass movement of animals is closely attended by The King, mighty Simba. The male lions (Scar) can often be found in bachelor groups or solitarily stalking as a pride can have but one adult male who himself services the queen and princesses (Nala and Sarabi in the Lion King movie). He may often too hang back when the hunt is on and let the matriarch and her sisters do the work of selecting and securing the prey of the day, coming in once the work is done to take the ‘lions share’.

It truly is an awesome sight to behold with the sun rising or setting as we traverse this incredible landscape, with the majestic sight of King Lion seated atop a kopjes, a mighty rocky outcrop elevating our regal lord above the plain, where he can cast his lordly eye across the plains, master of all he surveys.

Our Lion King Adventure driver guides are well versed with the plains and the movements of the kings in their kingdoms and can with unerring instinct take us to the heart of the action as we venture out onto this world heritage landscape meet Simbas’ clan.

While unlike the movie, the creatures of the Serengeti do not converse in human tongues, they are equipped with sophisticated communication systems allowing the inhabitants of Leos kingdom to alert each other to dangers as the predators and the prey seek to outmanoeuvre one another in the daily play of life and death upon the endless plains.

On out Lion King Adventures Safari experience we will be confronted with a multitude of stories of birth, life, and death, with both happy and sad endings playing themselves out before our eyes.

Our leonine friends take down an unfortunate gazelle. A crocodile closes its powerful jaws upon an unlucky wildebeest, a cheetah runs an antelope to ground, all these stories and more play out daily in the circle of life here on the Serengeti Plains.

We may be brought to laughter or tears by these events as we witness them, yet despite the seeming cruelty of some of these occurrences, they are all part of mother natures balanced eco system of life here in the wilds of East Africa, as the fauna of the Rift Valley fulfil their instinctual roles in the sweeping actions predetermined by the natural worlds programming.

In The Lion King movie the hyena get a pretty bad deal, being cast as the bad guys (Shenzi, Azizi, and Kamari in the movie) but it must be recognised that they are a part of it all and have a role to play, cleaning up the carnage. Though ruthless these unusual looking creatures are important in their role as scavengers. They clean the landscape picking to the bone the remains they find. Even diseased remains are hoovered up helping to contain and inhibit the spread of diseases across the ecosystem at large.

All the other stars and bit players from the Lion King 2019 movie are likely to be spotted on our adventure. The warthog abound and hopefully while we see them we will be spared the opportunity to discover if they all suffer from poor Pumbas affliction of pungent gaseous movements from their rear ends!

Rafikis family, the mandrills, Timons family the meerkats, and Zazus family of hornbills, are all likely to be spotted as we sweep across the plains in our sturdy jeep.

There is one area of Serengeti landscape that is very special in its own right: The Ngorongoro Crater. More precisely a Caldera, formed about two to three million years ago with the massive explosion of a volcano once higher than Kilimanjaro, this scape of land is a six hundred and ten metre deep three hundred and four kilometre squared enclosed ecosystem and is home to over twenty five thousand large mammals.

Ngorongoro Caldera is one of the truly spectacular landscapes on our Earth. So named for the cow bell of the Maasai who here inhabit cheek by jowl with the wildlife, onomatopoeic in its echoing of the sound that rings out throughout the caldera as the forty five thousand odd Maasai cattle graze.

The obliteration of this six thousand metre volcano spread phosphorus rich volcanic ash for miles and miles and is the causation for the Serengeti being what it is, a vast plain springing year upon year for millions of years the lushest grasses on our green Earth and now sustaining in the region of three million large mammals. The phosphorous rich short grasses that grow on the southern Serengeti plain during the rainy calving season are what helps the new born wildebeest to grow quickly strong for the daunting migratory existence that beckons them through life. Every cell of a wildebeest contains phosphorus, it is as if the volcano has transformed itself into a huge roving mammalian horde! The views from the caldera rim are breathtaking as this self contained ecosystem spreads out before our eyes. Ngorngoro is one of the best places in all Africa to see the ’big five’ – rhino, lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo – in their true and natural state, in the true wild. The diverse species of wildlife here present drink from the waters of Lake Magadi which is formed by other water sources within the crater that flow into the lake. There is a high probability of seeing the endangered northern black rhino drinking from the waters. We here within the caldera find elephant, black rhinoceros, leopard, buffalo, zebra, warthog, gnu (wildebeest), Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle, and the densest population of lions in the world. Ngorngoro is home to five different lion prides in the crater with three upon the rim. There are seven clans of hyena of which three hunt mainly at night, with these hyena providing eighty percent of the lions food. The ‘crown jewel of the Serengeti, Ngorongoro is considered one of the seven wonders of Africa, and one of the ten wonders of the world. The unique ecosystem found within the caldera is defined by the rim of the great Rift Valley escarpment that makes it difficult for animals to migrate from the craters natural enclosure. Within the some hundred square mile ecosphere we find most of the animal species of East Africa. Giraffe are absent as the crater walls are too steep for them to navigate. With cool breezes at the crater rim cooling the caldera during hot days, animals are encouraged to enter. The Ngorongoro Crater is an especially good place for photographic safari expeditions, as the animals get close enough to the jeeps for the photographer to click excellent close-ups of the wildlife.

Our days come to a close with a momentous Serengeti sunset as we perhaps head to our tented camp where a delicious meal and a warm drink by the fire on the plain await us. The sights and sounds of the day playing across the minds eye as we share stories and laughter with the hyena slinking past at the edge of the fires light.

With this quintessential experience with Lion King Adventures on the endless plain, no matter how good the movie, it assuredly cannot compare with this wondrous adventure.

We hope this little wander of words in the Lion King, Simbas, domain, have whetted your appetite for the adventure of a life time. We at Lion King Adventures design and execute adventure holidays to suit all desires and budgets. We will be happy to hear from you to collaborate on creating the adventure holiday that is right for you and yours. We have the expertise and experience to deliver the highest quality fo experiences possible here in the great Rift Valleys extraordinary flora and fauna.

Reach out and let us at Lion King Adventures explore with you the possibilities of creating the best experience possible and come join us to hear the mighty lion roar!