The Serengeti in 7 days

Wildebeest, zebras and gazelles loop through the Serengeti and Masai Mara after the grass: calving in February, river crossings from July to October.

Ancient granite boulders rising from the plain, with hollows that hold rainwater; lions climb them to watch, while hyraxes and agama lizards fill the cracks.

Lift off before dawn near Seronera for an hour's silent drift, first low over the plain, then up to about three hundred metres.

Where the Seronera and Orangi rivers meet, often over fifty hippos packed together, at one of the few spots where you can leave the vehicle.

The heart of the park, where a year-round river keeps wildlife in place: leopards in sausage trees, cheetahs on the open plains, long-studied lion prides.

Treeless short-grass steppe in the south, partly in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where the herds give birth from late January to March.

A strip of land reaching west towards Lake Victoria, with gallery forest along the river and Nile crocodiles among the largest in East Africa.

In the north, from July to October, columns of wildebeest gather on the steep banks, sometimes for hours, before plunging into the brown water.