On a 5-day safari through Tanzania, a local guide told me the number one thing that ruins the experience for tourists

On a recent five-day safari in Tanzania, I witnessed the Great Migration when 1.5 million wildebeest travel across Tanzania's grasslands to give birth as well as countless lions, elephants, and giraffes.
I was incredibly lucky on my safari, as few people see as many animals as I did. My guide, Charles Nnko of Tanzania Experience, told me that many safari-goers don't see half as much on safaris that are twice as long.
Nnko said that the biggest mistake first-time safari-goers make is expecting the experience of going on safari to be like visiting the zoo.

Most days of the year, you cant see Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain peak in Africa, even when you are driving alongside it. The day I flew into Tanzania was not one of those days.

As I looked out the window driving back from the airport, the mountains flattened peak was visible behind the expanse of savannah grasses. Veins of snow flowed down the top.

It means you are a lucky man, said Anthony, the Tanzanian owner of a bed & breakfast in Arusha , the city closest to Tanzanias most famous safari parks. I think you will be lucky and see all of the Big Five," he said, referring to the lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard considered the animals most difficult to hunt.

He was laughing while he said it, but he wasnt wrong. I was lucky.

Over the course of a five-day safari to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire the three parks that dominate Tanzania's Northern Circuit I had seen no less than seven prides of lions, many herds of wildebeest, zebra, African buffalo, and elephant, giraffes, two cheetahs, and a leopard.

On the final day of my safari, my guide, Charles Nnko of Tanzania Experience , spotted a pair of rhinos the last of the Big Five I hadnt seen a mile or so in the distance. I watched them munch grass through binoculars.

Nnko told me throughout the safari how lucky I was. Most people that go on safaris for twice as long see half as much. Some never see anything at all. I was not taking any of it for granted.

Temper your expectations: Going on safari is not like going to a zoo

The day I left for the safari, Nnko had warned me: If you expect going on safari to be like heading to the zoo, you are going to have a bad time. After close to a decade of guiding city slickers like me on their first safaris, Nnko said hed dealt with all kinds of people. Without fail, the ones who dont enjoy their safari are the ones that go in with expectations about what they will see. When it doesnt happen, they leave dejected.

Its understandable. Safaris are expensive costing a few thousand dollars at a minimum and they are a long flight away for most travelers. In an ideal world, youd go on safari for five days and come home with tales of a lion lunging into a gazelle, an elephant mother nurturing her calf, and a stampede of a thousand zebras crossing a river.

But going on safari is about going into the wild. Animals there could care less about your expectations. Theyre worried about finding dinner or avoiding becoming it.

Outside of seeing the Great Migration in the Serengeti it's hard to miss 1.5 million wildebeest migrating if you visit at the right time everything is up to chance.

Take, for example, my third day on safari, when I visited the Serengeti. After a few hours of seeing nothing but antelopes and zebras, we came upon a tree near the road where two cheetahs were lazing under the shade.

Within a minute of our arrival, one of the cheetahs stood up to stretch its legs, chirped at its companion, and walked off into the savannah. The second one followed soon after. If we had arrived five minutes later than we did, we never would have seen the cheetahs.

Aside from the fact that I was lucky to see a cheetah, Nnko explained that I was doubly lucky to see a pair. Cheetahs are usually solitary creatures. The two were likely a mating pair, he said.

Less than a half hour after that, we came upon a leopard adjusting its position in an acacia tree.

Leopards are notoriously one of the hardest animals to spot on safari, Nnko said, due to the fact that they spend most of their time sleeping on tree branches that they camouflage with.

If we had arrived even a minute or two after we did, the leopard would have already laid down on the branch and, Nnko said, it's unlikely he would have spotted the animal. I didn't see another one either before or after.

Therein lies one of the things no one tells you about going on safari. The Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire have some of the highest population densities for large animals in the world, so it's not just finding where the animals are.

It's about being lucky enough to be there in the moment that an animal exhibits a behavior that makes it visible, from you chancing upon a carcass that attracts hyenas to being in the savannah on the day that the lion pride is ready to eat.