Siringet is the Maasai word for the endless plain, and the name was put on the maps by European visitors who heard it and wrote it down. The Serengeti is nearly fifteen thousand square kilometres of grassland, acacia woodland and granite outcrops called kopjes, in northern Tanzania, and each year more than a million wildebeest, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle, move through it in a great circular migration, following the rains and the new grass. In February they calve on the short-grass plains of the south, in May and June they head north-west toward the Grumeti river, and by July and August the herds reach the northern Mara river, where crocodiles wait at the crossings. The park, together with the neighbouring Ngorongoro Conservation Area, is listed as a World Heritage site.
I have to be straightforward about the riding. Motorcycles are not allowed in Tanzania's national parks, so you cannot ride into the Serengeti, and the visit is done in a four-wheel-drive vehicle with a guide and a pop-up roof. The ride belongs to the roads that lead up to it. From Arusha, the tarmac runs west through the farmland of the Rift Valley escarpment, past Lake Manyara and the town of Karatu, and up to the rim of Ngorongoro Crater at about 2,200 metres, where the road bends through cloud forest and the air is cool, damp and often foggy. The crater itself, a collapsed volcano, holds a self-contained world of lions, elephants and flamingos, and its rim road gives huge views.
Beyond the Ngorongoro gate, the road to the Serengeti runs past Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakey family found fossil remains of early humans, and the Maasai grazing lands, where herders in red cloaks guard cattle and goats. The roads are unpaved in places, with corrugations and dust, and should be treated as expedition travel, with the right vehicle and careful planning. Fuel is sold in Karatu and Arusha, and fuel inside the park is scarce, so check before you commit. The dry season, from June to October, is the best time for game viewing, and the green season, from November to May, brings rain, newborn animals and fewer visitors. Respect the animals and the Maasai, and never walk outside a vehicle in the park.