Sleepless in Serengeti.....campsite lion taming...
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2003
1
54
59
Trip End
Apr 23, 2005
Mwanza to Dar-es-Salaam,
Tanzania
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Abstract: Safari in the Serengeti and Ngorogoro, Tanzania, the most amazing density of animals and birds, absolutely breathtaking, highlights, 12 Cheetahs including a chase and a kill, 7 Leopard with 2 kills, dozens of lions, 2 chases, the big 5 and thousands of herbivores... dropped a happy mum off in Dar-es-Salaam...
Nitty Gritty:
We had arranged to be picked up at hotel early with the idea that we would maximise our time in the parks. Our crew arrived spot on time and couldn't have been more physically different....Gerald our Driver/Guide was from the Chagga tribe and rather big both in height and in girth, in contrast Abdul our cook/trainee guide was svelte and looked the splitting image of a young Eddie Murphy, during our trip the guards for the parks would rib him mercilessly over the similarity
Cheetah about to race after wildebeast calf
. The boys where very tired as they had driven from Arusha the previous day, a 12 hour drive. They were a bit nonplussed over the early start as well as we discovered later, the park entry fees where per 24 hour periods so it was foolish to enter before 1pm as we would have to then cut short subsequent days. We decided to have a leisurely breakfast and then we trailed around with them buying fuel, checking the tyres and getting Ice and food stuffs, along the road we stopped every so often to buy rice, fish, charcoal from roadside vendors... we were in a 75 series Toyota Land cruiser with a special 'pop-top' canopy for shade whilst game viewing, we were suddenly having déjà vu and remembering precious Larry from Australia... yet again we wished we had him with us in Africa. We arrived at the gate at midday and stopped at a place called 'Serengeti stop over' for a "cold lunch"- Abdul demonstrated his prowess and we were treated consistently to amazing food over the next 6 days, all he had to cook on was charcoal, yet he produced amazing fare... the birds around the lunch spot were amazing, in particular Rupels long tailed starlings flew everywhere in flashes of iridescent violet.....
Whilst Gerald sorted the paperwork we watched the tiny vervet monkeys playing around the gate, jumping on each other doing gymnastics...upon entering the park along the Gremeti river corridor (scene of the famous crocodile attacks on the wildebeest migration) and within the hour we had seen dozens of different birds, buffalo, impala, baboon, zebra, Grants and Thompson gazelle, Masai giraffe, ostrich, warthog, 18 Lions including cubs and a big male, hippos, crocodile, vultures, secretary bird, green turaco, yellow billed hornbill, dwarf mongoose, van den decker hornbill, brown parrott, crested crane, and two cheetahs
Cheetah on look out, Serengeti
. WOW.... We have often spent days looking for wildlife on other holidays but here there is simply too much to take in... in particular the herbivores number literally thousands and herds stretch from one horizon to the other. We were warned beforehand it would be like this but nothing prepared us for the sheer biomass of it all...even after six days we were still totally amazed by the number and variety of animals and birds...The scenery was also stunning vast grass plains dotted with acacia with the characteristic flat bottoms due to giraffes.Arriving at our campsite at Serona in the centre of the Serengeti national park, poor Gerald our driver, who was an absolute genius for finding the rarer wildlife, with sharp eyes and encyclopaedic knowledge of the birds, was all in after all the driving, luckily Abdul took over and we relaxed at the camp whilst he prepared dinner. The camp was amusing, the eating areas were caged in, so the animals are free to roam but we have to stay in the cages to eat, we were a bit nervous about the unfenced camping area, with good reason. The following night we were awoken by roaring, then the reving of an engine car lights and beeping at 1am, turns out a big male lion was sniffing around the tents...and one of the drivers drove a landrover at him to scare him off... no way we were going to the toilets even if we were desperate. GULP! Not much sleep was had that (or on subsequent) night
Drinking herd of zebra and wildebeast, Serengeti
.Without wanting to bore our readers with the detail of our fantastic four days (animal list at bottom of page) in the Serengeti, we can't fail to mention the two cheetahs at full pelt after a wildebeest, needless to say at that speed you put down your camera and watch... amazing. We twice saw lions chasing zebra, again no success. We did however see two leopards with kills, although not doing the deed, the first the leopard was sat up in a tree looking satisfied as hyenas and vultures fought over the remains a zebra...one particularly large and ugly hyena managed to make off with a whole leg......We also watched an enormous herd of mixed zebra and wildebeest drinking and every time a crocodile or lion came to close a mass panic would ensue and the herd would thunder out of the water amid spray and clouds of dust..
We left the Serengeti with heavy hearts and set off for Ngorongoro (Ng) across an enormous plain, just grassland most of the way, not even the acacia trees...We passed the Olduvai Gorge where Mary Leakey famously found the hominid skulls (1.8 million yr old) and footprints so controversially used to support evolutionary theories... crossing into the Ng conservation area the Maasai are permitted to graze there cattle and goats, so amid herds of wild impala, zebra and wildebeest would be a spot of scarlet with domestic animals
Elephants approaching, Ngorogoro, Tanzania
. We soon worked out why they have such a fearsome reputation as they seemed to be several inches taller than other tribes and carry long spears to see off the predators we guessed...its pretty brave wandering around out there with the number of lions we had seen... Their villages dotted the now steepening brush slopes of the numerous volcanoes in the park, Ng is only one of many, but unique for the breathtaking numbers of animals inside. The villages, or bombas are surrounded by thick 'fence' of acacia, which (as we had found out to our chagrin when brushing against them) has 3 inch sharp thorns. Unfortunately because Ng is so heavily touristed, luckily we were in the quiet period, some of the kids have become persistent beggars...We arrived at the rim of the crater after a long pull up to 2200 m, the vista was spectacular. Within the 20km wide crater there is a soda lake, fresh water spring lake, a swamp, mudflats, grassland, and a forest... If one tried to design a wildlife theme park you couldn't have dreamt up anything more stunning or varied. We went onto the campsite and watch the sunset over the crater, clear days are pretty rare so it was a treat. Unfortunately Gerald had a rough night with malaria, and we attempted to make him comfortable by dosing him up.... Once a pharmacist always a pharmacist...
The crater was a revelation..
Feeding baby giraffe, Serengeti
. not just for the density of animals and birds but also for the scenery... we had heard of people actually complaining as it was like a safari park with too many animals, but this a natural phenomena and these animals are here of there own accord, apparently many move in and out. Indeed, three zebra where grazing in our campsite that evening. That day we saw all the big 5 -Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo ad leopard, and amazingly we saw a cheetah catch a baby gazelle, not by speed but by stealth.. after some lashing and scratching he let his three siblings share the meat. Two elephants, huge bulls, came so close to the car we could feel the vibrations and weren't too comfortable. The soda lake had an enormous flock of thousands of flamingos , some dancing back and forth.... On our way out Rachel said there is a tail in that tree, unfortunately she didn't insist on reversing because a few minutes later we saw a leopard run down the tree only meters away and then disappear into the grass, a couple of minutes later it reappeared but further away... our 'score' for the cats was leopards 7, cheetahs 12 and lions ..too many to count... Gerald reckoned it was probably a record.. We will definately be back to the parks here, we are still in a state of disbelief at the number of animals...Gerald and Abdul from Sunny safaris were wonderful.. and anyone who is remotely interested in nature, must, at least once, come here
Fuzzy leopard photo, Serengeti, Tanzania
.After saying sad goodbyes to our guys we had a shower (luxury) and a good sleep in Arusha before getting a bus to Dar-es-Salaam...where we visited a craft market and paid our first of many visits to Kenya Airways in an attempt to recover our stolen tickets. The following day we said our sad goodbyes to Hilary/Mum who boarded her flight to London via Nairobi.
African Animal list....(longer) Bird list to follow...roughly in size (mass) order....
Elephant, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Black Rhinoceros, Eland, African Buffalo, Zebra, Waterbuck, Wildebeest, Lion, Mountain Gorilla, Crocodile, Topi, Jackson's Hartebeest, Coke's Hartebeest, Ugandan Kob, Leopard, Spotted Hyena, Impala, Grant's Gazelle, Cheetah, Warthog, Chimpanzee, Redbuck, Waterbuck, Olive Baboon, Thompson's Gazelle, Black Backed Jackel, Loads of monkeys (Blue, Red Tailed, Red Colobus, Black and White Colobus, Grey Cheeked Mangabey, L'Hoest & Vervet), Bat Eared Fox, Civet Cat, Rock Hyrax, Dik Dik, African Hare, Spotted Necked Otter, Banded Mongoose, Dwarf Mongoose, and East Aftrican Doormouse......and I'm sure we've forgotten a few..
