Across the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengetti
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2008
1
26
27
Trip End
Jun 25, 2008
Mwanza,
Tanzania
Sunday, June 15, 2008
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The Ngorongoro Crater is basically a foodfest for predators. Situated within a volcanic crater that collapsed and has become an ecosystem of choice for many of Africa's finest animals, the park was seen over the course of a day. Dozens of hippos, thousands of wildebeests, a smaller number of elephants, coupled with 2 prides of lions were spotted in the crater. More interestingly, at night on the edge the crater, we camped in a non-fenced area that was supposedly guarded by armed security with rifles. This was in case there were animals entering the camps during the evenings. Campsites commonly have wild pigs, elephants, zebras, buffalo and occasionally lions enter the camp during the evenings. Having become acquainted with two newlywed Kiwis in the camp, we solidified our friendship over a bottle of locally brewed Konyagi (equivalent of gin). Courage ensued, and a brief foray 15 meters from the campfire surprised many of us, as we spotted a herd of 30 buffalo grazing on our campsite grass. This was following the 5-7 zebras that cruised thru our camp grazing as the sun went down. I think wild pigs entered the camp that nite as well; waking at 4am to head to the bathroom, I heard munching outside the tent. Needless to say, I opted to do so from the tent door rather than venture into unguarded territory. This was not nearly as profound an experience as Greg, who stayed up later by the fire and apparently heard the equivalent of a dying cat in the nearby brush of the campsite followed by a vicious roaring by some type of undetermined predator
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. Diagnosis next day - a hyena killing a wild boar.The Serengetti is a much different experience, as the park is about 150 times larger than the Crater (15000 square kilometers in total). We drove several hours a day, spotting nearly everything except our desired wildebeest migration. While somewhat of a bummer in that we did not see the migration, spotting over 25 lions in two days was a spectacular sight to behold. This, coupled with giraffe and zebra spottings, along with a fair share of hippos in wading pools, was still a memorable experience.
Enter the tse tse fly. For those of you who have never encountered this type of fly, a fair word of warning.... Dont... As Hedrick, Michael, Greg and I cruised on the 6th day thru the western portion of the Serengetti in hopes of spotting the migration, we came across an enormous herd of elephants, but as well what must have been swarms of tse tse flies. These things hurt, truly... They bite everywhere, from ankles to arms to necks; they even bite thru the fabric of one's clothes. With about 10-20 bites under my belt during this invasion, and likely a similar number to my peers in the car, the wrath of Greg and my sandals began to affect the tse tse populations. I think we stopped counting at 40-50 dead flies
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. These suckers hurt, and reaching the western end of the park was a welcoming experience. That night, as we had our dinner and spoke with the guard armed this time with a bow and arrow (against a lion, am sure that arrow is highly effective...), we recounted our experiences over the 5 day safari trek. We were in all our glory as we heard there was a soccer game on that evening. Greg and I headed to the bar and started sipping the first of several cold beers, all the while anxiously awaiting what was promised to be a game on in the next hour. The driver and our cook ditched us to head into the village to watch the game, and instead of a soccer match we got the equivalent of Tanzania Idol, a copycat program based on the American hit series. Awful, dreadful ending to a great safari experience, but comical as hell. For those interested, look up Project Tusker on youtube, as it may be there.
Onward we go... To Rwanda and beyond..
