On Safari

Scenes from our safari...

'Twigas' or giraffes in the Serengeti.

Elephants climbing a hillside - they're good at it...

A jackel cooling off in a puddle.

As I write this we are having a few free hours at the Seronera Wildlife Lodge in the middle of the Serengeti. I’d like to have my door open to catch a cross breeze but I cannot because there are dozens of banded mongooses, scores of hyrexes, and many baboons roaming everywhere looking for something to eat. I just had a baboon come to within six inches of me – so close that I could not get a photo. Perhaps he wanted my camera. I remember when I was here in 1999 I put my camera bag/back pack down on the grass and moved a dozen or so meters away to take a picture. I heard someone hollering from a room on the second floor and turned to see a Vervet monkey going through my bag.

Sylvia, one of TEMBO’s guests on safari, and I just had a nice chat with the head chef here. He said last week a male lion parked himself under a tree on right in front of the lodge. So, yes, we are living in the midst of abundant wildlife here.

On Sunday we had a memorable day driving through Lake Manyara National Park. We had many very close sightings of giraffes, a hippo, baboons, Vervet and Blue monkeys, gazelles, and of course magnificent tembos. The tembos crossed the road very close to our vehicle at the end of the day. We also saw lions from a bit of a distance.

Yesterday we made the journey from Lake Manyara over the Rift Valley and arrived here in the Serengeti via Oldavai Gorge, the site of Richard and Mary Leakey’s ground breaking discoveries of the bones of the first humans. We came through the southern Serengeti where tens of thousands of wildebeests and zebras have spread out in rich pastures to prepare for “calving” in a couple of weeks. It will be an incredible sight. Then they will move towards the center of the park with their newborns and by June they will move to the north and cross the Mara River in Kenya following the rain to green pastures. Many wildebeest are killed each year in the river crossing. The Mara River is populated by many crocodiles looking forward to this yearly ritual when the slow and weak and old in the great herds fall prey to them.

Towards evening en route to our lodge we came upon a huge herd of Cape Buffalo with their young – thousands of them making their way to a water hole. On the way, some stopped to enjoy a mud bath that both protects their skin from the sun and from insects. Then Baraka, our driver-guide with better than 20/20 vision, drew our attention to a tree in the distance and a leopard resting on a branch. We couldn’t see it without binoculars but sure enough the leopard was there. These sightings are rare and it was a great way to end the day.

Our final three days on safari yielded the most amazing sightings. One evening in the Serengeti a large bull elephant in the distance began moving towards our vehicle – slowly, steadily, deliberately. All our hearts began pounding faster as we stood (or sat) silently. The elephant pressed his trunk against the Land Cruiser, leaving a mark on the window. He seemed to be examining us. Baraka, our wonderful driver-guide said that is exactly what he was doing. The elephant spotted us but could not smell us because we were down wind. I guess we passed the test because he wandered away and left us standing there slightly trembling but causing no harm.

Baraka amazed us with his incredible eyesight. He peered into trees in the distance to detect sleeping cats. Twice he found leopards and once a sleeping lion. These sightings are extremely rare.

On the way back to our lodge at sunset we came upon a male impala with his harem of about 30 females. All of them faced west, ears alert, eyes peeled. Then we saw a hyena come out of the bush from the west. The male herded the group out of the path of the hyena. The hyena made a wide arc around the gazelles and our vehicle. He was out of our sight but the impalas knew he was still near. The male and two of the older females separated from the group as if to protect from a slight distance while trying to detect where the hyena had gone. The male began making loud sounds to ward off the predator. We watched in silence as the drama unfolded. No meal for the hyena that night. He was no match for an alert herd.

In the Ngorongoro Crater on our final day we spotted rare black rhinos, just born wildebeest babies (the afterbirth still attached to the mothers), jackal pups, lion prides and cubs, pools of hippos, nursing warthogs, beautiful birds, and thousands of flamingoes. This day had been like all of the others. Not an hour passed that we did not see spectacular sights.

Now we are back in Arusha. Today the TEMBO guests begin to move in different directions taking with them incredible memories of their experience in Tanzania – of the villagers in Longido and Kimokouwa, and on safari.

Here are some more photos of our friends in the wilds…

A herd of impalas detects danger...the hyena is near.

Serengeti sunset.

A lion in the tree sleeping.

A Vervet monkey.

Nursing warthogs.

Lesser Flamingoes in the Ngorongoro Crater with zebras and a jackel in the foreground.