Serengeti Shall Never Die

Thursday 15th September we left at 8:30am for a long day of driving. We stopped for gas and had both tanks filled up. The Toyota land cruisers used for safari are amazing. They are a standard land cruiser that has been heavily modified by cutting and extending the chassis to add an extra row, a pop up top for the entire length and larger windows. The vehicle is very rugged and reliable which is good because as we learned the roads are very bumpy and dusty - we saw a lot of broken down vehicles and Ben stopped to help a few folks get up and running again.

To get to Serengeti National Park you first pass through the Ngorongoro conservation area that surrounds the actual crater. This area has less restrictions than a national park and the Maasai tribe are allowed to live and graze their cattle in the area, this was a compromise when the Serengeti park was created and the Maasai had to leave the area. There is a drought in the area and we drove through a lot of dry dusty bumpy roads seeing a lot of young children driving their cattle and sheep looking for grazing. We stopped briefly to see the monument for Olduvai Gorge which is famous for the discovery of evidence of early human species about 1.8 million years old. After the official stop at the conservation entrance for Ben to complete paper work and passes we were lucky to get a clear view of Ngorongoro crater as it is often covered by clouds. We would visit this park after the Serengeti.  

We continued on the long dusty bumpy road with other safari vehicles and a few large blue local busses. The busses use the park road to get to villages on the other side which is quicker than going around the park -  we saw a few of these buses broken down also. 

The park is 14,750 Sq KM, with about half set aside as a wilderness zone with no roads. The entire Serengeti eco system is twice the size of the park and supports the largest unaltered animal migration in the world. The term Serengeti shall never die is the name of a German documentary from 1959 that had a big part in securing the future of the park after the death of 80% of the hoofed animals due to a virus from cattle.  Over a million wildebeest, zebra,  and gazelle complete an annual 1,000KM migration circle following rain and fresh grazing. We learned the wildebeest can smell the rain, so know when to head north, with the zebra following. The wildebeest however do not remember the way back home south, but the zebra do, so in turn the wildebeest following on the way back. Most of the migrating herd were still around the Kenya border when we arrived, but we started to see more returning as there was rain a few times and the area became greener and greener each day. 

Once we entered the park it seemed like all the other vehicles disappeared and Ben showed yet again he is a fabulous guide. We left the main road and explored smaller 'game drive' paths. The vehicles all have radios and there is great community spirit with drivers announcing special sightings. The key is to find out exactly where they are in relation to your vehicle, and decide if you want leave your current treat for something that might have moved before you get there! The views of the Serengeti plains were incredible and we were lucky to find a group of 3 lionesses and 2 young males sleeping in the sun. We spent some time watching in the hope they would wake up, but other than a few head raises there was very little activity. Clearly they were not bothered by the group of vehicles and camera shutter sounds! We saw an older male lion sitting in the middle of a open area just dozing a bit, all waiting for the heat to subside and the evening hunting to begin!

We again had some trouble finding the camp, apparently the park administration didn't like the signs put up by the local camps and wanted to install more natural looking signs. In the meantime there was quite a bit of driving up and down roads and stopping to ask other drivers or rangers. Ben finally worked out we needed to turn down the path with the silver stone to find our home for the next 5 days - our favorite the Kon Tiki tented camp.  

Friday 16th was the start of many extraordinary days, so many the three of us had to work on new adjectives other than incredible and awesome! We started with a visit to the hippo pond and were enthralled to see the hippos bobbing in the water, with the occasional yawn and outbreak of  honking to we assume either greet a friend, or warn off an enemy. 

We spent some time quietly watching a leopard in a tree when Ben heard a report about a small group of cheetahs. (Our Swahili is limited to a few basic words, definitely not enough to understand a radio report). We arrived to see a mother cheetah and three almost fully grown cubs. The mother was walking alongside a group of antelope looking for a likely dinner choice. With the element of surprise gone the four cheetahs obligingly sat on a termite mound for us to view for a while. Suddenly the mother started walking again and Ben (who must be a mind reader of animals) moved the vehicle ahead of everyone else. Within the space of 15 minutes we saw a blur of action. The mother caught a large reedbuck, with a lot of jumping around the adolescent cheetahs killed the poor reedbuck and settled down for a meal while the mother watched and recovered from the run. Then out of nowhere a pack of hyena appeared, chased off the cheetahs and ate the whole reedbuck in about 5 minutes. We will spare you the photos of the horrific event, just know hyena would not make good dinner companions. Cheetahs lose their meals frequently to either hyena or lions.

Apparently it was dinner day on the Serengeti as we next saw a female lion trying to creep up on some zebra and a male lion fast asleep on his back with the remains of a zebra in the grass next to him. As with every day we saw many different birds, small and large and of course plenty of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and antelope. At the end of the day on the way back to camp, after turning at the magic silver stone we saw a very large bull elephant very close to the road. While we were delighted to stop and watch he was quite irritated at our presence and gave us the warning shake of the head. Good thing Ben is a professional and knew this meant "be quiet and leave me alone otherwise I will crush your tiny vehicle!". 

After two very busy days we split Saturday the 17th into a dawn start, and a long lunch at camp instead of staying out all day. Nature gave us a real treat this day with a superb sunrise and an exceptional time watching a lioness and her six cubs. When you look at the album be sure to turn on the volume for the videos to listen to the delightful baby sounds! The adult lions are very comfortable walking past the vehicle, and actually use them as a shield when hunting zebra. The zebra know this so rarely come close to the vehicles.  

After a delightful lunch of fish masala (the food was amazing coming out of a bush kitchen) we headed out for a cooler late afternoon drive. We rarely left with expectations of seeing specific animals, apparently many people do which leads to disappointment. Instead we just drove around to see what was happening. We were lucky again to see a leopard in a tree and a rather cheerful looking hyena just passing by. We started to drive back to camp and were captivated by a magnificent sunset over the mountains. So captivating we stopped for photos and then had to drive quickly back to avoid the night curfew and a possible fine by the rangers. It really isn't safe to be out in the dark in case there is a vehicle issue - makes perfect sense, but hard for us as we didn't want the day to end!

Click here for the photos and videos

(The videos have a small play arrow in the top right, make sure the sound is turned on!)

Wildlife seen: male lion, 5 lions in group, secretary bird, grant gazelle, kori bustard, thompson gazelle, tawny eagle, saddle billed stork, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, black headed heron, sacred ibis, hypo, egyptian goose, jackal, hyena, slender mongoose, hartebeest antelope, leopard, baboons, cheetah (mother and three adolescents), reedbuck, vultures, young male lion, lioness hunting, male lion sleeping, elephants, cape buffalo