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| Big and Small in
Tarangire National Park |
When you are on the road for such a long time, it is great to see a familiar face from home. When our friend Bernie Sauter (from way back in my Western Star Trucks days), contacted us wanting to join us for Kilimanjaro - we jumped at it. Bernie arrived in Moshi on time, and it was great to see him.
No rest for Bernie though, as we had booked a trip starting the day after he arrived. Safari is a Swahili word, meaning journey, so we set off on a safari into one of the world's most renowned wildlife parks, and also a World Heritage Site….. The Serengeti. With our Driver/Guide David and Cook Isaak, we piled into a old safari Land Rover Defender, complete with raisable roof for wildlife viewing in the shade!!
They seem to put together a route that first starts with Tarangire National Park, which is somewhat on the way. Even along this main road, the scenery was dusty and barren. But the Maasai people still live here in their villages, herding loads of cows and goats. It is interesting to see the shepherds out in the scrub lands dressed in their traditional shawls, and carrying a stick/spear. The Maasai are nomads, and have resisted change from the outside world, choosing to keep their culture and
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| Flat Tire on the way to
Tarangire National Park |
lifestyle. This culture is centred on their cattle which provides many of their needs. Skins and hides, meat and milk. We noticed different stages of dress, and facial painting. Some of the younger boys/teens had white dots and facial paint apparently signifying a recent circumcision ceremony.
We managed to get our first flat tire on the tar road, and I helped David change it as I was eager to get on safari. I thought at this rate, we won't have enough spares - but David smartly got the tire repaired before heading in to the park, so we sat with a bunch of locals eating our pack lunch next to a scrubby tire repair shop - probably not the normal tourist lunch location, but fine for us.
Tarangire is famous for it's elephants, and there were plenty of them around. Within seconds of entering the gates, Bernie caught his first views of wild elephants, and there were plenty more to come. The highlight being probably the youngest elephant we have seen to date. It was so small that it could easily walk underneath the mother, and had this skinny, tiny little trunk. Exceptionally cute.
The other highlight for me was the large population of baobab trees in the park. I serious love seeing these giants, and this was no exception. The elephants were clustered under some the large canopies, trying to stay in the shade.
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| Driving the Ngorongoro
disaster of a road |
After many zebras, antelopes and interesting birds, our afternoon safari drive was done, and we moved on to Lake Manyara area to stay the night. Tomorrow would be a big day - heading first through the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, and then into the Serengeti.
If you travel through this area, you have to come to terms with the excessive park fees. Just for us to drive through the Ngorongoro on to the Serengeti, we each had to pay a $50 entry fee. Included in out trip costs, but it still hurts. We arrived at the gates with the HORDES of other safari vehicles. I can't believe how many Land Rovers and Land Cruisers were parked at the gate. There must be thousands of people traveling through here.
They could have put some of the exorbitant park fees to use by possibly repairing or grading the horrible road, but I'm sure most of that money goes into some officials pocket. The road was atrocious, and along the 5 hour drive, we saw one man with one grader on the road…..that's it. I'm not asking for a highway up here by any means, but with the excessive safari traffic, the road is dangerous especially since the guides drive so fast with such a long distance to cover. There was such a crest in the centre of the road that I thought we were going to tip over sideways half the time. But I digress……
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| The
'Elaborate' Gate to the Serengeti |
However, along this road we had our first viewpoint over the Crater - all I will say for now is WOW!! Through the hills, we passed many more Maasai people and villages going about their ancient traditions, but also with visits from plenty-a-tourist to support them. Luckily we avoided this kind of human zoo.
After the bone rattling experience we finally arrived at the 'not so extravagant' entrance gate. It was kind of anti-climatic, but at least the road got marginally better. There were no fences or anything, but it seemed like the animals knew the imaginary boundary, and we started seeing loads of antelopes in the plains and grasslands. New sightings for us including Grant's Gazelles, Thomson's Gazelles, Hartebeest, and Topi. It seems like any safari we go on brings something new.
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| Sunrise,
Serengeti Style |
As it tends to be, we came across a cluster of vehicles which is a sure sign of something bigger. Sure enough, we saw a leopard chilling out in the 'V' of a large tree. Only our third leopard of an entire year in Africa, so we stuck around to hope it got a little more active. No such luck, but still interesting to watch, and also to see all the safari vehicles jockeying for position!!
Camp that night was just in the middle of the Serengeti.....no fences that we could see. Of course, there were about 50-100 other tents around, and tons of tourists with their guides and cooks. The food was good, but we just wanted to get to bed in preparation of an early start the next morning.
The early start paid off, as we got what I would have imagined a Serengeti scene to be. We approached a waterhole, seeing a cluster of large storks scattered throughout an Acacia tree. In the
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| Serengeti
Scene - Storks in tree, hippos in pond, wildebeests drinking |
waterhole were some hippos, just chilling. But on the other side of the waterhole, there was a very large herd of wildebeest and zebra coming in for a morning drink. It was beautiful light, watching all of the animals line up to inhale some water, and then every now and then, they would all get skiddish, and suddenly charge off, splashing out of the water, then creating a huge dust storm. Sometimes, the little baby wildebeest and zebras were left behind a little bewildered with the whole goings-on. We watched this scene for quite some time - this is the National Geographic stuff we wanted to see!!
Tearing ourselves away from this, we wanted to see something BIG. And we were in luck, as our patience paid off in one spot when a pride of lions appeared out of the grasses. We actually watched them pass us, then realized that they were heading towards another pride.
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| Two Prides of
Lions having a small disagreement |
Well, as you can imagine, a territorial battle ensued, with one pride chasing of another, with some challenges along the way. They didn't seem bothered with the growing amount of safari vehicles jockeying for position again. The lions even chased each other through the trucks at times. Eventually, the intruding pride backed off, and they all sat in the grasses possibly collecting their thoughts?? We must have seen about 30 lions in this encounter - more National Geographic stuff!!
Not far from the lions, we caught up with the masses of wildebeest and zebra again. I guess they didn't know there were so many lions around!! Close to the road, there seemed to be a zebra in distress. She was laying on the ground, occasionally trying to get up, but from what we could deduce, she was trying to give birth, but having
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| Struggling zebra -
possibly trying to give birth |
all kinds of trouble. We were all cheering for her, along with her zebra friends who all stopped to watch over her (then move on), and were hoping we could see a little baby zebra enter the world. But, unfortunately, we didn't see this happen, and left her struggling. I can only assume that she and the baby did not make it. Very sad, but such is life in the Serengeti! The circle of life happens everyday here.
By now, it was time for us to head back to camp, have lunch, and head out on the road to the gate. With our $50 entry fee, we had 24 hours exactly to stay in the park, so had to be out by 3PM that day. We left the acacia tree scenery, and into the grasslands we went. One highlight on the way out was a lion with two very small cubs. First time for Michelle and I seeing lion cubs. But 3PM was fast approaching, so along the rough road we bounced to head out of the park.
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| Morning drink
for hundreds of wildebeest |
If I was to go back again, I would spend the money to do at least a couple of days in the Serengeti. On the map, it doesn't seem too far to drive, but in reality, it takes ages to drive there. This was too much driving for only one day here, so would have been good to spend another night (and I guess with that another $80, $50 park entry and $30 each to camp!!!!). Pricey, but you do see some amazing wildlife. *Stub
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| Thirsty Zebras |
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| Mother and
Cubs in the Serengeti |
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