Spring Time in the Serengeti

We say goodbye to 8 of our original tour group after the trip to the Masai Mara.  We have also welcomed 2 new Aussie ladies Emma and Julie who joined us at Lake Naivasha so our new group is consists of just a dozen travellers.  It is lovely to have more space in the truck and a smaller group means  everyone is a little more cohesive and we are always on time for our early morning getaways!

We are now in Tanzania and have transferred to 4 wheel drive vehicles from our camp site in Arusha for our trip to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.  Each vehicle has a guide and a cook and the bunch of Tanzanian boys – Costa, Feraji, Miraji and Danny are fun and ensure we will be entertained in the next 3 days.

It is a long drive but we enjoy the changing scenery and marvel at East Africa’s baobab trees that remind us of their cousins Down Under. 

The endless plains of the Serengeti – (all 15,000 sq km) are incredibly dry and at first we feel almost devoid of life.  Of course at this time of year, most of the wildebeest and many of the zebra have migrated to the Masai Mara in search of greener pastures.

The cats however being the territorial animals that they are, stay put in this park and target some of the other animals such as buffalo that remain in the Serengeti. 

Once again we are incredibly fortunate in our sightings.  We spot a lion and lioness resting in the tall grass and as we watch these two magnificent beast, the lion stirs and starts to lick his lioness.  We realise he is a little frisky and before our very eyes, the mating rituals of a lion are played out in slow motion.  It is definitely spring time in the Serengeti!

 

There are more lion sightings before we reluctantly head for camp.  We have a few more game drives to look forward to but we must set up camp before dark.  It is exciting to be camping in the wild once again but have strict instructions to not stray.  There are no fences between us and the wild animals whose home we are invading!

We are treated to a great dinner that night and enjoy not having to cook our food or our wash dishes!  As it gets dark the sounds of the Serengeti break the stillness and quiet of our campsite.   The eyes of jackal and hyena glimmer through the bush and we are glad when the bright light of the moon sheds light on our campsite, enabling us to not just hear but see the buffalo grazing a few metres from our toilet.  We give them a wide berth but they still make Julie and me jump as we brush our teeth hurriedly and prepare for bed.

I wake up to hear that many of my fellow travellers have heard lion and other animals in the night.  I am upset to have slept through the din and am determined to make amends on our second night. 

We have 2 game drives on Day 2.  The most exciting moment on our morning drive is when Nathan spots a dead impala on one of the lone trees that break up the open savannah.  We are excited but our efforts to find the leopard who dragged this kill up the tree are not successful.

Determined to come back here in the afternoon we leave this site in hopeful anticipation of what we might find.

We find a hot lunch waiting for us and we thoroughly enjoy the treat.  Lunch on the truck has been salad sandwiches so it is quite a treat to not only have a hot lunch but to have it prepared for us.  I have made friends with our guides and they invite me to try their local food which they have prepared separately for their own lunch.  They eat ugali (mashed potato texture but prepared with maize flour) with a spicy meat mixture.  I join them, making little balls with the ugali and pick up the meat with my hands and thank them for a taste of local cuisine! 

That afternoon we return to the tree with the dead impala, only to spot the leopard on the tree fast asleep only a few metres away from his kill!  We are incredibly excited and even as we wait our turn in the 4 wheel drive queue to see this unique sighting, the leopard wakes up and starts to feast!  Once again, the Universe delivers!

I have always wanted to get a good sighting of a wild leopard on a tree but to see him enjoying an impala is just icing on the cake.  We snap away, knowing that we are incredibly lucky to be witnessing this.  Here is just one of the many photos I took that day! 

Soon after this sighting there is a light shower for which we are grateful.  It settles the dust and cools the air.  Our game drive is not quite over.  When the rain stops, we are again excited as we spot 6 female lionesses with their cubs, resting under a tree.  I have never seen this many lions together.  There must be at least 20 lions here.  The pride caress each other, licking the moisture of the rain off their cubs.  It is an amazing sight to see. 

As we watch the mums start to stalk a herd of zebra grazing about a hundred metres away.  The cubs follow after awhile.  It appears the mums are teaching their cubs to hunt.  Just as they draw close to the herd, a fatal move by one of the babies alerts the zebras and they scamper away.  This lesson will be re-plaid many times over before these cubs are able to be self sustaining in the wild. 

We return to camp on a high.  I am really excited by what we have seen so far.  That night we have another feast and then a few of us stay up late in to the night, quietly chatting around the fire and listening and watching for signs of life.  We are not disappointed.  Elephant, lion, hyena, jackal and buffalo keep us entertained for what seems like hours.  Only a reminder that we need to be up early the next day finally forces Julie, Emma and myself to finally turn in.  Julie and I zip up our tents on another fabulous day in the Serengeti.  

We have a final game drive early morning on Day 3 in the Serengeti before we make the long drive to Ngorongoro Crater.  While we see many birds and enjoy the antics of the hippo pool we can’t beat the excitement of the previous couple of days.  Somebody remarks that if we see a black rhino, we would have seen the Big 5 within a 24 hour period in the Serengeti.  Alas, it is not to be and soon it is time to say goodbye to the wide open plains of the Serengeti.  I take back so many wonderful memories of this very special park in Africa!

If you aren't sure who you are, you might as well work on who you want to be.  ~Robert Brault