The Safari Begins

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The Big "5"

It is Autumn Equinox today, and a new leg of our journey has begun. We store most of our bags at the hotel and pack light. A quick breakfast and we are off to the airport to catch a flight for the Serengetti. Our driver arrives on time and we make it to the airport with much time to spare. It is the end of Ramadan today, and a national holiday, so the streets are almost bare and traffic minimal.

We get our boarding passes and wait anxiously for the flight. We finally board the 4 engine Dash 8 aircraft and taxi out to the runway. Suddenly, the pilot announces that he has an instrument problem that won’t clear, and we are going to have to return to the main gate again. We are asked to disembark and we spend another ½ hour waiting. We then get back into the plane and everything goes well.

We are off the ground in no time but Heather is a little queasy about flying in these smaller craft and she rides with white knuckles until we get some altitude. Forty minutes later, however, we are descending over the Serengetti and we can see zebra, elephants, buffalo and wildebeest from the air as we approach the runway.

We are picked up by our driver and guide, William, who loads us up and gets us on the way to our camp location, called the Serova Mara Game Camp . Within minutes we were coursing our way in shocked amazement through herds of zebra, giraffe and elephant. Suddenly, our driver veered off the track and headed toward some shrubs ahead. He pointed to a lone standing tree and we gawked upward as a full grown leopard lazily eyed us from his sleeping perch in the tree. It was sleek and powerful, and glanced from side to side as it soaked in the warmth of the afternoon sun. We were no threat, and his interest was captured more by his search for a comfortable spot on the ranch than anything we might pose.

Back on the road, we motored adventurously over rocks, potholes, mud bogs and more until we arrived 15 minutes later to our tented camp.

At the camp, we settled into our rooms (tents) and went for a wonderful lunch. What confronted us at the buffet table would challenge event the most hardy of food connoisseurs. Imagine a vast 14-course main meal containing local Kenyan fare, alongside Indian curries, German delicacies and American specials. Covering a special mix of Eastern and Western traditions, there was something for everyone - even vegetarians! But that was not all. Another whole section was dedicated to salads and included pasta, potato and leafy versions - all off limits to the sensitive western stomach (I got sick in Africa in 2005 from salads, and it is a bad bet to eat these raw delights without at least one course of antibiotics and a handful of Imodium at hand). Further in the panoply of treats was the bread section, with a dozen types of bread available, the cheese section, the soups section, raw fruit esction, and so much more. Then came the dessert section with a half dozen high quality chef prepared delicacies. You could go over the cold-cut section, or sidle up to the hot grill for tilapia fillets, beef shishkabobs, or tossed pasta with Alfredo cream sauce. It was such a shock to the system, having only arrived from Bumala and our meals of local beans and ugali the days before.

An hour’s rest after our afternoon lunch and we were out for our first evening game drive from 4:20pm to 6:30pm (sunset). We were armed with cameras and an acre of anticipation.

The “Big 5”, as they are called, are Africa’s favoured animals to see - Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Cape Buffalo and Black Rhino. Some of them are quite rare to see and in three trips, and close to fifteen game drives, I have not yet seen all five. On this special day, however, we were to get the treat of a lifetime! We had already seen the leopard. It, and the rhino, were the two most rare of sights.

First we explored the lower grasslands and within the span of about 40 minutes came upon a total of 5 cheetahs - two mating pairs and a single male. Cheetahs are hard to find, although it is not unusual to see one if you look really hard. But five cheetahs were beyond belief and an unusual standard by any measure. Next came a herd of Cape Buffalo….massive beasts with muscular bodies and curled horns. Not to be outdone, the elephants soon appeared over a rise and a small family made its way toward a depression for the evening.

As the sun was dipping low toward the horizon, our driver steered us into a low lying river bed crowded with thickets of dense shrubbery. A rhino had been spotted here a few hours earlier and our driver was determined to find him. Suddenly, with a crashing of branches, a large male burst out of the underbrush and onto the sand-coloured grasslands, walking parallel to our vehicle. We didn’t want to upset him, and time was short, so we bombarded him with a frenzy of clicking cameras and whirring video recorders before shooting off for our last sigh of the evening. Our driver thrust the gear shift into low and swung the safari jeep out onto the grassy plains in search of our last prey, the lion. Lions are plenty in the Serengetti, and easiest to spot, but had eluded us all afternoon. But our driver seemed to know a special spot and we raced against the setting sun. Magnificent clouds dominated the horizon with glorious beams of light streaming out in all directions from the sun behind. A small crack at the horizon revealed the last place the sun would occupy before plunging below the horizon, which occurs only in minutes at the equator. The first sparks of the sun blazed out from under the distant cloud and the race to see a lion seemed all but lost to the grinding tracks and bumpy plains of the grassland.

Suddenly, we broke out of the grass and slipped effortlessly up to a glorious Acacia tree, sitting lone and solitary against the blood red sky. But our eyes were not on the tree, despite its incredible beauty. Underneath the tree sat two magnificent male lions….brothers, in fact. Their massive mains waved gently in the evening breeze and glowed brightly with hints of orange from the prevailing sunset which broke our fully now behind them. It was breathtaking and I don’t think that one can properly describe what it feels like to sit literally 8 feet away in the open air from two wild male lions on the Serengetti plains, while one of the most amazing sunsets in your life provides the backdrop. Can anyone say, “…moment of zen….?”

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