The Serengeti!!!

As this week wraps up, I head to a church festival in the small town of Lugeye to witness hours full of singing and dancing. However, some interesting things have happened in the past few days…

The Serengeti!! Unfortunately my photos aren’t loading onto my blog at the moment so I will have to try and paint the best picture I can. We (Chris, Ashley, Jessica, the two Sweds, and I) all woke up at 5:30am - before the sun rose - on Wednesday and loaded up the car with supplies. We all piled into the car and drove down the main road for the next hour. I hadn’t realized how close we actually live to the Serengeti Western Entrance until we pulled through two large gates and stopped at the entrance buildings. We paid the entrance fee, went to the bathroom (in a real bathroom) one last time for the day and then headed out on our adventure.

It had rained the night before which gave the day a rainy, cool, cloudy atmosphere. Though, the color of the savanna grass against the dark blue morning sky was quite breathtaking. As we drove down the VERY rocky VERY bumpy path we stared out at the grasslands searching for animals. The first creatures we came upon was wildebeast. At first we were all very excited and wanted to stop, but Chris said that there were many more to be seen during the day (he was right). Then out of nowhere we saw a Zebra! Again, Chris said there would be many more and we barreled on down the path. The same thing happened with Baboons, Gazelles, Impala, and Topi. Though we wanted to stop and observe these animals, we quickly got used to seeing them everywhere and having them block our way in the road.

At about 9:30am we stopped to eat a breakfast of homemade bagels which we glazed with PB&J. Soon after we started driving again. About 20 minutes of staring out the window, our eyes peeled for new wildlife, we heard a squeal from Ashley in the front seat. “An elephant, an elephant, back up, back up!!!” she yelled. As Chris came to an almost crashing halt, we backed up slowly. Sure enough, right next to the road, masked behind a few small trees, was a young elephant bull. We all stared in awe as he tried to pretend that he couldn’t be seen. The old, “If I don’t move, they can’t see me” ploy. We snapped pictures, took videos and soaked up the majestic sight…that is until he started to charge our car! Chris quickly hit the gas as the bull began moving extremely fast towards our back windows. For the next five minutes we played a cat and mouse game., only moving away when the bull moved closer. I got excellent video footage during this rather adrenaline filled episode. But rest assured, we made it out unscathed.

The next stop we made was to the Hippo pool. However, as we turned down a side road (Chris knows the Serengeti like the back of his hand) we came upon the amazing site of Giraffes!! So many giraffes. Again, we stopped, stared, took pictures and videos. After a few minutes of observation we continued on gaze upon the hippos. There was a bridge that ran across a small, brown, bubbling channel. Of course, where the bubbles were, hippos were hiding under the water. We patiently waited until they came up for air to document the experience. We were hoping for more of an exciting event here, but unfortunately the hippos (known as one of Africa’s most dangerous animal, responsible for quite a few deaths a year) were quite lazy that afternoon.

As we started back down the road we again saw the giraffes putting on a good show, then returned to the VERY rocky VERY bumpy main road. However, our way we ran into a group of Cape Buffalo standing on the side of the road (a bit dangerous), as well as some Ostriches in the distance. After completing my senior honors thesis on the used of ostrich eggshell by the Capsian culture (10,000 BP), a streak of excitement passed through me as I saw the animals I had studied all year, face to face in their natural habitat…very cool…I’m such a nerd.

Another hour and a half later Chris decided that it was time to take a relaxation break. Understandable since his hands had gone numb from driving over so many bumps. He informed us that we were going to stop at a hotel in the middle of the park to rest for a bit. We pulled up to the Kirawira Hotel, parked the car, stretched our legs and walked inside. As we entered the “tent-like” lounge area, I literally felt as if I had stepped into the “Flame Trees of Thika.” This hotel had modeled itself after at 1920’s/1930’s colonialist theme. We sat down in some Victorian looking chairs and looked at the drink menu. To my surprise they had a full espresso bar that served not only hot coffee drinks, but also iced coffee drinks. I could hardly contain my excitement, having been away from my beloved espresso, the sweet nectar of life, for so long (okay okay it’s only been a month). However, my excitement diminished when I looked into my wallet and realized that I hadn’t brought enough money to splurge on the quite expensive treat. I mean, espresso in the middle of the Serengeti…let’s get real here. I was content with my water for the duration of our stay. In discussing the hotel, Chris informed us that it was on every “luxury hotel list” in the world and cost about $1,000 USD a night to stay there. Not really my style…

Eventually we packed ourselves back into the car and headed back to the VERY bumpy VERY rocky main road. On the way back to the entrance we saw different birds including: Malibu Storks, Supurb Starlings, King Fishers, Vultures, and Yellow Weaverbirds. We also saw mongooses, warthogs and hyenas. Though it was when we were all complaining that we hadn’t seen any lions yet that Chris stopped the car and said, “There they are.” We all snapped our heads around, looking for the felines without success. “Where? Where? Where?” we all wanted to know. Finally we saw them, way out in the distance, lounging about in the shade of a tree, observing their future meals. Although we couldn’t see them very well with our own eyes, the zoom on Jessica’s camera allowed us to get a better glimpse. Being my favorite animal, I was grateful that they made an appearance at all. We were hoping to stick around for a while and see if they got the motivation to move closer to us, but unfortunately the Tsetse flies thought it would be a great idea to join us in our car. Thus we moved on from that particular spot.

A few minutes later we saw a group of elephants standing way off in the distance under a tree amongst a big group of wildebeast. Very cool. Then later, in the same spot as before, we ran into our old friend, the young elephant bull. Again, we stopped the car to see what he would do, and again he charged the car. A bit temperamental if you ask me. Closer to the entrance of the park, we witnessed a rainstorm moving across the plains…it was very National Geographic/Discovery Channel. I felt as if I should be narrating everything with an Australian accent, though I refrained out of respect to my car-mates. Eventually we reached the entrance once again and sat down to dive into our lunch of chipatti, avacado, and tomato…delicious. After wolfing down lunch, we took a few more pictures and then headed to a much cheaper hotel right outside the main gates. We were lucky to get there when we did because the storm we saw moving across the plains hit only an hour later, though it only lasted for about 20 minutes. The following hours were spent lounging around, drinking Konyagi, a locally made liquor that resembles rubbing alcohol, and playing cards. After dinner we all fell gingerly into bed and slept off all the bobbling and bouncing around we did that day. Quite the experience of a lifetime!

In other news, I have been looking for other teaching jobs due to my dwindling bank account. I have had two successful interviews for teaching jobs in Thailand. Today I was offered both of them and now have the lovely choice of either teaching in Bangkok or teaching in the small southern city of Surat Thani. I’m leaning towards Surat Thani, but we’ll see. Stay tuned…

---

Part of trip: JBFC Tanzania

---