Leopard spots

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As we wait for the car to be loaded up for our long drive to the Serengeti, I chat with one of the camp staff. Inevitably we end up on the subject of marriage and kids. As a greying, balding foreigner, presumably advanced in years, my unmarried status usually raises eyebrows, and I've long since decided to be honest by declaring that I don't want children (the constant lying in India about my fictitious wife and future brood proved too stressful). He chides me for not wanting children, saying that the Bible orders us all to go forth and multiply. I don't actually take orders from the Bible but, not wanting to add atheism to the list of my dodgy qualities in his eyes, I tell him that I would make an appalling father and it's in my unborn children's best interests that they remain just that - unborn. I then do my bit for the Earth by pointing out that the Bible was written many centuries ago when the global population was a fraction of its current level so perhaps it's inappropriate for the world of 2009. He clearly isn't buying this.

Five minutes later, he asks for my contact details and requests that I send custom his way as he can arrange all kinds of tourist activities in Tanzania. This has been a common theme in Africa so far - people who I've known only fleetingly will ask me to recommend them to friends for services that I've never experienced myself and hence have no basis on which to make a recommendation. I've never had the heart to point this out, and still don't, so as usual I exchange e-mail details. As if to reassure me, he states that he "might" have a customer coming in December for a fishing trip to Lake Victoria. From acorns, oak trees will grow, but one possible customer in 6 months is going to have to be a pretty hardy acorn. I admire him for his optimism.

To reach the Serengeti, we first have to pass through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The NCA contains the famous crater and we stop at a lookout on the rim. The caldera is enormous, roughly 20km across, dwarfing the ones I saw on Easter Island. It's the briefest of tastes of what's to come in three day's time. Unfortunately the altitude change combines with my cold to make me half-deaf for the rest of the day.

The road through the NCA and then into Serengeti NP is in poor condition, and the bumpy ride soon makes everyone's bladders kick in. Our first sighting of the Serengeti is an enormous flat plain. It's treeless but there's wildlife here, mainly Thomson's gazelles and (a new one for me) Grant's gazelles. As is to be the case throughout the safari, Dixon is parsimonious with his information and we have to constantly prod him - he clearly knows stuff but doesn't seem inclined to reveal it without a struggle. P provides the most interesting fact of this stretch when he states that, on average, a person swallows 8 spiders per year while sleeping. I wonder if that's true in the Amazon jungle.

It's to everyone's (bladders') relief when we reach the Seronera Visitor Centre, with a busy picnic ground swarming with hungry tourists and superb starlings. A sign in the toilets requests users to tip the attendant if the facilities are clean, as if keeping them that way isn't actually in his job description. I see a man in a T-shirt with an "Endangered Faeces" logo, below which are displayed pictures of the droppings of various threatened animals.

As we drive further into the Serengeti, more trees appear and we also see much more game. Apparently tsetse flies are attracted by large moving objects, and we get our fair share in the car. The buggers are adept at landing very lightly on exposed skin, and it's only when they bite that you notice they're there. They're also attracted to dark blue, explaining the dark blue cloths we'd seen in the previous NPs - part of a scheme five years ago in which these electrified cloths had been set up around the region and had reduced tsetse fly numbers by two-thirds.

Unfortunately it seems like the wildebeest migration, of which there was ludicrously little info in Arusha despite this event being one of the Serengeti's main draws, has already gone into Masai Mara in Kenya, but there are a few straggler groups remaining. To maximise our chances of seeing the stragglers, we head for a camp somewhat north of our original choice. It's in an appealingly remote setting and contains only one other group - there are hot showers but no electricity. A bright moon guides us from dinner to our tents.

I wake the next morning to find P face down on the ground, lying still. Fortunately he's just doing yoga. Dixon says that a lion and a hyena were making their distinctive noises a couple of km from the camp last night, but I didn't hear them.

We spend half a day on a highly productive game drive. The Serengeti is Tanzania's largest NP, containing over a million wildebeest (at least when a chunk of them aren't on holiday in Kenya) and 200,000 zebra. The quantities of all animals are astounding. The highlights for me are our two separate leopard sightings. We find them more because of the line of nearby cars, their occupants all staring intently at a distant tree. I've no idea how the leopard were seen, as they're hard enough to make out with binoculars, let alone the naked eye (see photos).

We also have some good lion spots - a lioness with two playful cubs, and then the remains of a zebra kill with two fat-bellied, siestaing adults.

The afternoon drive is specifically to locate some migrating wildebeest. We take with us a local man more familiar with where to find them. It turns out that they're in an area that's actually outside of Serengeti NP, meaning we can off-road. This region has been strategically burned to promote new vegetation growth so we drive slowly through a blackened landscape. We encounter a mini-migration as well as heaps of giraffes, and I think everyone is happy with our wildebeest haul so far.

Back at the camp we find a new group, a large one travelling with the German company Zara, which M and K say is definitely mid-range rather than budget. This is evident in the concertina-ed paper napkins that grace their dining table. The toilets have also been equipped with bog roll in their honour, which we are able to take advantage of. In the wilderness of the Serengeti, far from any industry or major conurbations, it's irritating to have the Zara group's cigarette smoke drifting around the dining area. Smoke of a different kind is evident on the horizon, illuminated in the red glow of some distant bushfires.

The morning brings the unexpected sight of a pair of 50 year old German breasts jiggling at the communal sink. This does not go unnoticed by the camp staff. K is embarrassed at the behaviour of her countrywoman, with Tanzania being a generally conservative society. However talk soon turns from jiggling breasts to jogging beasts, as a wildebeest mini-migration puts in an appearance near the camp.

On our way out of the Serengeti, we conduct another game drive. We see many more water buffalo than we've seen until now, and also visit another hippo pool which looks and smells as though it contains just hippos, hippo urine, and hippo excrement.

Driving in the Serengeti has generally been a dusty experience but today it goes to extremes which reveal a major flaw in my vision strategy. Leaving my contacts in makes my eyes sore, whereas wearing my glasses keeps my eyes pain-free but is like looking through an increasingly dirty window. M and P heartily recommend the obvious solution - laser surgery - which they have both had. I'll have to see if I can fit that into my 2010 budget.

Dixon really puts his foot down once we reach the treeless plain, on a surface similar to the one between the Ethiopian border and Isiolo that I recall doing about 30km/h on. It's thrilling stuff but at one point we start fishtailing in a most disconcerting fashion. Dixon brakes to a halt - we've got a flat. We also have two spare wheels that are unusable and are lacking a required tool for changing the wheel anyway - I guess that's budget maintenance for you. Dixon flags down another safari vehicle and they donate a wheel and a tool to the cause. The luckless tourists inconvenienced by this are fortunately a jovial Aussie family, who shrug it off with a "No worries".

Wheel changed, we continue ploughing southeast, saying our fond farewells to the Serengeti and arriving early evening at Simba A campsite on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater.

Dull but possibly useful info
i. See second last blog entry (Tarangire).

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Photos

View from the hill
Seronera Visitor Centre

Plant
Seronera Visitor Centre

Karma lizard
Seronera Visitor Centre

Superb starling
Seronera Visitor Centre

Comments

[Cessna152]

jiggling breasts to jogging beasts - excellent!

[travelbuffs]

Serengeti brought me here
And now, I am reading all your trips. It is so awesome to see someone make a trip to see the world. Happy traveling!