Day 1 Of Safari : Finding a Vegetarian Cheetah

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In my excitement, I woke up early on 29th. I didnt need a wakeup call from front-desk because the mosque and church did that job dutifully (precisely at 5 am). I met Ameer - my safari guide/driver after breakfast. He was a Bantu (majority tribe in Tanzania), very friendly, wise and knowledgeable person. I liked him from the start. Our vehicle was Range Rover whose top could come off .. and I got myself the front seat. We went to pickup other 5 of our group.

The group I met was predominatly Aussie. There were 11 of them, and 12 of us (including me) were divided in 2 groups to go in different land rovers. Of the 5 in my car, 2 were aussies (Ben and Terry), 2 were kiwis (Rich and his wife) and one english girl (forgot her name 😞 )

The kiwi couple looked familiar, and we found out that we had met each other at Kibo Hut 2 days back. They were the same couple who got caught in a blizzard and took 10 hours to summit. Rich and his wife are very friendly and we got along quite well from there, sharing jokes.

After a quick trip to superstore to buy provisions (mostly water), we drove west from Arusha to Serengeti. It was mostly a flatl grassland dotted with very few trees. This part of Tanzania is dominated by Masais. Masais are easy to spot - tall, lanky with bright red/purple blanket, carry a long stick and have a gaping hole in the earlobe. We passed through several masai settlements. One of them was notable .. apparently that settlement was just 1 family with 1 masai male, his 10 wives and 80 childern. He built a school just for his kids and grandkids .. and obviously, he was rich (to afford all that) as he owned 3000 cattle heads. Ameer was full of these tidbits, and I loved such info. Another interesting thing he told us was that its okay to sleep with a married masai woman (or wife of masai friend) as long as you fall in same age-group. Such institutionalized promiscuity may be one of the reasons why HIV spread like wildfire in Africa in 90s.

We brushed past Lake Manyara National Park, climbed Rift Valey and finally arrived at Nogrongoro Crater around noon. From here onwards, road was unpaved, bumpy and dusty. We didnt enter the crater, and from the rim, we headed to Serengeti. Foothills of Nogrongoro is rain-forest, but once we climbed up the rim, it became pastoral grassland. scenery was heavenly - green carpeted hills, valleys dotted with few acacia trees. Acacia trees have a very typical look - they have flat top.

Southern Serengeti is exactly what its name means (serengeti in swahili means unending plain) - unending grassy plain with no trees. Since it rained recently, everything was dark green. There were zebras and wilderbeasts all over. (zebras and wilderbeasts usually go together .. and there are about 3-4 M zebras and 3-4M wilderbeasts in the park).

We were greeted by a cheetah, that walked down the road. He looked beautiful .. we waited to observe him. A tiny gazelle approached him, and we all got excited thinking that cheetah would pounce on it. Instead, it let the gazelle pass ... One of us quipped - At last, we found a vegetarian cheetah! 😊)

Rest of the drive in Serengeti was interesting too. We spotted a leopard resting on a tall acacia tree with a lion waiting for it right under that tree. We also saw a few hippos, storks, vultures, and tons of antelopes.

We reached the campground in Serengeti by dusk. My tour company had forgot to send my tent and sleeping bag... Ameer offered me his, while he slept in the car.

Dinner was really good .. there were two vegetarians this time (including me). Other one was a friendly girl .. who was born in UK, studied in Melbourne, had her parents in S. Africa and wanted to live in france. Its hard to find such interesting people in bars ..

I retired to bed soon, and all night, I could hear hyenas howling .. .. oh and someone in the camp was snoring really hard. I was initially confused ... was it a snore or a roar 😊

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