Hanging out with Simba and friends - on Safari in the Serengeti

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Fortunately for us the rains in the Serengeti came early this year so the wildebeest, along with the predators that follow their migration, were already back from the Masai Mara when we arrived. We would have had a great time anyway but the hundreds, if not thousands, of wildebeest and zebra that we saw as a result for me made the trip extra special.

We'd begun our safari in Moshi, a town where almost everyone but us went to climb Mt Kilimanjaro... we settled for looking at it from the roof top restaurant on those few occasions when it actually appeared from behind the cloud. We'd had an 'interesting' few days in Moshi before heading off - fortunately on our first night we were running late for dinner and consequently missed having front row seats in an armed robbery. We were still getting ready when we heard gun fire - dashing out onto the balcony we looked down to see a crowd forming at the restaurant opposite, 4x4's full of armed security guards screeching up, guards jumping out and running around then speeding off in hot pursuit of the armed robbers who'd just held the place up. So we changed our dinner plans and found a nice 3rd floor restaurant figuring that all those stairs might be less appealing to any potential robbers!

With hindsight the drama of our first day on safari was entertaining, but at the time we weren't seeing the funny side! After being picked up 45 mins late we proceeded to stop at almost every place in Moshi before actually leaving town. A slight exaggeration perhaps but thats how it seemed as we stopped first to top up the cash card for the park fees and then at a random curbside to load the food (which the cook had only just finished buying) and camping gear. We started off only to return a few minutes later when the guide realized we'd left the bedding behind. More stops around town followed as we picked up water, chairs, a coolbox and who knows what else but we still stopped again a few hours later to borrow a forgotten latern... but that point we weren't feeling overly confident!

When we reached the park entrance some 7 hours later events continued along the same theme. Park fees for the Serengeti have to be paid by card, hence our earlier bank stop - payment by cash incurs a 50% penalty and the card which had supposedly been loaded with cash this morning wasn't working. So we sat at the entrance, watching other jeeps come and go, listening to but not understanding endless discussions in Swahili between our guide and park staff and waiting whilst calls were made to the man in charge in Dar es Saalam (seemingly the only person who was capable of deciding whether we should be allowed to pay on the way out, giving the staff back in Moshi time to resolve the little cash flow problem) who of course who wasn't in the office because it was a weekend. Getting increasingly irate about the whole pointlessness of it all Helen and I soon got involved in what became a rather heated discussion. Finally though we were allowed in - maybe the guide paid a bribe, the staff just saw sense or perhaps they didn't like my rather sarcastic suggestion that as it was too late for us to turn back late we'd have to take over their house for the night!

When we left camp the next morning it was very very very early and the sun wasn't yet up but still in the early morning light we saw jackals and hyenas lying in the grass and eight or so buffalo right by the entrance to the camp - there's no fence to keep the animals out so we were quite glad they hadn't decided to venture futher! We headed straight out to one particular stretch of road and spent 45 minutes slowly driving along, eagerly looking in every tree and on every rock for the leopard that had been spotted here yesterday. Leopards are solitary animals, rarely coming together except to mate and with home territories ranging from 30-78 km2 for males (less for females) the chances of it still being around weren't great.

In the end it was the jeep infront of us that spotted her, only a few meters away from the roadside but well camouflaged by the grass - we'd been too busy taking photo's of a large herd of Thompsons Gazelle which had suddenly started running. Leopards hunt by silently stalking their prey, pouncing at the last minute. In this case she'd managed to get right in amoungst the gazelles before making her move - it was her taking one of them down that'd started the rest of the herd running.

Lying low in the grass, she was breathing heavily, her jaws clamped firmly around the neck of the now very dead gazelle. Leopards are very agile, running at over 60km/h and able to jump up to 3m vertically. They're also very strong, capable of dragging an animal up to 3x their body weight up a tree. Exhausted after the kill this leopard was vunerable and needed to get the carcass away from a circling hyena before the rest of the pack arrived. Dragging it with her she moved forward a few meters, stopping briefly to rest before moving off again. Slowly she made her way towards a nearby tree and upon reaching its base stopped for a last break. Standing over the carcass ever vigilante her eyes continuously scanned the horizon. With a final effort she hauled the gazelle, which was at least the same size as her, up into the tree, over a branch and well out of reach of the hyenas. Then she waited. The solitary hyena that had been circling had disappeared, likely to fetch the rest of the pack - hyenas are scavengers but only working as a group were they likely to succeed in stealing the gazelle.

Time passed, the hyenas didn't appear and once rested the leopard decided to move on, descending the tree head first whilst pulling the carcass behind her. Back on the ground she naqvigated the maze of surrounding jeeps, moving closer to a rocky mound where we thought she'd left her cub. At that point, not wanting to be involved in causing her any distress, we moved on - initially there'd been us and one other jeep but word had spread and now over 10 jeeps crowded in to get a good view. More than satisfied with what we'd seen and what for me was the highlight of the trip we headed back to camp for breakfast.

The game drive after breakfast was just as exciting - one of our first sightings was a Cheetah, perhaps the most vunerable of the big cats because it is least able to adapt to changes in its environment. 100m away on top of a termite mound it sat forward and alert, a sleek body with a small head and high set eyes that continuously scanned the surrounding grassland for potential prey. Unlike the leopards coat which is marked by rosettes the cheetah has simple spots and distincive black "tear marks" running from the corner of its eyes down the sides of the nose to its mouth, marks which keep sun out of its eyes and aid in seeing long distances. Cheetahs lack the climbing abilities of a leopard, relying instead on speed to catch prey - reaching speeds of up to 120 km/h in short bursts they can accelerate from 0 to 110 km/h in just three seconds. We tried hard not to chuckle too loudly on overhearing an American lady in an adjacent 4x4 ask her guide if the cheetah was sitting on the termite hill because it eats termites... yes it's the fastest animal on earth because it eats.... hmm.

Meanwhile more action was happening behind us as a mother and baby lion leisurely walked through the grass. We watched for a while, very excited about seeing the cub, but as the congregation of jeeps grew we headed off on our own. We soon discovered more lions, adults this time, snoozing in the shade of trees - lions are inactive for 20hrs a day! Monkeys and baboons played in the trees, huge herds of antelope, zebra and wildebeest grazed together on the flat grassy plains and elephants both large and small made the most of a small pool of mud they'd found - a baby elephant kept slipping and struggled to stand upright whilst one of the adults took to spraying our jeep. Fortunately it's aim wasn't that good and it missed us! As the rain started and we headed back to camp for lunch we saw the most unexpected sight - in a park that's not known for it's tree climbing lions, high in a tree was a lion - perhaps it was sheltering from the rain!?!

The afternoon game drive took us in a different direction, this time heading north towards the hippo pool. The flat grassy plains of this morning were replaced with forest and although overall we saw less wildlife we still found some lions, this time a group of six youngsters sunning themselves on a rock whilst they waited for mum to return from the hunt. Most of the hunting is done by lionesses who are smaller, faster and more agile than the males with their heavy, conspicuous mane. Once the female has done all the hard work though the males dominate the kill, feeding first and being more likely to share the kill with the cubs than with the lioness.

The hippo pool was packed with hippos of all sizes, all pooing and farting in each others faces - there didn't seem to be much social etiquette to it! As we stood on the edge watching the air was punctuated by a symphony of plopping noises, farts and poo causing bubbles or bursting through the surface to spray upwards.. and as to the smell...! Phewwwy.

The next day we squeezed in one last game drive before leaving for the Ngororgoro Crater, beginning on the same road as yesterday and hoping to catch a glimpse of the leopard cub. Perhaps they were keeping out of sight, or maybe they'd moved on, but unfortunately we saw neither the mother nor cub. We'd seen very little for well over an hour when we rounded a corner to see the plains ahead covered with hundreds of wildebeest, zebra, topi and other antelope. They were followed by a pride of 5+ lions lazing under a tree. As we took photos a mating pair appeared from the long grass to the left of us and walked towards the tree. When they reached the group the male with his thick, dark mane made his presence known, pushing the others out of the way to get the best spot. Suddenly another lioness appeared from the long grass to the left, followed by first one and then a second more timid young cub. The cubs had to run double time to keep up with mum but unlike her they stopped a short distance from the pride, perhaps unsure of their welcome.

Our final farewell to the Serengeti was a last look at the cheetah - on the way out of the park later that afternoon we saw a cluster of jeeps pulled up alongside the road, always a good sign that something is up ;0) Stretched out languorously under a tree right by the roadside and seemingly quite unperturbed by all the attention were three cheetahs.

Fortunately leaving the Serengeti was rather more straightforward than getting in - when our guide returned from paying the park fees he commented on how our 'friends' at the gate had been asking after us - it seems we'd made an impression... When we smiled over and waved the main guy came over to ask how our trip had been and even saw the funny side when Helen jokingly asked whether we were allowed to leave!

We spent the last day of our safari in the Ngorongoro Crater, camping the night before at the crater rim where an elephant had worked out that the leaky camp water drum was a good place to get a free drink. Friendly zebra and warthogs also thought nothing of venturing close to the tents if the feeding was good.

The crater is the world's largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera. Formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some 2-3 million years ago it's over 600 m deep and has a floor area covering 260 km². There're no giraffe in the crater and we saw few antelope compared to the vast herds of the Serengeti, but we did see large herds of zebra and wildebeest, the beautiful Crown Crested Crane (we've both become sad bird nerds) and a solitary black rhino. There are only a handful of black rhino left in Tanzania and I think all are here in the crater. The one we saw was over 100m away but we could still make out the distinctive horn and shape of the body.

To be honest I preferred the Serengeti to the Crater. The latter was pretty with the salt lake and flamingoes at it's center, lush green forest, and steep rising sides but whereas in the Serengeti it's easy to head off and avoid other jeeps here it felt like we were queuing in a zoo. Some English guys we'd met in Malawi had joked that they'd queued to see the lion drive in movie, then the rhino drive in movie and to be honest they weren't wrong. That said despite the 30 other jeeps that we sat with to watch the rhino it was still an amazing exerience.

Next up Rwanda - from the genocide to trekking with gorillas.

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Comments

[Paul Madsen]

Nice Spots, Wendy!
Wow! I can't believe the luck you had in the leopard watching!! Remarkable! Glad you got a chance to do that :-) Paul Madsen