Where we have...Serengeti part 2

One can easily become obsessed with getting the perfect animal shot to the point of missing so many of the other wonders of the Serengeti or even Africa itself. There is the rush to see the Big Five or the uniqueness of seeing so many of the animals we grow up knowing only from behind bars in zoos or in pictures in books suddenly a few feet a way from you. They clearly are the stars of the show, but there is so much going on around one that I thought I'd devote this post to some lesser known actors in the magnificent performance that goes on daily.

The trees of the bush are under constant attack and have devised some ingenious ways to survive.

This tree is the Whistling Thorn Acacia. There are tiny little balls hanging from the tree that look like berries. When the animals try to eat them, stinging ants come out of the berries to deter the animals from having a snack. There are also three inch thorns on these trees that help deter grazing, but when the wind blows, a whistling sound from them is made and thus the name.

This is the Umbrella Acacia. It is a symbol of Africa. When it is low and young, it has the same three inch thorns the the Whistling Tree has, but as it grows taller and matures it looses the the thorns and concentrates on leaf production. The animals help give it it's shape by grazing as it grows.

This is the Candelabra Tree. The sap from it is poisonous and causes severe blistering when in contact with the skin and if gotten the eyes it will cause blindness. It also have formidable thorns. Neither animals nor humans go near this one.

The Serengeti is a birders paradise as are most of the National Parks in Africa. Here's a few.

A spoon bill and Marabill Storks.

 

A Fish Eagle.

 

An ostrich family.

 

Vultures.

The little guy below is a hyrax. These things were everywhere in the Tented Camp and were pretty fearless when approached by humans. They look like rodents, but have more in common with elephants and are in the same classification family. We had a lot of fun watching them.

This is tsetse fly trap. They are attracted to the color blue and the traps were all over camp. Their bite really hurts and causes swelling as a few members of our group found out. Fortunately the ones we encountered didn't carry sleeping sickness.

Then there are the antelopes. This is an eland, the largest.

The picture is a little dark, but this is a disk-dik, the smallest.

Finally a serval cat out in the daylight. They are one of the smallest cats in Africa.

There is much to see when one is out on a game drive it can almost become overwhelming and you see so many animals you would think you might become blasé, but as soon as one appears the cameras start clicking whether it is your first day out or last, for you never know when you are going to get that special shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Where we have been, The Serengeti

The Serengeti. How does one capture the magnificence of this place? In the Maasai language it roughly means the land that runs forever and standing and looking around that is an apt description. As far back as 1921 the British realized the uniqueness of this area and set aside 800 acres as a preserve. Serengeti did not become a full national park until 1951.

The park itself covers 5,700 square miles of grasslands, savannas, and forests. The only humans allowed to live in the park are the rangers, hotel workers and the visiting tourists. The Maasai were forcibly relocated in 1959.

The park is home to the largest animal migration in the world with 1.5 million wildebeests and 250,000 zebras crossing the Mara River to follow the rains. Uncounted numbers of crocodiles feed on them as they cross. In addition, there are over 5,000 lions, 1,000 leopards, numerous elephant herds, cheetahs, giraffes, well you get it. The place is loaded with animals except for the black rhino. It is estimated that only 12 remain in the park due to rampant poaching of them for their horns. The Asians, particularly the Chinese, are responsible for this. We were fortunate to see one.

One of the primary reasons to come here is to see the migration. We awoke early and headed out for the three hour trip to get to the Mara River. The wildebeest and the zebras mass on the shores of the river. The wildebeest skittishly approach the banks waiting for someone to cross. The move to the banks and move back. This goes on and on. We watched for two hours and no one crossed. Thus, we didn't see the real migration. Why the skittishness? They know that the first ones in will be eaten by the crocodiles. The zebras patiently wait for the wildebeests to start before they cross.

Some wildebeests crossing a small stream.

 

A small portion of the herd waiting on the river bank. The herd literally stretched for hundreds of yards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A crocodile waiting on the banks for dinner. Can you see why the wildebeest are skittish? There are hundreds of these guys waiting for them.

The day was not a total waste however as we got to see our first cheetahs. They look to sit on the many rock outcroppings called koptjes that dot the plains looking for prey and that was were we found a pair. Regretfully this app is not working properly so I can't use some closer shots, but I think this silhouette gives you an idea of the power contained in the world's fastest animal.

Having seen a black rhino, the bunching of animals for the migration and the cheetahs, we were a tired, but pretty happy group. As a final gift at the end of the day our driver got us up close to a male lion. As you can see he was pretty content to let us just shoot away, but as close as we were, it was nothing compared to what Kathy would experience a few days later.

So we returned to the camp as the sun disappeared from the sky, tired, but pretty happy with what we saw. We knew cocktails, a great meal and a comfortable bed were ahead. It was a great day.

This was to be our home for the next three nights.

 

 

This tent had solar hot water and twenty four hour electricity. It was not far from a river from which one could hear the hippos at night, not to mention all the other animals. There was no fence, nor outside lights, so once the sun went down a guard escorted you to wherever you wanted to go and he was armed.

We settled in after dinner in the comfortable bed and promptly fell asleep. At three o'clock in the morning we both were jolted awake from the tent shaking like we were in an earthquake. It only lasted ten seconds or so, but neither of us wanted to open the door to see what happened. When we went for breakfast in the morning, there were elephants around the tent. Our guide surmised that one must have decided to scratch itself against the porch causing the shaking. Welcome to the Serengeti !

 

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Where we have been...part two

We had been driving for a couple of hours from Lake Manyara on some very nicely paved roads and after all the time we spent bouncing around inside the Land Cruisers, let me tell you, paved roads were a blessing. Then our driver said we are here and he turned onto a rutted, red dirt road, the went up at an impossible angle and we were back to bouncing around again. We slowly climbed for the next fifteen minutes past a coffee plantation and several small huts until we turned into a verdant treed and flowered entry, flanked by two white columns, to see this stark white Dutch Colonial farm house: our destination.

Home for the next two days would be The Manor. So realistically furnished with period pieces that we thought it had been there forever and were shocked to find out it had only been built five years earlier. The large vertical section you see was part of the original house built in 1911, but the rest of the place was almost brand new.

There are twenty cottages on the property each outfitted like ours, which is shown above. All had magnificent views of the valley below and plantation. The Main house was furnished magnificently in the same style with no details missed. Dinner was served in a beautiful dining room and for the first time on the trip it was not a buffet. The food up to this point had been ok with the Indian vegetarian selections being the best, but we were frankly getting tired of standing in line with a tray in our hands. Here we began to see how good food could be literally in the middle of nowhere.

The only issue we encountered at The Manor was the slow inconsistent Internet service that seemed capable of only serving one device at a time and there were seventeen of us, many with multiple devices. If anything this was a group connected to it's devices. Nevertheless, The Manor was a splendid home for two nights.

On the other hand, there are plenty of splendid places to stay a lot closer to home. The point of being here was to view wildlife in the Ngorongoro Crater. It is the largest unbroken caldera in the world. It is 2000 feet deep and is 65 miles across. Experts think it was created from a volcanic explosion that happened thirty five million years ago and affected areas as far away as the as the Serengeti. That was all very interesting, but what we carried about was that this was our first chance to see the Holy Grail of animal sighting, the Big Five, (elephant, lion, hippo, Cape buffalo and leopard) all in one place.

Quite naturally to get to the bottom of the crater one had to travel over even more impossibly steep, rutted, gravel roads strewn with large rocks. I hate to complain, but this was not a particularly pleasant experience and we were all getting bruises on our arms and legs from them flailing around. These are bush Land Cruisers and are not to be mistaken for the ones you see in the local supermarket parking lot. There is no padding, but lots of metal.

On the other hand, the wildlife sightings came very quickly and changed as we headed down from the forested rim to the flat plains of dried grass.

From the rim

Giraffe crossing the road near the rim. There are few trees on the crater's floor. The giraffes graze at the top.

Zebras enjoying a water hole at the bottom.

An elephant and her baby. We saw many young on this trip.

A couple of hippos out for a stroll which is actually unusual during the day.

The mating lions mentioned before.

A herd of Wildebeest ( one of the Ugly Five )

 

Finally a Cape Buffalo spotting on the ride back up. All we needed was the elusive leopard to score seeing the Big Five all in one spot on one game drive.

We'll no big five picture of a leopard to end that day and this post. Just one of two tired, dusty and disheveled travelers, after eight hours of bouncing around Ngorongoro Crater. At least we got four and had a great day, but I can tell you we were looking for ward to getting back to The Manor for a hot shower, cocktails and dinner.

The next morning would bring an hour bush plane flight to the fabled Serengeti, three nights at the tented Migration Bush Camp and a chance to see the largest migration of animals in the world. You can bet we were excited.

 

 

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Where we have been

It's early morning on the Chobe River. A bright orange sun is slowly rising in the eastern sky casting a beautiful mirror imagine on smooth water. A few birds are signing and some hippos are returning to the water after a night of grazing on the land. Looking further, out past the banks, a large herd of Cape Buffalo is grazing in the grass. Aside from the birds, the only sound is the lapping of water against the hull of the boat and some early risers chatting on the back of the deck while they have their morning coffee. After all the flights, the waiting in airports, the bouncing along on rugged roads, the early morning wake up calls, this is about as perfect as a travel experience gets.

We have one more day on the river and then it's off to Victoria Falls and the end of the African part of the trip.. For the past thirteen days we have lived in the rhythm of nature, not man. We have gotten up when the sun rises and have gone to bed earlier than we ever would have imagined, exhausted by the days activities. We have gotten closer to and seen more animals than we ever would have thought possible or safe. We have forged new friendships and have learned much. It is coming to an end all too quickly.

The trip started against the backdrop of Mt. Kiliminjaro towering 19,000 feet over Amboseli National Park in Kenya. You've already met some of the animals at the park, but have not seen the Mountain. The skies were not conducive to great photography, but when you are there all one can do is shoot and post process. Here's the best I could do under the circumstances.

The park itself is 151 square miles and lies at the border of Tanzania 150 miles south east of Nairobi. It is home to all of the animals one comes to Africa to see except for the leopard. It's lush and green in parts, as it's swamps and streams are fed by the cool, clear, waters from the snows of Kilimanjaro and yet it also has vast tacks of dried up lake bed that shimmer in the sun. It is home to the Maasai people of whom I have already written and was the area of inspiration for Hemingway when he wrote about Africa.

We left Amboseli early in the morning after a two night stay and embarked upon a three hour journey over a rutted, gravel road to the border crossing at Namanga, Tanzania. Here we had our passports stamped to exit Kenya and then walked two hundred yards to buy our visa's for Tanzania, meet a new driver/guide and head off to our next stop. We were thrilled to find the two hour trip was on a two lane asphalt highway.

Our first stop in Tanzania was the town of Arusha for lunch. It's a regional center who's main distinction is that it is the half way point on the road between Cape Town and Cairo and it has a monument to prove it.

After lunch, we got back in the Land Cruisers and headed for the Escarpment Luxury Lodge, high above the Rift Valley overlooking Lake Manyara, where we were greeted with cold towels, a fruit drink, and the staff singing a welcome song.

This is an important geological site as well as an archeological one. The rift is over 2,500 miles long and was caused by the shifting of the African tectonic plates. It is also home to one of the earliest humans: homo erectus. Even more important, though, after almost eight hours of travel, was the sight of our comforable looking, thoroughly modern room. It was regrettable that we were only staying one night.

 

 

 

The next morning we were on the road by nine headed to Lake Manyara and more rutted gravel roads. It was also to be the first time we encountered the reality of survival or not in the animal world

This hippo has a large wound right at the water level about a third of of the way back from it's nose. We watched for fifteen minutes and it did move except for blinking it's eye. The other two vehicles in our group came by at much later times and found it in exactly same position. Our guide surmised it was bitten in a fight with another hippo and he was uncertain if the hippo would mke it. The next picture shows what's left of a hippo after that didn't make it. The scavenging system in nature is very efficient.

There are a lot of animals around the lake and as soon as you'd run across a carcass, you would quickly find something more pleasant to look at.

A small gathering of wildebeest

Thousands of flamingos.

The lake itself.

We then left the lake and headed for our next stop, the Manor at Ngorongoro and if anyone can correctly pronounce Ngorongoro correctly, I will buy them a drink. Ngorongoro is one of the largest calderas in the world.

We will continue "Where we have been" in the next post, Since I started writing this morning, I have been out fishing for the ferocious Tiger Fish, had lunch, and chatted with our new found friends, besides trying to find time to write. Now we have to start preparing to pack for tomorrow when we leave this floating paradise for Victoria Falls. We are always moving on this trip and while we are staying in some pretty nice places we don't seem to have much free time, but then even if we had, posting would have been near impossible. While we may think the Internet is or should be ubiquitous, it's hardly a top priority in the bush.

 

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