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 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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that is a heck of a tent...dick and diane
ReplyDeleteThat seems awesome. Definitely more than a tent - Alex
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