The Road from the Serengeti to Ngorongoro

The road is long, it is bumpy and it is straight. But is interesting, it is scenic and it is iconic. Once again we are treated to many wildlife sightings. A leopard standing on a flat rock with a complete profile from head to tail, a migrating herd of thousands of Wildebeest galloping across the road and the ever present lions, lying in wait of an injured zebra or gazelle. We are leaving the uninhabited portion of the park and entering the region where the Maasi herd their goats and cattle and continue to live a difficult life where the average life expectancy is a mere 45 years of age. Poorly clothed children look for handouts of food and money while tending the flocks but we are not encouraged to reward them even if it is for a picture. It would be a Mecca for punk rockers. There are more piercings, hallowed out ears and kinky haircuts and jewellery than one would find in any downtown western setting. The adults are more colorfully dressed and their array of decorative jewelry, dangling from their necks and ears is an attempt to get tourists to stop and engage. We do not.

The road leads to the Olduvai Gorge where the earliest skulls and bone fragments know to mankind were discovered in the early 1920s. They date back millions of years ago when paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leaky documented the earliest of human evolution.

Ngoronogoro Crater is the 6^th largest caldera in the world and the view from our lodge is absolutely spectacular. It is a self contained ecological feast of wildlife, birds and fauna. There is no need for any of the inhabitants to leave as Mother Nature’s buffet supplies year round a plenty for all. It has been damp and the going gets sloppy but not before witnessing the birth of a 5 minute old Wildebeest and the subsequent scavengers of the Jackal and Hyena. Water foul are aplenty and their constant ducking of their bills into the water for fish is an entertaining way to pass a few minutes. The female lion is in heat and the male wastes no time in performing his duty every 30 minutes and has been seen to offer his affections up to 300 times before the impregnation is complete.

Our 14 day safari is drawing to a close and it is time to say our goodbyes to Adam our driver and guide. He has been exceptional and we all agree his constant commentary and leading us in silly songs has been a wonderful conclusion to the second stage of touring Tanzania.

We have flown from Arusha back to Nairobi and it’s onto Cape Town, South Africa for some wine tasting and self drive touring. Jambo from Nairobi

Simply the Serengeti

When I last signed off from the Maasai Mara, we were headed off on another game drive. But the surprise for the day was to be found in the lobby of the resort camp. Sue had seen what she thought was one of her relatives and when she called Eric’s name, sure enough, he turned around. I knew Eric O’Connor very well from the days he was my son Tyler's scout leader. Eric had joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and was now posted to the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi. He was just visiting for the weekend with his new wife Rhona and a couple of friends. What a coincidence!! We had a great visit together over dinner and lots of stories from the past to the present.

Another day another adventure. 

We are headed to the Serengeti but first we had to say goodbye to David our guide. We had to take two short flights with a number of stops in between. One flight lasted a total of three minutes and Waren commented that it was the shortest flight any of us had probably ever taken. Both flights were in Canadian built Twin Otters. Powerful planes with room for about 20 passengers and weight limitations set at 30 lbs per person. No security check in and no passenger flight manifest. On our second segment the first officer was just looking for 16 souls to board. Her uniform was filthy and her epilates extremely worn and in need of replacement. 10 minutes into the flight she turned around from the cockpit and started to count heads. She looked concerned, did another head count, then did another, conferred with the pilot and decided all was in order and we didn’t have to turn around. I wasn’t too concerned until one of the two pilots decided to take out her cell phone and started to text her FB friends. Geez. So much for African air carriers but we made it safely. 

A short transfer to the Tanzania border, a check of our visas and yellow fever cards and we were good to go. At first I was concerned when the border officer had swiped my passport and said to me that I was a repeat offender. Then a big smile came across his face when he said that I had been a previous visitor to which I replied “guilty as charged”.

The Serengeti is over 700 square miles and the horizon stretches to the limits and then some. Home to millions of animals and hundreds of different species of birds and wild life, this reserve is world renowned, especially for the seasonal migrations and the Big 5. Clear blue skies and towering clouds, combined with a lack of human presence and a completely different landscape makes for a unique safari experience. No other 4 x 4 jeeps or people to be seen anywhere in this vast territory.

 The grasses are tall and green which makes sighting wildlife difficult to the untrained eye but our new guide and driver Adam, knew where to go and how to find what we have come to see. The migration of the wildebeest in this region is in its infancy but Adam knew where to track down a herd of many thousand of the homely looking beasts. They mingled with hundreds of zebras and an equal number of gazelles.

Of particular note was a sighting of two families of cheetahs, one of which had five young siblings and another had two. Lions are sprawled out over the entire region. Many were just sunning on rocks and others were nursing their young down by the edge of a stream. One of our sightings saw a jackal, which had just killed a young Thompson gazelle. It was trying to take it away to safety for consumption, avoiding the overhead vultures and the ugly and reprehensible hyenas. One herd of elephants we saw had to have had at least 60 – 70 members along with their new born. Giraffes towered high into Acacia trees and the colourful birds were everywhere. Hippos were sloppily waddling in a filthy watering pond and the familiar odour of ammonia was recognizable to anyone who has been around farms.

One thing we didn’t count on was being the center of attention ourselves. David made the executive decision to cross a stream where he thought the ground was stable enough to cross. Wrong!! We got stuck up to the running boards, with hippo excrement flying everywhere, which even a Land Rover 4 x 4 can’t get out of. A fellow jeep hooked us up and eventually got us unstuck and rescued but not before another 8 or so jeeps showed up with all of their drivers offering advice and direction. Embarrassing I’m sure to Adam, but I assured him we had all been stuck in a snow bank at one time or another. Jambo from the Serengeti