Destination: Tanzania
Aug 29 Lake Manyara National Park
Mount Kilimanjaro was still hidden in cloud when we hit the road at sunrise. Darn it! Entering Amboseli we were captivated by a massive herd of elephants grazing not far from their sleeping quarters. Families with offspring ranging from suckling infants to post adolescence presented endless photo opportunities especially in the morning light.
Our guide, James, a serious photographer, said he could spend hours watching a herd, waiting for that perfect shot. He told us that much of what we know about elephants is based on research conducted at this park. Amboseli was the home of Echo, the most researched elephant in the world, who died in 2009 at the age of 60.
We bade James farewell at the Tanzania border, where we met our new guide/driver, David. Thankfully, from the border we were on a smooth paved road to Arusha, a tourist hub for Mount Kilimanjaro. We had decent views of Mt Meru, less famous, but at 15,000 feet, not to be sniffed at.
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| Mt. Meru, Tanzania |
In Arusha we stopped to have our boxed picnic lunch at a chi-chi tourist retail center. High end crafts, jewelry and paintings were displayed in stores and galleries connected by attractive pathways through a gardenscape of water features, animal sculpture, and rock walls.
A scenic drive with views of the Manyara escarpment brought us to Lake Manyara National Park. This park was named after a species of Euphorbia with finger like stems. We were welcomed by a troop of baboons swinging down branches and scampering off into bushes. Around us we noticed interesting trees - mahogany, yellow-wood acacia and baobabs.
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| Baobab Tree |
Iconic baobabs stuck out like skeletons having shed their leaves for the winter. Their thick, cylindrical trunks and intricate branches presented a fascinating visual.
At the lake, the park's focal point, we gasped at the staggering variety of bird life. A malachite kingfisher, a sacred ibis, a great blue heron, crested cranes, an adorable family of ducks. Nearby, snorting hippos in the famous hippo pool competed for our attention. We were allowed out of the vehicle for a stroll around the reed fringed lake and pool. From a wooden bridge we looked out over the flat plains of the escarpment. Nature's sounds rendered an atmosphere of tranquility.
We ended the day at Nysa Lodge managed by a woman from Spain. The sprawling complex in a neat garden was surprisingly lifeless. What a contrast to the evening before! At dinner time we met some Canadian guests - an extended family - who had just spent a week climbing Kilimanjaro and were keen to share with us their experiences. Pleasant company and a decent meal featuring fresh vegetables, lamb, and fragrant rice harvested from nearby paddy fields capped off another remarkable day.
Aug 30 The Serengeti
A day of anticipation and excitement. When a place of our fantasies turned to reality. The drive to the Serengeti, compared to our Kenya days, was fairly painless. We stopped at pullouts en route for sublime Rift Valley and Ngorogoro Crater views. The landscape turned progressively dry. Deeper into the wilderness we entered the world of the Maasai. At times we saw young men in black cloaks, their faces decorated with white paint. Teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. Couldn't help musing about the future of the Maasai people. Their subsistence way of life is under threat due to overpopulation, we've been told.
At the park entrance there were numerous safari vehicles - all land rovers - and a tourist center with souvenir shops, cafés, restrooms and a shady picnic area with wooden tables. On a hike up to a viewpoint we had to dodge alien like Agama agama lizards. Gazing at the landscape around us we understood where this legendary park got its name. Flat, wheat colored plains stretched far into the distance. Down at the picnic tables Superb starlings waited eagerly for handouts as we ate our boxed lunches. A cappuccino indulgence followed lunch and then we were ready to penetrate the world's most famous wildlife reserve.
For the first hour we saw no wildlife as we drove through monotonous landscape - flat, dry, with intermittent clumps of thorny acacia. David reminded us that the animals had migrated to the Masai Mara. In the rainy season, which starts in December, the herds will return to the central plains of the Serengeti.
It was the sight of a jackal that woke us up from a post lunch drowsiness. Furtive movements evoked childhood fables in which these animals were portrayed as sly villains. A herd of hartebeest came into view soon after. What joy to watch them! Short horns curved to a heart shape looked especially attractive when a group of three stood side by side. Further on we made out some lionesses asleep on the grass. Then another stretch of no animals for a while ... until we saw a fish eagle perched way up on a tree branch. More uneventful driving.
And then, late in the afternoon, something spectacular happened. Surely the high point of the entire trip! The story we'd tell well into old age whenever the topic of this trip came up. Yes, you guessed it! A leopard. And not just some fuzzy shape high up on a tree. No. This notoriously elusive feline was just meters away on a branch facing us. Its intoxicating beauty clearly visible with naked eyes.
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| Leopard at Serengeti National Park |
I photographed it with my phone and immediately posted it on Facebook. (Connectivity in the wilderness was astonishing!) We would have been perfectly happy to just gawp at the leopard's inert body, but it actually woke up, dropped us a bored glance, repositioned itself on the branch, then went off to sleep again. And we continued to stare ...
Heading to our accommodation, euphoric and fatigued, our minds were on hot showers and sundowners. But nature had a different agenda. First, a secretary bird caught our attention as it marched across the grass. We watched this unusual large black legged bird until it disappeared. Driving on we came upon a couple of miniature antelope, dik diks. They looked right up at us, most adorably, when David stopped the vehicle. And then, just minutes from Thorn Tree Camp, we spotted three sprightly lion cubs. One, a year or so older than the other two. We could make out their mother asleep in the grass nearby. Watching them playing together and running about on a horizontal tree trunk was immensely satisfying! At times they would pose together on a branch and stare at us. "Aren't we just the cutest things you've ever seen?" they seemed to ask.
Darkness was imminent when we finally arrived at Thorn Tree Camp. With twelve individual tent cabins and a tented common area inside the Serengeti, the place oozed charm. We badly wanted to sit by the inviting campfire on the comfy chairs facing the wilderness. But we had to rush to get showered and ready for dinner. Our rooms had the same luxurious African themed touches of Enkorok Mara Camp. The power here came from solar energy. Dinner was fine dining with classy table service. Polite servers first brought out warm, fresh baked bread and the soup course. Next came a series of exquisitely prepared dishes served out of traditional gourd bowls. The cuisine showcased regional farm produce and the talents of a sophisticated chef.
Heading back to our tent cabins, escorted by night guards, we looked up at the night sky and gasped. So far away from light pollution we could easily see the Milky Way, along with billions of stars. We fell asleep to the sounds and cries of the wild.
Day 8 The Serengeti (Aug 31)
In the morning a flock of squawking Marabou Storks graced the camp. After a lavish breakfast of freshly baked pastries, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit we set out for another full day of game viewing. After yesterday's highs and lows we had no idea what to expect. "Unpredictable," David said. "But I'm sure you'll see predators."
"What do they eat if the herbivores are at the Masai Mara?" we asked.
"They don't all migrate. Plenty of food here."
Indeed, minutes into our drive we saw a herd of resident wildebeest, a different species to what we'd seen at the Masai Mara.
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| Resident wildebeest, Serengeti |
Their dark hides were tinged red by the morning sun. Then a lilac breasted roller perched on a branch close to our vehicle snagged our attention.
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| Lilac breasted roller, Serengeti |
Such arresting beauty! Today we were exploring a different part of this vast expanse of national park. The day was far from uneventful. An assortment of wildlife frequently appeared in our field of vision. Vultures, cranes, storks, a martial eagle, a hyena. It became a little more interesting when David followed a line of Land Rovers to a spot from where we could see a cheetah peering through the grass. Researchers in a research vehicle off road, were watching intently through binoculars. Minutes after the research vehicle left, James impulsively shot off toward the cheetah, his judgement clouded by an overzealousness to impress us. The sight of a mother cheetah and her cubs was spellbinding, though the cost of going over a termite mound, startling the animals and causing us to shoot up from our seats tainted the memory.
We proceeded along a quiet stretch before arriving at a pool filled with hippos and Nile crocodiles.
There were crocodiles on logs close enough to us that we could see their sharp teeth and body designs.
Up on a tree close to us we spotted a red-billed hornbill.
I'm not a birder in even the mildest way, but the sight of that prominent bright bill and long, white tail had me transfixed.
On our return in the late afternoon we were intrigued by a dead antelope high up on a tree. It had to belong to a leopard, but where was he? Hidden feet from us having a good old laugh at our expense? We stopped to admire a giraffe, then a kori bustard. A herd of nonresident wildebeest surprised us. James explained that during the Great Migration some animals get lost and don't make it across the Mara River. They join up with other lost members and form their own herd back in the Serengeti.
We arrived at our camp early enough to enjoy gin and tonics around the campfire. At this golden hour, as the sun sank behind low hills, a tranquility settled over the savanna.
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| Sunset from Thorn Tree Camp, Serengeti |
Day 9 Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater (Sept 1)
Our departure from the Serengeti the morning of September 1, was anything but boring. We were heading toward the exit, the sun just above the horizon, when word spread that a lone black rhino was spotted.
We followed the line of safari vehicles to a road from where we could see the agitated animal quite easily. Poor beast! It raced forward, hesitated, turned around, broke into a run again. Somehow it had strayed from its herd in the northern plains. Ranger vehicles following it would rescue it at some point in the day.
A short while later a passing driver gave David information. He turned the vehicle around and off we went until we merged with a line of land rovers. What could it be? Suddenly we saw a lion heading in our direction. Then we noticed several lionesses lying in the grass not far from us.
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| Lionesses eating zebra carcass, Serengeti |
The next fifteen minutes seemed staged for safari tourists. A lion saunters toward us, then proceeds across the road. A lioness jumps up, walks to the carcass (a zebra) and drags it off to the pride. Another lion rises up from close to where the carcass had been, and licks the entrails left on the ground. Meanwhile about six lionesses take turns to feast on the dead zebra. We happened to have an unobstructed, close up view of the entire scene.
On our drive out of the park, past Maasai villages and dusty, arid countryside, Mahler's Symphony Number 9 played in my head. Indeed, our Serengeti experience was so like a Mahler symphony. A slow, gradual start; alternating allegro and andante parts; the build up toward the end when all instruments come into play, percussion and horns dominating for a dramatic finish. Sighs of satisfaction at the end summarize the sentiment.
After two days of nature immersion it was a bit of a shock to be on a paved road again and to see people going about their daily lives. A couple hours later, at the Great Rift Valley we began a steep descent on a windy dirt road into the world's largest caldera, the Ngorogoro Crater. Once at the bottom we unclenched our fists and let out our breaths.
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| Jackal |
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| Spotted hyena |
And down at the lake a pink expanse of flamingoes delighted us. We munched our picnic lunch on the bank of a big pool watching hippos just meters from us. In the afternoon, massive herds of Cape buffalo in the south eastern part had us gaping. We also saw huge herds of wildebeest. There was even a lioness asleep in the grass for good measure. As we were exiting this incredible park a huge procession of baboons crossed the road in front of us. We could hear shrill whining, then noticed it was coming from a young baboon scampering beside its mother. We watched it hop onto her back and she swatted him off. He shrieked and made another attempt. She hurled him off again. When he tried a third time she let him ride on her back and he quieted down. All this, while more and more of these primates streamed past us.
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| Baboons, Ngorogoro Crater |
We chuckled as we left behind the world of animals.
We stayed at Octagon Lodge, founded by an Irish couple with much of its original Irish character retained. Twelve individual cabins, resembling miniature cottages, were set among trees and shrubs in a park like garden. If you had time (which we didn't) you could order Irish beer at the open walled bar with thatched roof, and relax on a comfortable sofa. We happened to be the only guests here that evening, and the staff fussed over us at dinner. We enjoyed an excellent home style meal of creamy pumpkin soup, fragrant rice, root vegetables, a spicy bean stew, steamed veggies, and meat of some kind in a colorful dining room decorated with vibrant paintings of everyday African scenes.
It felt strange to sink into a comfortable bed and not worry about awakening before sunrise. We didn't have to gobble up our omelettes the next morning. Our last morning on the continent. Strong coffee would have been a treat, but we had to wait to get to a built up city for that. On our way to Arusha we stopped at art and souvenir stalls where we supported the local economy. No tanzanite jewelry purchases though, despite passionate sales pitches! We parted ways with David in Arusha where we boarded a shuttle for Nairobi airport in the early afternoon. This was the roughest part of our ten day trip. A five hour ride on busy two lane roads where there was much overtaking of slow trucks at adrenalin inducing speeds. How immensely relieved we were to be deposited at the airport!
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