ON SAFARI
A three part series
with Lorne & Heidi Sulcas

LIFE ON THE SAVANNAH:
TANZANIA 

Day 9: Ndutu – Mobile Camp

The Mobile Camp at Seronera was to be our final destination.  We spent much of the morning looking at birds in the woodlands adjacent to the soda Lake Masek. 

Without even really trying, we saw about 80 different species over the course of the safari, and this morning’s species were: Long-crested eagle, Barn owl, coucals, barbets, and brightly coloured bee-eaters.  At one point, a small herd of elephant blocked our way, browsing off the trees on either side of the road.  A teenage bull that had a bit too much testosterone gave us the ‘spread ears’ salute and turned tail running down the road after his mommy and siblings.

As we neared the distinctive Naabi Hill kopje we saw in the distance a hyena with a baby Thomson’s gazelle carcass in its mouth, running in the opposite direction to the road.  Stopping at Naabi Gate is mandatory, to deal with the red tape involved with officially entering the Serengeti National Park. 

Climbing Naabi Hill to see the magnificent panoramic view of the Serengeti ecosystem, all the way into the Serengeti to the north and all the way back into the Ngorogoro Conservation area to the south is definitely worthwhile. 

There are always some brightly coloured agamas on the rocks at the top that provide great entertainment.  

A few kilometres into the Park, we watched another massive splinter group of the migration cross the road in front of us and a pride of eight well fed contented lions lying in the grass.  

The road continues through the totally flat, wide open plains that are punctuated by the occasional termite mound and by huge rocky outcrops, kopjes, which are habitat to a diverse range of species including the large predators. We saw our first Topi, characteristically standing on a termite mound, both to advertise his presence as well as to have a better vantage point.  We took a short detour off the main road to explore some of the kopjes.  A big group of reedbuck were in the reeds of the small riverbed that was parallel to the road, and later we found a lion and lioness at the top of one of the bigger kopjes and a group of hyena resting in the heat of the day on another. 

The Seronera area was extremely dry, the grass yellow-brown.  The Mobile Camp had been set up east of Seronera itself on a hill that felt like it overlooked the whole of Africa.  Of the places we stayed at on the whole safari, this camp was the highlight - the charm of the actual camp itself and the service.  We were welcomed by the camp manager bearing wet towels and mango juice, and shown to our respective tents.  

They were similar in layout and size to the permanent tents at Tarangire River Camp, the only major difference being that these didn’t have a permanent roof covering the canvas ceiling of the tent, and that here the flushing toilet and shower were portable. So maybe slightly more rustic, but certainly not lacking for a single thing.  We also discovered that we were to have the whole camp to ourselves for this first night as other guests were only scheduled to arrive in camp the following day. 

A full lunch had been prepared in our honour, and even though I wasn’t hungry at all from the morning’s continuous extended breakfast, when I saw how much trouble the staff had gone to,  we had what turned out to be an incredible soup.  Given the heat and the humidity, we all took siesta.

We had probably not been on our afternoon gamedrive for much more than a few minutes when the clouds that had been building for the previous couple of hours, opened rather dramatically.  The rain was of course, extremely welcome for the land and its people, but not exactly ideal for safari in a vehicle with open roof hatches.  

James has his system down to a tee though: Large raindrops on windscreen; stop vehicle; check coast is clear; hop out and in two, maybe three strides reach the rear; climb up ladder, missing every second rung, close and secure front roof hatch; rear roof hatch; standing jump off roof onto ground next to driver’s door; hop straight back inside.  Time: just under 2 minutes start to finish, with a smile on his face.

We nevertheless proceeded in the downpour, and within minutes the roads started to flood.  The guide from a passing vehicle lifted his goggles and snorkel to tell James about a leopard in a tree several kilometres away, and so we headed slowly in that direction.  Actually going there quickly was out of the question even if we’d wanted to – it was “one speed fits all.”  Frankly, at this point I was wondering if a speedboat might not have been a better vehicle choice for this afternoon’s sojurn.  

We knew we were nearing the leopard sighting as the line of vehicles was evident from at least a kilometre away.  (If not for the rain, one probably would have been able to see the cars from even further!)  At the risk of drowning, we gingerly opened the windows on the appropriate side of the vehicle, and caught a glimpse of a leopard paw in a tree quite far away from the road, and an unidentifiable carcass in the lower fork of the tree.  

We waited for about 20 minutes in the hope that the cat might move and possibly offer us a better view of her.  Evidently all the other folks were all thinking the same thing, as each of what I counted to be 19 vehicles just parked there, rain pelting down, windows closed, all steamed up so that there was absolutely no view anyway.  Martians who could look down on this scene, would, I’m quite sure be splitting their sides.  

Eventually the leopard did move, first to another branch, and soon afterwards, probably realising that she wasn’t waterproof, down the tree disappearing into the riverbed below.  With her disappearance, all 19 vehicles decided to move at the same time.  We watched half amused, half in horror, a very top heavy looking Land-Rover moving in front of us, navigate the road, or perhaps more accurately, the lake, sideways.  After much slipping and sliding in the mud the tyres finally got some traction– it was a miracle that the vehicle didn’t roll.  Of course both due to James’s skilful driving and his “go anywhere-mobile” (hitherto referred to as “GAM) Land Cruiser we moved out of the sighting as though there had been no rain on the road for years.

Despite the rain continuing for all but the last minutes of the gamedrive, amongst what we saw afterwards was a lion, 2 cheetah, and a long line of wildebeest silhouetted against the brilliant deep orange sky that peeked out from underneath the incredible formation of low black and orange clouds.   Unfortunately we couldn’t linger too long as the camp staff had requested that we return to camp with enough daylight for them to stoke our shower.  Until we returned and watched them in action, we hadn’t been exactly sure why this was necessary.  

What we found out was that they boil the water in the kitchen down the hill, which they then hand-carry in buckets the 300 meters or so to each tent, and decant into a small outside tank that feeds the shower inside.  Lions tend to become active at dusk, and naturally, with the unfenced camp literally being in the middle of the bushveld, the staff would prefer not to get eaten as they complete this not unarduous task.  And what a terrific shower! Piping hot, with the rising steam visible as it came out of the spout.

We were really waited on hand and foot here from the beginning to the end of our stay.  The camp staff comprised five men, each of whom seemed to wear multiple hats.  Clearly there was no “it’s not my job” here.  A sumptuous dinner was served to us in the candlelight. Although a glass of red wine would really have hit the spot, I couldn’t even take advantage of the free drinks the camp offered its guests, as alcohol decreases the half life of the doxycycline tablets I was taking for malaria prophylaxis.  We chatted and laughed (Paul has a great sense of humor) at the campfire after dinner, and retired to bed to the comforting distant sounds of lions, hyena, and thunder and the not so distant sounds of the wind blowing through the tent.

Day 10: Mobile Camp and Seronera

We were woken before dawn by a gentle Masaai voice saying, “Good morning” outside the tent, and what sounded like water being poured. When I unzipped the front of the tent, I saw that the owner of the voice was not only lighting the lanterns outside each tent, but indeed pouring hot water into a large metal jug that he was leaving with a clean facecloth and small tub, under the awning of each tent.  He said: “This is in case you would like to wash.”

We left on gamedrive before sunrise with only a strip of pink visible on the horizon.  A perfect Umbrella Acacia silhouetted by the stunning sky begged to be photographed.  We dutifully obliged.  The ground was still extremely wet from the previous night’s rainfall, and the fantastic smells of the wet bushveld in the fresh morning air wafted through the opens windows.  With the sun rising, we saw a Martial Eagle perched in a Fever Acacia and a herd of buffalo moving to forage in the distance.   

That morning we also saw topi, Kok’s hartebeest, and a huge hippo bull walking for quite a distance out of the water, his still wet skin glistening in the morning sunlight.  We followed the hippo for about 20 minutes as he walked in the riverbed parallel to the road, until we were passed by another vehicle going in the opposite direction that had just come from a lion sighting a little further down.

When we got to the lions, we first saw one female lying in the shade of two small trees that were the only ones around for miles.  Another lioness and a huge lion were feeding about 100 meters away on an adult buffalo that the pride had obviously killed the previous night.  The grass was long, almost obscuring the carcass, so visibility of the two that were feeding was not very good.  That is until the lioness got up to join her sister in shade of the already hot sun.  Her face had blood on it and her full belly swayed as she walked towards the tree.  The male followed her progress first with his eyes only, took a few more munches on the carcass and proceeded to follow her.  

“Haven’t I met you somewhere before?” 

Apparently feeling a little amorous after his obviously good meal, he came up to the second female  but before he could say “Haven’t I met you somewhere before?” she growled loudly, took a lightning fast swipe at him, and then ducked in anticipation of any repercussions.  He was so surprised that the only response he could muster up was to jump back in obvious shock at her audacity.  

When he remembered that that behaviour of his was not fitting for a lion of his stature, he roared, albeit somewhat half-heartedly, walked over to one of the two trees and sprayed urine to mark his territory.  Deciding on his next move, he cast a quick glance back in her direction to see if she had changed her mind, and when he realised that she hadn’t, he flopped down in the shade next to the first lioness.  Game over.

James suggested eating our late breakfast at the Serengeti Information Center, which turned out to be terrific.  Tanzanian National Parks have really done a nice job of creating an informative outdoor museum surrounding a very pleasant picnic site.  Tree hyraxes abounded, and astonishingly, a lone hippo, far away from any large body of water, lay sleeping in a small puddle right next to the unfenced picnic area.  

The one fact about hippotamus that I retained in my small brain from my days as a game ranger, was that they have killed more humans than any other mammal in Africa.  An obviously extremely ignorant tourist wandered over to within meters of the hippo, and even more amazingly, the hippo didn’t stir. 

On our post-breakfast drive two lionesses and a sub-adult cub lay next to the road.  At one point one of the lionesses became very alert and looking in that direction we could see three vehicles.  Knowing that lions are typically as alert to competition as they are to potential prey, we decided to investigate what they and the tourists in the other vehicles were looking at, in the hope that it might be another large carnivore. 

Sure enough, by the time we negotiated a dry river crossing and we got to the vehicles, a cheetah and two cubs were feeding voraciously on a kill about a hundred meters from the road - the kill had taken place literally minutes before our arrival.  Darn!  But that’s very much how it goes in the bush: sometimes lucky, sometimes not.  We still had a great sighting though and watched the cheetahs for about half an hour before making our way back to camp.

Lunch and afternoon siesta preceded our afternoon gamedrive, which started off with a male lion walking towards us in the road a few kilometres from camp.  We pulled off onto the rise of the side of the road so that he could continue on his way undisturbed, and then once he’d passed within a metre of our vehicle, we did a U-turn and followed him.  He stayed on the road for a little while through the flat landscape, until he came to a large kopje, which he proceeded to climb.  We watched him mark his territory and then make his way right to the top of the highest rock in the outcrop, where he sat for a few minutes surveying his territory, before climbing down the other side of the kopje.  

We followed the road round and rejoined him on it.  After walking for another 20 metres, he promptly flopped down in the long grass next to the road and went to sleep.  We again did a U-turn to resume our original route and when we reached the area where we had found the lion, a lioness was now walking towards us in the road.  She was obviously following him, so U-turn number 3 after she also passed right next to GAM.  

As she walked, she stopped periodically to find his scent, which she did successfully until she came within about 100 meters of where we knew he was lying.  He was completely invisible and either very sound asleep or playing extremely “hard-to-get,” so not finding him, she lay down too.  After much ‘lion’ down, we got back to camp in time for the shower/dinner/be waited on hand and foot ritual.

Day 11: Serengeti – Arusha

We had decided that in order to have the longest possible final gamedrive this morning, we would simply end it at the Seronera airstrip.  This simply meant a slightly earlier wake up call in order to pack our bags and check out, which the friendly mobile camp staff graciously obliged us with.  The clouds were low and it was raining again, but we did see 6 large buffalo bulls and later two lionesses walking away from a lion on a carcass, and then giving us a great show of how to climb kopjes.

Serengeti International Airport was bustling: the small parking lot next to the strip and windsock crammed with tourists swapping stories and all trying to take the same photo of their fellows posing in front of the small parked twin-prop with the topis on the runway in the background.  We hugged James, who had truly been classy.  It was nice to know that it was au revoir not goodbye, as James will of course, be with us again on next year’s February Migration Safari.  Though we didn’t have actual tickets for the flight back to Arusha, the pilots simply said: “Oh, yes, they told us we should expect 3 more passengers, so it’s no problem.  Hop on board.”

The flight took us over the Rift Valley and the Ngorogoro Crater and into Arusha.  The perspective from the air was fantastic and I just stared out of the window for most of the 45 minutes or so of the flight, replaying in my mind the wonderful memories of the last 10 days.  

Arusha airport was packed with small aircraft parked next to the terminal, and we were escorted from the plane by the luggage carriers through a locked gate on the side of the building and into the parking lot.  There we were met by Josiah himself, the Operations Manager of Kibo Guides, who had been extremely obliging before and throughout our trip.  

We were driven to Momma Wilson’s where a day room had been organised for us to enable showering, resting, etc., for the afternoon.  

Helpful and friendly David welcomed us again and led us through for a really nice lunch that had been especially prepared. As we were each leaving at different times, we said our happy/sad goodbyes to fellow travellers and rode through the bustle and vibe of the African town, to Kilimanjaro International Airport for the homeward departure.  What we had experienced together will never be forgotten.  

As I boarded the plane, I thought: “only another 11 months to go before next year’s trip…

Join Lorne on these fabulous safaris!!! sulcaslht@yahoo.com

Back to Part One   See Part Two

Copyright © Lorne & Heidi Sulcas 2007