Tanzania: Central Serengeti

We weren’t planning on asking for a room change – it is fine as it is (even though it is not the ‘best’), but ‘H’ wants to be helpful, and told us at breakfast that we are being moved, so we have to rush back to our cabin to repack so they can move us while we are on the game drive.

The morning game drive starts slowly. For some reason, there is very little game near the lodge – you have to travel about 45 minutes until it gets interesting. Finally we start seeing a wonderful variety: dik diks, water buck, Maasai giraffe, impala, vervet monkey, warthogs, zebra, white backed vultures. We see a lion with what appears to be a broken leg. About 50 yards away vultures are eating something. We can’t tell if the lion already ate, or if he is hoping for vulture leftovers. We don’t see how in the world he can hunt with that leg.

We see a maribou stork, and then silver-backed jackals chasing vultures off of a different kill. And another maribou stork, this one flying, looking for all the world like a hang glider. A banded mongoose, Topi, rock hyrax.

Every morning, I tell Roman that I want to see a leopard, and every day he says “maybe – we’ll try”. I finally decide that the problem is that I’ve been asking in English, and perhaps the leopards only speak Swahili, so I practice my request until I can say “I’d really like to see a leopard” in Swahili. Half an hour later we come upon a gathering of vehicles, and see a tail dangling from a tree. Then we see a couple of legs also dangling down. Because of the many branches in the tree, it is really hard to see anything, even though it is close. I try looking out the side window, and standing up looking out the top, but a branch is always in the way. Finally I figure out a better angle crawling on the floor, so I can look under the branch instead. My travel companions ask what in the world I’m doing, but when I exclaim that I’m willing to crawl to see a leopard they all want to crawl too! I manage to see a bit of the rump and an ear. I’m wondering at what point it counts as a sighting! As the vehicles jockey for position on the road, sometimes the view is better, and sometimes worse. One of our party is impatient and wants to leave, but now we are hemmed in. I’m glad, because I just want to stay and watch. She fumes, and I keep my eyes trained on that dangling tail. Finally he stands up on the branch.
He is much bigger than I thought. I’m so glad we were ‘stuck’ here and couldn’t move! Suddenly the leopard leaps across to another branch. I try to photo him, but he is too quick – I succeed only in getting the landing shot: a rump and tail flying in the breeze, silhouetted against the sky. It’s amazing to see something that big jump that fast.

Finally we move off, and continue viewing other game. We enjoy a large herd of elephants – 20 in one family. Then a cheetah hiding under a tree, followed by 4 cheetahs sitting under another tree. The tree is a little ways away, with tall grass in front, and we joke that our photo captions would have to be very specific: “This is the grass that is hiding the cheetahs”. Then we see two lions (a male and a female) under a tree. The lion has a rich red-gold mane. He gets up and walks over to another tree, grandly looks around and returns to the first tree, where the female is sprawled in an ungainly heap. Then another herd of elephants, ‘only’ 9 this time, including a 6 month old baby.

We find a watering hole with oodles of zebras – about 30 are in the water, with others continuously walking in and out. At one point the approach and exit are so orderly it looks like people lining up to receive communion. The water is incredibly muddy. The zebras in the water are churning up the water and making lots of noise just by wading back and forth. Meanwhile some of the zebras on land are ‘barking’, and one is sort of hee-hawing, like a donkey.

Then a family of elephants approaches, and the zebras fly in a panic, only to turn right around and go back into the water. The elephants drink at one end and the zebras at the other, as if there is a line drawn, separating them. Then we hear trumpeting and the zebras rush out again, with mad splashing and flailing and excitement. There is a second herd of elephants on the other bank. The zebras don’t want to be caught up in an elephant fight. One of the elephant herds backs off a little, and the zebras return. Every minute or two, one of the zebras panics and starts a stampede, and then they turn right around and come back. They don’t actually seem very smart. Often the ones galloping out pass the others already lined up to go back in. When the 2nd family of elephants finally enters the water, then all the zebras gallop off, in a flurry of muddy splashes.

The second elephant family decides to eat the vegetation on the far side of the pond, and now they won’t let the first family out of the water. There is clearly some one-upsmanship going on. By the way, I’ve been calling this a pond, but apparently it is actually part of the Seronera River. The interplay between the zebras and the two elephant families continues.

Afterwards, we see vervet monkeys, another lion under a tree on the left, and yet another under a tree on the right. I can’t believe that I’ve lost count of how many lions we’ve seen. I’m sleepy, achy, dusty, hungry, and am dealing with a sinus infection and a bit of a sore throat, but I definitely have my happy face on!

We get back to the lodge for lunch. When we get our new key, we find out that our bags have not been moved, so I go back to reception again and ask them to have the bags moved, as well as the laundry hanging in the bathroom, while we’re at lunch. We’ve packed everything else, but I didn’t want to pack the laundry since it was wet. After lunch I ask at the desk if they’ve moved the bags – I’m not even sure which key I need at this point. They aren’t sure which key I need either. I start getting impatient – we still haven’t washed up after the game drive. They finally send a porter with us, and we find that the bags are in one room and the laundry is in the other room. So I collect the laundry and the porter leaves, and I think we are set. But then I find we have no hot water. I don’t mean it is lukewarm, I mean that nothing comes out of the tap at all. So I go back to reception. They explain that it is a generalized problem in the camp, not our room, and it will be fixed by dinner.

The afternoon game drive is not as exciting. We see a yellow throated sandgrouse, Maasai giraffe, dik diks, Thompson’s gazelles, zebras, fiscal shrike, impala, and a hippo pool with a crocodile.

We return from our afternoon game drive, only to find that we still have no hot water. We go to dinner grubby and sweaty and dirty, only to find that everyone else has showered – in hot water. So I guess it wasn’t a camp-wide problem after all. Our leader assures us he’ll speak to the management and have it fixed while we are at dinner. After dinner we are escorted to our cabin. I enter the bathroom and find no hot water still. I figure that my roommate (as patient as she is), will kill me if this isn’t fixed soon, since she has to rise at 4:15 for the balloon ride, and this is sort of my fault, since I commented on the room. Luckily I suddenly realize that the room has a phone (what a novelty!) so I call reception. Finally the guy comes and works on it and fixes it at around 10:30 at night. At last we are ready for our showers, however now we see that we are missing a washcloth, and have no hand towels at all. At home that would not be an issue, but here you really need something to wipe the dirt off with!

I let my roommate shower first, and then I take mine. I’m hot and dusty and dirty and sweaty and smelly and cranky. But while I’m taking my wonderful hot shower I remember what a marvelous day we had. Who cares about these minor glitches when we had an incredible game drive!

4:15 in the morning comes too soon. My roommate is really, really quiet getting up, but I still hear her alarm clock and the wakeup call. But I figure that it all comes out even, since she has treated me to an extra half hour sleep each morning. I fall back asleep, and then I get up at 6:15 to see the sunrise, since this room finally does have a nice view.

This lodge is a bit inconsistent. The staff have the trademark Serena courtesy, but they are not very competent. I know that things can break even in the best run establishments, but it really shouldn’t take 3 separate requests to get something as basic as hot water fixed. Even in the dining room, a request for tea might take ½ hour, or might never happen at all. We did have our best game drive here, but it takes about 40-45 minutes to even get to the good game viewing area. Meanwhile, the huts look appealing, but are also stiflingly hot.

Tanzania: Oldupai Gorge and Serengeti

Leaving Ngorongoro we get a few more views into the crater. It’s really amazing. I can’t imagine that the Maasai walk up and down to graze their cattle. I also can’t imagine the female elephants walking up and down. I’m beginning to see an Africa pattern here: the Maasai women carry the water and build the huts; the lionesses kill the prey; the female elephants lead the herd. Women in Africa seem to work extremely hard, regardless of the species!. On the rim, we see impala, grants gazelles, secretary birds and zebras. The road is extremely bumpy, and we pass broken down trucks frequently – luckily they have managed to pull to the side enough to not obstruct traffic. I wonder what they will do to fix their trucks.

We stop at Oldupai gorge. We all thought that it was Olduvai, but the guide corrects us. It is named after the oldupai plant, a member of the sisal family. We see the different strata in the gorge. The varying colors of the alternating red and gray help pick out the layers. In the first layer the ‘nutcracker man’ was found, with a massive jaw to grind hard seeds. The formal name was something like australopificus boise, but I have no idea how to spell it. That is dated at 1.8 million years ago. It’s hard for me to take these dates seriously – are they sure it wasn’t 1.9 or 1.7 million? They talk us through each layer, and also give us a great piece of trivia. ‘Lucy’ (found elsewhere, I believe), was actually named after the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’. The little museum is quite interesting.

The other members of my group are very self-congratulatory about their sophistication compared to the stupid and ignorant Christians who believe in the Bible story of creation. It doesn't seem the time to tell them that they have a spy in their ranks, but later on I actually get a chance to talk to one of the women who is struggling with the different beliefs in her family. I tell her that being a person of faith and being intelligent are not incompatible, and discuss Genesis with her.

Now on to the Serengeti. It truly is an endless plain. The dust is unbelievable. Every time a vehicle passes us we have to close the windows. But this is our hottest day so far, so we really need the air. So we get really good at sliding the windows open and shut again and again. In the wake of another vehicle, the dust is so thick it is actually like a white-out, with severely obscured visibility. In broad daylight, the wise drivers put their headlights on, to make it easier for the other vehicles to see them. My buff kerchief is working great! All my travel companions start asking me about it.

‘H’ had promised us great bathrooms at the entrance to the Serengeti, and I wonder what planet he is coming from; they are Turkish style ‘squatters’ with broken flushers, and are stopped up with an accumulation of toilet paper and bodily waste. After trying in vain to flush by pulling the cord, I notice a water handle on the wall. I hopefully turn it only to find out that it was a SHOWER! Not what I was hoping for. I walk out sprinkled with water, and realize that I now look as if I’ve somehow got driblets of pee all over. This trip is good at getting rid of any false pride.

We are all sick of those Serena boxed lunches – a dry sandwich of mystery meat (ugh), a piece of roast chicken (usually pretty good, but sometimes covered with congealed fat), a slice of pound cake (ok), an orange drink (ok) , a bottle of water (ok), a container of yogurt (suspiciously foaming and bulging), and a little piece of fruit. We are getting really expert at separating what we don’t want so it can be given away (rather than nibbling at everything and then throwing it out). The picnic area features large, colorful lizards. Not my normal eating companions, but they don’t actually approach us, and don’t bother anyone.

Finally we get going again, and have a game drive on the way to the lodge. The highlight was watching a crocodile trying to eat an impala. It was sort of a tease to watch it, since most of the action happened underwater. Occasionally the croc would rear up with a portion of the impala in its jaws, but it wasn’t managing to tear it apart so it could eat it.

I was still anxious to see a leopard so I looked carefully in every shady spot (since it was now the heat of the day). I had one false alarm which was actually a reebuck hiding in some grass under a bush, and another animal which was in deep shadow a distance from the road – too far and dark to tell what it was. Then I saw a head sticking out from behind the trunk of a tree – I had high hopes, but it was actually a hyena. What a letdown! I think it was my third hyena spotting. The crew in my vehicle was split over whether I should get spotting credit, or a demerit. ;)

All of a sudden we see a big male lion, close to the road. He is lined up so his body is exactly aligned with the shade cast by the trunk of the tree. He lies with his head up, but his eyes closed, breathing heavily. Then he flops over like a baby who has decided to sleep. We see his ribs go in and out when he breathes. Then he sits up again and this time he looks around, but his eyes are so heavy that they keep closing. It makes us tired to even look at him! Something about those drooping eyelids is contagious. Meanwhile, a giraffe grazes on the other side of the road. She hasn’t seen him yet. The lion is so tired he can barely be bothered to look. When the giraffe finally notices him, we see her ears flare out immediately. It looks like a cartoon depiction of surprise. She wheels around to walk off briskly – not panicked, but clearly wary.

We finally reach the hotel – Serengeti Serena. We are so glad for those damp washcloths at the entrance. I can’t believe how dirty I am. We are all tired and achy and hot and dusty and cranky. The hotel is an appealing design, with individual huts.