Tanzania 2012
It's a little over an hour flight from Manyara Airport, and we are touching down on a dirt runway in the Serengeti, but first the pilot does a low run fly-by to scare away any animals on the runway before he circles around again and lands. That's not troubling at all!
Serengeti
The Serengeti National Park is one of the most celebrated wildlife reserves in the world. This National Park was created to preserve the path of the world's largest migration circuit with the Masai Mara in Kenya, and covers an absolutely vast area of pristine East African savannah. Game viewing in the Serengeti is good at all times of the year. It is one of those rare places that does live up to the hype.
We are met at the airstrip by 2 men that would become our very good friends over the next 4 days; Madebe, a very experienced Tanzanian guide, and Sadala, a young Masai warrior, who is in our vehicle as a spotter. Our first stop on the Game Drive from the airport to the camp is the Mara River, home to many water birds, Crocodiles, and the major obstacle to the migration of the Wildebeest. This dry Savannah looks pretty wet here, I guess that's why the animals all head here.
Yellow Billed Stork 
Egyptian Geese
Spending quality time with Madebe and Sadala proved to be very educational, not only did we learn a lot about Tanzania and it's people, but we also learned a whole bunch of Swahili. We also learned that Madebe is an amazing 4WD driver, not like this guy that hung his truck up on some rocks. After some direction from Madebe, he finally got back out, I thought Madebe was going to jump in his truck and show him.
Sawa, Twende - OK, Let's Go
Reed Buck Water Buck
Sadala stands in the back of the Land Cruiser watching constantly as we work our way along the edges of the river. The quality of his eyes become apparent when we stop to look at a giraffe, "in this bush beside us is a Faru (Rhino)" We are looking, but don't see anything. Finally we see some ears twitching, and then the Rhino crashes out of the bush right in front of our truck. How did he see that?
Faru - Rhino
One of the unique animals we saw a lot of in the Serengeti is the very uniquely coloured Topi's.
Buffalo Marabou
What would become part of our regular ritual with Madebe and Sadala was our breakfast and lunch stops. They would always pick a scenic and safe area, pull out a couple of chairs for us, and prepare a meal on the back of the truck. Always an interesting mix of food, with freshly chopped salads and fruit, assortment of water, pop and local beers.
After an incredible start to our Serengeti adventure, we finally arrive at our home for the next 4 nights; Alex Walker's Serian camp. It is a portable camp that moves based on the migration of the Wildebeest, now it is in the Northern Serengeti near the Kenyan border. The camp consists of the main tent with a lounge and dinner area, a small toilet tent, a campfire area, and 8 remotely placed tents for guests.
After an overview of the camp that always begins with "There is no fences...", we are walked to our tent to settle in. Right in front of our tent is a giant Elephant, so we spend the next half hour sitting on our bed watching an Elephant, who needs a safari drive?
The "Tent" is rather nice, it is setup on a tarp right on the grass, but is very spacious, has a bathroom and changing area complete with a flushing toilet, and a shower. The hot water is provided by a solar bucket, and when you are ready one of the guys comes and fills the bag, hoists it up a pole, and you have a hot shower with enough for one person. When your done, they refill the bag for the next person.
Sometimes, I'm not sure why we would leave our tent, when you can watch wildlife, sunsets, and rainbows from the comfort of a deck chair or your bed. Yep, a rainbow, it rained for a while, and were the locals ever happy... they say grass will be growing in 4 days.
After dinner one of the Masai Askari walk us to our room, and suddenly stops us. He shines his flash light on a glowy eye, and then down the body of a giant Hippo that is standing right in front of our tent... remembering the part about "not running", we stand behind the Masai, and wait for the Hippo to finally wander away into the forest. Apparently Hippos will walk up to 10 kilometers from the river for grass.
Kiboko - Hippo
DAY SEVEN
The next morning after a wake up call... "hello, jambo... Good Morning, I have your tea and hot chocolate", we head out for an early game drive with Madebe and Sadala. As we head towards the river, we see a Hippo wandering past the airport, I wonder if he was our Hippo?
As we start to learn, everything in the Serengeti is focused around "The Crossing", that moment in time when thousands of Wildebeest and Zebra finally decide to make the mad dash and cross the Mara river, I never understood why they just didn't use the bridge like we do. Every time we see a gathering of Wildebeest, Madebe get's excited and we wait to see if anything will happen. Nope not this time.
I always had this idea that if you saw Hyenas, there must be a kill somewhere nearby, it's like Vultures, right? That's what we saw at Ngorongoro Crater, but I guess something can't be dead all the time, and we run across this pack of Hyenas. They are a strange looking animal, part dog, part nuclear holocaust survivor... some of them are cute, some of them are ugly, and some of them stink, seriously, the smell as they get near to our vehicle, wow. One thing that is true about these hyenas, they are all very curious about us.
Fisi - Hyena
As we start driving North into some lovely grassy plains we notice a large white marker in the field, as we drive past it Madebe laughs and says "OK, now we are in Kenya", I expected something different. It looks beautiful, but a lot like Tanzania.
Lion King Mountain, Kenya A Topi grazing in Kenya
Tanzania Kenya
As part of our new tradition we pile out of the Land Cruiser, then Madebe and Sadala make us a picnic breakfast to eat as we look out across the Masai Mara. It was kind of funny how the first few times they made food for us they would go eat on the other side of the truck to give us privacy, this morning we left the chairs empty and sat on the blanket eating our breakfast with them, much more interesting.
Brown Snake Eagle Agama Lizard
Remember when I talked about not having to leave the tent, apparently you don`t need to leave the car either. Within a few minutes we had a stick bug on the windshield, and then a small frog decided to be a passenger for the next few hours.
For the next while we sat in the sun waiting to see if the gathering Wildebeest would do a crossing. At least we were entertained while we waited, Elephants came and went, some of them came very close, as a parked vehicle doesn`t seem to be much of a threat. Zebra and Wart Hogs wandered past... and there was a new kind of beer to try, Ndovu Special Malt... Ndovu another word for Elephant.
Nope, not gonna cross today, "Sawa, Twende". So we head off to find a nice place to eat our lunch.
After enjoying another tailgate lunch with the guys, we head to another area of the park, it's a rocky hill area known as "Woga Kuria". We aren't there for more than 5 minutes before we spot a vulture in a tree, that usually means there is something dead nearby. Sure enough, just around the corner is a Cheetah with a very recently killed Reed Buck. An incredibly beautiful animal, even when she's chewing on a thigh.
What an incredible way to wrap up a game drive, watching a Cheetah! With smiles on all of our faces we head back to camp.
Duma - CheetahDinner is interesting around the table that night as everyone shares the stories of what they saw. Alex Walker is quite the character, eagerly taking his role as host and leading the table, when he is asked "Tell us about your strangest story", he is more than happy to oblige.
Alex's Story
Alex's friend Peter was canoeing with his parents in Kenya, when a hippo flipped their canoe. The river is almost a mile wide and the 3 of them end up on a sand bar in the middle of the river. After waiting there for a while with no other boats passing, it starts getting dark, and Peter tells his parents he has to make a swim for the shore to get some help. Halfway to the shore, they watch in horror as a Crocodile grabs him, rolls him twice and they disappear under the waters.
Dealing with the grief Peter's parents see two boats go past in the dark, but can't get their attention... finally a third boat is passing and spots them. They are rescued and taken to a local village. They are treated with kindness as they mourn the loss of their son.
The next day they hear the news that a body has been found.
When crocodiles take an animal, they grab on, perform what is known as a death roll, and usually take their meal to an underwater lair to let it, well let's call it "season". Peter came too inside the crocodiles lair with his face in a small air pocket. After waiting for the crocodile to leave, he swam out and got onto the shore. When he tried to walk he realized just how bad the croc had shredded his legs and had to drag himself across the grasses until he could go no further and pulled himself up against a tree to rest.
What Peter had not realized is that he had left a bloody trail from the river bank to his position under the tree, when he started to hear the Hyenas coming, he saw the trail. He also saw the Hyenas as they started to close in and circle around him. In the wilds of Africa there are three animals that humans need to truly fear; Lions, Hippos, and the lone male Buffalo. As he is getting ready for the attack from the Hyenas, he knows he is in serious trouble when a Lone Male Buffalo comes into the clearing too. LMB are angry, and they are mean.
What happened next was completely unexpected, instead of attacking and goring Peter, the Buffalo went after the Hyenas, clearing each of them away rather violently, and for the remainder of the night he stood watch over Peter, protecting him from each animal that followed the blood trail into the clearing. The next morning 2 hunters came into the clearing and found dead Hyenas, a ton of blood and a body.
When the hunters returned the body to the village so the parents could have some closure, they discovered that Peter was still alive, and after healing is walking today. He doesn't canoe anymore.
DAY EIGHT
As we head out the next morning we see three Hippos wandering back to the river. After seeing the Cheetah the night before Madebe takes us back to the "Woga Kuria" area to see if he is still there, he wasn't.
What we did see was equally as amazing, a Leopard sitting on top of a large rock. He is an amazing animal, you can see the strength and power beneath the spots as he ignores us and stares at a pair of Impala below him. They have no idea he is there.
Chui (pronounced chewie) - Leopard
We leave the Leopard in peace, and head from the rocky hills back down to the Mara river for some quality time with the Hippos.
As we leave the Hippos we encounter one of those amazing wild moments, I pull out my video camera and watch as 2 Impalas are fighting, butting heads with their long horns, chasing each other. Having just recorded this amazing moment, I press the RED button to stop recording, and notice the red "REC" light come on... dammit!
Another tailgate meal, and we settle into a nice viewing area under a tree to watch the gathering Wildebeest and see if they will cross. Madebe is concerned because the Zebras are at the front of the group "The Zebras will never go first, this isn't good". He was right, after watching the Wildebeest and Zebras wander down to the water edge and back up onto the shore for a couple hours, it starts to rain,
so we zip up the roof, roll up the windows and head back to camp.
Norine was very worried about spiders in African tents, as it turns out we only saw one on the first day at Tarangire, that unlucky spider got to rapidly read my magazine. We didn't think about Stick bugs or Praying Mantis coming into our tent. Luckily the Praying Mantis stayed on the outside screen, and I just picked up the stick bug and gently showed it out of the tent.
That night I am woken abruptly by what sounds like some kind of wild pigs outside our tent, turns out it is the mating call of the male Impala.
DAY NINE
We get an early start the next morning on what would turn out to be an amazing day. Our early start pays off as we discover a pair of lions. They circle all around our truck, lay down and watch us for a while, then spend some time playing with each other before wandering away.
Madebe was determined that on our last day in the Serengeti we would see the Wildebeest Crossing. Apparently there is only so many specific areas where the Wildebeest have enough access to get to the waters edge, each of these are named... Crossing 1, Crossing 2, Crossing 3, etc... When we arrive at Crossing 3 there is a group that is starting to form, but Madebe has a feeling, so he tells one of the other drivers to stay there and call him if anything happens, and we drive over to Crossing 1.
As soon as we arrive a huge group of Wildebeest and Zebra go, they madly leap into the river and start swimming, while every Wildebeest and Zebra for miles starts streaming down to that one crossing spot on the river to get to the other side. Madebe CB's the other driver and we watch with amazement as thousands of animals swim across the Mara river. How do we know how many?
According to Alex "It's easy, just count the legs and divide by 4". Funny, we just let Sadala tell us.
As quickly as it started, it comes to a stop, one Wildebeest or Zebra doesn't go, and the group that is behind wander back up into the grass.
Nymbu - Wildebeest
Finally seeing this amazing event has a sad ending, when the crossing stopped several young Wildebeest realize that their mothers have not come across and make the bad decision to swim back to the other side. We watch as tragically one of them drops under the water, comes back up, drops again and surfaces, the disappears in the middle of the river. Did he drown? Was it a crocodile? We don't know,
but it was harder to watch this happen than all the gore we had seen with the cats, they were already safely across, at least 1 made it.
In celebration of our patience being rewarded and seeing the Crossing, we have a breakfast at a beautiful river viewpoint.
Watching crocodiles, Elands, and colourful birds, while munching on eggs, bacon and pancakes... it's kind of surreal.
Eland tempting a Croc Bare Faced Go-Away Bird
We spent some time waiting at Crossing 3, and had our lunch there, but one crossing is all we would get. Since we were having such a good day, Madebe decided to head back to Woga Kuria again and sure enough as we get there we see another Cheetah.
As we are sitting there admiring this majestic cat, Sadala is looking around, and he says to us "There is some Lions over there.". We look to see where he is pointing, and it is on a hillside across a valley, at least a mile away. Norine hands him our binoculars and he says "Yep, there is at least 8 of them." When I look through the binoculars I see some brown smudges on a rock. "Sawa, Twende!"
So we leave the Cheetah behind and we notice some other trucks heading in that direction, trouble is there is a river in the way, and you have to go around to get there. The other trucks take the roads heading far to the left, and Madebe goes straight through the bush. When we get to the river crossing he has caught up to them, and we hear one of them say something to Madebe over the CB Radio, he laughs. Apparently they asked him if he was driving a bulldozer.
As we start winding our way up the opposite hillside through the grasses, we find out they other trucks spotted a Rhino, so we are asked "Do you want to follow them and look for the Rhino, or go see the Lions?", that's a no-brainer, so we leave the other vehicles and head straight up towards the big rock. We are all alone when we spot them, and Norine yells out to Madebe to Stop, in the tall grass right in front of the truck is a Lion. Lions are everywhere, in the grass, a large group lying around a rock on a rock, and on other rocks overlooking us. As we sat there with our mouths wide open, we counted thirteen Lions, a mix of adult females and cubs.
Simba - Lion
We spent some time watching the lions, laughing as the cubs wrestle and fall off the rock, but we know it's getting dark, and we have to leave the Lions behind as the other trucks start coming up. Apparently their search for the Rhino was a failure, did we ever make the right choice.
Our safari's in the Serengeti were over, tomorrow we would fly out of here, but what an amazing way to wrap up this part of our journey.
DAY TEN
The staff all wave "Kwa Heri" (goodbye) Our last sighting, a Verreaux's Eagle Owl
With some sadness we bid our new friends Madebe and Sadala farewell, Norine asks Sadala if it's OK to hug him, "oh yes", they hug, then he comes over to me and gives me a big hug goodbye. They are still waving at us as our little plane takes off down the runway.
Today would be a long day of flights to get to Selous, we fly to Arusha, change planes, then fly to Zanzibar before going to Dar Es Salaam. Then we change planes again before flying to Selous. We left the camp at 9:00 am, and wouldn't arrive at the next camp until 4:00 pm.
