Tanzania 3

Tanzania 3

22/9/13

We left Serenora Lodge after an early breakfast and drove north through the Serengeti to Lobo Wildlife Lodge where we stayed for 2 nights before the end of the safari.

It was quite cool when we went out and there was not much activity. We found 3 jackals curled up by the side of the road trying to keep warm.

                                               I'm sure that this jackal was laughing at us.

We were with Harley today and he is very good at bird watching. We found a White-headed Buffalo Weaver building a nest. There were two nests together. As we watched a pygmy falcon came and entered the second nest. Apparently they steal weaver nests and use them themselves. Bob got a great picture.

Pygmy Falcon - very small for a bird of prey.

                                                     White-headed Buffalo-Weaver

                                                             Lilac-breasted Roller

                                                                    Little bee-eater

                                                            Southern ground hornbill.
                                                                                                                                                        
We saw several different types of antelope that we haven’t seen before or have seen only briefly. I need to go to antelope school because I find the subtle differences between some of them difficult to remember.

                                                                      Grant's Gazelle

                                                                    Klipspringer

                                                                        Topi

                                                                   Coke's hartebeest

We saw a pride of about 10 lions eating a buffalo in bushes about 50 meters away. Visibility was limited so the vehicles took turns and we got to watch for about 3 minutes. It would have been killed quite recently and the lions were really breaking up the meat and feeding. You could hear the chomping.

Then there were some quite big elephants pulling down branches from trees and eating them. We haven’t seen this before. It’s tough on the trees.

After lunch at our new Lodge, which is again set in granite, we unpacked and went out again at 4pm. 

This area is very different with a lot more trees. It has also had recent rain so is greener than further south in the Serengeti. There are clusters of wildebeest and zebra which indicate that the migration back to this area may have started. The plan is to go further north tomorrow and look for them.

The find of the evening was some very small elephants babies with their mothers. If elephant calves can walk underneath their mothers body they are less than 8 months old generally. These ones could do that easily.

This old bull elephant has had some issues with his tusks. He's still handsome don't you think? Symmetry isn't everything. 

A great find for me was a Verreaux owl on a log near dusk. It’s unusual to see owls as they’re nocturnal so this was special.

                                                                         Pre dinner drinks.

23/9/13

We left after breakfast with packed lunches for a day out game viewing in the northern Serengeti.  The mission was to see the migration – hopefully during a river crossing. We were told that it had rained quite heavily the previous evening in the area that we were going. The guides said that a vehicle had got bogged on the track and the track was now closed.

We drove towards the north and saw quite a few wildebeest who were the first of the migration. 
We saw a lioness with two cubs stalking some Topi in the distance. I can recognise Topi because they look like they’re wearing jeans with their dark markings around the rump! We watched for about 30 minutes as the lioness crept closer towards the Topi. Her cubs lay down and were quiet not far from us. One Topi was lying down with it’s back to the lioness and appeared vulnerable but there was another in the group that appeared to be keeping watch. Eventually the Topi wandered off – it was not clear if they sensed the lion was around or naturally went on to another area. 
This was one of the situations where it was hard to know whether to identify with the lioness who had hungry cubs to feed or the antelope being stalked. I tried to remain impartial!

The lion gave up and walked back towards her cubs not caring about being seen any longer. 

It's not easy for a giraffe to drink at ground level with his long legs. Not so elegant but it works.

                                   

                                                                     A pool with more hippos.

Further on we saw a male lion wandering through the bushes. This is such a typical African scene. One of my favourite of Bob's photos.

We have been very fortunate to see so many cats. Lions have become almost normal. We’ve probably seen 100 lions and we’ve had good views of cheetahs and leopards as well.

The next stop was when a large baboon chased and caught a baby gazelle. I should have been aware but wasn’t that baboons can be carnivores. It’s not common but they eat anything we’re told when they're hungry enough. Our vehicle was in front but the one behind actually saw the catch. Our guide – Marley - was radioed and we quickly turned back to see the baboon racing across the grass with the gazelle in it’s mouth. The other vehicle saw the baboon catch the gazelle and immediately turn it on it’s back and disembowel it. The baboon dropped the gazelle as we arrived and the poor thing was still alive on the ground but couldn’t get up although it was attempting to. We left it with the baboon returning to it and hopefully quickly putting it out of it’s misery. Baboons catching impala is not common so probably the impalas were not hyper aware. They could have out run the baboon quite easily, including the baby, but were not sensing danger. I know it's the law of the jungle but to me the baboon was not playing fair!

For me this was the saddest thing we saw on the safari because it was not a clean kill and the impala was suffering.

The guides chatted and decided to attempt to get to one of the river crossings for the migration the long way around. It would be a little risky as the clouds were building for afternoon rain and there was the possibility of that track also becoming impassable but it was worth the risk.

It was a long and at times rough drive for about 1½ hours. As we got nearer to the river we saw more and more wildebeest. It was an amazing sight. Some were walking in long lines but others were grazing.

We reached the river and saw a huge gathering of wildebeest and a few zebra on the other side. They looked as if they might cross the river. Clearly from the number on the other side there’d been several crossings in the last day or 2. There were about 20 buffalo carcasses in the river shallows of wildebeest that hadn’t made it. It wasn’t clear why – maybe there was a bottleneck getting out and they drowned. It didn’t seem like they’d been taken by crocodiles. Sad to see.

We watched the wildebeest on the other side for about 1 ¼ hours doing their normal behaviour before a crossing of massing down towards the river before turning back all en masse and walking in another direction. I’d love to know how they all communicate to move in the same direction simultaneously. It was great to see. So we’d hold our breaths thinking this was it as they were very close only to have them turn back again. It got too late to risk not being able to get back to our Lodge so we drove back. They could have crossed minutes or hours later. We’ll never know.

There had indeed been quite heavy rain and we did have to go through some quite deep water and mud on the return journey but had no problems. We saw a delivery truck that was bogged so avoided that route.

We had drinks on the terrace overlooking the Serengeti before dinner. I was able to add 2 more birds to my list bringing the total to a pretty amazing 176.

                             Clive's last speech - a review of the trip which was well recorded.

                                      A group of Lappet-faced and Ruppell's Griffon vultures.                            

                                                       Ruppell's Griffon Vulture

Then I saw a White Faced Scops owl from our bedroom window in the early morning to bring the bird total to 177. 

24/9/13

Bob and I got up and had breakfast with the rest of our group and waved them goodbye. All of them, except Clive were returning to Australia via various routes. Bob and I were flying to Rwanda later in the day.

I think the whole group enjoyed each others’ company. Bob and I have not traveled in groups before and were hesitant about how we would be in a group for this long. If one person is difficult it can spoil it for everyone else. I think people who are prepared to do safaris are probably fairly flexible and this was the case with us. We all got on well, were considerate of each other and enjoyed each other’s company. As time went on we got on even better.

So we waved goodbye but will keep in touch.

Bob and I had the morning to ourselves and then Harley collected us and took us to the airstrip. Forget checking in and having your luggage weighed etc. The allowance was 15 kg supposedly, including hand luggage, as it was a small plane and we were a bit nervous about that. There was no building at the airport. We waited in the vehicle until the 12 seated Cessna landed. Harley loaded our luggage and we climbed on board. We flew over the Serengeti making 2 stops to collect and drop off other travellers.

The third stop was in Mwanza on the Kenyan border. We all had to get off the plane, collect our luggage, go through immigration and customs to leave Kenya and then climb back on board for the last sector to Kigali. 
So the end of the safari part of our trip but with the mountain gorillas to come.

Thoughts on the Safari

It's hard to remember now what I thought it would be like in Africa before we came. I think I was focused on seeing the animals. We did that and they were truly amazing but there was a lot more to see that I hadn't anticipated.
We were very lucky with the number and variety of animals that we saw. We saw the African Big 5 - elephants, rhinos, buffalo, lions and leopards in abundance. This was in large part due to the commitment and knowledge of  our guides. All the guides, including Clive knew the areas that we visited really well. Clive would often tell the driver / guides what animals he wanted to see that day in the morning and they did their very best to find them and often did. The guides communicated with each other by radio and shared their findings which explained our often very rapid changes in direction.
Getting to know the guides and hear their personal stories which they shared so willingly was a highlight of the safari.
Animal wise Clive said that the one thing he was a little disappointed about was that we didn't see vast numbers of wildebeest migrating. He estimated that we saw about 10,000 of the 1.5 million wildebeest that migrate.  It's a little hard to know where they were at this time of year. We did almost a full circle from the south of Kenya round to the northern part of Tanzania so ended up in Tanzania only a few kilometres from where we'd been in Kenya. Of course part of the delight and frustration of a safari is that the animals do not line up to be viewed as one might wish!
However for me 10,000 wildebeest interspersed with hundreds of zebra was really special and gave us a really good idea of the magnitude of this amazing migration phenomena.
We spent a lot of time looking for animal action e.g. cats hunting or catching prey, unusual behaviour etc. We got to see quite a bit of this. It struck me that for most of the time the animals just hang out. A lot are in groups and watch out for each other. Many spend their time grazing. There is always a need to keep watch for predators but this is intertwined with daily life.  Apart from the young ones playing most animals are not active unless they have to be. A bit like normal human lives maybe. While we saw quite a lot of action and animals taken by predators this was only a small percentage of the total population and most of the time life was peaceful.
It was emotional being in the area during the terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Harare. We were never in any danger but somehow being close made it very real. Seeing the bewilderment of the staff at the Lodges we stayed at how anyone could do such a thing mirrored our own thoughts and I felt a real affinity with them. It was magnified for them by the potential to affect them personally. Most of the places that we stayed at were not full and tourism is a vital part of the economy and future of  these countries. The people that we met were mainly working in tourism and the lucky ones in countries where there is a lot of poverty. Many of them would have been supporting a few people on their wages. The thought of an almost inevitable reduction in tourism because of the terrorist attack must have been devastating for them. I wish them all the best.