Spoiler Alert for fans of crappy 70s American PopRock: Kilimanjaro does not ‘rise like a Memphis over the Serengeti’. It is nowhere near it.
Advisory / warning: this post contains descriptions and images of wild animals doing their thing and having things done to them by other animals. Think ‘Attenborough’ rather than Disney’s ‘Lion King’.
We left our accommodation on the Ngorongoro rim at around 0630 on Tuesday 20 June . Plan was to spend 2 and a bit days in the Central Serengeti and then the same amount of time in the Western Serengeti before fly back to Zanzibar.
After an hour or two, and driving past Olduvai Gorge where the Leakey’s had made their groundbreaking discoveries about the evolution of humanoids into humans, we ‘entered’ the park. From the entrance it was another forty minutes to the actual ‘gate’ … and 30 minutes of more entrance paperwork formalities, thankfully handled by Wilson.
Then we were into the ‘game drive business’ . Unlike the constrained Ngorongoro Crater the Serengeti is a vast area – over 30,000 square kilometres. it stretches from South from the Kenya border and the Masai Mara area, reaching in the west almost to Lake Victoria and bounded in the east by the Ngorongoro Conservation area.
The terrain within the park is diverse- not surprising given its size. The centre is a mixture of some small ranges and grasslands with the odd Kopje cropping up ( a lot of degraded granite landforms reflecting the ancient volcanic origins of part of the region). The south has grasslands that stretch forever, reminiscent of outback north west Queensland or the Kansas prairie. The Western sector ( or corridor) is bounded on the east by a long range and has some low hills around the central western zone. The Grumeti river , with associated bands of riparian vegetation, bisects the western corridor.
The whole park is crisscrossed by a network of tracks and dirt roads of varying degrees. The formula is pretty consistent- you dawdle along looking for ‘things’. Sometimes you find ‘things’ by the cluster of Landcruisers gathered around them. Sometimes you find things all by yourself ( nice!). And sometimes things find you when you are looking at something else you found!
We saw a whole bunch of herbivores who thrive on the grasslands. Along with the herbivores we saw a bunch of predators that thrive on them. Some of the herbivores:
We also saw lion, cheetah, hyena, and leopard.
Lions were everywhere. Lions up trees, lions ‘ahem’ having special ‘daddy and mommy’ time, lions posing, lions hanging with the kids and lions killing a variety of things …
We also came across a lioness on a baby Zebra kill. She was joined by a pair of black backed jackals scavenging. And over watching everything and looking ‘anxious’ was a lone Hyena. When we moved in closer we found out why – the lioness had also killed another Hyena that came too close. Definitely no love lost between Lion and Hyena.
It wasn’t all lions . Space and sanity preclude sharing everything we saw ( and the hundreds of photos). Here are few interesting examples . First up, youngish bull elephants play fighting.
On Wednesday the 22nd we left the Central Serengeti and began the few hours drive to the slight north (initially) and then west into the Serengeti’s Western Corridor. Next post: more Wildebeest than you could poke a stick at ( millions of sticks, in fact ).
Ness’ and Mark’s Wandering 