It was our final morning in the Serengeti as we were leaving for our next destination at lunchtime. I hadn't realised that Deo had planned another short game drive on our way out, but was very glad he had.
I was up, all packed and ready to go very early and managed to catch the gorgeous sunrise, which provided a great photo op.
After another delicious ( enough to feed the 5000) breakfast, the wonderful team at Kanaga Tented camp, who had looked after us so well, loaded our luggage into the Land cruiser and with big hugs and lots of waving, we bumped our way down the track for the last time.
Staying in one of the top luxury lodges in the area, was never an option for me - way too expensive, so sleeping in a tented camp was a necessity rather than a choice and in all honesty, it was the part of the trip I was least looking forward to ( see previous posts for context).
In the end it was my favourite place to stay. There was something very special about the whole experience and Mudy, Mmary and Johny at Kananga couldn't have done more for us. The tents were luxurious ( and completely lion proof), the service was outstanding and the food was so amazing you would have thought it had been prepared in a fully fitted restaurant kitchen with a brigade of chefs - not in the middle of nowhere in a tent!!! ( I still can't get over the freshly baked bread).
Anyway, once I've finished the blog, I will be writing my trip advisor reviews and theirs will be a 5 star glowing report.
As we drove away, the evidence that the migration was headed south was even clearer. Much larger herds of wildebeest and zebra dotted the plains.
Considering we were doing our last game drive as we were on our way out of the Serengeti National Park, Deo, came up trumps once again.
As we drove through the plains, we came across an elephant, quite close to the road. There were no other vehicles about, so we had him all to ourselves.
Just for a change I took some photos - not too many as I estimated I probably had close to 300 of the elephants already.
Deo explained that on some Safari’s, the elephants are quite elusive and despite his best efforts, are nowhere to be found. That’s wild animals for you - there are never any guarantees.
With this information, I realised how incredibly lucky I had been. I’d seen elephants every single day.
My sightings had included:
Giant bulls with their enormous willy’s on full display. ( their 5th leg as Deo calls it),
A group of females fussing over the babies
Babies nursing
Elephant pulling up weeds from a a pond and yanking branches from trees.
A very grumpy elephant getting ready to charge our vehicle ( we hightailed it out of there)
And a large herd trekking across the horizon
Wonderful!!
Our next sighting was a jackal who looked like he was going to try to bag himself a gazelle.
“That’s the first jackal I’ve seen”. I said. “No - we’ve seen them before”, Deo replied.
Well he may well have done, with his supersonic infrared eyesight, I, on the other hand, was convinced I definitely hadn’t ( or I would have had photos).
He was sort of right. There had been one in the bushes by our camp and he and the boys had pointed it out to me. It wasn’t their fault that my appalling eyesight had failed me yet again. In my defence, it was starting to get dark, but by the time my eyes adjusted to the gloom and I’d scanned the bushes it was gone.
Deo explained that Jackals, like hyenas, are scavengers and so it was extremely unlikely that this one was hunting unless a very small very weak animal was among the group of Gazelles.
After watching him for a bit, we drove on and once again, without any radio chatter or a line of vehicles to guide us, pulled up in the perfect spot to witness another hunt. This was amazing - we were either extremely lucky or Deo has a sixth sense that leads him to exactly the right spot at exactly the right time.
This time the targets were 3 warthogs, just chilling, eating some grass and enjoying the morning sunshine.
There were 3 lions sitting in the grass, watching them intently and once again the lead female started to make her way slowly towards the prey.
The young male and other female just waited and watched.
As the main hunter got closer, the other 2 stood up, presumably to get a better view, but didn’t offer any assistance.
The actual attack took place behind some bushes, but we knew the warthogs had prevailed as we spotted them running away and as the hunter made her way back to the group, the 2 watchers flopped back down. Clearly, watching all that excitement was exhausting.
Shortly after, we encountered another much larger group of lions, all sleeping under a tree and very close to the road. There were already a number of other vehicles in place, but as always, Deo found me a good position, to watch.
There wasn’t much behaviour to observe as they were all very very sleepy, but there were several cubs amongst the group and they were adorable.
One of the larger females sat up and I noticed she was wearing a collar.. Deo explained this was a tracking devise to help the research efforts inside the park.
I felt a bit conflicted about this. On the one hand, I completely understand the need to protect the animals, monitor the numbers and generally keep track of them. On the other hand if we weren’t driving several hundred species extinct every day and putting the rest of the animal kingdom at risk by destroying the environment, there would be no need for intervention at all.
Anyway, the lion population in the Serengeti seems to be thriving, so that’s good news.
Our Serengeti permit was for three days, so we had to be out of there by 1.30 and as time was marching on, Deo suggested we leave the sleepy lions and start making our way towards the gate.
He explained that we still had a bit of time, so if we found anything else worth stopping for, we could fit that in.
This is why it’s so important to go on Safari with a reputable company, that employs brilliant guides. Just a slight miscalculation in timing would not only be very expensive ( the Serengeti permits don’t come cheap), but would completely cock up the time available to spend in Ngorongoro - which is even more limited.
So did we find anything else worth a stop? Of course we did.
Mr “bionic vision”, man with the sixth sense, found another lion hunt in progress.
This time there were another small group of warthogs been carefully watched by 5 lions.
One lioness was already on her way towards them, while the rest just stayed back and watched with interest.
This was the third lion hunt we’d seen and on every occasion, there had been one doing the hard work while the others just waited for the prize.
“Why do they do that?” I asked Deo. “Surely it would make more sense for all of them to get involved - if they surrounded the warthogs, they’d stand a much better chance of dinner”.
“It’s just the way they hunt - lions are lazy”, Deo replied.
We watched and waited and so did the other lions.
Although we couldn’t see the lioness anymore (she was too well concealed), I had the camera firmly focussed on the warthogs which gave me a much better view than I could ever have seen from that distance.
She finally made her move and there was a huge cloud of dust as the warthogs took off at an amazing speed. Given their size and the fact that they are quite chunky, it’s astonishing how fast these little fellas can move, but I suppose we all would do the same if we were being pursued by a hungry lion.
Anyway, she missed. So the results were in. 3 to the Zebras/Warthogs - 0 to the lions.
There was a long line of Zebras making their way across the plain and we waited to see if the lions would try again.
At the end of the line a rather small zebra seemed to be drifting away from the rest and we felt sure the lioness would see it as an easy target.
But for whatever reason, all the lions just sat there and watched the Zebras walk by. I think Deo is right - lions are a bit lazy.
As we made our way to the main gate, there were 2 last photos I was determined to get. One was of a photo of an antelope of some sort jumping and as there were loads of gazelles , mostly on the road, I thought I’d stand a reasonable chance.
I was fairly successful, but even more impressive were my pictures of a Thomson’s gazelle having a poo. You can’t see his face, so if he ever reads this blog, he won’t be embarrassed.
The other photo I wanted was the iconic safari picture of a giraffe and Zebra together and as if by magic, the perfect opportunity presented itself. Amazing!!
The very last Serengeti animal I saw was a sweet little hyena, who popped his head up from the long grass, just at the right moment.
We had our lovely lunch at the main gate and I couldn’t help but feel a little envious of the groups of people who were clearly just entering the park. Nevertheless, If they got to see half as much as I had done, I was sure they would be ecstatic.
Crossing the very flat very dusty plains we saw something unexpected. "What on earth is throwing up all that dust", I asked Deo.
"It's a twister", he replied. Well that was another first to add to this amazing trip.
As we left the vast plains behind us and started climbing the foothills around the Ngorongoro crater, we started to see groups of Masai again - tending heir herds, sitting under a tree chatting or just walking along.
Earlier in the week, after a long talk with Deo, I had made a decision to change my last night’s accommodation for the safari part of the trip. He had recommended that we get down into the crater at 6.00am, but this was going to be difficult, from the original accommodation I had chosen. For a start it was quite a drive from the gate and then we still had to make our way around the rim and down into the crater itself. The wonderful Helena from Soul of Tanzania, had suggested it because I was hell bent on saving some money and the only way to do that was to stay in accommodation outside the parks. But having realised that it meant either getting up at 3.00am or getting to the crater far too late, I decided to throw caution to the wind ( and my budget with it) and book the night in the Serena Safari lodge which hangs right on the crater walls.
N.B - I didn't take these photos - they were the ones that made me change my booking.
As it was a lot more expensive and I’d been promised spectacular views, I’d asked Deo if we could get there earlyish so that I had plenty of time to appreciate these rather luxurious surroundings.
He didn’t disappoint and I have to say, when I opened the door to my room and stepped out onto my balcony, the view took my breath away.
I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, drinking in the view and taking full advantage of the excellent wifi.
I timed my shower so that I would be changed and ready in time to step back outside to catch the sunset- but sadly, I forgot how quickly night falls here.
Never mind I would try for the sunrise in the morning - I was going to be up early enough.