I woke up early and was very relieved to see that a) the walls of my tent were not hanging in ribbons and b) my arms and legs were still attached to my body. But now I had a dilemma - dawn was breaking and peering through the windows, I couldn't see any of the staff about, so was it safe to unzip and step outside or not? I chose the safe option, popped the lights on and got dressed with the tent securely closed. Moments later, a voice outside said "Good morning, here is some hot water for you to wash".
I unzipped, had a good look around before venturing outside and if there were lions lurking in the long grass, I couldn't see or hear them. Besides if there was still a "lion mauling opportunity", I reasoned the boys wouldn't be casually strolling around.
The hot water had been poured into a portable canvas mini washbasin right outside, so I took full advantage. Lovely.
A breakfast table had been laid outside in a corridor of flat grass that stretched away from the mess tent into the plain - but not far and still the right side of the "do not go beyond this point" sign. I tend to eat a bit earlier than Deo in the mornings, simply because I like to relax a bit and have plenty of time to get everything ready for the game drive.
By now I'd abandoned the Go Pro ( no zoom) and my Olympus Tough ( much better for close ups and underwater) as both had so far proved to be entirely useless for this sort of activity. So this morning I was going to be travelling light. Just my Nikon, + lenses + spare batteries + spare SD cards + battery charger ( just in case) + iPhone (you never know) + charger cable + my amazing thing that has 4 slots that take any international plug and 2 USB ports and plugs into the helpfully provided socket in the car.
The best bit was - we were staying here for 3 nights, so I didn't have to pack up everything and load it all back into the car - bonus!
Breakfast was yummy and there was loads to eat, but eating outside, with that astonishing view was another truly memorable experience.
Once Deo had finished his full cooked breakfast and I'd checked and rechecked I had everything, we were ready to go.
Today I was going to sit in the back with the main roof up so that I could easily move to whichever side gave the best view. Until now, I'd sat in the front with Deo and used the smaller open roof, This had been great for the 2 other parks, but we'd realised the day before, during the lion hunt, that it was going to be too awkward to continue this way. Deo is a tall man and I'm very very short, so as the action was on his side and we were both standing, we had to keep swapping places for me to see anything. Remember, you can't get out of the car, so it was tricky as neither of us are "stick insects".
So in the back of the Landcruiser that has 6 seats, I had plenty of space to move around and with the use of the photographers bean bag (helpfully proved by the company) to rest my camera on and my squishy travel neck pillow to rest my arms on, I was super comfy and ready to take some great photos ( fingers crossed).
I was really excited about what the day might bring. So far I'd been lucky enough to get up close and personal with lions, elephants, baboons, monkeys, giraffes, buffalo and all manner of antelope. I'd seen a cheetah way off in the distance but had everything crossed for a better look and of course there was also the elusive leopard. The other member of the big 5 that everyone wants to see is the extremely rare Rhino. They are on the endangered species list and there are very few of them left, so the chances of spotting one range from nigh on impossible to no chance whatsoever.
In case you are thinking I may be building up the anticipation to a great "I've seen a rhino" story, let me tell you now - It didn't happen. Deo tried his best, but really it's like looking for a needle in a haystack and having seen the vast area these parks cover, I wasn't at all surprised. He said that I will just have to come back to try again and I might just do that.
Anyway, this morning, the weather was fine - not too hot, which was perfect for me and for the animals.
The first thing we spotted were a little family of warthogs. We watched them for a bit and I gave my new position in the car - standing on a seat in just the right place, a whirl. As they moved along busy having breakfast, I moved with them. Way too many photos later, Deo suggested we move on.
The next photo opportunity was fascinating and apparently, extremely rare ( how lucky am I). There were 2 baboons in a tree, one was pulling apart a baby gazelle (very dead of course) and carefully picking out the tastiest parts. At the base of the tree, a hyena kept circling, desperate for bits of this treat to fall. The baboons were having none of it and at one point ( I could only really see this with the
binoculars), tone of them, grabbed a bit of intestine and started dangling it from a branch. It was close enough for the hyena to see and smell, but too high for him to reach. They continued to tease the poor hyena for ages and when they had finished all the good bits of the gazelle, they climbed down, but left the rest of the carcass hanging over the branch.
What meanies! Clearly they were never taught to share by their parents. I felt really sorry for the hungry hyena. He continued to circle the tree for a while, even tried putting his paws on a lower branch, but it was no good, the prey was too high up and hyenas aren't built for climbing.
As we drove through the ever changing scenery, we saw some Buffalo, Black face monkeys yet more warthogs and an Eland flanked by zebra.
Far off in the distance we could see a line of Landcruisers, which always meant something good and Deo quickly set off in that general direction. We stopped very briefly to snap
some shots of 2 lion cubs close to the road (no sign of mum) and Deo waved towards some tiny creatures hurtling from bush to bush - Dwarf Mongooses ( or is it mongeese?), but there was no time to stop; He knew what everyone was looking at and wanted to get there fast so we could get a good viewing spot. From the chatter on the radio, it was clear that every vehicle within a 5 mile radius would be heading to this point.
By the time we arrived the line of cars was nose to tail along the track and everyone had their bins and cameras pointing towards a line of palm trees that flank the river.
Deo double parked giving me a gap between the cars to look through and after giving me some directions, I found her. A beautiful cheetah walking through the grass. I'd just got the camera into focus, when Deo shouted "hang on" and sped up the track past all the cars, way past where the Cheetah was walking, turned the car to face the way we had just come and stopped at the entrance to a gully.
What on earth was he doing?
We were a fair distance from all the other vehicles, I couldn't see the cheetah any more and our previous spot had been much better. I sat down hard and pointed out this very obvious fact to Deo.
"Don't worry" he said with a grin, "she's coming this way and she's going to cross".
Even with all his experience, I have no idea how he knows these things, but by now I had supreme confidence that he knew exactly what he was doing, even if not a single one of the other guides had followed this rather high risk strategy.
He was absolutely right of course and not only did she cross - she entered the gully right in front of us.
I was smugness personified, as all the other cars raced to our position. You can say what you like about safari guides, but the ability to anticipate the animal's movements and get you into exactly the right spot, is priceless. He is truly the best.
The cheetah made her way up the bank and walked off into the high grass. I managed to follow her ( I'm getting better at this every day) and then Deo ( who hadn't even stood up or picked up the bins) said, " she's going to get up on that termite mound". I think he must have some secret communication system with the animals, because with a vast open plain in front of us, who would have guessed she would give us such an amazing photo opportunity.
If we are facebook friends, you may have seen my termite of the day series of photos (my little attempt at humour), so I was particularly thrilled to have such a magnificent termite mound photo and decided to save that one for day 7 - the glorious finale. Eventually, the cheetah moved away and so did we. I was running out of word to describe how incredible it all was and how thrilled I was feeling and I must have thanked Deo hundreds of times. We hadn't gone far when the radio burst into life again. Deo drove like the clappers over the bumpy tracks and fortunately I was sitting down and holding on very tight.
The line of Landcruisers for this viewing was the longest I'd seen so far and we tucked in behind the last one. I jumped up and scanned the landscape both with and without binoculars hoping to find whatever it was, all by myself.
"Ok, I give in. What am I looking at?"
"There in the tree" replied Deo, "which tree - there are lots?" I queried.
"The second one from right to left and go up to where you can see a long tail hanging straight down".
It still took me a minute or two to spot the beautiful Leopard, as she was very well hidden behind the branches, but her long tail and big paw hanging down from the branch helped enormously.
Actually I was quite proud of myself, because I found her quite quickly, compared to my pathetic attempts at game spotting during the previous days and I was miles better than the poor ladies in the car that had pulled up behind us. They were still looking for her 10 minutes later, but then they didn't have a Deo!!!!
As is often the case, people get bored very quickly and to be fair, the leopard was busy sleeping, so there wasn't much action. But Deo and I have all the patience in the world and as each car pulled out of line, all those behind, closed the gap. Even from the most advantageous viewing position, it was still really hard to get a good clear picture, but I didn't care - I'd seen a leopard!!!!
It was getting close to lunchtime and it didn't look like she was going to wake up any time soon. Deo joked that he was going to bring a plastic gazelle next time. I knew he was joking, he takes conservation very seriously and wouldn't dream of doing anything that would interfere with the animals natural behaviour.
By now it was getting close to lunchtime, so Deo suggested we move on and head towards the picnic site.
On our way we stopped to watch a large herd of elephants trekking across the plain. I kept hearing the song "Colonel Hathi's March", from the Jungle Book playing in my head as the little ones kept up with the group.
We made another stop to watch a little family group of warthogs. The mums were busy eating and the babies who were still nursing, were trying to do the same. This was so lovely, I decided to take a video, but with my Nikon camera, this isn’t as easy as it sounds.
There are two main problems
1. You can’t use the viewfinder in video mode - it has to be the screen, We’ve already established my eyesight isn’t great and that combined with the bright African light ( even when it’s not sunny) makes it impossible to see what you are recording.
2. The telephoto lens is great for taking close shots of far away targets, but the tiniest movement of the camera makes what you see swing about all over the place. So unless you are determined to make your viewers feel seasick, it doesn’t make for great video.
I did my best and despite there being a loud burst of radio chatter and the sound of the lens focussing, I still thought the video was worth sharing.
The picnic sites in the Serengeti are strategically placed to allow the visitors to enjoy their lunch without the risk of becoming lunch themselves. So the only wildlife you see are the many birds, all hoping for a tasty snack.
It is strictly forbidden to feed the birds and there are plenty of signs saying so, for those too stupid to realise this by themselves.
On at least two occasions, Deo shouted at other guides who hadn’t noticed their guests were donating part of their lunch to the birds. It’s a testament to the respect he has within the guiding community, that these guises didn’t take offence, but quickly stopped their clients from making fools of themselves.
After an exceptionally scrummy lunch, courtesy of the team at Kananga tented camp, washed down with lovely wine courtesy of Soul of Tanzania, we packed away our hamper and set off for another game drive.
As far as I was concerned, nothing could top that morning, but I should have learned never to make assumptions if you have a Deo as your guide.
I didn’t hear the radio go ballistic (meaning an exciting find), nor were there a whole line of landcruisers ( a dead give-away to something fantastic) but somehow Deo managed to arrive at a spot where there were a large pride of lions consisting of females and cubs, right by the roadside.
They seemed to be searching for a suitable pace to take an afternoon siesta, ( Deo says lions are lazy and sleep a lot) and were weaving in out of the handful of vehicles that had arrived.
I was ecstatic, as this was the closest we had been to any of the big cats ( not counting those inches from my head in the middle of the night of course). As they all gradually crossed the road and settled in a spot quite close by, one youngster decided he/she had done quite enough walking for one day and flopped down in the grass literally right beside our land cruiser to take a nap. My happiness rating shot off the chart and it was all thanks to my astonishing guide.
As he said himself “ if you are happy, then I am happy”, so on that basis, he must have been delirious.
We stayed there for ages and I took a lot of photos, then I took some more, I changed angle and I played around with the zoom and took even more. My best estimate is that I took over 150 pictures of my lions ( by now I’d definitely claimed them as my own - especially the one just couple of meters away).
Click on the thumbnails below or use the arrows to see a small selection of the pictures!!
I was quite pleased to see that my ownership of this lion was well recognised by others as the lady in the car in front politely asked if we could move back a bit so she could take a picture. She promised they would go as soon as she had her photo, but I have to admit, I was a bit concrned some other guide would sneak into our space as soon as it was free.
I needn’t have worried, no one messes with Deo.
We reclaimed our prime position and I had one of the best afternoons of my life.
Eventually Deo pointed out that we were quite a long way from our camp and we should be making a move.
On our way back we stopped to see another cheetah (way off in the distance), some gazelles ( always a joy), some giraffes ( my old mum’s favourite), couple of hippos ( bonus), a pair of sectary birds ( they’re enormous), a topi flanked by zebra ( so proud I can identify the different antelope), some sort of bird of prey ( sorry Deo, I can’t remember it’s name) and some wildebeest ( the spare part animal - explanation to follow).
We finally arrived back a camp and I was gasping for a cup of tea before my shower. I sat outside the main tent with cuppa and fag in hand and attempted to pick out my favourite pictures, This was the hardest part of the day - I’m proud to say I had taken some stonkingly good photos so narrowing them down to a number that wouldn’t have family and friends slitting their wrists with boredom was a challenge.
After another amazing bush shower, a gorgeous dinner, and some lovely wine, it was time to zip myself into my tent for the night. I had planned to try to write some of this blog, but I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I snuggled under my duvet and fell asleep to the sounds of the Serengeti.
