Serengeti – Day 3 – 3/16/11
I woke up this morning to Erin singing outside my tent. The nice singing and a good night sleep made this one of the best pre-dawn wakes ups I’ve ever had. Well that and the lion I heard roaring as I went to sleep! So I got up threw on the clothes piled on my bag at the foot of my sleeping bag, stumble out the door and head to the bathroom with Allie who is sleeping two people away from me in the tent. We get about ten feet before we both start yelping and stamping around like crazy. There were ants in our pants. Big nasty safari ants were crawling all over and biting us in most unfortunate places. Thanks god it was dark and our tent was furthest from everyone else cause we stripped down really fast and began beating the surrounding bushes with our pants. In hind sight its hilarious but at the time we were snarling and very unhappy. We got most of the ants out but we both were getting bitten off and on again throughout the morning. Anyhow I got in one of the old cruisers and we set off to complete the real bird counting exercise. We saw plenty of birds for our exercise along with lots of cool tracks in the mud. Dawn game drives are fantastic. Back at camp we had breakfast and got a chance to relax until our next talk at 2pm. This meant I had four hours to waste without being allowed to leave camp…..great. I attempted to doodle in my field notebook..that failed, tried writing out my summer but chemistry has not gotten more interesting since I left the US, and finally settled on listing possible options for my year off and staring into the bush with my snazzy binoculars. At 2pm everyone back in the cruisers and we drove 15 mins to the Serengeti Lion Project House (or just Lion House) to hear the American grad student doing her PhD research here speak. She was so so cool. Grew up in Virginia (now at U of Minnesota) she is writing her thesis on the interaction between lions, leopards, and hyenas. Her talk was very interesting and she showed us how she sets up infrared cameras with motion sensors that take picture whenever something warm moves (eg. Animals and people). After spending an hour at Lion House we piled back into the cruisers and game drove for the rest of the afternoon. I switched cruisers and had a great group with Kioko driving. We saw a beautiful lioness right by the road, a moniter lizard, alligator, and a cheetah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She/he/it was really far away but through my binoculars I saw her walk across the Serengeti plain near a herd of wildebeest and zebra. We watched her (everyone agreed she was a she) for about 15 mins until she lay down in the grass and no on (not even our super eyed staff) could find her again. Two other SFS cars can up but they could not spot her using our directions while we watched. SO I was one of a privileged 8 to see the first cheetah. Kioko wandered into a different part of the park that I had not seen before. We drove yards away from a trotting hippo for a few minutes, we saw huge herds of gazelle, and the sun began to set. I absolutely love the light in the evening here. Out in the open grassland the grass turns to white fire and the clouds become an amazing palette of colors. All the animals have this perfect glow about them at this time of day as the hills darken and the sun sinks. To rattle our cages Kioko casually asks if any of us know where we are and mild chaos breaks out as two ot the girls believe thatwe will have to sleep in the car tonight. Just before leaving the grassland we see three black-back jackals (seem to be my animal today) and a serval cat (think tiny leopard or big spotted house cat).
Serengeti – Day 4 – 3/17/11
This morning was not as fun as yesterday. I awoke at 5:45 by one of my fellow cook crew members whispering to me through the tent wall that we had to cook today (we were suppose to start at 5:30). This was really embarrassing since I have made a point of always being on time or early. ON two occasions I was the first of the group to the kitchen but not today. So I get there and do my part but my whole get ready schedule is now thrown off. Today’s assignment for the morning is to observe elephants (I know what a hard life I have). I’m in Erica’s car today and we spend a very enjoyable early morning wandering around looking for elephants. On our way we spotted a pair of black-back jackals and turned down a road in that direction to get a better look before they disappeared. As we approached the retreating jackals the girl next to me gasped and pointed further up the road to the pair of mating lions I had seen the day before (oh looking back it seems I forgot that small detail. Hmm well while bird sighting yesterday we came across a pair of mating lions!). This time they were right beside the road I mean 10 feet away from the cruiser and the male actually growled at us. I felt really bad to disturb them by driving practically on top of them but everyone else just thought it was awesome to hear the lion “roar”. Continuing our search for elephants, we saw another leopard in this very artistic dead tree and of course we all are taking a million pictures of the poor guy who is just trying to catch some zzzz before hunting in the evening. At about 10am we finally find a group of about 15 elephants munching on acacia leaves in the bush. We watched them and took notes for about an hour and a half before calling it a day and heading to see the hippo pool. The hippo pool shockingly enough has tons of hippos bobbing around in water. This may sound cute or bucolic buts its neither when you smell it. The water is a muddy brown and the hippo are constantly pooping and swirling the water. It is also incredibly noisy as the hippos breath through their nostrils and make loud grunting sounds to each other. On the rocks surrounding the pool two really large crocs were visible sunning themselves. We did not stay long and soon headed to the real excitement of the afternoon = lunch. But this was not just PB and J lunch from camp…oh no we were going to the Serena Lodge, one of the nicest tourist lodges in Serengeti to have their $20 buffet. Yeah it was expensive but man was it worth it! It was one of these fancy places with cheese, Indian food, a salad bar, stirfries, and personally created pasta dishes, as well as an extensive dessert bar with chocolate, cakes, and wonderful fruit. I made four trips to the buffet and had to willfully restrain myself from going back a fifth time. Those of you who have seen me eat would not have been shocked at the amount of food I consumed but I think my WE professor was scared I would pop! After lunch lots of the group got in the pool but I went into food coma in a comfy chair on their great porch and chatted with our SAM Erica and the safety director of SFS who is visiting us in the Serengeti. It was a good afternoon. Back on the road we came across a hug elephant herd. There must have been close to 50 elephants there and the group of 15 we had watched earlier came out of the trees and joined the group. This huge mass of elephants walked across the plain and right in front of our cars before heading for the distant river. The rest of the evening we stopped periodically to take pictures, saw lots of swala pala (impala), a hyena carcass being fought over by vultures and marabou storks, a turtle damaged by a car, and lots more pretty sky and clouds. Back at camp the cruisers all reunited. The seven guys had decided to have a man-car and arrived in camp shirts off and yelling in true spring break fashion. It was funny but made me miss my team. The evening was spent washing dishes, preparing to be MOD tomorrow, and telling ghost stories around the campfire.
Serengeti – Day 5 – 3/18/11
Already it is time to go. As MOD I am responsible to round everyone up and organize packing of stuff as well as assist Erica in whatever. I am packed and ready to roll by 6 am and start tent clean out and break down by 6:30. All the tents were down and ready to be loaded by 7:15 and breakfast was over by 7:45am. Lorry was quickly packed by half the group while the other half formed a litter line and swept the camp to pick up trash and erase all traces of our being there. Apparently I missed my calling as a general. On our way out of the park we popped the cruiser tops and game drove the same way we came in. We saw a young male lion in a tree napping, huge huge herds of zebra (they still look like horses to me and they act so similar), wildebeest, and swala pala, and the real send off….cheetahs. Not one but five. A group of three and then two walking far away in the distance. I got some pictures where you can see the cheetah and lots of pictures of grass with a tiny black dot, you’ll have to take my word that the dots are part of the cheetah’s ear. Its good to be back at camp but everything is so quiet.
Serengeti Conclusion
So I survived the Serengeti. I did not get eaten by a lion or a hyena but saw lots and lots of them. I really can't explain how Serengeti feels. The huge grasslands turn a rich flowing gold in the evening that make the acacia trees stand out and you can spot lions and jackels in between the huge gazelle and zebra herds. The bushland is full of birds and elephants and buffalo. Its actually cold at dawn as the world brightens and goose bumps always jumped out on my arms as we flew through the bush on the way to observe something for that day. I took 365 pictures (...maybe I'll make a calendar) and not a single one really shows how big the spaces are, or how beautiful the sky, or magnificent the animals. Oh the sunrise here....words simple can't describe it. The whole sky and bush goes from dark and mysterious to these delicate streaks of pink and yellow until everything is shining from early morning dampness and the new sun. Even the rain storms there were wonderful. This truly is an incredibly special place
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