Serengeti Day 1, Part 2

Tuesday, 20 September 2016

Serengeti, Day 1, Part 2

We land at the Serengeti airstrip … the airstrip is even more rustic than Arusha, with thatched-roof and metal-roof buildings (and very nice bathrooms). The 180 degree view from the Land Cruisers was beautiful and open.

And we’re off in the Land Cruiser, the vehicle of choice here, for some wildlife viewing. Our lodge is within the park, so we’re going to have some nice viewing en route. Even as we leave the airport, we see a lone Topi on the road, and some warthogs. A few minutes later, we come to a herd of Thomson’s  gazelle.

And then, a stunning and unusual sight … a lioness eating her fresh kill, one of those same gazelles, she would even lick it at times. In the background near the trees, a small family of seven elephants, and down by the creek in the far distance, three hippos. Here’s a link to her eating the gazelle, you can see her flip the legs up. All the while, another gazelle stood on the other side of the road, almost in mourning. We are indeed in Africa now.

https://vimeo.com/184134274

Further on the road, we encounter a number of giraffes, mostly males and young ones, which Dr. Parrott says are about 6 months old. These are Masai giraffes, whose spots are in somewhat of a
flower pattern. Their tails end in beautiful waves, cascading like a model’s hair in a shampoo ad. They almost seem to pose for us, they nibble on umbrella acacia trees. Left and right of the jeep, we can see a total of seven giraffes  – amazing.

In the controlled burn areas, we see the whistling thorn acacias, which have big galls at the ends of their branches, with holes in them through which the wind whistles. Ants live in the galls, so when giraffes try to eat them, the ants race out of the galls and onto the faces of the giraffes, which they don’t like, so this protects the acacias. We see a vulture overhead as we get into Tsetse fly territory, so our guide, John, closes the pop-top for a while. But then we see a family of elephants, led by the matriarch, with lots of babies, and a big, swaggering bull bringing up the rear.

As we continue toward the Soroi Serena tent camp  where we’ll be staying, we see several zebras from a distance and then suddenly, up close to the car, two large Cape water buffalo. Apparently they are aggressive, so our guide did not want to stop, and continued on.

The Soroi Serena Lodge is absolutely stunning, and all electricity and water heating is done through solar power. Built on a high ridge, the main reception area is a giant thatched-roof room with chandeliers made of acacia branches, and beautiful wood and upholstered furniture and subtle earth tones.

After a quick briefing – you cannot go outside your room after dark and must call to be escorted by a staffer, one of the Masai men with a stick, there are no fences allowed in the Serengeti so the animals can and do wander in - we are each escorted to our own thatched-roof tents, each with its own view of the plains below. Canvas tent walls and wooden door frames enclose a beautiful warm room, with a large bed with mosquito netting around it, a bathroom with a gorgeous soaking tub, and an outside shower with a view of the Serengeti plain, just next to some lounge chairs. The tents are cleverly designed so that each is perfectly private, like a little hideaway. We have enough time to cool off a bit, then off to a healthy lunch, and out for a late afternoon wildlife viewing drive.

Our late afternoon viewing ride began with more Cape buffalo, then two groups of mother and baby giraffes, carefully hidden in the trees, and a Secretary bird which is a hunter. Then a few Grant’s gazelles with the Thomson’s gazelles, and giraffes, silhouetted against the late afternoon sun. Then a pair of ostriches, the male is dark, the female is grey; the female sits on the eggs during the day to hide them, and the male sits on the eggs at night. The Thomson’s gazelles are everywhere, with their sweet faces, and tails that are constantly going back and forth like little propellers.

Then a small herd of Impala, with horns that could impale you, thus the name. More zebras, some silhouetted against the mountain, and some Elands, a huge type of antelope. Then we see some more Topi, the little brother of the Wildebeest (the other is a Hartebeest).  The zebras we see here are Burchell’s zebras (a type of plains zebra)  with the wider stripes, in Kenya we’ll see the Grevy’s  zebra, which is a different species. As the sun continued to go down, we saw a Lapped-Faced or Nubian vulture, on the top of a dead acacia, and then a tawny eagle in a tree, just touched by the golden sunlight at the end of the day. A large group of zebras went by, including a baby, and suddenly started rolling in the dirt; they do this to pick up dirt so they can shake off the bugs. And the the other two started rolling in the dirt too, shaking their legs in the air, seeming so happy just to roll in the dirt.

We captured some beautiful sunsets on the way back, it was breathtaking.